Born: 7.2.1999 in Texas, USA

Teal'c, here in Finland often called 'Tilkku' - appropriately 'Patch' - won my heart when I visited Francie in the spring of '00 at Silkenfest. He was a 1 year and 2 months old strikingly coloured black and white boy in the pet pen due to his large size, but as he started to catch my attention with his sweet disposition and some nice qualities in structure I started thinking that I would like to be sure about his height before disregarding him from stud purposes. I was primarily looking for a pet dog for myself, so size didn't matter too much, but since the silken population in Europe was and still is scarse, especially with males, it would have been good if the one I chose would be suitable for breeding also. So when I found that Lucille had brought an official measure with her to the Silkenfest we took Teal'c and measured him - twice - and found that he actually was 1/4 inch, less than a centimeter, below the absolute top height in the standard! So he was a big boy, but not too big, and if we kept his size in mind when breeding it would probably not pose a big problem. 

He was very interested in me from the start and followed me around the two weeks I spent with Francie and Chuck at Kristull Ranch, so what else could I do but take him with me to cold Finland! He did not travel alone, to get some lines into the previously very unrelated silkens in Europe I also brought with me a sister and a half-sister to Teal'c, girls Siru (Kristull The Surprice) and Ali (Kristull Alyssa) which both went to live in Kirkkonummi. 

Teal'c is the youngest in our pack, so he still has that childish streak in him. He seems to be in a good mood all the time, and he's always ready for playing when other boys feel like it. He's happy to see other dogs and cannot truly understand why anyone would be mad and bark at him when he only wants to be friends. He sees that he gets his fare share of hugs, and he's the one who keeps track of anyone two-legged eating anything ;-) He's gotten pretty good at full-body wrestling with Nipsu, he even wins occasionally, and Nipsu has to think his strategy all over again. Especially Nipsu and Teal's spend a lot of time together and they often take their naps in bed or couch together, but Omppu is in the picture quite a lot, too, so no-one is fortunately being neglected. 

Despite me having three young male dogs at home we never have dominance problems. None of the boys is very dominant so they simply aren't interested in making a point to others unless there is something they feel strongly about, and there is not a single thing of which two of them would feel strongly about, so no arguments ever go very further than the beginning. I do feel lucky having these three dogs ;-)

In addition to his disposition Teal'c has some very nice qualities like nice angulation, correct ear carriage, beautiful tail and tail carriage, excellent bite with excellent wide lower jaw, a nice rib cage, and a very decent front. To my own taste he has a bit too long body and a bit too much angulation in the rear, but I'm a friend of modesty in borzois also, and he's well within the standard so I have no real objections to that, just a matter of taste. He does have two small flaws, the highest point of the back a bit too steep (very common in borzoi) and a bit too light eyes for his black coat, but those are not problems in any other European silkens, and he seems not to have passed them on to his offspring in US so far, so we just have to keep that in mind when we evaluate his future offspring for breeding. And I have to say that since he has matured a bit (he's 2 years and 1 month when I write this in March '01) he has gotten more substance and balance, so I'm looking forward to seeing him at 3-4 years old when he's fully matured, he may well be striking then. He surely has the mental presence for it, he truly is one of those dogs that you remember meeting.

He is a true courser: fast, agile and enthusiastic. He got lure coursing at once and even the first track practise went like he had been doing it for years. At lure coursing he completely turns off his other senses, the lure is all he sees and hears and thinks of. But immediately after we leave the field he's back to his normal sweet self. Due to my absent-mindedness we only managed to go to track practises twice last summer ('00), so we only got one time for him: 480 meters at 34.43 sec. Not too bad first try without any training or preparation, with that time he would not be ashamed among finnish whippets and he would have given a stiff competition to best finnish  salukis and borzoi! We will continue next summer, and we'll see if we can improve it a bit.

Too bad silkens cannot compete officially in Finland, they sure have the talent for it. Maybe some day.

Teal'c currently has 2 beautiful daughters in US, one with Francie (Kristull Gimlet) and one with Dee (Kristull  Gaelic  of  Lagniappe), and we are planning on maybe breeding him to Lizzie in Sweden in 2004, they should compliment each others nicely, especially the colors should be exquisite. He will also be bred here in Finland, either in fall 2003 or spring 2004 to SBIS Kristull Rhianna, a self-red female with a hint of black mask.

In August 2002 SuSVK held the first annual silken specialty show in Europe, where Teal'c went BOB/SBIS and got the first european title of SuSVK-Winner 2002! At 3,5 years of age he is a gorgeous boy, and a real personality.