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Bungendore is hoping to become the world's wiener capital on Sunday with an attempt to set the world record for most dachshunds in one place. The Werriwa Wiener Dash, a fun race for dachshunds, will run for the second year as part of the Bungendore Show on January 29, with the added goal of getting into the record books. Local Bungendorian Mark Ellis launched the sausage dog races last year. "There was a [similar] event being run down in Melbourne for Oktoberfest, and I'd recently got myself a dachshund, and thought I should probably do something up here in the ACT region, predominantly to raise money for Dachshund Rescue Australia," said Ellis. Last year, 127 dachshunds turned up to the event, and Ellis hopes to get more than 130 this year. The count for the world record attempt will happen at midday, with officials from Bendigo Bank taking the numbers. "I did approach Guinness Book of World Records about it and they came back and said it was too specialised an event for them to have a record in. So basically whatever we get, we'll claim that as the official world record and let's see if someone else beats us," Ellis said. "There's another organisation, Official World Record, so we'll approach them after the event and see if they'll register it for us." More than 80 dogs are already registered for the races themselves, although dogs can just head along to be part of the count, and there's also a 'paralympic race' for dogs with a disability or who are a bit older. "We've got a three-legged dog who's going to be running in it, another dog who's deaf and just some older dogs who otherwise probably wouldn't be able to compete," said Ellis. And for the pups that may not like to break a sweat but enjoy a good costume, the dapper dachshund fashion competition is also running - an event that Ellis' own dachshund Obi-Wan is more a fan of. "He came second last year in the dapper dachshund but he's not much of an athlete - when he was released for the run he turned around and sat directly in front of my wife, no matter how much coaxing I was doing from the other end," said Ellis. The Werriwa Wiener Dash is at Bungendore Showgrounds from 9.30am. To register a dachshund for the event, visit bungendoreshow.com.au/competitions/daschund-races, or just turn up on the day.

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