logo
Hundreds of dachshunds chase record in Hungary

Hundreds of dachshunds chase record in Hungary

BreakingNews.ie01-05-2025

Throngs of dachshunds assembled to strut their stubby stuff in Hungary on Thursday as they tried to fetch a record for the country's biggest ever single-breed dog walk.
Hundreds of dogs and their owners gathered at the Budapest City Park and walked in a long, noisy loop in the spring sun. The parade of pups was under the observation of the Hungarian Records Association, which was tasked with determining whether the canine cavalcade could be officially entered into the record books.
Advertisement
Dachshunds and their owners take part in an attempt to set Hungary's record for the largest dog walk of a single breed (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
Istvan Sebestyen, registrar and president of the association, said his organisation would carefully tally the number of participating dogs — a challenge, he said, when so many hounds and humans were gathered in one place.
'We don't usually take dachshunds on walks in droves, so this experiment has to correspond to our system of rules,' he said.
Dachshunds, a short, muscular breed with stubby legs, were first bred in Germany, and remain one of Hungary's most popular dog breeds.
Also known as 'wiener dogs' or 'sausage dogs' for their long, low-slung bodies, they were initially bred for hunting badgers and other burrowing creatures. But their loyal, curious and playful nature has also made them popular as family pets.
Advertisement
The record to beat was 897, set in Regensburg last summer (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
In Munich, Germany, in 1972, a rainbow-colored dachshund named Waldi became the first official mascot in the history of the Olympic Summer Games.
Last September, the German city of Regensburg set the current world record for the largest dachshund dog walk as hundreds of the breed paraded through the medieval town centre.
While some counts from Regensburg put the number of dogs at 1,175, Guinness World Records could only confirm 897.
On Thursday, Lili Horvath and her one-year-old dachshund Zabos participated in the walk in Budapest. She said her furry friend 'has very deeply human qualities and is very loyal, he's really a love bomb'.
Advertisement
Officials confirmed that 500 dachshunds were present, enough to set a new Hungarian record but not enough to land the Guinness World Record title (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)
Valeria Fabian, who was walking her dachshund Zsebi, saw it differently.
'Few people are capable of giving this kind of selflessness, because people don't have as much love and self-sacrifice as a dog can give a human,' she said.
By the end of the record-seeking walk, the Hungarian Records Association determined that 500 dachshunds had been present — enough to set a Hungarian record, but still short of the Guinness mark set in Regensburg.
Organisers, undeterred, vowed to try again next year, giving them plenty of time to muster more mutts for another shot at the title.
Advertisement

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

‘We'll have done it first': what it takes to set a new Guinness World Record
‘We'll have done it first': what it takes to set a new Guinness World Record

