The history of dog and human goes back to anciant times; possibly as far back as 11,000 years. Hard to believe we’ve been rubbing bellies and scratching ears that long but the history says we may have been doing it that long.

But our history with what we know as the Miniature Schnauzer doesn’t go back quite that far. That story only goes back maybe a 150 years to the mid to late 1800s.

These little German dogs (Zwergschnauzer or Dwarf Schnauzer) were bred by farmers looking for a smaller dog to catch rats around their farms.

A couple of thoughts emerge about how the breed was created. One is they were bred from only selecting and breeding the smallest offspring from litters of standard schnauzers. Very possible but another theory is standards were cross bred with Affenpinschers, Miniature Pinschers or Poodles to reduce their size down to what we recognize today as a Miniature Schnauzer.

Check pack weekly and we will pull this thread some more and see how our favorite bearded buddies came to be in their current incarnation.