ABOUT
HAVANA
PASSIONATE ABOUT DOGS
AND EDUCATING OWNERS
About Our Team
Havana is a group of trainers passionate about training dogs and educating owners. Our hope is not only to be a training facility, but also a community and resource to you. Good canine trainers are hard to find, but trainers that provide effective owner education are vital to long term success. With over 40 years of combined experience in the education and training fields, we pride ourselves on helping owners develop clear communication with their dogs.
Our team has worked with over 1,500 dogs of all different breeds, sizes, and ages. We are consistently striving to learn more, as the best educators are forever students. Our trainers attend classes with their personal dogs, participate in online seminars, compete in dog sports, and mentor other trainers.
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Megan Wimer
Owner & Trainer
AKC CGC & Trick Dog Evaluator
Megan has been an animal lover since childhood. She grew up in 4-H showing horses and training her own dogs. Megan has her degree in education and was fortunate enough to have some wonderful mentors come along side her and foster a passion for canine training. She started competing in agility with her Golden Retriever, Xena, and was immediately hooked. Her passion transitioned to a professional career in 2016, and Havana Dog Training was officially started in 2017.
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Megan continues to train and compete with her four dogs. Finnick (Golden - age 8) has his Trick Dog Advanced title and his Rally Excellent title. Cinder (Golden - age 6) has her National and International Championship conformation titles, as well as rally and trick dog titles. Xena (Golden - age 10) has multiple agility titles. Rogue (Malinois - age 1) is currently training to compete in mondioring. Megan strongly believes dog training methods are always evolving. Her love for learning drives her to continually attend a variety of classes, clubs, and seminars.
Aside from dog training, Megan enjoys being involved in her church and community, camping, hiking, reading, and spending time with her husband and four children: Iva (age 57, Eldon (age 5), Ander (age 4), and August (age 1). She also loves to travel and is an avid horse lover.
Megan knows what it is like to integrate dogs into busy households and families with small children. She is always happy to help give advice and help make you and your dog succeed. Whether your goal is to have a well behaved pet or to cultivate a performance canine, she looks forward to working with you, your family, and your dogs.
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Ali Du Chene
Trainer & Day Training Manager
From the Labrador Retrievers to the three family cats she grew up with, Ali has always been an avid animal lover. Her childhood passion carried into adulthood, and she knew she wanted to further her education in an animal-related field.
Ali has a bachelor’s degree in Animal Science and specializes in Companion Animal Behaviors. To get some real-world training, Ali started working as a kennel assistant, but she knew one of her goals was to be a canine trainer. She reached out to Havana Dog Training and started a mentorship to build upon her degree and gain more hands-on training experience. Since officially starting her career with Havana, Ali has been involved in a variety of services including group classes and day training.
Ali currently owns two dogs: Boog (Shepherd/Pyrenees mix) and Midge (French Bulldog). Boog was Ali's first dog and has motivated her to become an incredible trainer and learn how to manage dogs with anxiety. Since starting her career at Havana and entering the canine training field, Boog has made dramatic gains in his behavior. Ali loves to share her knowledge and experience with clients who are struggling with anxiety-ridden dogs.
Some of Ali’s hobbies include weight training, living a healthy lifestyle, traveling, hiking, reading and hanging out with her family and pets. She also loves to attend training classes to further her education in behavior modification and dog obedience. Ali has immersed herself into the training world and is always eager to learn more and ensure she is using the best methods possible for each individual dog. She looks forward to working with you and your dog!​
Hannah Steuck
Trainer
Hannah’s love for animals started in childhood, but despite her best efforts her parents wouldn’t let her get a dog. Her first pup finally came as a wedding present. From that moment on, Hannah immersed herself into the world of dog training.
Hannah was very committed to training her two dogs and attended multiple foundations classes, advanced classes, and rally obedience classes. After seeing success from these courses, she was asked to take on a mentorship program to learn more about training. Since 2018, Hannah has mentored with and worked for Havana Dog Training. She has instructed group classes, assisted in courses, led private lessons, and boarded dogs.
Apart of dog training, Hannah loves health and fitness, traveling, hiking, learning, and baking. Besides being a trainer, she is a stay at home mom with her two young children, Callan (age 2) and Enna (2 months).
Hannah currently has a German Shorthaired Pointer named Rev and knows how to handle dogs with lots of energy. She specializes in teaching dogs impulse control and the art of relaxation. Hannah’s mindset of “always be a student” allows her to keep growing in her knowledge of different techniques and skills in the canine world. She is excited to meet you and your dogs, and work together to make your canine a well behaved family pet.
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Susan Breamer
Trainer
AKC Trick Dog & CGC Evaluator
Susan’s love for dog training started with her first German Shepherd, whom she adopted at age one in 1998. The dog came to her in need of training, so she started reading every book she could get her hands on and attended multiple dog training classes. It didn’t take long and Susan was hooked. She quickly realized how much fun training could be!
