Hounds make a dash for sausage social

Advertised on Facebook, the Sausage Dog Social took place on Sunday morning in the Quarry.

The event was the idea of Vanessa Fairfax-Woods, director of a food trading company who lives in Shrewsbury and who was keen for her three-and-a-half year old dog Audrey to make some more four-legged friends.

She had been chatting with a friend and realised there was an opportunity for devoted dachshund owners to meet-up have a chat and show off their pets.

Vanessa said: "We did not expect that many people to come along. There were more than 50 dogs running about and meeting each other.

"We knew that people are mad about their sausage dogs and we would have been happy with 10 turning up but this really captured everyone's imagination.

"It was brilliant. I got there 10 minutes before it was due to start and people were already waiting. I could hear the dogs before I could see them. Sausage dogs have a distinctive bark.

"My friend and I both have sausage dogs and we ended up chatting with people with the same breed of dogs and they kept saying it would be fun to get together. We just thought 'Let's do that'. It was a real glass of wine moment."

The meet-up did not take long to organise and word spread across social media. "We started the Shrewsbury Sausage Social page on Facebook about six weeks ago and we didn't think it would take off like it has," added Vanessa.

All the dogs were very well-behaved and enjoyed a turn around the Quarry before letting off some steam while playing with their new-found friends.

Vanessa is now planning a Halloween-themed fancy dress get together. "Sausage dogs are funny and their owners are quirky too. It just worked on Sunday and we will definitely be repeating this one."

To find out more about the group go to their Facebook page: Shrewsbury Sausage Social.