Early references to low hounds

Early hounds

Egyptian carvings depict hounds similar in looks to the Dachshound as early as 2200BC.  The Greeks and Romans also had low dogs as this Roman mosaic from the Mosaics Museum in Instanbul, Turkey seems to illustrate. 

Cynegeticus [wiki] [Project Gutenberg], an early treatise on hunting dogs, was written by the greek historian Xenophon, born about 431 BC.  He describes two varieties of Laconian (Spartan) hounds, the Castorian and the Vulpine. 

There are two breeds of sporting dogs: the Castorian (Kastoriai) and the fox-like (Vulpine).  The former get their name from Castor, in memory of the delight he took in the business of the chase, for which he kept this breed by preference.  The other breed is literally foxy, being the progeny originally of the dog and the fox, whose natures have in the course of ages become blent.  

Xenophon goes to great lenghts describing the Castorian dog, describing it as we would possibly descibe the modern Harrier type hound.  However, he also adds:

Both species present a large proportion of defective animals which fall short of the type, as being under-sized, or crook-nosed, or gray-eyed, or near-sighted, or ungainly, or stiff-jointed, or deficient in strength, thin-haired, lanky, disproportioned, devoid of pluck or of nose, or unsound of foot.

These are all indications of lower dogs, that most likely have come about through inbreeding.