OUR STORY
We are Steve and Nikki Beer AKA "The Sausage Sitters" and we thought you might like to hear our story!
Working life, or my first career started when I joined the Army aged 21. The years following saw me travel & deploy on many operations worldwide. During this time I met my wife Nikki who also served, we’ve now been married 21 years!
After leaving the forces Nikki followed her lifelong passion for dogs immediately by training & qualifying as a dog groomer. For me life after the Army included 5 years working as a civilian contractor in Afghanistan before moving into the corporate world in 2015.
Dachshunds first came into our lives in 2018. Current and previous dogs in our family were working dogs, including our old girl Maddie the Weimeraner, she’s now 13.
Nikki has always wanted to have a dog that she could take to dog shows, so Nikki and our daughter hatched a plan to get our first daxie. After a lot of research and speaking to lots of Daxie people at shows we found our first Dachshund.
Honey arrived in the summer of 2018. We had caught the sausage bug and this was quickly followed later that year with the additions of Frankie and Rita. We now had a Weimaraner along with a string of sausages, how did that happen?
The following 18 months saw us travelling the length and breadth of the UK attending many Championship shows, with the hope that we might one day qualify for the show of all shows, Crufts.
March 2020 Nikki relalised her dream and we were at Crufts with all 3 of our girls!
First time at Crufts and the girls did great, all gaining places in their breed classes but Rita was the star by topping the day with second place in her breed class. Little did we know only days later the world would come to a stop due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Following the Covid-19 pandemic and personal events, I came to the decision that now was the time to do something I truly had a passion for and also give me and my family back the life balance we had lost. Our idea for "The Sausage Sitter and Friends" was born.
If you’ve seen our Sausage Sitter Facebook page, you will know our girls are certainly not just show dogs, they are family and are just as happy up on the Blorenge mountain in the rain on adventures, as they are in the show ring, or snuggled on the sofa. As I write this Rita is around my neck and Honey and Frankie are squeezed in the other side of me. They do pretty much everything with us as families do.
This becomes the dilemma for all dog parents when we need to be away from our dogs. This might be in the week due to work hours or because of a holiday or perhaps work commitments require us to stay away a couple of nights each week, who can we trust to understand and provide the care and safe environment that our dogs depend on, especially Dachshunds!
If you're reading this as a dog parent you will completely understand where I’m coming from, even more so if you have a Dachshund in your home. That’s why our mission is to provide safe adventures that are full of fun and enrichment, whether that is as a sausage staying overnight with us as part of our Dachshund exclusive home from home boarding service or any other dog out on a daily adventure with us.
