Kensington Tibetan Terriers

26 May 2020

Luke and Moseley (one of Annabel’s brothers) paddle boarding in Massachusetts. They live in Northampton, MA.

I know that many of us scorn aspects of Facebook and some refuse to participate.  Myself?  I find that it’s a great way to reach out to folks who are interested in what I’m doing but may not know me personally.  I use Wagging Tales at Kensington as my more ‘intimate’ platform for sharing stories with Kensington peeps.  It’s a closed page, designed for members only.  And there’s the Kensington Tibetan Terriers page, where I post the comings and goings of my breeding program and everyone can stay informed.  And then, there’s my personal page, where my friends from all aspects of my life are joined and can learn of my more personal daily ‘comings and goings’ – but never any politics!

Annabel with Claire Coppola, taking Best of Breed on 11 October 2015.

There is a Tibetan Terrier group page on Facebook and for the last couple of months, we’ve been following The Misadventures of Annabel.  Annabel is a gorgeous example of our breed and her daddy, Michael (GRCHG RinChen’s Blazing Black Icon) was the #1 Tibetan Terrier in the US in 2013.

I bred Annabel, because in 2013, Claire Coppola approached me and suggested the idea.  Claire had seen my lovely sable Coppi (CH Kensington’s Copper Goddess) in the show ring and it was time for Claire to find a gorgeous female and ‘prove’ her #1 US TT GRCHG RinChen’s Blazing Black Icon, Michael.  Claire wanted to know whether I’d consider using him as a stud dog, as he wasn’t yet ‘proven’ and it took me very little time to say, yes, as he’d already caught my eye in the show ring.  And frankly, I was being approached by the woman who bred the #1 2013 US TT.  Think about it.  ;>)

The lovely Miss Alice, with newly born Michael x Coppi puppies. 9 December 2013.

So, I bred Michael with Coppi and they produced five puppies, three of whom were sable.  Billie Jean was my pick, Whittaker was my mentor’s pick and Annabel was Claire’s pick.  Ironically, we all got what we wanted and that NEVER happens, without some negotiation.  That Michael x Coppi litter produced three AKC Champions, one Bronze Champion and made Coppi a Register Bitch of Merit in one litter.  Annabel was released as a puppy at ten weeks to go and live with Claire in New Jersey, earn her AKC CH title and then, she was bred.  In 2018, Annabel came back to me in Vermont and she re-joined her pack.  We loved having her live with us and I bred her twice, myself.  When it became time to retire her highness, I needed to find Annabel the most wonderful forever home that I could, so that Claire would feel good about the situation, too.

Annabel with Judi & Friends in her new forever home. May 2019.

Enter Judi Fisher of Panton, VT.  Judi came to visit us in Stowe with a friend of hers who was interested in a Kensington puppy and Judi wanted to ‘come along for the ride’.  Ironically, she fell in love with Annabel and when all was said and done, Claire gave us her blessing & Annabel happily moved in with Judi.

Then, came Covid-19.  And Judi’s blog on Facebook.  Annabel has an international following of folks who begin their days with Judi’s latest post and the cast of characters is amusing, while the content has me laughing out loud and regularly.  If you’re unfamiliar with Annabel’s trials and tribulations, you might like to watch the clip via the link below:

https://www.wcax.com/content/news/Tibetan-terrier-finds-fame-on-blog-570751441.html?fbclid=IwAR00BNsY-EG9Fo7re-1pjcibVZOVwelwH878AbQeFi_-PngaIlrSqrF1ADY

Whittaker, Annabel’s brother, watching his grandson at Westminster. February, 2019.

Judi’s made Annabel famous!  Tonight, I will watch the clip on the big tv in the living room with Billie (Annabel’s sister and one of my Westminster competitors), Koko (Annabel’s cousin), Piccolo (Annabel’s niece) and Piper, Annabel’s half sister by a different mum – but the same daddy: GRCHG RinChen’s Blazing Black Icon.  Kensington dogs love to watch television, especially Koko and Billie Jean.  Well, Whittaker, too.  And some of them sing, while others yodel.

I hope you enjoy the story.  It’s a charmer.

Yours truly!

WB.

9 January 2020

(Can’t believe that I actually typed the correct year: 2020.    Perhaps I am more rested than I’ve been in years past?)

Billie Jean’s Top 20 rosette from 2016 graces the corner of our living room. To me? It looks like an evening gown that Grace Kelly would have worn. ;>)

Regardless, we have achieved the one goal I set for Kensington in 2019 and that is to have eclipsed Billie’s 2016 #14 National Breed placing.  Billie was our first US Top 20 Tibetan Terrier and she achieved the Bronze Grand Championship medal in 2017 before retiring.  She is our GRCHB Kensington’s 1st Dance with Michael and with Lady Cheryl’s Yogi?  They produced Questa.

