Les montagnes serbes sarplaninac

LES MONTAGNES SERBES

OD SRPSKIH PLANINA

TRAVEL N°: IX – CONTINUATION

As I mentioned before, during our first trip in April 1990, we visited another two dog shows. The first one was in the town of Kragujevac.

Kragujevac is one of the largest towns in Serbia, the cultural and economic centre of the region of Sumadija, and it is located on the river Lepenica. In Kragujevac there is a university, theatre, museum and a library. Kragujevac is especially known for its car industry, the car factory Zastava is located there. The town is also known for other industries such as: agricultural machinery, radios, bicycles, leather, shoes, furniture, chemical and food industry (canned vegetables and fruit) etc.

The town was established in the XIVth century. Between the two world wars Kragujevac was the siege of progressive tendencies. Due to that reason, between the 20th and 23rd October 1941, the Germans committed one of the biggest crimes. They executed more than 7000 civilians of whom a big number were students and teachers. To commemorate this terrible happening the town built a commemorative museum where you can find a lot of emotional documents. The museum is located in a forest park complex called Sumarice. It is precisely in this park where the show with CACIB was held.

The judge was Mr Teodosic. He was, for a number of years, head of the military kennel of Sarplaninac in Nis. Thanks to the intervention of Mr Bjelica, I assisted Mr Teodosic in the ring.
There were 44-registered Sarplaninac and that was a good number, not seen these days, except with the specials of the breed. Of all the registered, 10 were descendants of Dingo-Ben. The best young female was his daughter Brita, whom we visited earlier at her domicile, and the best male was his son Rambo. One of our friends exhibited the young male Car.

The CACIB was awarded to Jan of Pece (picture no: 8), brother of better known Jogi, the RCACIB was awarded to Ari-Blejk, a dog which we liked very much and which we wanted to use as a mate for Lola.

We also made pictures of Tajson, owned by Mr Stevo Vasic, from the town Sremska Mitrovica, and whose descendants we would meet a few years later. The CACIB winner for females was Saba, a very beautiful bitch, owned by Mr Bjelica. Some time later in Belgrade she was given to Mr Stojmenovic for medical treatment at the university and Saba disappeared forever.

Most of the exhibitors were well known: Mr Gvozdenovic, Mrs Vesna Skipic-Bojovic, Mr Matorcevic, Mr Vukasovic, Mr Stevanovic, Mr Sobek, Mr Perakovic, Mr Skipic, Mr Bjelica, Mr Timanic, Mr Udovicki … …
After the final decision I asked the judge if I could take my Lola out of the competition for an evaluation. Her description was quite good and the mark was excellent. But I am sure that Mr Teodosic, who brought a lot of harm to this breed by approving only the colours grey-iron and dark grey, did not find the beige colour of Lola to his taste! He even wrote that in the Sara Mountains there weren’t any correct and valuable Sarplaninac, and from the few that he did bring to the kennel in Nis, he couldn’t achieve any dogs without discrepancies. Of course these dogs did not even pass the selection for the type used in the military kennel! It was not of importance the positioning of the ears, if they had light eyes, all their teeth, etc…
While I was working in the ring, Stan took Lola for a walk in the forest. A person kept circling Lola, watching curiously but not daring to approach and ask about her origins. The person was Mr Skipic. Obviously he liked Lola and a few years later her pictures was found in his first and second books about Sarplaninac.

We used the afternoon to visit one of the three most beautiful monasteries of the valley of Morava, Kalenic, located not far from the town of Kragujevac. The founder of this monastery was the noble man Bogdan. The monastery was built between the years 1407 and 1413. Its size is smaller than the monasteries of Manasija and Ravanica.

What is common for these three monasteries are the frescos, considered the most beautiful ones from the period dating the end of XIVth and beginning of XVth century.

After our return to Belgrade I was very busy! We removed about 50 ticks from Lola’s head. It was a real invasion!
The second exhibition we visited, which was with CAC award, was in a place called Natalinci. Natalinci is situated on the river Jasenica, between the towns of Velika Plana and Topola.
Mr Vojislav Anastasijevic would judge 48-registered Sarplaninac. Dingo-Ben was the father of nearly half of the dogs, to be precise father of 21 dogs!

Ari-Blejk, owned by Mr Sobek got the CAC award and Jogi of Pece got RCAC.

Mr Sobek also exhibited a dog called Apac-Lepi , son of Dingo-Ben, which we didn’t like very much. He had an atypical and unpleasant coat, lighter eyes, the lower lip a bit twisted and an especially bad walking pattern.

Mr Matorcevic came with Leo . I was surprised that Apis only got the mark four. The judge’s remark was his light head. He was a very complete dog with a good walking pattern, and a beautiful colour and fur.
It was again Saba who took the CAC award among the females.