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Interview to Lydia & Zika Mihajlovic

Crni Lotos Kennel - Serbia

Autor: Jaime Amigo (Chile), March 2007, http://www.vhamigo.cl

Introduction Dear friends, I made an interesting interview to that I consider the best one breeder in the ex-Yugoslavia, Crni Lotos Kennel. With Lydia I have been maintaining contact for some years and I have been able to learn something of the vision of breeding of them. The type of dogs Crni Lotos are very well known allround the world (for me, the most important when we are looking for a serious breeder) and he acceded with Zika to an interview and I desire to share it with you. Jaime: Tell us about your beginnings with the breed and how you develop your passion for rottweilers? Lydia: I did so when I married Zika, I liked Dobermans a lot, and I had two-male and female, and Zika he had 3 females (Cita v Kochiz, Lady and Aska-daugther of Cita and Bazzi Vom Zimmerplatz ) so I was outnumbered I guess and I start to learn about this breed.but Zika he had them for long time before . In the beginning, he had in his young age German Hunting Terrier, but he didn’t find him self in working part for this breed ( fights with foxes and other animals in holes underground, etc ). Then he somehow released he preferences exterior (more peaceful back then ☺ ) and he wondered around dog shows for some time, and found dobermans very close to what he was searching for...but still he missed something, as we were friends in our young age, he knew my dobermans well and I think his search ended when he has spoted the only two rottweiler in those years (+/- 1990 not sure any more) at one dog show entered and they were quite typical for the breed in those times.

Jaime: Your first female was a Hassan Vom Konigsgarden daughter and your first litter was with a German dog, Batzi Vom Zimmerplatz, an Linebreeding on Dingo Vom Schwaiger Wappen. Tell us how from these German lines, you were forming your own phenotype through the time?

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Lydia: Yes, Zikas first female was Cita, ☺ I am laughing always when I remember first time I saw them together. We were on the working field, me with Doberman, and other our friends with other breeds, and suddenly one of our friends point with handand say " look is that Zika?, what he has with him, little pig?, we laughed. Zika came all proud "no its a rottweiler-!" then we laughed even harder. Cita was Hassan daughter, but not what you imagine when you mentioned Hassan name.... Hassan is Hassan THE ROTTWEILER, but Cita was mini rottweiler, wider then taler with ugly head but dry, correct, dark eye and mouth. Back to your question,.In that time Zika still didn’t go deliberately do linebreeding and studied the lines, he went for his always present logic he still uses a lot : Cita is small --Batzi is tall Cita has dark eyes -- Batzi light Cita has no head -- Batzi nice head, etc... I like to call this compensations, and they work not often, specially if you would use different lines, but they proved to work if line breeding involved. Jaime: Which bloodlines have influenced more in your Breeding Plan around the years? Lydia: Well no much philosophy there, bloodlines we had available in our country. As you might know, those past years we had bad situation in Serbia, and was almost impossible to travel out of the country for serious reasons, and not for to breed dogs, ☺. In the beginning of the breeding, soon as he registrated Crni Lotos kennel (meaning Black Lotus ), he went for dogs with lines available in Serbia using compensation philosophy all the time, those times there was kennel Mali Medvjed active and they bred with all actual males in Germany, but so far there are few dogs in Serbia that are coming from those lines ...basically all changed when Flash Vom Wolfert Turm was imported. Jaime: Your "G" litter probably was the most famous litter and GIL surely one of the recognized dogs around the world. Please, tell us how that litter has influenced in your new generations? Lydia: Well as I told you before the situation in the country didn’t arrange many new blood to come in and people were kind of made to ingage line breedings, so all sorts of things happened, not only in rott world but there were many old and experienced breeders that learned much about breeding in those times, from bad you get something good as well, learn how to do it. It showed that 3:2 linebreeding comes out good, if you are paying attention that F 2 generation shows up and that you use "litter quality!" stud. Litter Quality, I refer to a dog that comes out of the litter where you have more then 50 % dogs GOOD (correct, similar and nice in the litter). So Gil Von Burgthann came out of the litter of Gina, Gesa, I guess, and as Gil continued in our dogs (I refer to Flash descendents) so you have Gesa is Von Der Scherau dogs, not so different type. Litter quality is very important, and that is what world lack at the moment --our opinion.

