How often do they shed and what is normal? My dashound is 8 months old.

Dogs do usually shed once or twice, or sometimes they gradually loose hair throughout the year. A normal amount of shedding is easy to test. If you take your hand (or an article of clothing works better, like wool) and move it across its body with a bit of pressure (don't hurt the dog) you should get a considerable amount of loose hairs that spread out consistently across your hand (or cloth). If your dogs hair is not as thick as usual, it looks like it has bald spots on it, or you can pull fistfuls of hair out, you should probably do something about it.

About pulling out fistfuls of hair, if your dog has really long hair and is shedding, sometimes there is a lot of hair stuck in with the rest. Shedding all really depends on how long your dog's hair is.

Hope this helps

How old is a miniture dashound when they are fully grown? How old when they have their first cycle and how long does it last? Thank you.

Here is a site that might help you.

Dachshund (http://www.pets.ca/breedprofiles/a/daschshund-miniature/d3.htm)