01/08/10

Our Family

We are a family of five.  Gary, my wonderful husband has been very supportive of my Havana Silk Dog endeavor, learning with me along the way.  We have three great kids, Debbie, 16, David 14, and Rebecca 12.  We call Debbie the “dog whisperer” because the dogs all follow her around wherever she goes, much to the chagrin of the other kids! We live in Marietta Georgia in a suburb of 700 homes. I teach group fitness classes and work from home checking references for a local hospital. I also help Gary with his business I-Business Network as a reseller of accounting systems.

I got my first Havanese, Diamond in 2001 and we fell in love! She was everything we ever hoped for.  She was obedient, friendly, healthy and agile, and David overcame his fear of dogs.  We kept a puppy from her first litter, Bear, who loves everyone and always wants to have body contact!  My search for a stud dog for Bear changed my entire perspective on breeding my dogs.  I met Bobbi Lowry of Bonneterre Havana Silks. She, and Ann Carille of Havana Silk Dogs By The Bay encouraged me to go to the National Havanese Specialty Show in Virginia in 2006.

I never had an interest in “showing”. I had seen “Best In Show!” and thought I would just breed cute, healthy puppies and stay far away……however, that all changed.  I became educated, met great people, and realized just how little I knew. After the show, I spayed both Diamond and Bear because I knew that while they produced great family pets, I wanted to start over and produce better than what I had.

With the support of these great mentors, I brought Sedoso She’s All That “Jazz” home from Greg Steinig of Sedoso Havana Silks.  She is independent, yet enjoys being part of the pack.  She has brought a lot of joy into our lives.  She earned her provisional HSDAA championship at the Toledo show in 2008 and came in second both days in her class under two different judges. She earned her HSDAA Championship and received an Award of Merit at the St. Petersburg show in June 2009.