It might be the bane of every Dachshund owner: “Weiner Dog.” Where on earth did that get started?
New York City.
Sort of. Around the turn of the century, a guy named Harry Stevens was entrusted to feed the immense crowds that attended New York Giants football games. The new food craze at the time was frankfurter sausages (originally called “red hots” because of the smear of hot mustard added to each one), but until Stevens got the idea to encase them in a long bread roll, they were a real mess to eat. Meanwhile, a noted sports cartoonist of the day (we’re talking around 1903 here) made a drawing portraying one of the weiners inside the roll as a Dachshund. It was cartoonist, Tad Dorgan, who actually coined the term, “hot dog.”
As much as Dachshie owners today may cringe at the moniker, the nickname backfired in a serious way. Someone asked if the term meant that there was actual dog meat in the production of the weiners and sales plummeted. The local Chamber of Commerce had to issue an official statement banning the term, “hot dog” from all advertisement. Needless to say, the ban didn’t last long, but the nickname did.
Image found on Pinterest and happily credited upon receipt of information.