00:00From Bangkok to London to New York, demand for dachshunds has soared.
00:03Joining us now is Bloomberg's Randy Tantong Knight, our Bangkok bureau chief,
00:07and I should say a dachshund owner.
00:10Randy, this is an amazing piece.
00:12I love dachshunds.
00:13I've always wanted a long-haired dachshund.
00:14I've not yet gotten one.
00:15Yes, since childhood.
00:16I'm learning things today.
00:18How did you note this trend happening, yes, in Thailand where you're based,
00:22but around the world as you chart out here, this is a global phenomenon?
00:27Yeah, so it started when I got my dachshund, when I moved here to Bangkok from Ottawa,
00:33and that was late last year, and then I started noticing them more and more,
00:38and I was like, am I imagining things?
00:40And then I started looking into it, and then I started seeing celebrities posting photos with a dachshund,
00:49Aaron Judd, Yankees, Captain had Gus and Kenny,
00:54and then I see a lot of TikTokers, a lot of celebrities locally as well.
00:58They post with dachshund, and then I was like, well, I'm not imagining things.
01:03Then I started digging in through the data, and then I found that on American Kettle Club,
01:0910 years ago, they were at 13th most popular breed,
01:13and then over the past decade, it's been growing popularity,
01:18and it reached number five last year, you know, taking poodle out of number five.
01:25And then in the UK, it's a similar thing as well.
01:29So over the past decade, the number of annual registrations has doubled,
01:34and it's now the third.
01:37This is so funny.
01:38I actually, anecdotally, have seen an increase in dachshunds around New York as well.
01:43But you said there are dachshund cafes.
01:49You write, at a cafe in a Bangkok suburb,
01:52customers can pay $9 to spend an hour and a half with more than 30 sausage dogs.
01:58Have you experienced this?
01:59Is this a business model David and I should replicate as our side hustle?
02:02Yeah, side hustle.
02:05Yes, well, maybe you should.
02:07So I came across this cafe because I was essentially reaching out to
02:17different breeders here in Bangkok, and then cafe, like, you should come visit.
02:20And then I went there, and they were just, like, preparing to open
02:24because at that point, they weren't officially open yet.
02:28And then I went back again when they're open, and it's now super popular.
02:31They opened it for the first time in June, and it's now, like, a must-see spot for tourists.
02:37Like, they're super packed now, especially in the evening where they let their dog run in the yard.
02:42And so it's, like, 35 dachshunds now they have.
02:46See, this could be a work trip for you.
02:47You might have to go investigate.
02:48One of my favorite dachshund owners, besides Randy, of course, is Gary Steingart, the novelist.
02:54Of course it is.
02:55I put up a photo here that Gary Steingart posted on his Instagram of his dog, Bernie,
03:00upon adoption of the dog.
03:02And he wrote on his substack, Gary Steingart, one of my favorite authors,
03:04dachshunds have appeared in almost all of my novels.
03:07In my new one, Vera or Faith, the titular heroine gets compared to a dachshund several times by her dad.
03:12Let's just say, Gary Steingart writes, it is the ultimate compliment as far as I am concerned.
03:17He talks about how he's longingly looking at Gary Steingart's martini.
03:21Randy, what is it about the dachshund?
03:24So, obviously, you were entranced by the beauty of this small dog.
03:29As you talk to other owners, what is it that draws them to the dachshund?
03:32Yes, there are the economic considerations we talked about at the top,
03:35but what is it about this dog in particular?
03:36Yeah, there's other small yappy dogs.
03:37I have one.
03:38It's not a dachshund.
03:39So, yeah, why did you want one?
03:42Yeah, so I've heard it described several times with different owners.
03:46They say that they're big dogs in small body, right?
03:50So, I mean, as we're living in a small living situation, like a lot of people don't have space for
03:58big dogs,
03:59but they still want that big dog personality.
04:01And so, dachshund is perfect.
04:03They're like big dog packed in little tiny bodies, so they would bark at things.
04:08But they're also very loving as well.
04:10They would just want to be close to you.
04:11So, I have two dogs, like one, my first one is a palm ski, and he want to be near
04:18me, but doesn't want to get too close.
04:20Yeah, but with Woodford, you know, he just want to climb into my lap,
04:25or at least some part of his body needs to be touching me when I'm watching TV,
04:31or when I'm, you know, in bed, or when I'm going to the bathroom.
04:34He just want to be there and catching me all the time, and Sinclair, on the other hand,
04:39just, you know, he just want to be near me, but don't want to touch me.
04:42So, it's different, and I've, several owners have described the same thing to me,
04:47that they are the most loving breed that they've experienced.
04:50And for a lot of dachshund owners, they say that once you got one,
04:55you would just want to keep getting another one.
04:57Oh, and one other thing is, is that dachshund owners tend to have this sort of, like, form a tight
05:03-knit community.
05:04I've seen several events now in Bangkok of dachshund walks or dachshund meetup,
05:10and there's a global event called World Dachshund Day as well in June, and I went to that one as
05:16well.
05:16I mean, who doesn't love a sausage dog?
05:19Quickly, before you go, I do have to ask you, they do have some health concerns.
05:22A lot of these breeds do.
05:23I know that people who have these dogs have to have these little staircases everywhere,
05:26because their long spines tend to, like, you know, lead to slip discs.
05:31Is that a concern?
05:32Is that something people should worry about, or is it an issue that you can address?
05:34We've only got about 30 seconds.
05:37Oh, yes.
05:38I mean, that's a concern, because one in four dachshund may experience that,
05:41but we can help avoid that by providing ramps.
05:45Don't let them jump up and down tall pieces of furniture.
05:49And when we need to just take care of them, you know, extra care of their backs,
05:54and, you know, you have to hold them and support their entire back,
05:57and don't roughhouse them.
05:58Don't roughhouse them.
05:59I feel like, you know, I could use some hold and support me and don't roughhouse.
06:03I think that's good advice for everybody.
06:05Randy, thank you very much.
06:06Randy Thung-Nike joining us from Bangkok.
06:08Great peace.
06:09Commended to you on the terminal at Bloomberg.com.
Comments