One test of whether you're talking to a good breeder is to ask whether she has a lifetime take-back policy. A good breeder feels responsible for the lives she has produced, period. If at the age of 5 or or 10, your dog cannot stay with you, your breeder should be willing to take him back, or at least help you find another home for him.
Chippy was clearly one of the best puppies in Candy's first litter by Ch Bohem Just in Time, but we wondered whether she might be too "quiet." When you choose a female for breeding, you want her to have a "whippety" personality, and our ideal whippet is outgoing, fearless, and...well, sparkling.
Every night after our puppies reach five or six weeks, we take one pup into the living room for individual attention while we watch a movie. Typically, they fly around the room for awhile, cause a great deal of trouble for something weighing less than five pounds, and then climb up into a lap for a nap. Not Chippy.
She would settle herself into a corner dog bed and simply watch the goings on. We thought she was a little shy, but maybe I just hadn't given her enough attention. I really wanted to keep her.
So we took the litter to Dr. Barbara Henderson, of Whippoorwill Whippets for her evaluation (Barbara owned this litter's maternal grandfather, Ch Peperone Power Ranger.) She agreed. Chippy was one of the top two or three "show prospects." Finally I decided to take a chance and keep her, knowing that if her temperament didn't turn out to be typical of a whippet, we'd end up placing her later and breaking my heart!
As it turned out, we had Chippy figured all wrong. She wasn't shy. She was observing and plotting! Chippy went through puppyhood full tilt and by about seven months old, decided she was grown up. She is funny and very, very smart, but not inclined to play with dogs she doesn't know. Not even puppies. She just looks at them disdainfully when they make overtures, as if saying, "Oh, grow up!"
When it comes to dog shows, Chippy is a carbon copy of her great-grandmother Ivy. It's her job and she takes it seriously. She enjoys the shows, but is all business once she gets in the ring. She was the easiest of all our whippets to train to show, and when we sent her out to the shows with Amanda Giles of Sporting Fields Whippets, Amanda commented that Chippy was one of the easiest dogs to show she had ever know. Chippy takes her job seriously!
Chippy has been shown sparingly in AKC conformation shows, and has five points. She has also been lure coursing once and has one leg of her AKC JC title. She enjoys lure coursing and we look forward to seeing her race with other dogs when she gets back on the coursing field.
Chippy and Blue gave us a litter of nine puppies May 15, 2010. View more about the puppies.
Chippy and Devon were bred in April of 2011 and may be expecting puppies in June.
Chippy
