Hottest dogs in the South West

Sausage Dogs South West is a Facebook group with over 500 people and invited its members to take part in a sausage walk starting in Soldiers Park on Saturday.

Sausage Dogs South West creator Heidi Dempster said she first created the group in 2013 after she got her first sausage dog.

“There was a Perth group called Long Dogs WA and they were having lots of walks and events and we could never make it up there. I knew quite a lot of people around us had sausage dogs as well and said let’s just do one of our own.

“The main purpose of the whole group is networking, which Facebook is great for,” she said.

Mrs Dempster said she was overwhelmed with how quickly people started joining the group and how many people in the South West had dachshunds.

The dachshund breed has risen in popularity in recent years with registrations of dachshunds in Australia increasing from 1,258 in 2010 to 1,487 in 2017, according to the Australian National Kennel Council.

Mrs Dempster said often there’s waiting lists because the breed is in such high demand.

“They’re in really high demand, the waiting list is massive and everyone wants one,” she said.

Travelling from Busselton to Collie with her husband and three dachshunds for the first time, Jenny Buchanan said the river walk was a nice change from the beach.

“Busselton has the beach which is nice but then other times the beach is not that conducive to walk. The river walk, it was a lovely easy walk and to have the dogs off leash was really good,” she said.

Collie resident Tim Elliot said the first walk in Collie was a success and everyone enjoyed themselves.

“It was just terrific, lovely to have friends along and the dogs all enjoyed themselves,” Mrs Elliot said.

The group will be holding their next meeting at the fenced grounds of Barnard Park in Busselton on May 20.

To follow more about their events around the South West or for more information you can check them out on Facebook.