Where We Stand

It's been a very busy month. We finally nailed down the final cut, got the posters ordered, and received some promising news. The programmers from the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival have selected Wiener Takes All and 19 other films as finalists for the Rockefeller Plaza Film Series, to be held in June. They will pick 4 films from the 20, so we're by no means assuming we're in, but we're happy just to have received the nod from the programmers.

We're busy culling video from the outtakes to put up on our Veoh channel, and hope to have several clips up by this weekend.

Gotta head back to the edit suite. TTYL!

Shane

Good news

We just got word from Todd Kroeker that Blazer has indeed still alive, and that after going to another vet was successfully treated for a condition that another vet was going to euthanize him for. A very important lesson here - whenever you get a critical diagnosis, always get a second opinion! It may save your dog's life.

Week of Animal Deaths

What a terrible week. First our neighbor's cat Hannibal got run over right in front of the house. I was the one that had to tell his owner. Worst of all, I'm pretty sure Hannibal was on his way to visit me. Now tonight I've heard from Todd Kroeker (of Todd and Poppy fame) that Blazer is being put down this evening. Such sad times. Blazer had a ruptured disc in his back, which is a very common ailment to dachshunds. At least he won't be in pain.

Hannibal and Blazer, I wish you well on your journey. You will be missed.

Los Al a No Go?

June 29 - What a day! Orlando still hasn't gotten back to me. He usually
responds right away. I've left him three messages in 2 weeks and
he hasn't responded. This makes me worried - I think WienerSchnitzel's
PR goons might have put the squeeze on the track and we are
now persona non grata - just like in NYC.

This is without a doubt the most surreal point in my life. Not
in a million years would I ever have believed you if you'd told
me at this point in my life I would be reduced to fighting
battles in order to complete a movie about wiener dog racing.
That people would actively try and obstruct me over the film
as well!!

I realized last night that I need to get clearance from the actors in the Miller
Lite commercial - from '93!!! Trying to find these guys is like
a needle in a haystack. I called SAG and asked if they have any way
of finding out who they are - nope. I then called Miller
Brewing (snake eyes again), and finally my contact at Leo
Burnett Agency's archives - Ilana Pergam. She is the person
who found the initial advertisement for me - buried deep in
the archives. At first she wasn't hopeful but then I got an
email:

Dear Shane, My contact in Broadcast Business thinks
he may have located the box containing records on the Miller
Lite "Wiener Dog Winternationals" spot from 1993. It is
currently at an off-site warehouse and will have to be
located and delivered to me. I'll look through it to try to
find what you need.

Wish me luck!
All the best,
Ilana

How's that for luck!!! Less than 5 hours after I start looking
I might have located them! Cool!

Final bit of good news - Dr. Don Catlin, the top dog of USADA
and Olympic anti-doping agreed to an interview with me! Cool! We're going to
talk about the doping controversy that's developing in my story,
as well as doping in sports (phyisiological and psychological
components). I'm really excited. This is the guy who cracked
the Balco steroid case wide open.

Pornographic minds?

A couple of days ago I decided to put up a new section of our website as a place for people to send post their dachshund pictures and bios. Being the comedian, I decided to name the section "Show Us Your Wiener". Kinda cute. The following morning I awoke to 3 unsubscribes in my mailbox - people requesting to be taken off my list. This was very odd, especially since we've never lost anyone from our mailing list before, so 3 in one day was bizarre.

As I opened each email I was treated to 3 gems like "I was under the assumption that this was a family oriented project. I am saddened and dismayed that you felt you had to stoop to sexual inuendo in order to attract an audience. Please remove me from your mailing list."

Huh?

Are people really that anal retentive that they are offended by a little tongue in cheek? Okay maybe a lot of tongue in cheek, but still... I don't know how these people can navigate the Internet without going off their rocker there's so much overt sexual content out there. I must get a dozen spams a week that are so graphic they'd make Larry Flynt blush. I don't unsubscribe from the net! I move on. I am not going to water down my project to be some vanilla pap to please everyone. So to the three people who were so offended by "Show us your wiener", don't let the door hit you on the ass.

On second thought, please do.

Shane

Hounds, Hounds, Everywhere

Filmed one of the last segments for Wiener today. Charles Baris, international dachshund breed judge, and head of the Knickerbocker Dachshund Club, was up in San Juan Capistrano. We last met at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in NYC last year, and he was great on camera. At the time he refused to comment on the double dapple "scandal", and told me to ask him again in a year. Well, it's a year, so we headed up to get his stance on film once and for all.

We're so close to finished that I can taste it...

