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Devi was the first puppy born
to Koloni
Chiara in our house, and the moment
he was born, we knew we had something
special. As he started growing and developing
according to his early promise, we could
not let this gorgeous boy go, even though
we did not plan on keeping a male at
that time.
Simply put, Devi is a very beautiful
Boxer with all the extras one would
like to see in a true show stopper.
His large clean head of immaculate proportions
and type reflects his pedigree that
is very rich in Bruno v.d.Morsbach.
Many feel a Boxer with the breed type
being so pronounced will have a short
muzzle, but this is where Devi's greatest
catch and one of his best qualities
is - despite being extremely typical,
his head retains correct skull to muzzle
proportion. With his excellent rise
of skull, stop and nose tip-up, with
his superb chin and a huge muzzle of
truly impressive width and depth, Devi's
head is as correct as it is beautiful.
Add to this the open sweet expression
of his dark eyes, correct size, great
length and set of neck, excellent topline
and tail set, nice front and lots of
angles behind, superb depth and shape
of chest, and it becomes quite clear
why this young dog has become one of
the most successful Hungarian Boxers
way before his second birthday.
Devi is a gentle spirit and is the kind
of Boxer that would not hurt a fly.
He gets along with all other dogs and
does not try to prove his superiority
by open confrontation. He has other
ways, and one of them includes using
advanced cheating techniques for sneaking
toys out of other dogs' mouths. He must
be doing something right, as he can
steal a toy from our total ball addicts
Santos and Chiara, and even from Jenny
who has such strong will power it's
enough for her to just look at another
dog to make it run for cover. Devi is
definitely spoiled and is a complete
mama's boy, but he never uses this fact
to his advantage. He is very obedient,
totally trustworthy and does not like
making anyone upset. He has a very strong
desire to please and has no problems
expressing his love for us in every
possible way. Training him was so easy
it looked almost ridiculous. For the
most part the only reinforcement I had
to use was verbal praise. It seemed
that had I wanted him to, this boy would
fly to the sky and retrieve the moon
to me just to hear " good boy!
" Devi is very attached to his
family and does not care much for other
people, aside of select few friends
that he always greets with hugs, butt
wiggles and invitations to play. His
secret weakness is the Boxer girls he
meets at the shows, he is a true gentleman,
treats them with a lot of respect and
probably thinks the females are the
most fascinating creatures on earth.
No matter how aggressive a girl can
be towards him, Devi will only respond
with utmost politeness. He loves being
groomed - bathing, brushing, wiping
his feet, cleaning his teeth or trimming
the frills on his ears, he just cannot
get enough. He loves shampoos, conditioners,
powders, lotions, potions and anything
to do with beauty. He has a lot of self
respect and feels he deserves all the
admiration he gets. Hard to believe,
but he actually poses for the camera.
As soon as he sees me with our camera,
no matter if I came out to take photos
of him or of another dog, he immediately
closes his mouth, puffs up his cheeks,
puts up his ears, gets that dreamy look
in his eyes and starts intensely staring
somewhere behind me producing that highly
desired soft and attentive expression.
He even turns his head slowly allowing
me to choose a better angle. Vanity,
thy name is Devi! He nearly always succeeds
in taking my attention off the other
dog and I end up taking pictures of
him. I must have a few hundreds beautiful
photos of his mushy face!
Starting with his very first shows,
Devi has been thrilling us with his
wins, his best to date being a Jahresjugendsieger
title from Portugal. I cannot really
tell why I decided to take Devi to Portugal
that year. The judge was going to be
one well respected Dutch lady old-timer
who was born into Boxers as her parents
bred them, but I had never shown under
her and did not know her tastes. I asked
around and was told she preferred tall
large heavy dogs. Well, that is definitely
not my Devi, I thought, and started
packing my suitcase.
It was a long drive to Santarem, and
it took as some four days to complete
the 3500 km distance. We were quite
worried about the result, as all the
way through Italy, France and Spain
the weather was much hotter than at
home, and Devi stopped eating. By the
time we reached Portugal, he looked
so skinny, we were not sure he was going
to get more than a grade in his class.
