History and Function

The Miniature Schnauzer traces its origin back to the farm dog of Germany who functioned as a cart dog, herder, guard dog, ratter, and general purpose dog for the working family farm in Southern Germany. Artwork and tapestries depict a schnauzer-type dog as early as the fifteenth century.
The oldest book on dogs in the German language, in 1832 describes the “bentchur” as the dog was called; “The dog has a .…...snout covered with rough-haired whiskers…..His body is short, and his tail is usually docked. The topcoat is not too long but wiry…”. The “bentchur” most likely was the beginning of the word “pinscher”. However, in 1852, C.F.H. Weiss used the term “pinscher” when translating the English word “terrier”, which led to much confusion later on in the century.