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About us

I have been raising Miniature Dachshunds for about 24 years now. Our first doxie was a black and tan girl we got in Julian, CA. She was a Christmas present for our daughter Janene. Julian’s Julie Ann was a tweenie, not really a mini and not really a full sized Dachshund, she averaged 16-18 pounds. Getting an inside dog was really a big step for me as I never wanted inside pets. Back then I was a neat freak, not anymore. When Julie turned three we decided it would be fun to let her have puppies and let the kids experience the birthing and responsibility of taking care of them and share in the profits.

That is when I met Jan Metzger who had been breeding dachshunds for about 30+ years, at that time, and thanks to her guidance and willingness to be my mentor I learned how to be a responsible breeder. I loved the experience of breeding and whelping and placing my pups in good homes and making so many new friends, that I am still doing it. Of coarse, it seemed everytime we had a litter, we had to keep one, so we kept Jessie from that first litter out of Julie and that is how it all began and now we have on average between 5-10 mini dachshunds and or mini aussies in the house at any given time. So much for outside dogs! When I go to bed at night my husband asks if it is a three or four dog night depending on how cold it is outside.

My husband, Andy, loves the dogs also or this wouldn’t all be possible, he especially loves the puppies and usually finds a special one in each litter but I finally had to put a stop to him keeping all those special ones. All of our doxie’s and aussie’s are first and formost our pets, we love them, most of them were born here, and will be loved here until they go to the Rainbow Bridge. You will never see older dogs on my websites for sale unless they belong to someone else and I am helping place them. In all my seventeen years of doing this I have only placed one adult female and that was Cassie, she was six when she had to be spayed and we had a family looking for a dog. When they came to visit, Cassie got up off her bed and went right to them and claimed them as her’s. I let her go on a trial basis and of coarse she is still there, loving the twin boys, and excitedly awaiting their return home from school every day. Cassie was a female that I rescued along with her mother Hazel from a person who bred on every heat cycle and both were like skeletons when I got them. Poor Hazel, Cassie’s mother , had had 23 puppies by the time she was 2 ½, so needless to say she didn’t get bred for along time here until I was sure she was fit and healthy enough to have puppies. Hazel just went to the Rainbow Bridge last year.

We live on approximately 24 acres here in Fallbrook where I also raise Quarter horses and Paint horses. You can see them on my horse site at www.apranch.com by the link that is on the home page. I used to show them extensively and have had a few World Champions over the years but now I enjoy being home with my dogs and only go to a few select shows per year. My doxie’s love to go and I usually take about five with me, they are great little travelers and they keep me company on the road and at the shows. I’m thinking now I’d like to show my dogs, the doxie’s and the aussie’s, I think it would be fun to learn something new and see how they stack up against the competition.

Pauline Troxell ~ AP Ranch