Breed History

The Miniature Schnauzer was developed by crossing the Standard Schnauzer with the Miniature Poodle and Affenpinscher bloodlines. This breed is quite popular in the United States today, and is known for their watchdog, hunting, tracking, and competitive agility and trick preforming skills.

Breed Appearance

The Miniature Schnauzer is a small breed dog with males and females measuring 12-14 inches in height and weighing 10-15 pounds. Please note that males and females may be smaller or larger than show standard and still be purebred. This breed has a very rectangular shaped head that directly forms into their muzzle forming a scissor bite. Their two small, triangular shaped ears are generally cropped to a point and stand firm onto of their head. This breed has two medium sized, round eyes that are available in a hazel to black in color. Their body build is very rectangular and low to the ground in appearance. Their tail is cropped to about two inches in length and is held tight to their body. Their coat is wiry to the touch, medium in length and available in black, white, salt and pepper and black and silver. This breed is generally groomed to have a beard and skirt.

Breed Temperament

The Miniature Schnauzer is a strong minded, happy, affectionate and loving breed to add to almost all families, including ones with children. When socialized properly and enrolled in early obedience courses, the Miniature Schnauzer makes a wonderful, obeying companion. This breed shouldn’t be in the same household as small, non-canine pets due to their natural vermin hunting instincts, however this breed can learn to live comfortable with other cats and dogs he or she is exposed to at a young age. This breed requires a firm and confident owner who is able to be consistent and remain pack leader. When the Miniature Schnauzer isn’t receiving enough daily and mental exercise, he or she will develop destructive behaviors and barking habits. In general, this is a wonderful, small breed, who would do well within an apartment if given enough daily physical activity.

Breed Grooming

This breed hardly sheds. Daily brushing and bathing when needed. A trip to the professional groomers is recommended every 4-5 months.

Special Notes

Please note that this breed requires a properly fenced in area or properly fitting harness and leash while outdoors at all times. This breed has a natural instinct to hunt small animals. Please fully research the Miniature Schnauzer breed prior to adding one to your home to ensure you are able to provide a life long commitment both physical and financially to your new pet. This breed is prone to liver disease, kidney stones, skin issues, cysts and eye problems. All dogs originate from wolves (Canis Lupus). Each breed of dog was originally created by mixing different breeds together in an effort to bring forth certain characteristics. Once a breeder has created acceptable “breed characteristics” within their bloodline and these “breed characteristics” have shown to be reliably reproduced in the offspring for three (3) generations, the bloodline may be upgraded from the category of “foundation stock” to “pure-bred”. The same “pure-bred” breed standards vary from different continents, countries, territories, regions, breed clubs, and canine pure-breed registries depending on the goals of their breeders.

Dog DNA testing companies can have accurate results for a specific bloodline of a small colony of dogs. However, there are tens of thousands of different bloodlines in the world which have not yet been tested for marker baseline results by Dog DNA testing companies as of 2024. For this reason Dog DNA testing companies do not guarantee the 100% accuracy of their breed lineage results and will also show different marker results for the same pure-bred breed in different continents, countries, territories, regions, breed clubs, and canine pure-breed registries depending on the goals of their breeders.