Hello from Colorado

Well, I registered a bit back but haven't posted yet ... I thought it now the time.

I live in Colorado in the US. I am the proud owner of two gorgeous and thank goodness healthy Tamaskans. I was involved in a variety of capacities for almost two years with the Tamaskan Dog Register, headed by Lynn Sharkey (now Lynn Hardey) and her daughter Jennie. To say the least in that amount of time, A LOT of unethical business and breeding practices were uncovered despite fervent denials by both. Without spewing it all here, I will just say that several of us, including a contributing founder of the breed and another long-standing member since the TDR creation, resigned just about two weeks ago. While my resignation was imminent, I followed suit together with another long-standing breeder in the US, especially since the TDR had nothing more to offer us either through new lines or honesty. We are moving forward with the Tamaskan Breeders Association (actually established 2/2009) and the AATU TAMASKAN (aatu is a Finnish name for noble wolf). Our goal is to introduce HEALTHY lines to our existing Tamaskan stock and create a wolfier look than the current UK Tamaskan has.

I have been watching various Utonagan forums and have done a tremendous amount of research over the last four months or so, and I have to say that I have a great amount of respect for the ethical Utonagan breeders (as we know there is always someone in the group who doesn't do the right thing for the breed or its future owners/breeders). The fact that SO many have been willing to post health information publicly as well as registration certificates, faults, pluses, etc., is VERY admirable in my book, and my hat is off to those that have. [This kind of information has been very helpful in my own research into the Tamaskan lines, uncovering many concealments by the TDR mother and daughter team, including purposeful concealment of health issues and change of registered names.] In fact, for many months I have chosen to be honest regarding certain issues stemming from the TDR and have been disparaged and put down for posting the truth about certain facts and issues. Of course, those that have faulted me are the very ones with something to hide (typical). However, we have terminated our affiliation with them completely, as we cannot be affiliated with such a lack of ethics any longer.

In any event, I just wanted to say thanks to the many of you for your disclosure of important information necessary to someone searching any breed to be able to make a fully informed decision regarding their future canine companion.

The small group of us with the TBA are very excited about finally working with those whose interest is honest promotion of a breed and its health.

Thanks for listening ---