Susan welcomed her first Golden Retriever in 2000 and started her competition journey in 2005; however, she credits her passion for competition to one of her other goldens, Filly, who passed away in 2020. Even though competition obedience is her main focus, Susan has competed and trained in a variety of sports and activities including flyball, agility, fastcat, barn hunt, disc, dock diving, and pheasant hunting.
In her free time, you will catch Susan training one of her four Golden Retrievers. Tunes is her retired flyball dog. Tunes has titles in rally, obedience, agility, barn hunt, CAT, and FastCat. Pyro, who is now her husband’s hunting dog, has titles in obedience, rally, dock diving, barn hunt, CAT, and FastCat. Azeri is Susan’s current competition dog. Azeri has titles in rally and obedience. She also enjoys tricks, scentwork, and training to be a future hunting dog! Shuvee is Susan’s newest puppy in training. Shuvee has her CGC and trick titles, and is in training for competition obedience and rally, as well as hunting.
Aside from training dogs, Susan also enjoys listening to podcasts! Susan continues to further her education by attending training classes and private lessons in a variety of locations. She is always striving to improve her understanding of dogs’ needs and create better communication between owners and dogs. She values learning from people who do things differently, because there is always something new to learn! She loves to stay up to date on the newest training methods, which are always evolving.
Over the years, she has helped teach community education and 4-H dog classes. She joined Havana Dog Training in early 2023 and now teaches and assists with a variety of classes. Susan loves working with owners and helping them realize how great their dogs are and how much fun training can be!
Evelin Cuellar
Trainer & Groomer
Evelin found her passion for dogs after a switch in career paths. She started off as a dog handler in 2020 right after she got her first dog, Ayla, who was a brindle boxer. A few months later, she also became a bather and quickly learned there was a lot more to dogs than she previously knew. Eager to learn more, she went to school in Hastings, Minnesota at Rio Grooming and completed their grooming program. Evelin also started learning more about the training world by taking classes with Ayla at Havana Dog Training.
After Ayla passed away, Evelin found Maze, who was a completely different dog. Evelin worked hard with Maze and really developed as a trainer. She took multiple classes with Havana including Basic Manners, Advanced Manners, and sports classes. As she continued to learn, she was offered a job to come on board and learn even more about training. Since then she has enjoyed being able to spend more time watching how dogs interact with each other and learning more about canine behavior. Evelin currently helps facilitate group classes and trains dogs that attend day training.
Evelin owns two dogs: Maze (Boxer) and Trent (Springer Spaniel). Evelin just completed her Trick Dog Novice title with Maze, and Trent is a new addition to her home! She’s currently working hard with him on all the basics, and she hopes to do lots of fun things with him down the line.
Evelin loves to stay busy! In addition to grooming and training dogs, she also enjoys being a cheer coach for an Allstar competition team known as The Freeze (Owatonna Cheer). Evelin loves to travel when she can! Evelin enjoys continuing her education by attending a variety of in-person classes, dog events, and online classes. She looks forward to seeing your dogs each day and helping your pups thrive!
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Jurnee Wilson
Trainer
Jurnee fell in love with dogs through the unique companionship that only dogs can give. Growing up, she had a few family dogs, but one that really stood out was a pitbull named Koda. When they adopted Koda through an animal shelter, he was initially in pretty rough shape. He was the sweetest dog and taught Jurnee a lot about life; just because you might not have the best start doesn’t mean you can’t have a wonderful finish. She appreciates how dogs see each day as a new day, even when they have a bad day prior. Their unconditional love is unlike anything else.
Aside from family dogs growing up, Jurnee acquired her first dog in 2021 - a standard poodle named Murphy. Shortly after getting Murp, Jurnee started taking private lessons at Havana. She really clicked with the community and started taking multiple classes and sending Murphy to day training. As she watched Murphy improve and make progress, she decided this was something she really enjoyed and started to pursue dog training as a career. Since then, Jurnee has been working part time at Havana, where she continues to learn and grow each day!
In her free time, Jurnee enjoys being outside! She loves camping, walking, and kayaking. Two fun facts about her are that she moved to Owatonna from northern Minnesota and she likes cats! In addition to being outdoors, Jurnee enjoys reading, spending time with Murph, and hanging out with friends and family.
Jurnee understands that every dog and every situation is different. Because she understands the struggle of having a dog that might not conform to the “standard,” Jurnee is excellent at problem solving and thinking outside of the box. She loves seeing the positive changes and growth in each dog’s personality and abilities. She looks forward to training your canine companions, so that you can spend more time enjoying the moments with your dogs and less time worrying about behavior.