Deep In The Heart of Texas

For the past few days we've been in Buda, Texas for the world's largest 2-day wiener dog race, sponsored by the local Lion's club. We wanted to meet up with America's winningest Wiener, Sammy, from Florida, as well as Texas heavyweight and 3-time Buda champ Copper.

Copper becomes four time Buda Champ

As expected, both made it to the final race, with Copper winning in a convincing manner. Over 500 dogs lined up at the line in the largest wiener race in America. We got tons of great footage - now the challenge is in compressing two days down to five minutes. Ugh.

It's All Over But The Crying

The wiener national finals were today, and yes, one of the dogs we were following won it all!!!

Talk about unbelievable luck. When we set out shooting this doc, we hoped that at least one of our dogs would make it to the end. To have dreamed we'd have 4 dogs make the finals, and one take it all would have been too much to ask for. But it happened.

Bruno gives his mom a pre-race good luck kiss

We've got great footage of the races (7 cameras total, including 1 steadicam and 1 platform cam) - I just looked at the dailies and it looks amazing. I can't wait to start cutting this. We now have the story - now we need to work backwards and fit the footage in. At last count we have 130+ hours of footage to weed through. This is going to take a while...

Bounced from the party...

What a difference a year makes. Exactly a year ago we were invited by Wienerschnitzel to attend the pre-race party, where we filmed interviews and hobnobbed with the "who's who" of West coast wiener racing.

This year we weren't so welcomed.

In fact, Wienerschnitzel had me bounced at the door. They refused to speak to me on camera, or even grant me an off-camera interview. What are they afraid of? What are they hiding? Beats me, but it makes for entertaining B-roll...

Tomorrow are the national finals. We have defending champ Noodles, Heidi Roo, Bruno, and Vinny Barbarino in the finals. Four out of the 13 dogs are ones we've been following for the past year. I have a feeling either Noodles or Hailey will take it all. Anybody want to make a wager with me?

Vinny Makes The Cut

Wow, wow, wow.

Yet another of our dogs has made it to the national finals - barely. Tucson's Vinny Barbarino *squeaked* by in his first race, stopping at the beginning to sniff another dog's butt before making a beeline to the finish. The following night he did the same thing - doing a full 360, before taking off for the finish line, his jersey falling off between his legs. His performance was so breathtaking that it was #5 of ESPN's "Play of the Day" countdown.


That means we now have 3 dogs in the national finals, and the odds are slowly tilting significantly towards our favor. As it stands, 3/13 finalists will be dogs we've been following over the past year. I like those odds.

Vinny's got tremendous speed. Sadly he has the attention span of a fruit fly. Will he prevail this December? It's anybody's guess.

Big Apple Wieners

We're in NYC for the annual Doxtoberfest. This is the day when hundreds of doxies from across New York City meet up in Washington Square Park.

This pimpin' wiener takes a break
at Washington Square Park

It truly is a sight to behold. It's one of two days in the year when dachshunds take over the park - and undoubtedly the day that creates the most smiles in the area.

Legends of Advertising

Just got back from a trip to Ohio and Illinois. In Findlay, Ohio we filmed the National Dachshund Races - an annual event that draws 200+ dogs from surrounding states for the title of fastest wiener in the Northeast.

After that we headed to Hinsdale, Illinois, where we interviewed Terry Baker and Dan Heagy, two retired ad execs who were the creators of the famous Miller Lite wiener dog racing ad that Ad Age has listed as one of the top ten advertising campaigns in history. It's pretty funny listening to these two guys - you can see why they were behind so many fun campaigns - their sense of humor is pretty warped.

Terry and Dan - advertising legends

Now I'm back in California and relaxing. To date I've travelled over 8,000 miles - and we're only 2/3 of the way through our shoots. I guess I should have tried to get an airline to sponsor me...

Noodles makes it!!!

Wow! We now have two dogs in the national finals this December. Tonight Noodles lived up to his reputation and placed second in the qualifiers, meaning he secured a berth to the championships.

Noodles and 9 month old phenom
Kelly advance to the finals

I'm so excited! One dog in the finals was great - two is even better. We now have a 2/13 chance of one of our dogs winning it all. You gotta love it! Lady Luck is definitely on our side.

Interview With A Giant

Today we shot an interview with Ron and Betty Rowland, and Baron, considered by most to be the greatest racing wiener dog in the history of the sport. A *very* large standard doxie, Baron dwarfs most other dachshunds, which undoubtedly helped with his victories, but as Ron says, it's the winning spirit that Baron has that drove him to win.


Baron was so successful that race organizers began to change rules and eventually banned him from the races. This was one of my favorite interviews and I can't wait to get into the edit suite to cut it.

