Breeding Program
Current Plans
Sprite pups are excelling in a variety of dog sports, including schutzhund, ringsport, agility, tracking, obedience, herding, sledding, and dock diving!
The Sprite "M" litter of Annika x Kaleb is planned for Spring 2012.
"Annika" - Sprite's Full of Grace SchH3 HRD - Annika is a cheerful, affectionate female with a stable temperament and an excellent outlook on the world. She plays well with both people and dogs. Annika is extremely persistent about pursuing affection from friends and family members. While occasionally suspicious of strangers she warms up quickly and continues to interact appropriately.
Annika is well focused during work and shows eagerness to please. She has no environmental issues, showing confidence under a range of environmental stressors and unusual circumstances. Annika has natural grace in jumping with excellent body control. She is both food and toy motivated. She is responsive to her trainer's commands, and responds well to both physical and verbal corrections. She is a "medium-hard" female who is easy to work in all three phases of schuthzund.
As a protection dog she strikes hard, bites full, and handles the control portions of the work very well. She earned a "V" rated score of 97 with pronounced courage in her first trial. She is comfortable working on new helpers and on strange fields.
Annika's stability and overall quality make her an excellent beginner or experienced person's dog. With a novice handler, she has earned her SchH3 title and is also working as a historical human remains detection dog.
Annika's positive qualities are deeply rooted in her pedigree. Her dam is Cisu, a highly competitive dog in both AKC and schutzhund competitions. Her sire is the French Ringsport dog Rudy; a frequent competitor at the prestigious Selectives trials and a working champion in France. For many generations, Annika's pedigree represents the best in the Malinois and Tervuren working dog.
Annicka is OFA Excellent, normal elbows and thyroid.
"Kaleb" - Sprite's Knick Knack at Fanfare IPO2 VPG2 - Kaleb is a wonderful dog on many levels. In addition to being a competitive schutzhund dog, he is a kind and stable dog; a pleasure to all who have a chance to interact with him. Kaleb shows many of the best qualities of both of his parents; excellent energy and drives for work, yet calm and easily managed in life. He has focus, trainability, intelligence, athleticism, high play drive, courage and sociability. He is clear headed and easy to handle. Kaleb is not aggressive towards animals or humans. His bite is hard and full for schutzhund and he shows excellent speed and confidence in his work. Kaleb is also a very handsome young dog, with a lovely, masculine expression and an athletic body. As a very nice bonus, his littermates and parents show similar qualities, suggesting that he will be likely to produce it in his offspring as well.
Kaleb was the highest scoring protection dog at 2011 AWDF national championships at two years of age; an amazing accomplishment. His littermates include Gracie and Kira; both girls consistently score in the 199 range in AKC obedience at only 2 years of age. In addition he is the brother of Kaptain, a certified SAR dog in Canada. Kaleb and his littermates represent Sprite dogs at their finest; highly driven, easy to work and train, and a pleasure to live with.
Kaleb is OFA Excellent, normal elbows and CERF clear.
In addition to strong parents, this combination brings many of the best Sprite dogs together. This is a linebreeding on Tarkatan Cisu UDT, one of my own competition dogs currently working on her obedience trial championship. Cisu is the mother of Tilt; 2011 performance USDAA agility champion. She is the grandmother of Wings; 2009 USDAA national grand prix winner (the only non border collie to ever win this honor). Her half sister Ava won the large dog world championships in agility in 2004; an amazing feat. She is the dam of 11 puppies, more than half of whom have earned their schh3 titles with excellent scores. Cisu has proven that her offspring and her grandoffspring are stable, calm, focused working dogs. I’d expect a linebreeding on Cisu to produce dogs that are very strong and focused in work, yet calm and easy to live with in the house. Cisu herself is a SchH3 bitch with scores up to 292 in schutzhund and 199.5 in AKC obedience.
Temperamentally, you can expect these puppies to have more confidence, stability, activity, and prey drive than the average Tervuren bred from show lines.
The Sprite Breeding Program
If you are considering a Belgian Tervuren puppy, please consider that my breeding program focuses primarily on improving the performance qualities of the Belgian Tervuren rather than the physical show characteristics. However, these puppies should have sweet expressions, proper coats with rich color and dark overlay, and somewhat longer bodies than found in show Tervuren you may have seen. I expect excellent construction (angulation, shoulder, neck).
Please read "About the Breed" for more information about what you should expect from a working line Belgian Tervuren. If you find that this temperament appeals to you, please contact me at 650-851-1757 or e-Mail: dfenzi@comcast.net.
Copyright ©1996-Sprite Belgians. All rights reserved. Photos copyright their respective artists.