Back to Wiener Central

We made it back safe and sound. We shot 20 hours of footage over two and a half days. That may not sound like much but trust me, it was grueling. We got lots of great interviews at Westminster, and were lucky enough to get invited to the Knickerbocker Dachshund Club's show the day before WKC. There we met up with Charles Baris, who quite frankly, is a blast, and the elusive Iris Love, patron saint to the dachshund world. We actually crashed her party after being uninvited - thankfully it all ended well and we got our interview. We also met up with John Mayhall and Doodlebug, winners of the WKC wirehaired dachshund competition. Here are some pics from the NYC visit.

Big Apple Wieners

We've arrived in New York for the Westminster Kennel Club dog show at Madison Square Gardens. We had tons of interviews lined up, but one by one people have started dropping out. Why? Well after doing tons of digging we've discovered that people are afraid to talk to us because we might ask about either double dappled and piebald dachshunds, or about wiener dog races – both of which are (surprisingly) very sensitive topics within the dachshund world. The Dachshund Club of America is on record as opposing wiener dog racing, and they fear that my film will glamorize the sport. I want to give all sides of the story, so I've arranged to meet the DCA's board of directors in New York to convince them to speak to me on camera. As for the double dapple/piebald debate, to be honest I had no idea this controversy even existed prior to people pulling out of my interviews. The more I dig the more divisive I find this debate is. Hopefully I'll be able to get somebody to speak to me on camera. This is definitely not how I though this little documentary was going to evolve. I never would have thought that a documentary about wiener dogs could evoke such emotion. Bizarre…

Some sanity...

The past week has been a struggle, but I've finally been able to able to coax my interviewees back into speaking with me. Apparently there are a few issues...

1) People are afraid that I am going to be promoting wiener races. The DCA is opposed to these races (which is why I wanted to talk to them), and they don't want to draw attention to these events.

2) There's a double dapple/piebald controversy that people are afraid I am going to talk about. I actually didn't know this controversy even existed - and how divisive an issue it is within the dachshund community.

So we're set for New York. I've got to go read more about double dapples and piebalds...

Shane