this is AJA, whose face is my avatar pix. she used to hold the lease in her mouth so when i jerked it to have her obey me, would not have her neck pulled. a smart, and very tricky dog. she would attempt to vocalize like a human, and understood so many words, my friends would shake their heads in amazement and say "that ain't no dog!"
she was the best friend i ever had.
i have this pix on the wall over my computer.
As to my kuvasz: back in late '91 my cocker spaniel, Shiney died, she and I had been inseparable for years since I got her in an amicable split with an old live-in flame. She got my cat, so I think I made out in the bargain.
Shiney was a tiger in the body of a 20-pound dog and got torn up frequently when she challenged bigger dogs. After she died I waited 6 months to get another dog. I checked out the dog pound and selected a cute 5-6 year old mixed husky-lab. Which they told me could pick up the next day. The next day I came back to pick up the dog, they had euthanased it because it had heartworms. Was I pissed.
So I had been reading the paper that morning and had seen an advert that said "kuvasz; the ultimate guardian" I checked out the breed in my AKC book and was intrigued. Then called the breeder who had placed the advert. She was a blind lady from SC and we talked for about 2 hours about the breed, her philosophy of raising kuvasz and she was especially interested in what kind of dog owner I had been in the past. She told me that for every 5 calls she got concerning the purchase of one of her dogs, only one was invited to her breed farm, and that then only 1 in 2 she allowed to "adopt" one of her puppies. I was impressed by her and visited the next week, 300 miles away.
She had beautiful dogs, bred kuvasz, collies, and goldens. I got to met the father and mother of the puppies, both themselves beautiful animals, not actually aggressive towards me, but very watchful in an unobtrusive sort of way
. I selected my first AJA, a cute female, a touch small for her breed. As I was leaving the bred farm the woman called out, "you'll be back for another, they always do" which I thought strange. But 8 months later, there I was again, and adopted AJA's full sister, but from a later brood. She is still alive, and is called KODI. KODI is a monster sized female kuvasz, weighing in at 150 pounds. She is now 10 and is slowing down considerably.
AJA and KODI were my constant companions for many years, they slept by my side, protected me, my property and were my best friends. AJA had a stroke in 1999 and lost her ability to move her hind legs, and the hardest thing I ever did, the worst day of my life was to hold her head in my hands and kiss her goodbye as the vet put her to sleep. (KODI remains, and is at present, under the house, since I heard her bark a few minutes ago.)
A month after AJA died, I went back to Foxhaven Kennels to adopt ABBA, the 3-month-old nephew of both AJA and KODI, from their sister, SARI. He did the same thing AJA did, sat in my lap, constantly licking my face. He looks just like AJA, and is as smart. ABBA is now 3. He is a righteous dude, and sleeps each night by my head
he snores, but I don't mind.
As to the breed's characteristics: it is true the kuvasz is a tough, and protective dog, but with proper (and some admit, constant) training, you can work that aggressive nature about out of them. In fact, once I had to board AJA and KODI and I called a kennel to lodge them for a week, the man was a Viet Nam vet who had trained dogs for the army in Nam. When I told him "kuvasz" he said NO WAY! since he had been bitten by one. I asked him from where that kuvasz had come and it had been bred from a kennel well known to bred vicious dogs, in fact my own breeder had been to the other kennel and was herself bitten by one of that kennel's kuvasz. I convinced the guy to least let me come by with the dogs to show him how well behaved AJA and KODI were. When I arrived, both dogs jumped out the back window of my Explorer and ran up to him he was scared for about 5 seconds, when they jumped him and stated licking him all over. He just laughed and said "damn, you turned kuvasz into golden retrievers!" It was the best compliment I ever got.
The bred needs early, constant discipline otherwise the nature of the dogs will take over and they can be extraordinarily difficult to handle as they become full-grown.
A year after AJA died, I received a call from the kuvasz rescue group asking if I could take in a 9 month old female who had been breed at my own dogs' breeder, I called the breeder and found out that the dog had been bred from a female who was Aja's and Kodi's sister. So I knew the bloodline was good for obedience, beauty, and intelligence. I called to dog owner, in Arizona, and they told me about how the dog was gentle but rambunctious and their hyperactive 8-year-old boy could not handle it. I said I would take the dog and would split the transportation cost with them.
The kicker is that when I asked the dog's name I was told they had named her AJA. Karmic confluence in that moment.
AJA the Second is now 3, and is happy here on the 1.5-acre kuvasz farm with the other 5 dogs. They are never bored, since I have a wooded area, and horses on two sides of my fence that the kuvasz lick on the nose when I feed the horses apples. It is funny as hell to see it. As I sit here typing I am looking out my window watching 4 of the dogs play doggie tag thru the yard. It is hilarious. I feel like a canine anthropologist as I watch them.
I think kuvasz are the finest bred I have been around. They are smart as hell, inquisitive, strong willed, absolutely beautiful, silly, and protective, but mine have been trained not to be vicious, even though they act like they could eat your leg in a second if you approached my fenced yard. That is part of the trait of the breed, to challenge strangers on their territory, but to not attack unless their challenge goes ignored. The dogs are very gentle around children, and other animals they have accepted as part of the family.
I hug and pet my dogs constantly which I think has made them less aggressive.
It's been raining cats and dogs here, John. Did you know that they make movies here, too? uhoh!
c.i.
