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On a nice day in May or June (I cannot remember
the exact day), Danka called me her friend′s friend has an
adult black male dog from Sweden trying to find a new home
for him. She was going to see him, how he looked, his pedigree
...
 However a small problem occured, where to keep
him if he looked nice :o). Danka had a full yard and I had
four dogs at my place – Aleska, Sofia, Rolik, Dony and my
father′s dog Nina
(Slovak Hound). My parents were not very keen on these five dogs,
they said it was enough. So I said to Danka that
unfortunately, there is no place for him at our place (that my
parents would probably „kick me out“ of the house with my
dogs as well :o).
Later on she called me she went to see him and told
me that at that time he had not been in a good condition,
his eye was a little brighter, however, otherwise he looked
very well, he was born to be a „showman“ and mainly – his
character reminded her of Sailor. She went through his pedigree,
examination results and talked to his owner.
She found out some interesting facts: the owner
initially contacted the lab breeders who refered her to SRK
president (Slovakia Retriever Club). He went to see the dog with
his wife, they took him to their place, obviously with his
pedigree. The owner was told they would take the dog,
he looked very well and could win many exhibitions, but
firstly they had to find something out about his ancestors and
of course they would not keep the dog until he had all
examinations carried out – hips, elbows, eyes.
 However, what a surprise it was for the owner
when they called her a few days later that the dog was
aggressive, they did not find anything about him on the internet
and his ancestors were not known at all (how strange as his pedigree includes a great many well known dogs). So
they met at the clinic in Trnava where he was taken for exams
– x-ray of hips and elbows, ophthalmic exam, the result being
HD 0/0, ED 0/0, eyes clean. The owner took him home and
complained to her friend who later contacted Danka.
It was strange to her then, since the „aggressive“
dog travelled in one car with another dog and neither of them
had a problem with this. However she was mostly surprised
when Mr.President′s wife called her the dog was worth 5,000
Sk (166 €) and could be taken to her friend′s place where he could
hunt after ducks.
So in a few days a multiple champion
changed to a dog only suitable for hunting ducks :o).
At their meeting Danka explained to the owner that
the exam results were excellent, however, his pedigree includes
PRA carriers and therefore it was necessary to make an OptiGen
test. She said she had to decide, she would go through the
Swedish database (which we can only envy) and would let her know.
 So we were discussing that there is a risk of
PRA carrier but nobody is perfect and the dog has qualities
overbalancing his shortcomings. And when I asked about his
name and Danka said: Hugo, I knew I wanted the dog.
For quite a long time I dreamed I would have a black
dog at home in the future (best from Sweden), whose name would
definitely be Hugo. There was just a small step in front of
me – to persuade my parents there was a place for one
more dog :o). So day after day I started „buttonholing“
my parents I don′t want anything for my birthday, I will
give the present to myself – a new dog. At first they did
not want to hear a thing about it, but as time went by they
got used to this idea.
And so after the agreement made
with Hugo′s owner we went for my dream dog Huges
- me, Danka and Peťo. We were about to meet in
Ladomerska Vieska and I could not wait to see him. We came
in advance but we didn′t wait long. I liked Hugo at
first sight and I hope he liked me as well. I wanted
to go home at once but we went for lunch. We chatted a little, I was
feeding Hugo with chips (he liked them) and basically he adopted
me.
At our leave we wanted to settle financially with
Huges′s owner but she just said she was glad that Danka
was frank with her, didn′t disguise anything and mainly
Hugo would be fine with us and thus she gave Hugo to us. In the
end she pointed that although being a hockeyman′s wife,
she was not so stupid as somebody could think of her.
On our way back I was curious what would the
kennel say to our new dog arrival. At first we took him up with
Aleska, then Sofia, Dony and Rolik at last. No one had
a problem, so we immediately went for a walk and that was
it – I had my Hugesko. We didn′t get him acquainted
with Nina (The Slovak Hound) as she already had to „suffer“
our 4 labs :o).
 Hugesko adapted quicky, but to fullfill the bred dog conditions of SRK, we had to attend
shows (no problem)
and obviously the exams. Hugo came to us on 12. 8. and in
September JSMP (Autumn Exams of Small Breeds) were planned in the
Town of Lučenec, so I told myself, why not? I started
going out with him, he could retrieve, although he had never
seen the game, he had no problem with it. When I showed him
the pheasant, he took it to his „whole chops“ and walked
around me. Likewise, when we were training the duck – we came
to the water, my friend threw the duck into it (we even didn′t
had him smelled it), Hugo dashed into the water and again
brought it to me in his „whole chops“
and it was the same with the rabbit :o). The only thing he
couldn′t understand was why he should bark at the cat. But
it doesn′t matter, it′s a lab and he isn′t
supposed to bark at the cat! And we passed JSMP in III.prize.
When we finally passed the exams and Hugo got
in a good condition (he lost his old hair ), we planned the
first shows – the club show in Hungary,
Czech Republic and 2 shows in Nitra. In the
meantime we sent Hugesko′s blood to OptiGen and we
received an amazing result – Optigen normal / clear meaning
that Hugo is no PRA carrier!
So we started going to shows with Hugo and to
my big surprise, Hugo enjoyed them pretty much (and is still
enjoying), in time we became a matched duo :o). And
today Hugo (the dog only suitable for ducks) is a Slovak
and Czech Beauty Champion, he met the conditions for being
awarded the title Champion of Croatia and has been a Beauty
Champion Candidate of Hungary, Romania and the Interchampion
title!
In this way I would like to thank to
Hugo′s former owner – Lenka Dömeova and to Danka Bartošova
for a beautiful birthday present
!
And obviously I would also like to thank to
Mr.President′s wife for a fantastic promotion she′s
doing for Hugo – now you know why.
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