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Before I start I’d
like to thank my husband of thirty years, Randy. If not for his love and support
none of this would be possible.
In the fall of 1997 I
purchased my first Dachshund – Nathan (Yes named for the famous Nathan’s Hot
Dogs!) It was a dog I thought would be fun to own and a good companion. I was
right on both counts. Later in the spring of 1998 I acquired two
more…littermates from a rescued black and tan bitch, Ben and Sarah Leigh who are
reds. Dachshunds are like potato chips, you can’t have just one! I especially
love watching them come running across the yard with ears flapping and bellies
low to the ground, makes me smile every time!
I decided I’d like to
try agility, but the Dachshunds just aren’t the best dog for that sport in my
opinion so I started looking around and landed on the Boxer. Again, a great
companion, great guard dog and all around clown, which fits in perfectly with
the Dachshunds. So on January 2, 1999 I purchased my first boxer, Derrae’s
Ezekiel, CD, NA, RE, CGC a.k.a. “Zeke”. Not show quality, but then I was looking
for an agility dog and I had no plans on entering the show ring or breeding.
Zeke and I had a lot of fun working in obedience and agility, then one day I saw
an ad for Pawsability in Harrisburg, PA. This was a whole day of fun
stuff to do with your dogs and there was going to be lots of vendors with great
stuff to buy and lots to see …agility, obedience, fly ball, and a conformation
match show. WOW! What a day that was going to be, I invited the whole family to
come and watch me show Zeke in obedience and agility AND I even entered the
conformation match with Zeke…I figured what the heck it was all for a good cause
and it would be fun. Well, I took Zeke in the conformation ring and we ended up
winning a group four! I came out of that ring and declared “We are getting a
show dog that was the most fun I’ve ever had.” That was in March, by July I did
indeed have my very first conformation show bitch: Halo’s Lil’Penny v Tollgate
a.k.a. Penny. We went to handling classes and read as many books as my eyes
could take and went to several seminars on handling and as many match shows as
we could find that summer. In the fall, we entered our very first AKC
conformation show and we WON our class. I was hooked from that point on so it
was the summer of 1999 that Tollgate Boxers and Dachshunds began and I’ve been
on the road just about every weekend since and that was eight years ago!
Since then, I’ve
finished both my boxers, and I am currently specialing Noah who is the number 25
Boxer in the country! In addition to finishing my boxers I’ve finished four of
my own dachshunds, and several of my friends and co-breeders. I specialed two of
my dachshund bitches and now I‘m specialing Ch Dollidachs Five Star General, who
is currently the #10 smooth dachshund in the country! I even took Lisa, Ch.
Dollidachs Baby I’m a Star to Cruft’s in England in 2007 to compete and
boy was that fun. When you check out my photo gallery look for the photo of us
IN a restaurant in France having dinner!
I hope you enjoy
looking through my photo gallery and watching how we’ve grown and some of our
travels to foreign lands. Maybe one day we will be “World renowned” Tollgate
Boxers & Dachshunds! Enjoy!
Susan Watts
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