Kelso Street Savvy
Savvy is the dog I've always wanted. She is extremely driven with lots of fight drive, social and stable, great with kids, dogs and cats. She is easy to train with inducive methods, working equally well for food or toys. She also reacts well to compulsion, neither unwilling nor over-sensitive.
She tracks calmly and intensely with lots of drive for the work. Her obedience is naturally animated and flashy, and very easy to train. She is safe and stable socially, but territorially aggressive and very comfortable showing aggression when actively threatened. She has good natural grips in the protection. I don't know what more a person could ask for. (Maybe ears that stand straight?)
Savvy is a result of the first litter I bred. I co-own her with my friend, Kathy Donahue. Her mother, Brandy, was a very drivey, energetic, French-type female and her father the 1999 USA National Champion, Lestat du Chenil Victoire. This breeding had already been done in 1998, and I was so impressed with the quality of the puppies that I bought Brandy and repeated the breeding, with the goal of getting a bitch to work.
Like most plans, mine did not go exactly as I had hoped. I ended up not liking the female I kept and placed her as a pet. I had given Savvy to my friend, Kathy, as a pet, because she had injured her leg at four weeks, and I was reluctant to sell her to anyone as a working dog. As she matured, her early injury seemed not to bother her at all, and she developed into exactly the dog I had been hoping to keep for myself.
I saw Savvy periodically and talked to Kathy on the phone about her training. I was able to take her on a couple of occasions for training and fell in love with her. After two one-month trainings, I did Savvy's BH. She looked great with just that little bit of training.
The next year, I took her with me to Germany to breed to A'Desert der Sonne Entgegen. I thought I would have time to put the SchH1 on her, too. But, like many plans... Savvy came into heat the week I arrived in Germany and I bred her and sent her back to Kathy. So I didn't manage to put the SchH1 on her, but she so impressed the people I trained with in Germany, that I ended up selling most of the puppies from her litter to Germans.
I kept a female from the breeding, Kelso Street Ruby. Mike Baker also has a female from the litter. The remaining puppies are in Germany.
I may breed Savvy one more time. For right now, I'm thinking of Feist du Loups du Soleil. I recently bred Marco to G'Karma du Loups du Soleil, which is a very similiar breeding. So far, the puppies look great and I am encouraged to do the Savvy X Feist combination.