The Guardian

time6 hours ago

  • The Guardian

‘We'll have done it first': what it takes to set a new Guinness World Record

Ever since she was a little girl, Sruthy Saseendran wanted to 'achieve something remarkable' – something that would earn her a place in the record books. But growing up in what she describes as a traditional Indian family, that dream had to take a backseat to more conventional markers of success: university, marriage, career. Decades later – after she had married, become a mother and taken a job as a business analyst in Melbourne – she felt the itch return. It was time to do something for herself. So she embarked on a personal challenge: to set a Guinness World Record. Saseendran felt drawn to memory-based challenges and had long been fascinated by aviation. After a lot of research, she set her sights on creating a new world record: naming the most airports identified by International Air Transport Association code in one minute. The process of getting a new record idea approved by Guinness took her a year and three failed applications before the record book finally gave her the green light. So why not just break an existing record? 'I know how much effort and time it takes to set a record, so I really don't want to break anyone's and mortify them,' she says. 'I didn't want to hurt anyone.' Saseendran spent 18 months practising for her record attempt. She built a database of over 17,000 airport codes and assembled a training toolkit that included aviation maps, flashcards, cognitive training apps and good old-fashioned games of chess (to sharpen her focus). She'd set her alarm for 4.30am every day to practise before her infant woke up. As well as memorising codes, she had to learn to speak very quickly so she could verbally identify two airport names each second. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning On 5 December 2024, it all paid off. After one failed attempt, Saseendran created a new world record, naming 95 airport codes before the buzzer sounded. After all that groundwork, claiming her title felt like 'relief'. Saseendran's record might sound obscure, but Guinness is no stranger to niche ideas. Each year, they field around 50,000 record applications, and more than one third are new titles. Australians are among the more enthusiastic record breakers, currently ranking 12th in the world (the US and UK are equal first). For many, devising an oddly specific new record is a more achievable way into the books than running the fastest marathon or growing the world's longest fingernails. A steady stream of new records also helps to keep the pages of the hallowed Christmas gift fresh. Most of the records in the book each year are new, cosying up alongside indispensable classics such as the world's shortest woman and tallest man. New feats also replace records that have been scrapped by Guinness, such a 'longest time with a tarantula in the mouth', which might now be considered animal cruelty. Proposed records need to meet a variety of criteria to get the go-ahead, says Mark McKinley, who vets new Guinness World Record applications. Much like Smart goals, records need to be specific and measurable. You may think your baby is the world's most beautiful, McKinley says, and perhaps it is – but there's no real way to measure that. Guinness must also be able to verify each record. Not all ideas that reach McKinley's desk tick that box. 'We had an application for somebody who claimed to have only ever drunk Coca-Cola their entire life – one, it's probably unlikely that as a baby they were being bottle-fed Coke, but there's also no way of proving that,' he says. Finally: 'The record's got to be breakable,' McKinley says. That means standardised parameters – football records, for instance, must be broken with a fully inflated ball of the same size – but it also means setting the kind of challenge other people want to beat. Saseendran's record idea met all of those criteria. Memory-based records, McKinley says, are among their most popular and there's a 'huge community' of aviation enthusiasts who could be inspired to try for her title. McKinley filters through a lot of record requests and says that suggestions which appear niche at first can reveal large communities of devotees. 'When you start looking into them, you find that not only is this person wanting to do it, there's a whole subculture of people that … will want to beat it.' For instance, McKinley once received an application for the most sausages made in one minute. He was initially dubious, but says 'that record has become so popular among butchers'. Records aren't just about individual achievement. This weekend the New South Wales town of Kyogle, population 2,751, will do its darndest to set a brand new world record: the world's largest happy dance. If they get it right, it will, thinks mayor Danielle Mulholland, 'really put us on the map'. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion It was an idea Mulholland had after joking with a colleague that she'd 'do a happy dance' if she passed a course she was studying. She Googled happy dances and found there had been a mass happy dance featuring 448 participants in Singapore in 2015, but it hadn't officially been recorded by Guinness. So she decided that Kyogle, as a town, should aim to set the first official record by bringing together as many people as possible to dance at the town showgrounds. If you're wondering, a happy dance entails any kind of dance moves made to Pharrell Williams' 2014 track Happy. Those shooting for Guinness glory can choose to have reputable independent witnesses and videographers there to verify an attempt, or they can fly out official Guinness staff to oversee proceedings. The latter option comes with a price tag of £12,000 or A$24,000 – an amount that made Mulholland 'almost stroke out on the spot', especially given Kyogle is using the event to raise money for anti-domestic violence programs, so she has recruited some local lawyers to verify the size of the dancing crowd. If successful, it won't be Kyogle's first entry into the record book – a gardener from the nearby town of Knockrow grew the heaviest pumpkin in the southern hemisphere, an 867kg behemoth, for a Kyogle pumpkin competition in 2021. But creating the mass happy dance record feels extra special. 'London, Paris or New York may come along, and they may challenge the record,' Mulholland says. 'But at the end of the day, we'll have done it first.' Losing records is all part of the experience anyway. In 2018, chef Johnny Di Francesco, who runs Melbourne restaurant group Gradi, set about creating a world record for the most varieties of cheese on a single pizza. At the time, Di Francesco believed he'd be the first to set such a record, but Guinness says a German restaurant snuck in earlier that year. Di Francesco says it was a huge undertaking. Even sourcing that many varieties of cheese was challenging in Australia. Then, over six hours, Di Francesco painstakingly assembled a standard-size pizza with one gram of each variety of cheese. He 'obviously' had to recruit two professional cheesemongers to verify his cheese varieties were sufficiently distinct. It worked out – Di Francesco got the record, cramming 154 cheeses on to a classic wood-fired base. He didn't retain the title. In 2023, a team of chefs from France, a nation with the unfair advantage of being home to many more types of fromage, toppled him with a 1,001-cheese pizza. But Di Francesco is at peace with the loss. 'It's fine,' Di Francesco says. He still feels a sense of achievement for contributing to 'something that someone else wanted to succeed in'. For now, Saseendran still holds her record – but she should steel herself for challengers. McKinley says there have already been five applications to break it. Saseendran can now recite 104 airport codes in one minute – nine better than her official record – but won't be bitter if she eventually loses the title. 'I'm sure I'd be cheering them on,' she says. As she went first, 'my 'brainchild' will hold a cherished place in my heart forever'.

