Sausage dogs: Winnie the dachshund gives birth to potentially record-breaking litter of 11 puppies

A UK sausage dog has given birth to what could be a world record litter for her breed - surprising her family with nearly double the number of puppies that showed up on her scan.

Three-year-old Winnie bore the huge brood at home near Leicester last month. Another dachshund - named Cheesecake - made headlines when she gave birth to 10 puppies in September 2021, but Winnie has now beaten that number by one - and owner Rayma Jones thinks it may be a world record.

She told SWNS she had been "amazed" by the size of the litter. "I just kept counting them over and over... I was so surprised that I kept expecting her to pop out another one when I wasn't looking."

Winnie has been a great mum, she said. "Winnie's a natural... She never wants to leave them, and if she hears another dog she's right there next to them. She's the best mum ever."

Ms Jones and her family had bought Winnie when she was just seven months old, after her first owners moved abroad. She decided Winnie was ready to be a mum, and found a suitable stud around three months ago.

A scan nine weeks into the pregnancy showed six puppies, she said. The average number of puppies in a dachshund litter is usually between one and six, due to their small size.

Winnie surprised the family with her first puppy at 11.30 at night, five days before the litter was due. The second arrived at 1.30am, followed by four more - 20 minutes apart. Numbers seven, eight and nine then came around seven minutes apart, followed by a 40-minute gap until number 10.

Ms Jones said she went to bed at 6.30am, believing Winnie had all her pups. But when she checked in on her four hours later, she couldn't believe her eyes. "I thought 10 was amazing. She'd stopped panting and lay down feeding them. I really thought she'd finished. When I came back I counted them and there were 11."

She said she was "overwhelmed" that her dog - an extremely rare colour for a wire-haired dachshund - may have had a world record number of puppies for her breed. "I looked online, and I couldn't believe it".

Winnie is a silver dapple, and five of her puppies are completely silver with black spots. “Another three are chocolate, and three are black and tan."

The puppies will be ready to leave mum after they turn eight weeks old. Ms Jones added: "I'll have to sell them, but I'm not sure of the price yet. I can't live with eleven puppies or I'll become the crazy dog lady."

SWNS reports that the Guinness World Records does not keep records of litter sizes by individual dog breed. However, the largest litter of puppies ever is 24, all of whom were born on November 29, 2004 to Tia, a Neapolitan mastiff from the UK.