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G litter - him, Gil was the lucky one, was in good hands, Mr Dragicevic kept him as he always gained for strong big male, and trained well and showed really professionally, litter brother of Gil, Gref , our opinion was better dog then Gil, he was taken as first pick for breeding on part of Beni owner and he sold him to backer family to protect the property and house, we bought him back latter when we decided not to use Gil lines but Grefs. Jaime: What things you privilege when you are looking for a Stud for your Breeding Plan? TYPE and character (exterior, running is always there if the type is satisfied) LITTER MATES mother father (pedigree) compensation factors ( so mistakes of our females and her bloodline are well known to us) temperament I write you some order I guess.

Jaime: Which is the type of Rottweiler that your are breeding today and which are the differences with the first Crni Lotos dogs? Lydia: There is no other answer to this question, all we try to do is to produce as more similar dog as possible to our Daisy Crni Lotos as she is type we like (of course she could have better layed ears to the head, she could have this or that but you get the point ) ☺ Do not forget the differences among breeders. Judges dictate the fashion, back then Gil won a lot, now days dogs without temperament get SG, today you must have extra drived dog that is hanging on the leash etc...type gets less important seems, the drive WE (all of us) start to present in order to WIN the show becomes something not typical for breed, if I do underline the sentence from the standard as most important one that ROTTWEILER IS A BUTCHERS DOG So rare are those who breed and you can see the type they like over years, and strugle to fix the halls they gaine on this voyage, point is I know I don’t like rottweiler until I have seen Lady, mother of Daisy and daughter of Flash, and how can I prefer some other type.

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Jaime: Why in the last years, fundamentally are you breeding with only dogs from your Kennel or from Yugoslavia? Lydia: Simply as I mentioned, people lost the BUTCHERS DOG and replaced it with flying working machines light constitution...witch we also wouldn’t mind as we have heavy females, but the problem is that outside of our lines we do not meet Litter QUALITY I mentioned above....we bred with ADRK studs and generally I do not know what we get, only in F2 generation when we puled back to our blood again we gained our goal actually when we breed outside of our lines what we are searching is safe stone to cross the river ( meaning HD ED, character, and to have shadow that resemble to our type , hope you know what I mean ) Zika and I developed kind of sleng talk when discus this subject ☺ Also don´t think that quality litter is easy to produce !!! that is the challenge in all of this story . Jaime: The females are fundamental in all Breeding Plan. Which must be the characteristics of a reproducer (female) to obtain the type of dogs that you have obtained in these years? Lydia: Well what I going to say is not objective answer to your questions. If I describe any our female then we have owned the mothers and fathers of them, and knew all her litter mates with all the good and bad points. Point is start with the female you like, (must know the type you like) and then go step by step.

Jaime: What differentiates the breeding from a dog "Crni Lotos" of other breeders from Yugoslavia or Germany? Lydia: Well I told you differences are there are breeders you immediately can see their type, that is same last many years, like Kalacberg for example in Serbia, beside Crni Lotos, Timit Tor, Ti En Man for example, etc....Von Der Scherau, Von Der Bleichstrasse, Vom Kressbach, shortly our opinion is that these kennels over years show the type they prefer. On the other hand there are breeders that produce " season fashion " dogs as we call them, there are many kennels that have success in show rings over years but bring so different type of dogs out on scene that I can not believe they can like all of them, ☺ Jaime: You wish to share some advice for all the rottweiler lovers of this part of the world?

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Lydia: do not forget our rottweilers are BUTCHERS DOGS. ☺ Imagine one butcher, strong man with mustache, with big knife, and under the table his rottweiler, he gets bones, and the hard chewing stuff with little row cow meat on it, and chewing and having huge head as he had chewed from his puppy times, and was running after cows and making them in order with his neck,and body etc. And do not forget that cows do not run fast, but go long and are heavy ! ( I refer to those that get the dog in the show ring and start a race, not paying attention of way the dog moves) . Jaime: Well, it is been a pleasure. I do appreciate your time and believe there is a lot here that the reader can benefit from knowing. I look forward to speaking with you again sometime in the future. Lydia: If any other question you can ask additionally and let me know the final form. Hope I came to your expectations Hear from you soon. All the best for next season to you and all rott lovers in your country Many Regards Lydia and Zika Mihajlovic http://www.crnilotos.com