French Bulldog Magazine May 2019

Interview with the owner of Energy House – Nikoleta Todorovic I tried not to change much of the wording as much of the feeling will be lost if I do. A wonderful story of perseverance, hardship and peace and success with her dogs as she settled down in Serbia. A wonderful story to read! Congratulations on sending Get Lucky to Altha Ferreira in South Africa. I am sure he will do you proud and we welcome you and your dogs into the country!. Also thank you to my friend Altha Ferreira for your hard work in making this possible for South Africa!

Nicoleta: "Living in a country that only grew smaller throughout the years as we, children of the 1970’s have been born in SFR of Yugoslavia, liverd through a couple of wars and ended up living in Serbia, only one of six republics that previously made Yugoslavia, the one thing one must notice and that one thing remained the same: People living here love dogs! From the German Sheppard breed that we’ve always had amazing, Dobermans, world’s best American Staffordshire terriers, Chihuahuas, to stunning Poodles, Rottweilers etc, we are definitely proven to be able to produce world class dogs in almost every breed you could think of. During the difficult nineties, a beautiful three year old Doberman came into our lives. He has been changing owners as the previous three couldn’t have kept him: one went to war, other couldn’t comprehend his possessive behavior and the third was just a foster home until the right person came along. That right person was my father. And the Dobbie with all the mood swings, left quite an impact on my personality and the way I see dogs.

Even though the dog wasn’t mine at all, he did love me and I loved him, but he was actually my brother’s and my brother was his, he had shown me what a purebred dog is and how noble both his personality and looks are. Before the Doberman, I have been bringing home cute puppies from the street ‘just to feed them and give them a bath’, and they always stayed and my family always loved them and cared for them until we find a better home for them with people that lived in houses with yards, rather then keeping them in a relatively small apartment. Every time a puppy leaves, my heart ached and I knew that sooner or later I was going to have a dog that is going to be a friend of mine for the rest of his life. Little did I know that a boy was growing very close to me with the very same desires, and little did I know that the same boy has an energy that will click with mine and that we will have a home of not one dog, but a whole bunch of them and that we’re going to be happy owning them and being owned by them.

Years later, that very boy became my husband and the name of our home is actually short of what we are and what our names begin with. N & G. Nikoleta and Goran. Energy. The first decision we had to make after buying our own house is which breed it’s going to be. Even I find it funny to remember that I didn’t want to have a frenchie. No. It was Goran’s idea and unwillingly, or not willingly enough, I said ok. The ok turned into an unbreakable connection with a brindle male we bought from Sirmiumkids kennel.

They lived near by and they were one of few French bulldog kennels in Serbia back then. I thank them forever for breeding and raising our first great love.

Interview with the owner of Energy House – Nikoleta Todorovic Our Quirinus was the copy of his father – CH Harley of Little Bombardier from Netherlands, so we called him Harley. He brought so much joy in our lives. He was the friend I wanted to have. He was a humanoid! We talked to each other, he knew everything. Even later, when other boys came to live with us, Harley knew it all. He was our number one. Nine years later, it was heartbreaking to see him off to his truly forever home where we will certainly meet again and he will rest his head on my hand once again.

However, Harley left us his legacy. His daughter Baby Beautiful was the only girl from the litter of three we got breeding Harley to Bety, a beautiful maskless fawn bitch with Hungarian ancestors. At that time, I must say, we did not know much about the importance of the pedigree in breeding purebred dogs. But we have been trying and we were lucky. We later bred Baby Beautiful to get Moondance Maya; Maya to get Talullah Maganda; Talullah to get Willow...each breeding was more advanced then the previous, and each daughter was more typical then her mother. As I said, at first we entered the fantastic world of French bulldogs falling in love with the outcome of somebody else’s breeding, not really understanding the way it’s all actually done. But we soon came to realize that there’s much more to it then just love. It takes a lot of learning, understanding, dedication and commitment to be able to imagine, set the goal and go for it by finding the right match for your bitch; a lot of good fortune too because not everything is what it seems and nothing promises to be exactly what you wish for.

Talullah Maganda made us bursting with pride with her show wins, but not because she was winning, but because she had things to show. She was the closest to what I had in mind when breeding her mother to her father: she is a nice black masked fawn, with a very nice pigmentation, she got enough bone from her father, a topline with not enough roach her mother has, got better in Talullah, her muscle tone is just right, rear moderately angulated, with a solid gait, yet she is small weighing only ten kilograms.