Devi's competition was strong and included
some of the best South European young
males, and I must say I was not exactly
confident when we entered the ring.
During individual grading, the judge
offered Devi a dog treat which he promptly
refused as he had never tasted any commercial
dog product before. I handed her a piece
of dried liver which he grabbed from
her hand, ate hurriedly and then proceeded
to bark at her for more! The judge smiled,
and I felt my tension going away. Devi
put up a super performance that day!
Not yet 18 months old, that dog just
flew around the ring going all the way
ahead of me on his two meters long lead.
I felt I was handling a GSD that just
could not stop running. He made the
first cut, made the second cut and was
selected into the first four. I don't
remember having too many thoughts at
that moment - I guess I could be found
somewhere in the area of cloud nine.
The other dogs chosen for the first
four were three beautiful famous Boxers
from Spain.
As we went into the finals, I just let
Devi do his thing. One of the Spaniards
was sent to the forth place very soon,
and the remaining three handlers were
asked to move the dogs. One round, two,
three, four, five, and another Spaniard
was chosen for the third place. Now
it was only the two of us in the ring
- my good friend A.Tanoni of Colle dell'Infinito
kennel with a great youngster that three
weeks after that show became a Junior
ATIBOX World Winner, and myself with
my skinny Devi who at that point had
not eaten for five full days, not counting
a few liver cubes and an icecream cone.
The judge asked us to continue running,
and so we did! We ran and ran and then
ran some more. The decision seemed to
take forever, and just as I felt I could
not make another step without collapsing,
I saw the judge's finger pointing at
my boy and heard "First!"
All I could do was hug my dog and kiss
his face and hope nobody noticed my
tears. I don't remember much after,
there was another sparring with a younger
Portuguese dog who won his class, and
then there was a huge cup and people
coming up to congratulate us. As the
show finished, I approached the judge
and asked her a question that had bothered
me all evening. With all of my well
known diplomacy (hmm...not!) I asked
Mrs.Ilona Onstenk-Schenk why she considered
my medium size Boxer for the title even
though I heard she preferred large dogs.
God bless her, she looked me in the
eye, smiled and said " BUT WHAT
COULD I DO - YOUR BOY'S MOVEMENT WAS
SO PERFECT I DID NOT EVEN NOTICE HIS
SIZE! "
November 2006 update:
Well, our boy has definitely matured.
At almost three years of age now, he
is the king of the house. After the
sad loss of his grandfather Santos,
Devi has assumed the Alpha male position
and is managing our crew. Watching Devi
grow we could never imagine he would
be our eventual pack leader, but it
seems he had good teachers in Chiara
and Santos. Devi still loves his girls
and is incredibly good with puppies,
but what is perhaps his most amazing
quality (that he without doubt has taken
after his mother) is his peace making
skills. He nips any conflict in the
bud, encourages the weaker members and
punishes bullies. If he sees one of
our young adult Boxers playing too rough
with a puppy, he will drive the offender
away by constantly repositioning himself
between the bully and the puppy and
showing all of his teeth to the rambunctious
youngster. He will do the same if one
of the youngsters forgets the manners
and starts nagging for treats. Rare
fights that happen here are immediately
separated by Devi's growling at both
guilty parties and forcing them away
from each other. He is never unfair
in his decisions, and other dogs have
a lot of respect for his leadership,
including our extra-dominant pair Roya
and Maffy. Yet Devi turns into a complete
puppy around babies and will play for
hours on end. His complex personality
is an absolute joy, and we would never
be able to manage our current pack of
ten Boxers between the ages of 2 months
and 10 years without his help.
Devi has had some ten litters born to
him and is proving himself a dominant
stud. Most of Devi's puppies from a
variety of bitches inherit his exquisite
head type and expression, his long neck
and compact body, and interestingly
many of them appear to have wide tight
bites and excellent fronts. To date
Devi has produced for different breeders
in Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia,
Croatia, Italy and Germany. We are more
than satisfied with Devi's reproducing
abilities and look forward to incorporating
his unique pedigree into our own breeding
program over the next few years.
Watch this space for new updates. |
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