Hundreds attend 20th Annual Maine Wienerfest

BELFAST, Maine (WABI) – While the dog days of summer may be coming to a close, it was still a perfect day for the 20th Annual Maine Weinerfest.

“I’ve been going for probably the past 10 years. I’ve always had dachshunds, Franks, a chiweenie, but I’ve been every single year, and it’s a lot of fun,” said Breton Dawson, bringing Mia and Frank to Wienerfest.

“Everyone’s so friendly and the dogs everyone is getting along with hundreds of dogs here, it really lifts your spirits. You cannot be in a bad mood if you’re looking at a dachshund, they’re just too cute,” stated Valery Riemer, said Paws Board Member, Wienerfest Chairperson.

Wienerfest allows owners and dogs from across the east coast to socialize and just have a doggone good time.

“Everybody’s super fun and welcoming. Everybody wants to meet your dog and wants you to meet their dog and just talk about dachshunds,” said Patrick Greene, bringing Mia and Frank to Wienerfest.

“So, it’s rare to see a dachshund on the street, so when you can see this many all at once, it’s pretty special when you’re a dachshund owner. And just seeing all the different kinds, and short hair, long hair, yeah, it’s pretty awesome,” said Noon Weiss, with her dog Frankie.

” For the first half an hour, it’s like get all the sniffs in and meet all the other dogs, and then by the time we get home, they’re gonna sleep, probably for a solid 12 hours, and that’s the best part for me,” added Greene.

The day featured plenty of events that kept the dachshunds and their human counterparts busy.

“The coolest thing was the costume contest. There were some really, really good costumes, and watching the wiener dog races here, it’s just funny, hysterical to watch. It’s really good for socialization of dogs, really good,” explained Kandi Phillips, holding her dog, Daisy Mae.

Plenty of dogs competed in the races, but one dachshund really put the fast in Belfast.

“He loves to run. It’s one of his favorite things to do. We’ll take him on walks, and he’ll go running with Ethan. To practice a little bit, we held a piece of cardboard in front of him to act like the gate and we lifted it up and we yelled for him to run and taught him how to run to get some treats. It paid off and today he won,” said Renee Ferrazzuolo, bringing Moose to Wienerfest.

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