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6/3/03

Not the top dog, but still a wiener

JOHN HALL
Staff Writer

MURRIETA ---- Sure he was an underdog, but Mayer did his best ---- his tiny legs churning and his long ears flopping. Still, he just couldn't beat the more experienced racers.

The little dog from Murrieta still made his owners proud Saturday night as one of only 64 dachshunds from across the state who competed in the eighth annual Wienerschnitzel Wiener Nationals at Los Alamitos Race Course.

The final race was won by Pretzel, owned by Bruce and Kathy Rice of Vista. They took home a $1,000 first prize along with a trophy and a yellow doghouse in the shape of a Wienerschnitzel restaurant. Pretzel finished by a nose, albeit a long one, ahead of last year's champion, Noodles.

Mayer came in fourth in his 50-yard heat, owner David Sanchez said Monday. The winners of each of the eight heats then competed in the final championship run.

At least Mayer finished. Some dogs just sort of stayed around the starting gate area while owners pleaded and bribed them to make it to the finish line.

"Regardless of the outcome, it was a lot of fun. We really had a good time," said David Sanchez, who, along with his wife, Eileen, entered Mayer in the race for the first time.

They've already decided to try and get Mayer's brother, Oscar, into next year's event.

Sanchez said Monday that they'll probably train Oscar a bit more than they did Mayer. Mayer's training consisted of some long walks and two short, pretend races against Oscar in the back yard.

Until they saw it firsthand at Saturday's race, Sanchez said they didn't realize just how seriously fun the race is for some dog owners.

He said it looked like a few owners probably spend a fair amount of time training their dogs. And then there were some "teams" of owners and pooch that had T-shirts and big foam fingers with the dog's names on them at the race.

The annual Wiener Nationals is typically the biggest draw of the year at the race course, and heats are run between horse races. According to officials at Los Alamitos, a record 6,431 people attended Saturday's race.

"It was a sea of wiener dogs," he said with a laugh. Sanchez estimated a couple hundred dachshunds were at the event Saturday, including a few puppies probably about 10 weeks old.

The wiener dogs came in all kinds of shapes and sizes, he said, but Mayer may have been the most unique.

"He's apparently very rare," Sanchez said. "I saw a lot of dogs that night and he was the only all black dachshund there."

Money from tickets and T-shirt sales at the event each year goes to the Seal Beach Animal Care Center, a nonprofit organization that helps find homes for stray animals in Orange County.

This year, more than $10,000 was raised, race officials said.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or [email protected].

6/3/03

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