About Us

James & Diane Hopkins, Port Rowan, Ontario N0E 1M0

My husband, James and I have owned dogs all of our lives, and received our first show dog as a wedding present – CH Limberlost Cousteau, a male Great Pyrenees. Over the years we always had purebred dogs that we sometimes showed, but it was about 25 years ago that we got our first Labrador. In October of 2002 our first true performance dog, Tanner joined our family. She was known as OTCH Sugarplum Tanner, Am CD, WCX, JH. She earned her CD at just under 9 months. She attained three titles – her CDX, WC and JH titles in 2006. She completed her Working Certificate Excellent title in 2007.  In 2008 she completed her OTCH (Obedience Trial Champion) title in only 10 trials and passed one Senior Hunter test in the fall of  2008.  She suffered a shoulder injury that winter and retired.  She passed in October of 2013.

The pup we kept from Tanner’s first litter, CH GMH Tannerforge Braveheart CD RA WCX (William) (2005-2017), earned his Working Certificate title at 12 months and his Junior Hunter and WCI in 2007 and his WCX in 2008.  His sire was Can & Bda Ch. & MOTCH Pinebank Phantom of the Night, RE WCX MH Am RE, Am UD

He was owned by Susie Bell. Phantom was a great dog with a wonderful sense of humour and lots of personality. He completed his Master Hunter title and his Obedience Trial Champion title in 2007 and his Master Obedience Trial Champion title in 2008, and is exclusively owner trained and handled. Phantom was #8 All Breed Obedience, #5 Sporting Group in 2008.

Chili CD WCX SH (2008-2019), was the pup we kept from this repeat breeding had her first performance title – WC 16 days after turning 6 months old!   Susie Bell, Phantom’s owner and trainer took a puppy from that litter named Nacho and his bio can be found on our website here.

We presently have two pups sired by GCH Jaunenoir’s Da Last Chance WC (Dallas) and Jaunenoir’s Misty River WC (Misty).  They were bred by our good friends Rod Prosser and Heather Dobson.  Their kennel website can be found here – Jaunenoir Registered Labradors.

We trained Dallas to his WC title in August of 2021.

We feed TLC dog food – the company is located in Southern Ontario.

We do all of our own training and handling for obedience and hunt tests.  James trains professionally using positive reinforcement training techniques.

All our dogs live in the house.  All puppies are raised inside, first in our training room and then in the kitchen. All client dogs reside in the house as well.

Please feel free to contact us if you are interested in any of our services or our puppies at tannerforge@gmail.com.

We are located near Long Point, Ontario, Canada.

• Labrador Owners Club members since 2004
• CKC members since 2004
• Secretary – Labrador Retriever Club of Canada 2015-2017 and members
• Vice President –Labrador Owners Club – Diane 2013
• Treasurer – SWORTC 2013 – present – Diane
• Hunt Test Chair – LOC Hunt Test 2012 –  Diane
• Secretary for the LOC Canadian National Master Committee in 2012 – Diane
• Co-chaired and chaired the SWORTC Hunt Test for 4 years – Diane
• President of the SWORTC club 2009-2012 – James
• Past CKC Hunt Test and Working Certificate judge – James

See this old video of some Champion/field trial dogs that had been imported from England showing what the retrieving game is all about – International Field Trial Ch Bancory Varnish of Wingan and Ch Timbertown Clansman – you see the dogs at about 4 minutes in.

Say no to silver Labradors