Looking at her, our Harley pops us before my eyes as he is the one everything started with. In the meantime, we’ve had some very nicely producing bitches, one of which is Cookie De Fortuna. Cookie gave us two litters and a beautiful daughter in each. The first actual Energy House’s litter, as it happened right after we managed to register the kennel with the FCI, was the litter C. Calypso, Coconut and Clara. Clara stayed. From her early puppy age, you could see she was something special. She got a lot from her mother, but what started to amuse me the most was the fact that she actually looked a lot like her grandmother from her father’s side – Opium Du Champagne.

Clara took us to a brand new journey. Her development has been teaching us new things. At the age of four months, Clara had a great body, but her head seemed too small and her underjaw too pronounced. At this point, I can’t remember how I felt about it.

Interview with the owner of Energy House – Nikoleta Todorovic I probably was very disappointed up to the point where our Clara’s head literally bloomed and became the most beautiful head we’ve had before. That was, and I can clearly remember that – at the age of exactly eight months, over the night! By the time we have started breeding, internet was already up and running, social networking too (year 2007) and made literally everything so much easier. I can only imagine how everything was before: no direct networking as people only had analog phone lines and if you wanted to arrange something such as using somebody else’s stud or buying a puppy, you had to plan way ahead. All the information you wanted to get had to travel by post for weeks, or months. It’s like comparing a digital photography to an old school dark chamber developed.

Therefore, I salute the enthusiasm of breeders that were successful years before the digital era. Social networking brings people with similar interests together and that is a fantastic thing! That is how our Clara ended up with Edmondo French Bulldogs in South Africa. I remember clearly that a very nice lady contacted me and told me how much she liked our girl. If I am to tell the whole story Altha Antoniades and myself have, I don’t know if anybody would believe it anyway, so I will just say that Clara mediated a wonderful friendship and, in a way, connected people from two continents. Clara is a Junior Champion of Serbia, Champion of South Africa and she’s doing well showing in veteran class in SA. Passion Flower of Energy House is another daughter of our Cookie. Interesting fact about her is that she was a replacement puppy because one that Passion Flower’s owner previously bought from us had to be placed in a pet home, so we gladly sent another.

That replacement puppy had become Canadian Champion and Canadian Grand Champion, and during her reproductive life, she had produced couple of Champions too! In 2010, in Moscow, Russia, two dog puppies have been born for us. In April it was Gardemarin Dlya Palevyh Buldogov and in July it was our next big love Nelson Olivier iz Palevyh Buldogov. Under amazing circumstances and as a fruit of an accidental relationship, those two dogs came to us later that year. Gardemarin black masked fawn, and Nelson – brindle. Today, nine years afterwards, I am really happy to say that both of them have contributed and left trace in the pedigrees of winning dogs from this part of the world. It’s a nice feeling to know that we made it possible. Both of them were stunning and both of them were catching the eye of anybody who has ever seen them, but one lived with us, and the other with someone else (it’s always good to have partners). Junior Champion, multiple adult Champion, International Champion Nelson Olivier iz Palevyh Buldogov has been deserving every single show win he had ever had. From the moment he first entered our home until this very moment when his nine year old close to perfect body is resting in his bed always very close to me, he has been acting and looking like the King of all Dogs! He has been winning shows and hearts of those around the ring, including mine.

Every time. Because at home, he was a buddy.

Interview with the owner of Energy House – Nikoleta Todorovic A frenchie always eager to play and cuddle, so smart that he always knew how to show me if something was wrong, or how happy he is, or how much he had missed me if I went away for a day or two. And inside the ring, always handled by Goran, he was heartbreakingly beautiful! Gaiting so effortlessly, showing off his wonderfully built body and a perfect head and expression with big, dark, round eyes and beautifully set ears, he was always so stunning! And I am forever thankful to his breeders and to those amazing circumstances that brought him our way. It feels so good to have such dog, but when it happens at the very beginning of one’s breeding and showing career, owning a dog that’s indeed close to perfect, sets your criteria very high and gives you an extremely hard homework.

Because no matter how great everything is in a dog you produce, you will always have that tingling feeling that what ever you do, you just can’t repeat that perfect one you have had. That X factor that you can’t define, you just know it’s there because it sparkles when ever he sets a foot to the ground. Nelson had produced some really nice offspring: South African CH Opportunity of Energy House, Philippine CH Laurence Olivier of Energy House, Hungarian CH La Boheme Olivier of Energy House and more puppies with other breeders that later grew to be champions and parents of champions. At the point where we already had Nelson having puppies with our bitches, Altha of Edmondo Frenchies is already considered a friend of the family and all she had to do is to express a wish for another baby from us. Opportunity of Energy House is a daughter of Nelson Olivier iz Palevyh Buldogov and, again an interesting fact, Prada iz Palevyh Buldogov. Prada was obviously from the same kennel as Nelson and was born right in the next litter after Nelson was born. In the meantime, frenchie fever had infected many people in Serbia, and as our people are doing exactly what they want, and when they want something, the obstacles are getting erased in a blink of an eye. And that is good!

