Les montagnes serbes sarplaninac

LES MONTAGNES SERBES

OD SRPSKIH PLANINA

ARRIVAL OF MEDA IN BELGIUM.

During the 1988 summer holidays, we went to Yougoslavia . We had promised at a belgian Lady- who had lost a dog of another breed- to try to find a Sarplaninac puppy and to come back with him.. At that time we had no puppies as Zoë was too old to be mated and Lola was too youg, she was only one year old. I also told her that I was not sure to come back with a puppy, and that in any case, to buy a puppy was a lottery.

When we arrived in Belgrade, we went to visit the kennel of Mr. Peca Gvozdenovic, breeder and judge of this breed. His kennel is located in Smederevo, a city near Belgrade. Smederevo is a fortified medieval city, built from 1428 to 1430 on the bank of the Danube by Despote Djuradj Brankovic and his wife Prokleta Jerina (Jerina "the damned"). This city had to be the last rampart to the turkisch invasions. In the Middle-Age the fall of Smederova marks the end of the Serbian State. The vestiges of the Smederovo fortress are still well preserved. The fortress has been damaged during the first World War and by bombing during World War.

We were impressed by the installations at the Peca's kennel, large cages with nice kennels, all well kept and communicating through an anteroom. From time to time the dogs were allowed to run in an orchard. There were two mature bitches, one in gestation from Ljubomir, and the other out of condition, Zora-Mora who was already the mother of very well-known dogs. There were still 3 young dogs of the same nest. Amor who won that year the J.M. class in Belgrade, then his brother and a sister. The three of them were strongly built, the bitch almost as tall as the males, they had very wide croups and were very hairy, they had a particular coat uniformly grey and dull, long bushy with too much curls on the hindhand. They were waddling when walking, they could have had stronger heads but they were still young and their faults were probably due to their young age.

The following kennel we have visited was the one of Mr. Mate Perakovic in Sremska Mitrovica. Sremska Mitrovica is situated in Srem, on the bord of the river Sava. This town was built by romans.

Mr. Mate Perakovic had already 30 years of breeding behind him and was also judge. It was a farm. There were plenty of animals, chicken and pigeons. Everything was filthy. No way to walk without boots, we had to manage our way through a pigsty to see the dogs. The Sarplaninci were all attached with chains, the older male at a tree, the others at a barn. There was Tarzan , winner of a CACIB in Belgrade
with 3 bitches and their puppies. A bitch with a very odd copper colour of another kennel was attached at a cart, another at the pigsty. A nice female was feeding her puppies on a dunghill. The puppies had to survive or to die, it was the reign of the natural selection.
Only a very young female and a young male had a kennel, the male was in the orchard.

A little bitch, a new acquisition, was walking around the house. The old stud Abu had a truck cabin without panes as shelter. In spite of the lack of cares, and the meagreness of some of the dogs, the quality of the dogs did please us. Tarzan was superb 75cm at the withers, strong a shiny dark grey coat. The old Abu was at least 78 cm at the withers, he had a very strong frame that he has been passing on to his descendance.

During our visit we chose a male with dark eyes for the belgian Lady.

Late in the afternoon Mate Perakovic drove us to the large prison of Sremska Mitrovica. There were about 80 Sarplaninci there we saw about 20 of them. The aim of the visit was to show us the male As Sirmijumski who was the father of several nests at Perakovic kennel as well as the father of the puppy we had just chosen. As was about 5 years old. He had all the characteristics of the Sirmijunski Kennel it is to say a sharp muzzle, a little long, a rich coat with long and ruffled hair and a nice colour. He was very aggressive behind the bars.

He has passed on his coat to his descendacne, as the coat with rather short hair was the characteristic of the Perakovic Kennel. The bitches were nearly smaller than the dogs. Then we left the Perakovic Family we had decided that my husband will go back later to fetch the puppy after our holidays at the seaside.

After the holidays I went back to work at the Hospital and my husband stayed longer in Belgrade. Before to come back to Belgium he went with my mother to Mitrovica to pick up the puppy. They were very surprized not to see the mothers and their puppies, only one puppy was walking around. The father told us that it was our puppy but the son told us that all the nests had been decimated by sickness. Nevertheless this puppy we named Meda.

Meda came to Belgium on a very warm day of August, and nobody did complain about the puppy. All I can say is that he was the son of As Sirmijumski as the puppy was looking like his father.

For the new owner Mrs. Suzy Tilmant it was a wonderful dog.

He became Multi-Champion with the Belgian, Luxemburg and French titles

He was even World Champion in Brussel at the age of 7. He was very impressive with his special coat and his strong legs. We were glad to have him not to far from us. Meda was used as stud because of his high morphological qualities and his H.D. perfect results. I used him twice, and he was the father of 11 puppies each time of which several became champions. Elsewhere in Belgium and in France he has given a high quality descendance.