Sporty and devoted the Dachshund makes an excellent family dog. Despite his small size he makes a good watch dog with a surprisingly loud bard. He may be slightly aggressive to strangers. Given the nickname the "sausage dog" he is low to the ground, long in body and short of leg with robust muscular development. The Dachshund has an intelligent, alert, facial expression. There are six varieties of Dachshunds; smooth-haired, wire-haired and long-haired in two sizes, Standard and Miniature. The smooth-haired Dachshund is the originally strain, the wire-haired and the long-haired were attained by crossing the smooth-haired with other breeds.