TORNJAKS IN SLOVENIA

The conditions about the number of Tornjaks in Slovenia before the year 2004 are not known to me. Considering the feedback on the dog exhibits which I have been participating in, Tornjaks are excellently known breed. Dr. Jože Vidic himself, who has organized most of these exhibits, has welcomed re-appearance of Tornjaks.

Because of my frequent visits to Bosnia and Herzegovina I had a chance to get to know this noble breed in their own country of origin. Moving to Kurešček was a chance to become an owner of one of them.

This dog needs a lot of room for exercise. In Bosnia it walks up to 20 kilometers daily with a shepherd when he is sheep-holding.

With Kruno Kolenda (one of the founders of KD Travnik 1972 which was founded in 1972), a good friend of mine from Travnik, It has been arranged to buy a male, but faith somehow intervened, so I came home with a female Žanka.

So it happened that coming to Travnik I have got to know my wife's old classmate, who is also a breeder of Tornjaks. Not being able to resist the hospitable Bosnians I could not refuse the gift, our Žanka. Ante Mijić- Krikan is therefore to blame that I became a breeder of Tornjaks.

Of course the decision on breeding wasn't made over night, but the interest for this dog breed of people in training school, on the street and even in our village, brought me to the decision to become a breeder of this breed.

But a decision like this also brings responsibility. My knowledge of the field of breeding was nonexistent so I had to gather a lot of information.

The best place to do this was Travnik. My every visit there passed in contacting people who breed Tornjaks and observing their work with the kennels. I was fortunate to meet, among others, dr.Alen Salkić, a veterinarian from Travnik, who has undoubtedly done the most for the recognition of the breed. His advice, a book he has written and the recommendations of other books were priceless.

With him and a crew from Sarajevo Television, which has been filming a documentary movie about tornjak, I had a chance to see a lot of breeders and more important cooperation between dogs and shepherds. This is how I came to meet Halil Senfer from Vlašić, not only a shepherd but also an owner of several tornjaks, which not only win prizes on competitions but are also remarkably trained.

I was looking for advice with our breeders too, of mostly larger breeds that are more or less original.

Naturally it wasn't all as poetic as it may read. At a time when I brought Žanka home, tornjak wasn't an internationally recognized breed and I have spent more than a year to succeed in registering Žanka in Slovenian Pedigree book, which had to be established for this breed. There are no records of tornjaks before that, even though many times when I was in Bosnia and Herzegovina I have heard from Bosnians how we Slovenians support the recognition of this breed.

For her first breeding we had to go to Bosnia because there was no appropriate male here in Slovenia. Dr. Alen Salkić helped me in choosing an appropriate male between almost all males in the region.

On December 16th 2006 Žanka had 6 females and 4 males. This is how the number of tornjaks registered in Slovenia climbed to 11.

Second time we find partner in Slovenia ( Laki SRPPT000012).

The number of puppies remained the same only genders differed. This year we have 6 males and 4 females. This is how the pedigree book now contains 22 tornjaks form Mali Vrhek. I know for at least 6 other tornjaks, and they all visited us, but are not registered.

In November 2010 we have got Žanka's 4th and last litter. Father of the litter is Sky, he is a volunteer and works in AAA/AAT at Ambasadorji nasmeha (first Slovene Society for AAA/AAT). Both of the parents are very still in temperament and with top-level education (Sky is therapeutic dog, Žanka has got A, B BH in pet schools) so the purpose was to get calm and stable offspring.
We have 3 females and 5 males. They are three-coloured (white, brown, black) and B/W. Sky and Žanka are three-coloured but obviousely the genes from grandparents are very strong (parents of Žanka and Sky are both B/W).
At this point the number of registered Tornjaks in Slovenia is 44 (Žanka is mother of 32)