FINNISH JUNIOR WINNER 2000   NORDIC WINNER 2001   ESTONIAN WINNER 2002   BH

COME AS YOU ARE DOGZILLA

  Story written in July 2003 for the Finnish Dobermann Magazine

Come As You Are Dogzilla, Willy, as we call him, was born on 14 November 1999 in the Serbian Come As You Are Kennel owned by sympathetic breeders Daniela Fiala and Muris Hadzic. He was one of the 13 puppies of  the word-famous parents, INT CH VDH CH ITA CH BD&DV&EUSG IDCSG Alfa Adelante del Citone and INT CH HU CH YU CH JGDCH IDCSG WorldCH Come As You Are Alabama. Because Yugoslavia was in a state of war the puppies were born close to the border in Szedged, Hungary from where most of them travelled to their new homes all over the world, the biggest male puppy Dogzilla and the smallest female puppy Dea Dia, Olga, to Finland.

After our dearly beloved males Clinics Alexander (Aksu) and Clinics Ola (Pentti) we didn´t have a dog for almost 6 months. We were happy to have our earlier lovely Dobermanns very long, Aksu died at the age of 14 and Pentti was 12 years old. It wasn´t easy at all to live without a dog after having them for so long - or maybe it was too easy – however, that life was dull indeed. We were planning to have a puppy in spring, a ”Spring-puppy” and our only requirements for the puppy were that it should be a male, preferably big and his dock should be docked. In Finland it has been forbidden to dock the tails since 1996 but we haven´t got used to this new style and couldn´t (and still can´t) even think about a long-tailed Dobermann. The opportunity came for us when the breeder of our earlier males, Mervi Ihantola, phoned from Budapest where she was picking up Olga and told that there would be available a big black male puppy. He was named Dogzilla because of his big size, he was Godzilla of the dogs. Next weekend we flew to Budapest, found the puppy after exciting incidents and managed to get the overweighted puppy to the cabin.

For a long time we had no idea how famous puppy Willy already was and what great expectations there were of him. We weren´t looking for a show-star but only a good friend and companion for long walks. The truth, however, came out in the summer of 2000 in the Luxemburgh IDC Show where we made a holiday-trip. Willy was only eight months old and in his second show after our own Dobermann Club´s Millennium Sieger Show where he won his class, and it really came as a surprise for us that so many people knew Willy and came to ask questions and taking pictures of him. And that was even before he´d won his own class and became the IDC Jüngsten Sieger. The same interest has continued both in foreign shows and also through the internet, he gets mails from his fans all the time, from as far away as USA and Brazil.

Willy has had great success in shows both in Finland and abroad. For example, he´s got five CACIB´s within one year in four different countries (Finland, Estonia, Hungary and Croatia), he´s got the titles of Finnish Junior Winner 2000, Nordic Winner 2001 and Estonian Winner 2002, he was Best in Show in the Finnish Show for Working Breeds 2002 and the Finnish Dobermann Club Special Show 2003 etc. With Willy´s success also we owners got enthusiastic for shows and travelling. Of course it´s nice to show a dog who is well known and has good chances to get good placements in shows but it´s at least as nice to travel, see new places, eat in nice restaurants and meet Dobermann-fans from many different countries. In foreign shows we always meet Willy´s relatives, sisters, halfsisters and nowadays also his progeny, with their owners and breeders. Along Willy we´ve got many new friends with whom we keep in contact also between the shows. Willy is an excellent companion when we are travelling, he likes to be in the car and makes himself at home in hotels, boats and restaurants. Sister Olga travels often with us and obviously Willy especially likes her company.

Willy presently has seven litters in five different countries: two in Finland, two in Latvia and one in Estonia, Hungary and Russia. Even though the puppies are still quite young, they have already had great success in shows, and worth mentioning is one Finnish puppy who passed her BH-test at the age of 12 months. We are regularly in contact with many of the breeders and puppy-owners and follow the life of the puppies with great interest.

We think that Willy´s character is excellent. He is very open, friendly to all people old and young, a real gentleman, gets well along with other dogs, he even has a couple of boyfriends. He is calm and steady but still always ready to play, crazy about balls and especially frisbees, he is very smart and likes to learn new things and it´s easy for him. We even think that he has some sense of humour. He is also a modest dog in the sense that he always seems to be happy and satisfied, he doesn´t demand anything. We can really say that Willy is a nice, easy, lovely and charming dog, a real Good Boy, as well as were our earlier Dobermanns.

Willy´s daily programme consists of a long walk in the forest where he can run freely. In summer we cycle, roller skate and swim. If there is luck, he can play and wrestle with his best girlfriend Samba (Unique Betelges): these two Serbians really have a common language! We haven´t stressed ourselves or Willy by running for hours or by any special activations. It looks like Willy like our old Dobermanns have enjoyed a lot when they have simply taken part into normal houseworks. We have a large garden where Willy likes to spend his time. Maybe it tells something about him that we have only a very low fence and no gate at all and Willy still never goes to the neighbours´ gardens or to the street. 

Willy passed his BH-test in April 2002 excellently. After a long winter break he has started to practise for the tracking test with the object of passing the workings tests required for his Champion titles during this fall. Willy likes the training and concentrates on learning with pleasure.

Willy is exactly the good friend and companion which we were looking for and he also became big, but in addition he has given us much, much more. We are extremely grateful for him and love him very much and try to be worth his love, too. Worthy a great praise are Willy´s encouraging breeders Daniela Fiala and Muris Hadzic, his skillful trainer Esa Nurmo and above all, his “godmother” and excellent handler Mervi Ihantola.