Questa finished 2019 with a #6 National Breed placing and we couldn’t be more proud of him and his handler, Rebecca Bradley.  Questa was born on 8 February 2018 and he is GRCHB Kensington’s Questa o Quella?  He will be returning home after the Florida shows later this month to breed the lovely Ziva in March 2020.

Rebecca Bradley with GRCH Kensington’s Questa o Quella?. In the ring at Westminster, 11 February 2019.

Whoo freakin’ hoo!  Well done, Becky!  Well done, Questa!  and Well done, Wendy B!  We’re all very, very pleased by his national placing and tonight?  It will be time to celebrate with Miss Elizabeth up at Edson Hill.  Where is that Veuve?  ;>)

Meanwhile, we also have a plan for the hand off of Piccolo’s puppies on Thursday, 16 January.  We will arrive in Newton, Massachusetts at 11am for our Wellesley, Newton, Lexington and New York families at another Kensington family’s house.  Then, once contracts are signed, puppies are kissed goodby and all questions are answered?  I’ll set off for Logan to meet a lovely lady (for the second time) and her daughter who are bringing Piccolo’s two female puppies into their home lives and flying back to Texas on Thursday afternoon.

Annabel with Judi & Friends in her new forever home. May 2019.

I swear, we have the most wonderful forever homes on the planet.  We are grateful for the trust and confidence each of our peeps place in us to breed and raise happy, healthy and smart TTs as future family members.  It is not all a bed of roses and I encourage everyone to lead a mindful ‘natural’ lifestyle – offer fresh veggies and fruits as treats to your doggies and keep the fat off the table.  Ditch the ferilizers and pesticides.  NO FEBREZE or SWIFFER!  Royal Canin is my choice for kibble – but I know there are other fine kibbles out there and Purina Pro Plan is a great alternative.

The Other End of the Leash is a great book to have on hand – read it and get a glimpse into your dog’s perspective.  Puppies for Dummies isn’t bad, either.  Remember, EVERYONE will have an opinion!  Use your head – be mindful and ask questions of your vet, your groomer and your breeder!

WB as May pole. Kensington play date in Newton, MA. Thank you, Justin & Regina! 4 May 2019,

Wagging Tales at Kensington is a private group on Facebook that we established recently, as Kensington peeps wanted a place where they could share experiences and ask questions.  Check it out.  It’s a great place to arrange to meet for play dates, especially in the Boston area.

Thank you for your interest in Kensington Tibetan Terriers and in my breeding program.  I take your confidence very seriously and hope that with every passing year, our TTs will just keep getting better and better.

Let’s make 2020 fabulous!

30 December 2019

Miss Paige, Yogi x Star 2019.  A delightful and precocious  female.  Splits her time between NYC and VT.

It has been a wonderful year for my little pack.  I have very much enjoyed this latest chapter chasing fifteen quadrupeds around my house and yard.  Huge thanks go to Jen & Andy for watching the babies, while I shower –  thank you to Lady Bernadette for loving me and all of us – and more huge thanks go to Lady Heike, without whose grooming we’d be a mess!  Our days are well organized and overnight snowfall makes what I’ve missed, go away.  How very pretty it is, in the morning!

We are a beautifully managed little operation, as long as I have my triple Nespresso with foamed milk in the am and my vino in the pm.  And there’s always a second Bosch washing machine, should anything prove to be a wicked big mess.  Oy.

Our lovely GRCH Piccolo and her five babies. 26 Nov 2019.

Most importantly to announce: we now have one very newly available male puppy named Dolce.  Please reach out to me, if you’d like to see a video of Dolce and the other puppies in his litter.  He is available because I have decided not to keep my Beckham-sired male out of Beckham x Koko, as Veronika Kucerkova of Erbosedition in Slovakia has bred a beautiful sable male for my next outcross in 2021 and Questa will be coming home soon.  That will give me two intact males in residence and that is full capacity.  We will bring the sable boy into the pack, come April 2020, and I have plenty of Beckham’s frozen semen for future breedings.  So, I have released Kensington’s Zapata to a very nice Massachusetts family and now, Dolce, their former Oskar x Piccolo puppy is available.

Normally, folks have to wait several or many months for a Kensington puppy . . .  but someone out there just might get lucky, if they make the cut and prove to be ready for a puppy, come mid January.  Dolce will be nine weeks old on 16 January 2020 and ready to leave us anytime during the MLK weekend.

