Talemaker Havanese is our passion, a labour of love for my wife, Darlah, and me. We do our best to share our joy and pleasure with you. It should be evident to any of you that follow Darlah’s daily blogs in the web site just how much we give to our dogs and they give back to us. We cannot imagine life without them. This is a lifestyle choice. We’ve always had dogs but now we’ve crossed the line and we are officially and forever more “dog people”.

We share our lives with our Havanese. We are both Directors in the Markham Kennel Club. We are also members and I past President of the national Havanese breed club, the Havanese Fanciers of Canada. www.havanesefanciers.com It is the national club that is tasked with protecting the breed in this country, a responsibility I take very seriously.

Darlah is chair for Havanese Rescue in Canada National Havanese Rescue of Canada.

We have had the privilege and pleasure to show all of our Havanese to their Canadian championships. We did it mostly ourselves with a bit of help from our friends. Darlah bathes and grooms and makes them ready, by far the hardest part of showing. I go to Handling classes and train them, then take them into the conformation show ring. I’m wearing my suit. They exhibit without a stitch of clothes and they have no shame whatsoever. Nonetheless, get them in the ring and they are “stylin”.

We’ve attended Obedience training school with all of our dogs. We’ve even dabbled in Agility but I found out I wasn’t in good enough shape to keep up with my dog at the time. Wasn’t that an eye opener? In hindsight, what was I thinking trying to keep up with our king, our dog named Kat?

We breed our Havanese a few times a year. Please contact us directly if you are interested in getting on the waiting list for a Talemaker Havanese puppy and we will begin the process together. That involves completing our puppy questionnaire and coming for a visit to our home to meet our dogs and for them to meet you. Typically our puppies are spoken for before they are born and we do not breed frivolously. Among other things when you get a puppy from us it is accompanied not only by their CKC registration papers as a purebred Havanese, son or daughter of champion lines on both sides, but also with a 5 generation pedigree.

We strive to educate ourselves continually. Sometimes it isn’t easy weeding through the conflicting tonnage of information on the internet, nor should you believe everything that you read. But there is good literature available and occasionally there will be a lecture or seminar in your area with proven experienced reputable professionals in their field. Darlah and I believe strongly in education for us and our dogs, attending classes on an ongoing basis which never really ends, participating in lectures and seminars and always seeking to broaden our knowledge base.

Here are a few things we have attended over the last couple of years and recommend:

Whos Walking Who
Gillian Ridgeway, Director of Education. We attend at their Ajax location
http://www.whoswalkingwho.net/
We’ve participated in Puppy Classes, Family Dog Classes and many levels of obedience classes for each of our dogs. Their Total Recall seminar is excellent. We recommend it highly to anyone. And once, Kat and I participated in an ill-fated attempt at Agility. As mentioned, I couldn’t keep up with him.  In their turn every puppy that we keep joins us at these classes as do many of the families with their new puppies that come from us.

Day Tripper Dog Training
Teddy Green and Lane White
http://www.daytripperdogtraining.com
We have also attended Obedience classes with Teddy and Lane. I cannot speak more highly of them both. We’ve also attended seminars they’ve hosted with Joan Weston of http://www.k9shrink.ca/ who is truly excellent.

Myra Savant Harris
www.myrasavantharris.com/
Mrs. Harris teaches the Canine Reproduction System throughout the US and Canada with an emphasis on Whelping information and Puppy Care.  

Vaccination Protocols
Knowing what the drug companies are suggesting and why.
Richmond Hill, Ontario

Breeding Better Dogs with Dr. Battaglia
http://breedingbetterdogs.com/seminars.php
Learn to breed better dogs and how to choose the best puppy from Dr. Battaglia, a leader and an expert dog breeder.

Assessing Puppies with Pat Hastings
http://www.dogfolk.com/puppypuzzlevideo.htm
Pat Hastings and Puppy Puzzle, filled with techniques and using the evaluations to add the best puppies to a breeder's own program.

ABC's of Dog Breeding With Claudia Orlandi, Ph.D
http://www.abcsofdogbreeding.com/abouttheauthor.htm
Her ABC's of Dog Breeding Home Study Program is based on the enthusiastic response to her educational seminars on breeding and her belief
that anyone can and should understand the practical rules of animal breeding and canine genetics in their quest to breed better, healthier dogs.

Advances with Canine Reproduction with Dr. Robert V. Hutchison
http://www.northviewvet.com/
Understanding & Correcting Common Dog Problems. "Maximizing Conception in the Bitch"

Thank you.
Sincerely,
Nathan & Darlah Potechin
Talemaker Havanese