Popular Post Tom King Posted December 12, 2023 Popular Post Report Posted December 12, 2023 The AKC National Invitational is probably their biggest show of the year. Only a few dogs from each breed are invited to compete in the agility competition. This year, three out of the top five Havanese invited are our dogs. One lady who runs two of our dogs is currently visiting us before they head to Orlando and is picking up another young dog that will no doubt be a top competitor in the future. Pam's kennel name is Starborn Havanese. You will see Starborn in front of the dog's registered name. In coming years we expect more than 3 out of 5. https://www.akc.org/sports/agility/events/akc-agility-invitational/ 11 Quote
Popular Post Ronn W Posted December 12, 2023 Popular Post Report Posted December 12, 2023 Congrats on the invitation. That's great. I ran agility for about 12 years with my 2 mixed breeds. The dogs and Loved it. We were partners. It's a great sport. 7 Quote
Tom King Posted December 13, 2023 Author Report Posted December 13, 2023 I probably should have been clearer that these are puppies we produced here, not dogs we own. The young boy I mentioned is 8 months old, one we had to take back from an owner in Massachusetts who had to undergo operations and knew she couldn't properly care for him. We've been involved with this breed for over 27 years which is longer than it's been recognized by AKC. We've bred 9 generations and Pam finished 19 champions in the show ring before stopping showing in the ring. Pam taught AKC Judges Education seminars the first seven years after it went with AKC. We helped write the standard. After experience in breeding horses and teaching conformation, it carries over to dogs. Having these dogs do so well in performance sports is proving it now. Pam has a waiting list for puppies long before they are even conseived. Agility trainers from around the country are sending potential buyers to us after working with some of our babies. 2 Quote
Ronn W Posted December 13, 2023 Report Posted December 13, 2023 It's great to be involved with dogs in any way. 2 Quote
Mark J Posted December 13, 2023 Report Posted December 13, 2023 Congrats Tom & Pam! Tom, I'm curious about the Havanese breed. Where and when did it originate, and what was it bred for? Quote
Popular Post Tom King Posted December 13, 2023 Author Popular Post Report Posted December 13, 2023 The original breed started in Cuba. I think the first dogs here were sometime in the early 1980's. They're odorless and non-shedding. Size is around 10 to 12 pounds. They're strictly companions with no instinct to hunt or dig. They're not the typical fragile toy dog though. They were used for circus dogs over a couple of hundred years ago. They're very athletic, if properly bred, and intelligent. If you do a Google search for Havanese there is much information available. https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/havanese/ There are a couple of good introductory videos on that page. Our daughter got us into them when she was 8 years old. She had a friend that had a small dog that had puppies, and she wanted to have some puppies. Pam told her the world didn't need more puppies but if she could find a breed that the world needed more of that we would consider it. We thought that would be the end of it. All our farm dogs had always just been strays that showed up. We homeschooled and belonged to six libraries, so our daughter read every dog book there was, and came up with the Havanese breed. Pam asked why the world needed more of them and she said that people with allergies could have them. At that time there were less than a few hundred in this country. We looked for a couple of years for one worthy of starting a breeding program with, and found Twinkle in New Jersey. She was by the top sire in the then rare breed category, and out of the high point champion for two years. We told our daughter that she would have to come up with a kennel name. She chose Starborn. I told her I thought that was a dumb name, but didn't think it would amount to anything anway. We told her if we produced puppies with health problems that we would stop breeding them. 27 years later, Pam is considered by many to be the best breeder of Havanese there is. We came up with a system to train them to a litterbox when they are just a few weeks old. By the time they are 8 weeks old, they are running loose in our house and don't have accidents. They go to the litter boxes. Here's our website. It's like my website and old enough that the software is no longer supported, so we can't add pages, but at this point it doesn't really matter. She has a FB page that she posts current pictures on. There is also a starbornhavanese youtube channel with many videos over 20 years. We do not sell to show homes unless they are close friends of ours that we know and trust. We don't want them to live in a crate to keep the long hair perfect. www.StarbornHavanese.com 2 1 Quote
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