Because that determination brought new dogs in the country from all over the world. Wonderful dogs and wonderful pedigrees!

We ourselves imported two new stud dogs from Russian A’Vigdors kennel and Novizala kennel from Brazil, as well as, what later turned out to be, a wonderfully producing bitch, also from Novizala. All of them very interesting for further work in breeding these lines and making combinations of what became very available in the neighborhood, same as our dogs are available for interested fellow breeders.

One of the dogs that came to Serbia and is not a dog that we imported is A’Vigdors Platone. It’s been interesting seeing how a very bold inbreeding produced dogs whose offspring is very pleasing for an eye. Using Platone to Rosa Negra from Novizala gave us two beautiful puppies: Lady Luck Juethalma of Energy House and Lazarus Edmondo of Energy House.

Interview with the owner of Energy House – Nikoleta Todorovic The puppy bitch is already successfully showing in Spain and Portugal and, of course – Lazarus Edmondo is in South Africa with Edmondo team already showing too, with very nice results so far and by looking at his pictures now, at the age of seven or eight months, and remembering very well what it felt like to hold him and feel his puppy substance and bone structure, I’m predicting that he’s going to grow up to be an extraordinary French bulldog with so much to offer to the breed. In the meantime, as I already mentioned, we have imported some dogs and, appreciating other breeder’s work, we have shown those dogs and one of them – A’Vigdors Serafino achieved exquisite results obtaining championships in many European countries, some of which are Croatia, Lithuania, Russia, Bulgaria, Belarus, Slovakia etc…One of his wins is actually judged by a specialist from South Africa, Mr Martin Croeser! We keep a wonderful rosette Mr Croeser brought to the show as a gift to BOB winner in a special place. A dog from Brazil – Novizala Zico at Energy House we have also bought and brought home from Brazil was never enjoying showing himself, still he has a Junior Championship and an adult Championship but he had produced some really extraordinary puppies in our kennel as well as in the kennels of breeders that choose him as a stud for their bitches.

Parallel with everything else that we’ve been doing, we have also been developing our own bloodline. That is where our JCH CH Get Lucky of Energy House comes from! Being in love with some features of certain dogs from his pedigree, many years ago we have tried to base our breeding on those very dogs and we failed. Then, the opportunity arose and we bought a beautiful little bitch from our dear friends in Slovenia – Olga and Janez Kojek from Grand A’Ne frenchies. Grand A’Ne Frenkie for Energy House has a pedigree that contains what we needed to try again. After she came, we kept a dog puppy – Yves Montand of Energy House from a completely outcrossed litter. What we got in Ricky (Yves, Get Lucky’s father) was something we wanted to use on! Ricky has extraordinarily good rear angulation, enough of a roach back, nice, elegant but still very strong neck, wonderful chest and straight front legs.

What’s really important, Ricky was always able to breathe with his mouth closed even while playing and running, always moving very effortlessly. Health tests that have been ran on Ricky were all very complementary too and so Get Lucky and his five siblings were born healthy and each of them is having a wonderful life in their new homes, with their satisfied owners. Get Lucky of Energy House is the closest to what we had in mind breeding his parents: he does carry the features of his ancestors – thick bones, with a very nice front; a massive bulldog head and, as a breeder judge once commented – a bite so nice that she couldn’t remember what was the last time she saw such line of teeth. Health tests he had had are very satisfying too and I am proud to say that he also produces very nicely as we already have two litter of his puppies. As his breeder, I am very happy to share this boy with my dear friend Altha Ferreira of Edmondo Frenchies and I can only wish them the best of luck and many happy and healthy years together"

From the editor Another great issue of French Bulldog Magazine.

Big congratulations to Altha Ferreira on importing Get lucky to South Africa. He is expected soon.

Read more about his breeder Nikoleta elsewhere in this magazine Thanks to everyone who is supporting this magazine by paying the publication fee. The cost is only $10 per ad.

Enjoy reading your favorite french bulldog magazine!

Theo

Co-owners: Altha Ferreira & Nikoleta Todorovic

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