Doping and wiener dogs

A few months ago we heard allegations of doping within the wiener dog racing community, so we decided to head up to the UCLA Olympic Drug Testing Lab to do an interview with the world's leading expert on doping on sports - Dr. Don Caitlin. He was not an easy guy to get access to, so we were pleasantly surprised when he accepted our invitation.

The "big dog" in the world of anti-doping

We're going to post his interview online for people to watch - he's got some interesting things to say on doping in sports.

Hailey gets cut...

We just got back from Phoenix. What a hellish trip. We encountered one of Arizona's famous thunderstorms on our way in, and ended up driving the final 50 miles into Phoenix at an average of 15 mph. We also encountered a horrific traffic accident. Being an ex-firefighter, I stopped to help and gave first aid to the driver until the fire department arrived. After we got the driver extricated and airlifted out, I asked my cameraman Joe if he had gotten any of it on film. Uh, no... Grrrrr.

Luckily the rain held off for the races at the Phoenix Greyhound Park. Our local dog, Hailey, was in the lead in the first race, when she was attacked by the dog behind her. She still placed second, and advanced to the final race of the day, but was again attacked, and this time stopped to retaliate. Sadly, she didn't win - and was controversially knocked out.

Hailey seems down after her controversial loss

The ride back was less eventful, but nonetheless, unpleasant. The radiator started acting up, so we needed to have the heater on full blast as we drove through the desert to keep the car from overheating. Yuck!

I'm going to spend the day bathing in ice cubes to see if I can get my core body temperature back to a health 102 degrees...

San Diego - Round One

Wow, what a day. Three of our dogs made it to the next round of qualifiers in San Diego. Bo, Blitzen, and defending champ Noodles, all kicked butt. Noodles day was a particular cliff-hanger for us. Initially denied entry at Los Al, Noodles made a surprise appearance in San Diego today, deciding to try to defend his title. His first few races were less than impressive - other dogs were attacking him, and as the day drew on, his times got slower and slower. Lo and behold, in the last race of the day, after having run 5 races, Noodles finally got it right - and got the fastest time of the day - qualifying for the next round by the skin of his teeth. To say I was sweating bullets would be an understatement.

Baby Luv out of contention

Sadly, Baby Luv was once again denied, being bumped out of contention in the second last race of the day, despite having posted one of the fastest times of the day earlier.

So as things stand now, we have Heidi Roo qualified for the finals, and three dogs qualified for the San Diego final qualifiers. If things keep going this well, we might have four or five dogs in the finals this December. Could the national title holder end up being one of those dogs? I can only hope...

Old World Races

Today we went to Old World German Village in Huntington Beach, CA., host to monthly wiener dog races. Most of the serious Wiener Nationals challengers race there regularly to gauge their opponents and stretch their legs. Today we spotted Todd and Poppy Kroeker, there with their dogs Bo, Bruno, blazer, and Peanut. Baby Luv was also there - and all digs posted blazing times.

Hometown favorite Stretch blazes
to victory at Old World

If the races today were any indicators, we're going to have more than one of our dogs show up that the Wiener Nats finals in December. The San Diego qualifiers are next month, and Baby Luv and the Kroekers will be running there. I'd put money on all of them advancing to the final SD qualifiers. Time will tell.

Los Alamitos Wrap-Up

Chalk up our first success! Today at Orange County's Los Alamitos Race Track, Heidi Roo, one of the 6 dogs we are following made it to the finals this December in a convincing manner.

Heidi Roo & coach Stacy Smith

After having placed second twice to defending champion Noodles, Heidi finally won Los Al. The fact that Noodles was barred from participating from the contest notwithstanding, Heidi's speed was amazing - her races weren't even close. We know that we have at least one dog that will be running in December's finals - so that's one worry that I can wipe from the slate. Next stop is Phoenix where we'll see if Hailey can repeat her win from last year. My fingers are crossed.

Congrats to Heidi Roo - she's going to be a real contender this December.

Remembering a champion

We met with Bruce and Kathy Rice of Vista today. They are the proud owners of Blitzen, and of the late champion Pretzel, who died suddenly of an immune disorder last December, just weeks before the Wiener Nationals.

The Rice's are obviously still hurting, and they gave us an emotional interview recounting Pretzel's racing career. We got to see all the many awards he won, as well as many pictures of him with other celebrities.

Pretzel's little brother Blitzen is being prepped to take his place, and if his morning time split is any indication, he's a real threat to win this year. I have no doubt he'll make it to the final selection this fall in San Diego.

Pretzel's rivalry with Noodles was one of the wiener racing world's more famous rivalries. Maybe we'll soon be hearing about the Noodles Blitzen Blowout...