Rudolf posing with the sleigh on the porch at Maple Street. Happy Holidays! Glad they’re over!

In the meantime, we are going to have a New Year’s Eve party to get Rudolf and his sleigh out of the garage and onto the front porch.  We missed Christmas and the Thanksgiving wreath remains on the front door – but there was no available time for decorating frivolity!  Puppies and their mums are always the most important thing around here and Rudolf can’t go anywhere on his own.  We might get really lucky and have Lily & Daisy in town to help with his rigging, as I don’t know the first thing about rigging a reindeer!  And their wonderful mum Lizzie donated Rudolf’s tack.  But if the girls aren’t here?  I’ll call Tom Sequist to the rescue.  He and his wife are equestrian pros and I know they will know how to hang Rudolf’s silver bells.  ;>)

BFF, A man and his dogs: RR, Freddie and Whitaker. June 2016

We wish everyone out there a healthy and rewarding New Year.  Please, act with heart and help us make the world a smaller place.  Tell the folks you love that you do!  And smile at a stranger.  Hold the door and help an elder.  ‘Tis the season and that should be the way we behave, year-round.

May 2020 bring you blessings and joy!

22 December 2019

Season’s Greetings to everyone!

Monsieur Moustache (Beckham x Ziva), in the front of the crate. Crate training begins at six weeks with a crate included in the X-pen setup.

It has been a terrific year for Kensington Tibetan Terriers and we are grateful for so many things: our FIRST Non Sporting Group 1 awarded by Judge Mrs. Cindy Meyer, several litters of healthy puppies born & raised, great new forever families who’ve been welcomed into the fold, our second Top 20 Breed finisher (like mother, like son), Grand Champion and Bronze Championship titles, Medals and Awards of Merit won and television performances at Westminster AND in The National Dog Show on Thanksgiving Day 2019.

We simply couldn’t ask for anything more.  We have snow outside – heat inside – smiles on our faces – and plenty of Stella & Chewy’s on hand.  ;>)

Kensington’s Questa o Quella’s sire Yogi in show coat – not to be confused with Erbosedition’s Yogi.  ;>)  July 2019.

And now, with the high holidays upon us?  We look forward to holiday dinner parties and the departure of Beckham x Koko and Beckham x Ziva’s last puppies.  I finally got my litters out of Beckham, Shadeacre Fast Love at Kensington.  And Kensington’s future will include breedings of my female and male pick Beckham-sired puppies to Yogi-sired Questa and Yogi-sired Piccolo.  We remain dedicated to the breeding & raising of healthy, happy and smart Tibetan Terrier puppies for the best forever homes who find us.

Applications for 2020 puppies are now closed.  We are holding plenty of applications with deposits and wanting to fill the wishes & wants of these forever families, before we open applications up again.  There are a number of applications that have not yet been returned and we will do our best to breed and raise puppies for those folks, too – but then?  We will next accept applications only for 2021-born puppies.

Oh, how our Kensington-bred sable Leo loves being the center of attention! With a bunch of 8 year old girls in Newton, MA.  2019.

It looks like I’ll be traveling to Slovakia in April 2020 to pick up an Erbosedition sable male puppy bred by my friend Veronika Kucerkova.  I am very excited about V’s latest litter, as the puppies are out of Waterley, Falamandus and Kashi bloodlines.  There are two sable males in her litter and I am letting Veronika select the one for Kensington.  We got to know one another in 2016, when my Billie (GRCHB Kensington’s 1st Dance with Michael) and her Yogi (Erbosedition) traded Best of Breed wins several times during the late fall.  Our dogs are similar in style and I will need another outcross in about two years.  Who better to breed our future boy than a gal who grooms, breeds & shows her own conformation Champions AND performs agility & rescue with them?

Happy Holidays, eh! Canadian Whittaker enjoying a moment with Santa. Whit is one of Billie and Annabel’s brothers. December 2018.

September 2020 will find Lady Cheryl and me traveling to France for the next Tibetan Terrier World Congress, just north of Paris.  I love France and ANY excuse will do to get me on a plane bound for the country I love.  I never tire of practicing my questionable French on the shop girls.  ;>)

So, Joyeaux Noel! and Bonne Annee! to all of you great people who keep me laughing, when the going gets tough.  And thank you for staying in touch and for sharing the great stories of life with your Kensington TTs.  Together, we are making the world a happier and smaller place.

Yours truly!

Wendyll Behrend, a Grand Champion in my own right.  ;>)