Guest blogger Lisa Ronchetti of Dachshunds in London writes about their latest fundraising event...
A sunny Sunday afternoon spent strolling through St James’ Park and the last thing you would expect to see amongst a carpet of deck chairs, picnics and sun bathers is a collection of racing dogs and I’m not talking about greyhounds...
Bank holiday weekend the bandstand of St James’ Park in Central London became the meeting point and racing ground for London’s dachshund Spring Fest and race hosted by the dachshunds in London club.
This pack of dachshund and dachshund owners meet and socialise their dogs regularly. After much sniffing about and friendly chit chat about the latest misadventures of their elongated friends, the club proudly lines up its miniature mutts for the moment everyone’s been waiting for, the race.
Following in the footsteps (or should I say paw steps) of our weiner cousins , dachshunds in London has been racing for charity for two years and believe me those little furry stumps and stretched out bodies can give you a run for your money!
As they prepare to race from one end of the bandstand circle to the other, without the aid of lanes that is, one friend holds the dog in place at the start line and the other uses a mixture of high pitched noises, whistles and hand gestures some even using a favourite toy to entice the dog to make the finishing line as quickly as possible.
3,2,1 and off they go...as they dash from one end to the other the odd dog ignores the hysterical calls of its owner and manages to whizz off into the opposite direction almost as if it had been distracted by a giant squirrel traversing the green. It is a comical sight and it happens every time, for those not familiar with dachshunds , they tend to have the attention span of a goldfish at the best of times.
On the other end of the bandstand sits an empty and disappointed pair of arms and the spectating crowd is left in a fit of giggling claps as the owner reluctantly collects the distracted pooch who never made the finishing line. Better luck next time.
Thanks to everyone this year’s races went down a storm with double figures attending the event entering. There are no bitter losers here just a happy crowd of dog lovers united in aid of one cause and one cause only to have fun and raise some money.
We hope our events continue to help unfortunate dogs and we hope that our races will only get bigger and better in the future.
Dachshunds in London and dachshunds forum members raced to raise money for Dogs Trust. For more information on how to join the club visit dachshundsinlondon.co.uk
