Troika Ovcharka International

Where to start when the mind is still filled with impressions and needs more time to settle down to put things in the right perspective.

Maybe I need to go back to the Euro Youzhak 2002 first. Talking about a possible second EY, Gabor and Hedi Hargitai offered us their help, which would mean the next EY should take place in Hungary. Of course we liked the idea, but also realised we could not afford another financial debacle. To set the balance of the EY 2002 straight the committee members paid quite an amount of money out of their own pockets. There are limits. But when time passed and good memories took over the “financial pain” it started tickling again. In 2003 we agreed to continue with the EY, Gabor and Hedi were invited to become official members of the committee, they both agreed and the Euro Youzhak 2004 became a fact, the whole circus started rolling again.

We found a great accommodation in Szentendre at the Pap-Sziget Camping, a very dog-friendly camping. Bungalows with view on the Danube, plenty of space to walk our dogs, good restaurant and a friendly staff.

The MEOE (Hungarian Kennelclub) was very cooperative; we got permission to organise an official CAC specialty and also received a financial gift. We like to thank the MEOE for their support, it is good to know there are Kennelclubs which sincerely care about the “rare breeds” situation and understand the importance of such an event.

The Karakanclub, the Hungarian Breed club was very generous and well disposed toward the EY 2004. They sponsored all the beautiful cups for the event including a huge cup for the Best Hungarian owned SRO, we are very grateful for their support.

We greatly appreciated the wonderful cups sponsored by the Czech Breed club, there was one for each best in class.

Also our sponsor Bosch was very generous with bags full of excellent quality food and other presents, the dogs simply loved it.

Irina, thanks for helping us out with the translations and taking care of our Russian guests so well.

Then we would like to thank our individual sponsors for their generosity:

- Ilona, Marcella and Barbora for the t-shirts with SRO print
- Diane for the diploma’s with logo
- Hieke for the key-cords with logo
- Roland Taryanyi for the huge amount of Hungarian entries. He is a well known SRO breeder in Hungary and he stimulated a lot of owners to register their dog for the Euro Youzhak.

Wednesday, the 28th of April
Part of the committee and some of the exhibitors and guests arrived at Pap-Sziget half way the afternoon and were welcomed by Gabor Hargitai. Later that afternoon Hedi joined us and we had dinner together. We discussed the schedule for the next day and it appeared that Gabor and Hedi had some real exciting stuff for us in mind, starting with a visit to the Skanzen Open Air Museum in Szentendre and in the afternoon we would take the dogs for a herding session in Vasad. But first we had to pick up our Russian guests and their dogs from the Keleti train station in Budapest, they planned to arrive at 9 am.

Thursday, the 29th. of April
While Gabor, Hedi, Tom and Glenn were waiting for the Russian guests at the Keleti train station, the rest of the crew enjoyed an outdoor breakfast and prepared themselves for the trip. The train from Russia arrived with only an hour delay and after 37 hours of travelling, four very tired Russian maidens and their dogs finally arrived at their destination.
We expected they would jump into bed immediately but that wasn’t the case; they were going to join us to the Open Air Museum, so around 11.30 we left the camping in cars loaded with people and SROs. The Open Air Museum of Szentendre is the central open air collection of Hungary. Mostly original buildings and objects represent the popular architecture of various Hungarian regions and the culture of the inhabitants of villages and small towns from the end of the 18th century up to the first third?? of the 20th century. In each region unit visitors can also learn about the natural environment and flora of the region. We sensed the atmosphere of the original villages, walked up and down the streets, buildings and yards. Friendly guides were welcoming us into their houses and we could sniff a bit of the historical and rich culture of the Magyars. We made a short stop at the bakery and enjoyed the fresh baked cakes and pastry. Our group draw a lot of attention from the other visitors, mainly because of the SROs we brought with us.
Our tour-leaders Gabor and Hedi had a hard time to get us back to the cars again, but everything comes to an end and our next appointment was scheduled at 16.00 hours in Vasad, so we had to hurry.

The trip to Vasad took more then an hour but it was a pleasant one. We drove along the Danube and through Budapest, with on the left side Pest and the right side Buda, everyone could enjoy the beautiful buildings such as the Parliament building, the Fishermen Bastion, the Castle and Mathias Church.
After we collected Buran, the SRO of Hedi and Gabor from their house, the road got rougher and for a moment we enjoyed the impression of driving in the middle of the Paris-Dakar rally, accompanied by huge clouds of dust, very spectacular I must say.

One hour later than expected we arrived at Mr. József Árkosi’s place in Vasad. It was obviously the house of someone who loves to work with his dogs. We were greeted by excited barks of Pulis, Pumis, Mudis, Komondors, Kelpies, Borders and Bobby, the SRO of one of the Hungarian participants, Mr. and Mrs. Uza, who happened to speak fluently English and helped Gabor and Hedi out with translating all the questions and answers. I still wonder if the sheep were happy to see us, but that question will probably never be answered.
While Gabor served his famous Palinka, a local alcoholic drink made of plums, Mr. Árkosi selected the sheep and after some time he invited the participants with their dogs to come over to the meadow right behind the house.

What happened then is almost impossible to describe, a breath taking spectacle.
After a short obedience test, each owner had to take the dog into the meadow where the sheep were waiting. As soon as the judge, Mr. József Árkosi, noticed the dog responded correctly toward the sheep, he told the owner to take the dog from the leash. A few dogs immediately knew what to do, while others needed a bit more time before the “button” switched, but almost all dogs knew exactly what was expected from them and they obviously enjoyed it. Maybe it was the size of the herd, maybe the huge Merino ram, but none of the dogs showed signs of aggressiveness. Some of the SROs proceeded tactfully, while others used their temperament and speed to keep the herd together. After each test the judge explained the technique which the particular dog used to achieve his goal. It was a docile event, one we won’t likely forget and hopefully experience again in the future. Of course the test was only to see if the dogs had a predisposition to work with sheep; it is now up to their owners whether they will start training and developing these skills or leave it as it is, right underneath the surface.

