As some of you know, we are not a solely dachshund-dog family, my family have been owned by mini schnauzers for 30+ years before my sausagey body graced their front door. You will have seen Hattie & Harvey feature on Sausage Tails many times and they are fondly known as The H’s. Thanks to those grey beardy guys we have attracted many schnauzer owners that follow us, including some local to us that invited The H’s and I to a Schnauzerfest walk local to us this weekend.

Schnauzerfest is a nationwide fundraising collection of walks with schnauzers held on the weekend of October 17th and 18th 2015. Walks and social events have taken place all over Britain which bring together schnauzers and their human and other canine companions. From small walks to larger ones, each took place with two aims – FUN and FUNdraising.

Through donations made to join a walk, Schnauzerfest raises money for two independent animal rescues: the Diana Brimblecombe Animal Rescue Centre (DBARC) based in Berkshire and East Midlands Dog Rescue in Leicester. Both rescues provide loving care and veterinary treatment for many animals, including a large number of miniature schnauzers that have experienced the terrible conditions of being confined to breed in puppy farms and commercial scale breeding places.

As soon as I received that invitation I RSVP’d YES! It was about time we did something for The H’s, well they do attend many a sausage dog walk as honorary guests! So we loaded up the car with all the family and headed off this morning for a few hours of schnauzer fun! As soon as we got there, Nanny & I got stuck in straight away with making new friends and watching all those beardy dudes arrive!

I think The H’s thought they were looking into a mirror!

Spot the odd-chocolate-one out…

Hattie was very excited get going, doesn’t she look good for 11 years old!

And off went along the River Thames, what a lovely day for it!

We had to go and see what these guys had sniffed out, it may have been a squirrel or a Bonio, well a sausage can dream…

This little guy seemed quite playful so we had a little game of chase the sausage…

I do find it fun to run through long grass but I don’t think these long-legged guys seemed to remember that Alan I have to wade through it like a jungle…

Come on Rodney!

Check out this unusual white schnauzer, I’m thinking I might try bathing Harvey in a bottle of bleach for his summer look next year…

As with all group walks, you have to have the obligatory group shot, I thought I’d let the schnauzers take the limelight this time and took the photo for them, giving a few modelling tips as I went, obviously.

After that brief interlude, we were off again through the cow fields and heading for the pub…

Look who we bumped into and joined us on our walk! Only Zoukie & Lottie who have appeared as my Fridays Furry Friends HERE They are two very cute wire puppies who I was sure Mum was going to try and sneak into her jacket! They remind me of being a young wirey pup many moons ago embarking out in the big wide world…

Soon we reached our favourite destination – The Pub!

Only the old gal and I were able to look in the right direction for our family photo out of 20 shots, typical!!

Rodders had his eye on Nanny’s hot chocolate, my that tongue is long!!

Obviously I wasn’t going to miss out on the tasty action so I managed to bat my puppy dog eyes at Nanny and got a lift up for a sniff…

And a little taste…

Soon our pitt stop was over and it was time to say goodbye to our schnauzer friends and head back along the river to our car, saying goodbye to the cows along the way…

A very big thank you to our local Schnauzerfest hosts for not only inviting us but for organising such a fun walk, there was a great turn out too, Nanny counted approximately 27 schnauzers , 5 dachshunds, 1 fox terrier and 1 spaniel! I’ve heard nearly £200 was raised to go towards the two chosen Schnauzerfest charities, which is great news!

Dach’s all for now – I think I’ll be dreaming of grey beards and hot chocolate tonight…

Jeffrey x