North Meets South: A Welsh Dachshund’s Adventure (Part 1)
On September 10th something magical is happening in a castle in Wales. A mass dachshund fundraiser walk is taking place to raise much needed funds for Dedicated to Dachshunds with IVDD (@dedicatedtodaxiswithivdd) at Caldicot Castle.
This event is being hosted by Charlotte Baldwin, founder of the Charity and FaceBook Group – Sausage Dog Walks. South Wales, UK. Seth (@seththewelshsosij) is making the long journey down from North Wales to take part and ‘snifftigate’ the day out. Part one of our journey is talking to Charlotte and to find out a bit more about her love of Dachshunds and how all this started….. Dachshunds, where did it all begin?
August 2013 our little fella Barney bear entered our world. We had already fallen in love with Lulu, his mum. Barney used to visit us from a few weeks old with Lulu and we were smitten! After much persuasion we decided to be his forever humans and at 12 weeks old he stayed for good. Rosie joined us when Barney was 1 year old. She won all three of us over and completed our family. At that point we had no idea what was to come….
Your FaceBook group is growing by the day, what made you set it up?
I always wanted to socialise Barney and Rosie so we joined a local walking group. We enjoyed the walks, although they could get a little dangerous with all the different breeds and the excitement; they nearly got trampled a few times. This is when my husband suggested I start my own Sausage Dog walk page. From then on, the group has grown in size so fast. Our first official walk saw up to 600 dachshunds walking together at the Porthcawl Sausage Dog Walk (which you can view on YouTube). Today, we have nearly 4000 members from all over the world!
You have achieved so much with Dedicated to Dachshunds with IVDD, what inspired you to do this?
Organising the monthly walks, it sadly became apparent to me that many of my dachshund members were suffering from IVDD and not able to join in. I decided to start raising money for strollers and wheelchairs by fundraising, holding walks and selling t-shirt and hoodies. Last August we held a mass dachshund walk filmed by the BBC and featured in a documentary called “Glamorgan Coastal Lives”. We had so much fun and raised £1000s for Dedicated to Dachshunds with IVDD. 12 months on, we have now raised over £15,000 by carrying on what we started last year. This has enabled us to support over 72 dachshunds by loaning them strollers and wheelchairs during recovery with IVDD.
What’s next…?
We have a mass dachshund walk event happening at Caldicot Castle on Sunday, September 10th. A fun filled day is planned, with stalls, classes, raffles, prizes and much more. The BBC will also be there filming the event. The day will end with all the dachshunds walking together for Dedicated to Dachshunds with IVDD.
Seth will have his “SethBows” stall set up on the day and will be fundraising for D2DwithIVDD and representing Dachshunds United too! We are on a mission to take as many dachshund photos as possible…… If you are about, come and say hello or give Seth a high paw!!
Shop here for cool bows! Also sold during the event.
If you can’t make it on the day, we will be positng part 2 of our journey soon……. #sosijpower
Dachshunds, where did it all begin? 
