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 ---

Hello Takari, welcome to the forum
It's lovey to get new people on here, and from accross the water too!
Thank you for your lovely comments about our forum too!

We hope you will continue to enjoy and get much info as you need it.

We are all very proud of our dogs ( as you can see!) and feel only honesty and openess is the only way forward for the sake of the dogs.

Hello and welcome to the Forum, I am so glad to hear from you all over 'the pond' and hope we can help you find the truth behind your lines that go back to our Utonagan dogs, who played a big part in the foundation of your breed.
Look forward to chatting to you loads

Hi Takari,

Great to see you on here! I have been made to feel very welcome by everyone
and even got a little information on Baxter's background from Admin!

Bee5

Openess and honesty are traits to be applauded, unfortunately there are far too many involved in both Tamaskan and Utonagan breeding who have things to hide and TRY to shift the blame from THEIR irresponsible breeding to shall we say, more responsible breeders!

If only we lived in a perfect world where the development of the breed(s) were put before profit and cosmetics?

Welcome to the forum BTW

firstly hi and welcome,
totally agree with you on your points and dont blame you for not affiliating your self with people who dont tell the truth about the dogs they have and bred sadly there few that still hide things, and do feel for those who want to breed and find it hard to get to the truth about the dogs they buy.

wish you all the luck in your adventure and great success for the furture.

rj, please could I draw your attention to this

Please tell us a little bit about yourself on the introduction section.To ensure the safety and security of the members on this site, and to discourage spammers, I am afraid anyone who doesn't will find their account deleted within 7 days.

this is an extract from our Forum Rules and Posting Guidelines which I would urge you to read.

You have come on with all guns blazing without giving anyone the courtesy of an introduction, we know nothing about you, the fact that you disagree vehemently with Takari is patently obvious. I would say that Takari has given her reasons most coherently and has the proof to back up what she was saying, this after all is a public forum and has a wide range of visitors from many countries.
Look forward with interest to reading your intro.