Huge 80ft penis on baseball field is visible from space
Huge 80ft penis on baseball field is visible from space

Metro

timea day ago

  • Metro

Huge 80ft penis on baseball field is visible from space

An enormous penis has been spotted on a baseball field in the US. The 80ft by 50ft knob was seen on the grass at Cochen Harry Ballfield in McDonough, Georgia. The penis is so large it was picked up by a satellite and is visible on Google Maps. The member, which was discovered by James Barnes, is 188 times larger than the average erect penis, which is comparatively tiny 13cm. How the phallus ended up there is anyone's guess. The grass appears to be worn away, revealing the soil in the shape of the male appendage only a few feet away from several hotels. Metro can reveal that the baseball artwork appeared on Google Earth in 2022, but it seems to no longer be there now. Google Earth images from 2023 and 2024 shows the field is back to all green, with no penis in sight. Google users even made it a five-star tourist attraction, with one reviewer saying: 'Great place to just kick back and take a load off.' Another added: 'It is nice, but would look bigger if they trimmed the hedges.' Whoever is behind the cheeky stunt has just one-upped a German school for penis size. More Trending A 20m long phallic drawing was seemingly painted on top of the Waldorf School in the Kreuzberg district in Berlin in February. The white appendage even had the edges painted over in a not-so-discreet attempt to conceal the crude artwork. Metro revealed that satellite images showed the penis appeared sometime between March and July 2022. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Your favourite places to eat in Europe that aren't the usual tourist traps MORE: Why so many young Brits are being 'manipulated' into smuggling drugs MORE: Similarities between Brit 'drug smuggler' held in Sri Lanka and Bella Culley

Divers uncover shipwreck of Glasgow vessel almost 140 years after it vanished without trace
Divers uncover shipwreck of Glasgow vessel almost 140 years after it vanished without trace

Scottish Sun

time2 days ago

  • Scottish Sun

Divers uncover shipwreck of Glasgow vessel almost 140 years after it vanished without trace

Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A SHIPWRECK mystery has been solved after divers discovered a vessel from Glasgow which had sunk nearly 140 years ago. Dominic Robinson, a former Army officer and military helicopter pilot, captured incredible footage of the wreck. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 4 Explorers have solved the mystery of a Glasgow-built ship which sank nearly 140 years ago Credit: Jam Press/Rick Ayrton 4 A team of divers went below the waves to scour the wreck site Credit: Jam Press 4 Dominic Robertson was desperate to know the origins of the doomed ship Credit: Jam Press 4 A plate with the Cunard Steamship Company logo was key in identifying the vessel Credit: Jam Press/Rick Ayrton The 50-year-old set sail with fellow explorers Rick and Andy, skipper James, and crew member Liz. They carefully examined the site of the wreck and also discovered old crockery, which was key in identifying the wreck. After finding a plate with the Cunard Steamship Company logo, Dominic was able to reveal that the wreck he found was that of the SS Nantes. The ship tragically collided with a German sailing vessel, the Theodor Ruger, in November 1988, as reported by NeedToKnow. Dominic, of Plymouth, Devon, said: 'The Nantes was built in 1874, in Glasgow, and very sadly lasted a mere 14 years before it was sunk. 'It was, when it was sunk, on passage from Liverpool to La Havre in France, carrying cargo of coal. 'Sadly, pretty much everybody who was on board the Nantes died. 'There were only three survivors, two guys who jumped onto the Theodor Ruger and then another guy who stayed on the Nantes and was part of the team that sort of tried to keep it afloat. 'Unfortunately, the Nantes went down about ten hours later in the early hours of the morning and he was the only person who was picked up from that. 'It's quite a sad story.' Hundreds of pupils cheered on a teacher about to undergo lifesaving brain surgery - by rocking out to ACDC'S Thunderstruck After the ship went down, it became lost until Dominic and his team discovered it. Dominic, who has been diving for around 35 years, heard about the unidentified shipwreck from the UK Hydrographic Office. Afterwards, the "wreck was essentially lost, obviously you're dealing in a period with no satellite navigation", said Dr Bennett. He added that while the crew tried to save the ship, it "drifted for several hours, before it finally made its way to the bottom, sadly, with many of its crewmen on board". He said the wreck was lost until a local dive team identified it last year. Dominic added: 'We've got the size [of this wreck] from the information on the UK Hydrographic Office. We know it's about 78 or 79 metres long. 'We know that there's a Cunard plate from it - so, basically what we're looking for, and we know it's old as well. 'So what you do is you try to find a list of all the Cunard ships that were sunk. 'You then try and narrow them down to a relatively small one, and an old one. 'We obviously know where it sank, so if you can find information about the sinking and the wreck that aligns all those things up, then it's fairly straightforward to identify it.' The Cunard plate, which Dominic found, was crucial in the ship's identification. He said: 'Even though the wreck had been dived before, it was never identified, and this small piece of broken plate allowed us to do exactly that. 'The more eagle-eyed amongst you may already have noticed the logo from the famous Cunard shipping line. 'And not surprisingly, this is what gave us the most significant clue.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store