Hello!! We are Barry and Diane Ykelenstam, breeders of top quality CKC Registered Miniature Schnauzers, bred first and foremost to be healthy loving companions that can adapt to the lifestyle of your family. We live in a beautiful rural setting in Prince Edward Island, Canada. We for the most part breed salt and pepper and black and silver minis, while occasionally having some solid black pups and some solid white pups as well. All our dogs and puppies are born and raised in our home and live as valued family members. They are raised on the main floor of our large rancher, in the center of home life activity, with utmost attention paid to their mental as well as physical socialization. We do not have kennels and runs that they are imprisoned in, away from family life. Minis are a truly social breed that should never be raised in a kennel environment, as they need and thrive on loving human interaction. Proper socialization with people and everyday household activities cannot take place while living in a kennel environment. Mini schnauzers thrive with the companionship and the love of their owners, and just need to be with their family as much as possible. They truly need to be a valued and treasured family member.

All of our minis that we are owned and loved by, live every day life in the house, our home = their home. We have a very large fenced in grassy back yard complete with a huge shade tree, oodles of various safe and fun toys, always a fresh supply of cool water, and plenty of room for all to run and play in a safe supervised environment! When they are tired of so much fun, we can all be found lounging happily and lazily on the deck. Our minis are also walked regularly in the surrounding fields and all through the huge conservation woodlot adjacent to our country home, which is full of walking trails, streams, wooden foot bridges, etc., the joy of nature at its best! To see some pictures of our home environment, click Here

2007 was and always will be a very special year for us, as that was the year that we decided we would no longer dock any puppies' tails, unless there was a genuine medical need. We have never cruelly cropped ears for so many obvious reasons, and now we happily added tails to our list of puppy body parts that we chose to keep intact as nature intended. We had been working towards this goal for several years, and even when we started, more than half our owners were freely choosing to keep their puppies' tails natural as they were meant to be. That made us so proud, to see that people actually took the time to weigh the considerations, and for the most part the pup's health and welfare won out over the *norm* of what, up to then, was expected for the breed in this country. In the years leading up to 2007, we had many complete litters in which all tails were kept natural, and the more that people saw and realized what we were doing and why, the more people we found that simply refused to have their puppies' tails docked. That is what had prompted us to decide to remove any choice about it, regarding our future puppies welfare. We no longer dock puppies' beautiful healthy tails for others' selfish cosmetic reasons.

This is a tremendous accomplishment for us, and we are proud to be able to say that we are truly responsible and ethical breeders, true leaders in promoting what is proven medically best for this breed.. for both ears and tails to remain intact as nature intended! We can proudly boast that as of this writing, we are (as far as we know) the first and only breeder of Mini Schnauzers in Canada, perhaps even in all of North America, that now refuse to crop ears or dock tails on any puppies (unless there is a genuine medical need to dock a tail which we have as yet never seen). We refuse to inflict needless barbaric rituals on this wonderful breed as others do, who do it in the name of what has been the norm, or to conform to a show standard written by, of course, show people.

Traditionally, people have used the excuse that tails can get injured and require surgery to fix later in life. Statistically it is rare and a ridiculous excuse. After all, women now have a rising incidence of breast cancer in the general population, so perhaps we should all have our breasts removed at birth, as a preventative measure, *just in case* we might get breast cancer someday. That statement is no more ludicrous than a statement saying that we should dock all puppies tails at birth, *just in case* one or two of those puppies might grow up to have their tail get damaged and need to be surgically fixed or docked at a later date. We as consciencious caring breeders prefer to do the only possible right thing by this wondrous breed, so we breed by and live by the original standard for the breed, from their country of origin (Germany), which is the FCI standard for the Miniature Schnauzer.

We have 6 miniature schnauzers in our special extended family that we are owned and loved by, Remi, Kamara, Phoenix, Xaria, Rumour, and Diva. Although Zipper resides with our daughter, we still have exclusive breeding rights to him. To see some schnauzer pictures or read some very valuable information about the breed, socialization, training etc., click on the buttons below. On the linked pages you will find tremendously valuable info about every aspect of life with this amazing breed, mini schnauzers. Hover over the links below to show subtopics included on each link.

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