Koszovó 2015. 05. 07-10.
Album: http://www.sarplaninac-kennel.hu/hu/koszovo-2015-05-07-10-korutazas/
Following our first visit to Kosovo back in 2011 we decided to go back again to gain more experience and to look for more dogs suitable for us. Zsolt hired a minibus for our group of 5 friends to make the tour comfortable.
Our first station was the Gorski Vuk Kennel in Serbia. Vuk has high quality, disciplined dogs. They are taught to be nice but they are able to turn into a tough guarding dog in a secund if it is necessary. Zsolt booked a puppy in advance.
Adrijana joined us in Debeljaca then we set out for Strpce in Kosovo where our first accomodation was. Strpce is located at the side of the Sar-Mountains around 800 meters above sea level. Our first target was the Kennel of Ramiz Rama. Ramiz helped us a lot to organize our visit, he even supported us with a travel guide. The father of Ramiz showed us their Kennel located close to Prizren. Their dogs are nice and well-kept with a strong build-up and big coat in a lovely environment.
Then we visited Sharri, Prevalle, Novo Selo and Mushnikovo. It was very nice to see this region. It is perfect for pleasure and holiday. Beautiful landscape, with hotels and restaurants. We saw promising dogs in the Strpce-Sarplaninac Kennel. Then we met Biki Ljubisa Mirkovic and his dogs. He guided us to the place of Tahir Veseli who lives close to Ferizaj. Tahir is a nice man, he has more then 20 dogs, kept in first quality kennels. He has dogs from every corner of Kosovo. He invited us to a nice restaurant for a square meal.
The next day we headed to Restelica, often called as „the Mecca of the Sarplaninac”. Restelica is a dead-end village with no through road. The population is around 5000. The dogs brought from Restelica are always promising and worth to keep an eye on. With time going by Restelica is changing. The less sheep they keep the less dogs they need. Previously the grading and the sorting of the dogs was based on their skills of protecting the sheep against the wolves. Today they have a new grading system which is based on dogfights. They have strict rules. If a dog decides to run away, the fight is over. No dogs get killed, no serius injuries. The ranking is based on the number of winnings.
Restelica is a muslim village. There are no fences. Sheep, cattle, horses, dogs can walk around. There are no need for fences because the people and their dogs know each other and each other’s territory. The unwanted dogfights are infrequent. All the dogs willing to bite a human are tied.
We noticed and acknowledged again that the dogs running up and down on those mountains, moving around freely protecting the sheep can only be healthy, brawny with strong build-up.
It was a few days after the Saint-George day and we were lucky enough to see a local traditional feast with dance and music.
It is a very important day for the young single girls and therefore they were dressed up in beautiful traditional clothes for this occasion. This is the day when the men choose bride. It was very interesting to see and experience this feast.
We saw famous dogs such as Osman Aga’s Karabas, or Perhan, Prince and Lamus mum. We met Halim the „living history”. And after all -as we secretly hoped for- we could buy some promising dogs. Gergő bought a female puppy, Attila gained a young male and Zsolt found an adult female dog to buy.
We spent a very nice, useful and memorable few days in Restelica and in the Sar-Mountains.