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IMPORTANT NEWS
FROM HRHS:
All of our
puppies have been adopted from both the Isabella x Curtis and Ally x
Harley litters - thank you watching them grow with us and to all the
wonderful forever homes that now have them.
The Future of HRHS
At this time Hurricane Ridge
Havana Silks is taking an indefinite break from breeding. Its always
tough when you find a breeder you really like and then they make a
decision to stop and you have no idea why, but they just disappear. This
is our attempt to not disappear on you!
We have enjoyed
and worked hard with every baby that was produced here and it has
brought us great joy to see the love that these dogs bring their forever
families. It is truly a wonderful breed. We will continue to support the
health of the breed and attend a show when we can as Silk Dog owners.
Levi
Our boy
Levi was recently adopted by
Selah Havana Silks in Michigan if you
want to follow his future as a stud dog with Lisa's program. He is
shaping up nicely and we are very proud of our Isabella's grandson that
was produced out of Ludico's Havana Silk Dog's Mia and her breeding to
Curtis owned by Frank & Helen Conticchio. Levi carries a unique genetic
line that will allow for more diversity in the Havana Silk Dog breed
which we believe is very important. He also has the silkiest coat,
elegant, well-balanced structure and most calm, happy, outgoing
temperament in a dog. We are looking forward to seeing what he can
produce. It is possible we may one day still line breed back to him with
our Ally for a final litter (if time permits in our lives). Just not
saying never. :)
Isabella
Our Isabella is happily retired after 5 litters and will be going to
live with our youngest daughter Rachel and her husband after she graduates from Purdue University in Mechanical Engineering, May
2012. Isabella was the best whelper and mommy to her puppies with such
great natural instincts. Be watching out for her Enzo, Melody, Jane &
Ruby to hopefully be turning heads in the HSDAA ring!
Ally
Ally will remain in our home and intact, in case we change our mind and
have a litter with her one day down the Silk Road again. Ally's Genny will
also be taking front stage in the HSD's and we hope Faith will also one
day be seen as a blur making great time in the agility ring! One puppy
from her last litter, Two if by Sea, is currently a run-on in his new
home to see if he is nice enough for show one day (Paul Revere - now
Divot). We will re-evaluate him at a year-old.
Cleo
Cleo did not pass her recent hip health testing (two times). She has
mild joint laxity in both of her hips. Because we wanted to make sure
she was healthy to re-home, after a recent concern of some bowed fronts
in the HSD breed, we began critically assessing soaped photos of her
since she presents easty-westy.
My husband and I took Cleo to the orthopedic vet in
Seattle and it was determined by radiographs that she indeed does have
mild bowing in her front in both of her forelegs, in both humerii, along
with rotation of the radii and ulna and valgus, bilaterally. This was
even though Cleo had really nice shoulder lay-on and layback. We learned
from this that correctly shouldered dogs can still have bowed fronts and
that there are other reasons for bowed fronts than a dominant mode of
inheritance such as in some of the Havanese that display the dwarfism
gene (FGF4). It can also occur in long-legged dogs for numerous reasons
as genetics, environment, diet, exercise, injury, including from
breeding 'unlike' to 'unlike,' etc. We do not fully understand the mode
of inheritance only to say that it begs more research and everything
that the founding members of the HSDAA learned about bowing in the
Havanese, is now important to look at once again. We believe that there
are autosomal recessives that play into this mode of inheritance as
well.
Cleo's health information was passed on to our
HSDAA Health Committee for further research. Cleo was removed from our
breeding program (she wasn't certified yet, and therefore couldn't
breed). She was recently spayed and re-homed to a wonderful, loving
family in Oceanside, CA.
Final thoughts
They say in the dog breeding world there is the 5 year point where
breeders either continue on or stop. Our faith and family have always
come first and our dogs, while still members of our family, are still
not elevated above that. I (Jen) have competing interests with my music
career as I have seen God open more doors for worship leading as a
singer/keyboardist in my church and my passion has been with songwriting
and refining my skills as a keyboardist, singer and cross-training in
guitar. I have been getting mentored by two very talented musicians as
well as my worship lead at church and really believe that this is where
my focus needs to turn to at this point in my life. Our breeding program
was growing too big and I didn't want to compromise in excellence in
either area of focus between dogs or music, so something had to give.
The higher calling in my life has been to the music which also frees up
more family time for us so that we can travel to go see our adult
children who live so far away from home and possibly future
grandchildren (no, not yet). It has been a true joy to breed Havana Silk
Dogs, but it is not my whole life. I pray that the puppies we have
produced will continue to bring much joy into the future lives of those
whom they touch.
God bless all of you for watching our program and for being involved
in our lives and the lives of our puppies.
If you want to see where Jen's music career leads as a songwriter,
you can follow the Indieheaven link at he bottom of this page... or as
soon as I get it up and running, my new music page at
www.sustainmusic.com (again, this page is not up and running
just yet). This current silk dog website will remain up for another year
and then may go offline.
"Not that I have already obtained all this,
or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that
for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider
myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what
is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal
to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ
Jesus." (Philippians 3:12-13, NIV)
Sincerely,
Jen & Craig Haugland
Hurricane Ridge Havana Silks
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