About Us
The dogs are only half the team! Diane Webb and John Willmore are the human half of DoxiFun. For over 20 years we lived in the hills of Orange, California before moving to the Seattle area in 2016. We are the co-founders and owners of a small software company. Since in a family-owned business everyone has to contribute, the dogs help out with the advertising.
Inspired by the miniature long-haired dachshunds owned by Diane's sister Margaret, Diane and John decided to get their own dachshund after buying their first house with a yard in 1996. A breeder at a local kennel suggested that they go to the Sierra Dachshund specialty in January 1997, where they met Jeff Dionne and admired his Wagsmore dachshunds. A month later, Brandy joined our household, and the rest is history! In 2005 we discovered Patt Nance's "Fieldworthy" small European-style standard longhairs. Asti joined our household followed a few years later by her litter-mate Olive. In 2012 we went to Sweden to evaluate puppies from Asti and Olive's relatives and came back with Bossa.
Remy's success in earthdog and then in agility and other dog sports eventually led to us dropping our Disneyland and Mighty Ducks season tickets and buying a small Roadtrek RV so we could attend more trials and tests. We started taking the dogs on selected business trips all around the United States and competing with them on weekends.
Diane, Remy and a customer in our booth at a 2003 conference in Chicago. |
John and Remy after a customer meeting in San Francisco in 2003. |
Our Roadtrek at an RV park in Siskiyou County CA in 2006. |
The DOXIFUN Roadtrek in our street as fire threatens in March 2007. |
Diane with Remy, Asti and Ouzo at Mono Lake, CA in 2008. |
John with Ouzo at Craker Lake in 2008. |
We trained at Jump Start Dog Sports starting in June 2001 and owe much of our success to their agility, obedience, rally, and freestyle dance classes. Among our instructors have been Kathy Morris, Stephanie Spyr, Shannon Miller, Jean O'Neill, Lori Barbie and Carol Keller (agility), Nancy Craig and Vicki Chaney (obedience and rally), and Patty Wiederman (freestyle).
We are not breeders but instead focus on training and competing with our dogs in multiple venues. Our goal is for each dog to achieve as much as they can in each sport, while of course, having FUN! It's very nice winning ribbons, but it's even more rewarding to figure out the dog's problem and help them succeed with new skills.
John is an approved American Kennel Club (AKC) judge in Agility, Earthdog, and Dachshund Field Trials. Diane is an approved Earthdog judge for Introduction to Quarry only (she hopes to be a Rally judge someday.)