THIS is the Melbourne race that actually stops a nation – hundreds of little sausage dog sprinters going for the big 15m dash! What could be cuter? The internet nearly broke with the sausage dog love it was getting yesterday and we were there for it.

Being an aspiring Dachshy owner, naturally I was going to love this event. So we arrived at the Inaugural Dachshund Race, with high expectations of the event which was held as part of Hophaus Bar’s ‘Hoptoberfest’. It’s just one of the fun and novel events during the Oktoberfest celebrations including the sausage eating comp and the tapping of the keg, but the ‘running of the wieners’ took the cake!

It was such a funny and heart warming day! I’ll get to the racing in a moment, but something has to be said for the imagination of the dachshund owners with so many of these little guys dressed up in costumes, anywhere from a surf lifesaver to a fairy princess to a big hairy spider. It was seriously so entertaining and that alone could have made my day.

Throughout the day they ran heats for each category, including puppies, minis, standards and seniors. Each race brought a new set of long and low contestants, chomping at the bit to get to that finish line first. Seriously, it was super impressive how well they could actually race, admittedly, their favourite owner with some treats was calling them to the finish line, but still I never knew they could be so sprightly and focussed with their eyes on the prize! Each finals race produced a first, second and third place pup who proudly took a podium finish, posing for photos and occasionally taking a media interview. There were some proud as punch pooch owners there indeed!

So well done to the athletic little dachshies and their dedicated owners! And thank you Hophaus for bringing so much joy to so many people’s days. It was also great that the proceeds of donations and a raffle are going straight to Dachshund Rescue Australia and who knows we may have even more competitors that have been rescued at next years event? Let’s hope so – we’ll see you there! In the meantime there is still loads more happening at Hophaus for Hoptoberfest, so check out On The List to make sure you don’t miss out.

You can also watch Joshy the sausage being interviewed here:

 

Full ‘wieners’ list:

BEST DRESSED DACHSHUND:

Ziggy and Milly – 1st
Bailey and Bella – 2nd
Chilli – 3rd

RACE WINNERS: 

Mini Dachshund 1-5 years

Hector  – 1st
Mia – 2nd
Red Bell  – 3rd

Mini Dachshund 5 years +

Lottie – 1st
Henry – 2nd
Zulu – 3rd

Dachshund Puppies

Cooper  – 1st
Belverdere – 2nd
Minnie – 3rd

Standard Dachshund

Snausage – 1st
Gus – 2nd
Eddie – 3rd

Written by: Nicky Roberts
Nicky is all about Melbourne events. Each week she is involved in event scouting, curation and copywriting for the ­On The ­List website.

Nicky’s background and passion lies in the arts, cultural and creative fields, and she is currently working in the branding and design industry. You will also find her first in line at most Melbourne based events (especially the foodie ones)!