After this long and exciting day we were hungry and pleasantly surprised with the BBQ Gabor and Hedi prepared for us on side. Food, drinks, lots of stuff to talk about and good company was all we needed to put an end to a long day full of impressions.

Friday the 30st of April
In the morning we went to Szentendre. Szentendre was originally settled by Serb refugees and still retains a South Slav air, not only in the Orthodox churches and Cyrillic-inscribed monuments but also in its Mediterranean townscape. Much of the Serb population abandoned the city in the 19th century, when it was hit by floods and crop disease. These natural disasters are indirectly responsible for Szentendre's current popularity: because industrial development was impeded, the town's baroque appearance was preserved intact. Artists rediscovered this picturesque village in the 1920s and turned it into an art colony.
Unfortunately it was only a short visit, after the lunch most of us returned back to the camping, the dogs needed to be prepared for the show. Meanwhile more and more participants arrived on scene, where ever we looked we saw Youzhaks and that was a good feeling. Roland Tarjányi visited us with his young SRO female Laksa Lutaya (called Olga at home). Roland is the driving motor behind the SRO in Hungary, without him the breed would be back to zero. His latest import Olga is a cute little grey pup with carbon black eyes, a real eyecatcher who drew a lot of attention from everyone.

At 16.00 hours everyone gathered at the restaurant, where Mr Tamás Jakkel (President of the Hungarian judge society and the secretary of the FCI Central Eastern Region of Europe) held a seminar. The topic for the seminar was "The similarity and difference between the South Russian Ovcharka, Komondor, Bobtail, Mioritic and large white European sheepdogs". Mr. Jakkel not only talked about the history and developments of the breeds but he also shared some refreshing views on the different aspects of breeding with “rare breeds”. A detailed report will soon be published under “Seminar”.
Unfortunately the time passed too quickly and we had to finish the discussion because the dinner was ready.
We would like to thank Mr. Tamás Jakkel for the interesting afternoon; hopefully we will meet again and continue where we left in 2004.
These discussions should not only take place at an event such as the Euro Youzhak, it would be a great step forward if we could discuss these subjects with judges and Kennel clubs in our own countries.

The dinner was something special, a “waiter” pörkölt, or pincér-pörkölt as the Hungarians call it. I don’t know which waiter they used for this pörkölt, but I am sure it was a young one, the meat was very soft and tasty. Needless to say that there wasn’t much left for the dogs this time, the bowls were empty. In and outside the restaurant there were people chatting, a pleasant end of another wonderful day.

Saturday 1st of May
The day of the show. The weather forecast promised a cloudy day with some rain, but it turned out differently. The sun was shining and the temperature was just perfect for a day like this. We kept our fingers crossed that it would stay dry that day and it did!
After finishing the preparations in the ring, Gabor Hargitai spoke a word of welcome and opened the show. The judge, Mr. Peter Harsányi had a difficult task, 45 SROs in different classes had to be judged. Especially the Junior Class Males was a tough one because 15 youngsters were entered for this class. But for an experienced judge, who recently judged the SROs on the Eurasia show in Moscow, it was obviously a pleasant task.
Mr. Harsányi took his time and carefully placed the dogs in each class. After each class placement the judge motivated publicly why he put the dogs in this particular order. After the individual dogs were judged, the judging continued with the pairs and groups. There were some nice pairs and groups and the kennels that were presented are a great promise for the future. The group class was spectacular to watch and the Russian girls showed us some great group handling.
And then it was time for the final episode of the Euro Youzhak 2004: the choice of Best in Show dogs. Judge Harsányi did this with great flair and without hesitation.

The winners of the second Euro Youzhak are:

Best in Show Pair: POBEZHDAI LIUBYA DONNIK & POBEZHDAI LIUBYA VOLGA
Best in Show Group: POBEZHDAI LIUBYA KENNEL
Best in Show Baby: MUSKAT LUTIY
Best in Show Intermediate: AMINA LUTAYA
Best in Show Junior: POBEZHDAI LIUBYA BISTRAYA BAGIRA
Best in Show Male: INGLISILM IMPERIAL IWAN
Best in Show Female: AKIMA NUBLAN
Best in Show Veteran: SARISIN'S DEBYOUTANT
Best Hungarian SRO: AMINA LUTAYA
Best in Show: AKIMA NUBLAN

Mr Harsányi said the overall quality of the females was a little bit better than the males, and that the Class winners were excellent specimen of their breed.

The overall impression is one of admiration, a huge compliment to breeders and owners. The SRO is doing great in hands of people who are sincerely interested in the breed and it’s development. It was great to meet you and hopefully we will meet again in 2006.

Last but not least we want to thank our hosts, Gabor and Hedi. We know the tremendous amount of work it takes to organise an event like this. The organisation, the preparations and the time you have spend to put it all together took a lot of your spare time. You turned our second Euro Youzhak into something special, something worth while, YOU DID A GREAT JOB! THANKS!!!

While some of the participants immediately left after dinner, others stayed another night, sat together for a drink and a bite, shared things worth knowing and other SRO stuff till after midnight, accompanied by the fireworks in Budapest, the Euro Youzhak was held in the same weekend Hungary joined the European Union, a coincidence or was it faith.

Hieke Dijkstra
On behalf of the Euro Youzhak committee 2004