About
Since I was very young, I've had a close bond with animals, especially dogs. It's probably written in my genes because I was drawing horses and dogs when I was a few years old and at the age of 6, when my parents asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said a dog breeder. I got my first dog from a neighbour when I was 5, he was a wonderful dachshund-hungarian puli mix. We grew up together and he opened up a world for me that had me keep in perpetual bondage.
As a teenager I was saving up for my second dog and my first pedigree dog was an Alaskan Malamute puppy. I went to my first dog show in 1996, it was the Budapest World Dog Show, where we saw my dog's mother. Unfortunately the two of us didn't have much time, he wasn't 3 years old when he walked to the rainbow bridge. A year later, a good friend gave me a few months old Amstaff female, Piti, who showed me a new dimension in the character of dogs. She was very docile and obedient, I didn't even have to take her on a leash when I walked her. The breed had a very bad reputation at the time, but this dog loved strangers. Too much so. She was unsuitable for house guarding and I was looking for something else.
I wanted a good guard dog, who loves his family very much but is distrustful of strangers, so I chose Fila Brasileiro. The breed was not completely unknown to me, as I knew hundreds of breeds from my dog books and dog magazines. I first met Fila when I was 13 years old in 1996. I will never forget this meeting. The corner shopkeeper's son boasted that his father had just bought it and it took her half a day to make friends with her over a slab of bacon. She was a beautiful brindle female, for years she guarded the shop where my girlfriend and I often visited. I never dared touch this fila. Having had dog experience, I could see that I might not have time to pull my hand away if she tried to bite me. I saw the second fila for my life at a dog show in 1999, barking all the time and tied to a post by herself. The next event was the 2002 Molosser club show, which confirmed in me that I wanted such a dog.
In 2003 I became the owner of Tor, a sandy yellow fila male. Through him I was introduced to the dog show world and started to learn the breed. In 2004 he was one of the most successful of his breed and a good stud, find it in some fila pedigrees. When we moved to a less crowded environment at the edge of a forest when he was older, he really showed the fila temperament that I am more proud of than any of his show results. He showed me that there is so much more to them than what we see in everyday life. Tor made a friend Bubu, the wirehaired dachshund boy, then a female fila and in 2005 the first litter was born.
In the spring of 2006 I imported a female from Serbia, whose parents were descended from Brazilian CAFIB ancestors. She was the first fila of such bloodline (called "pure" by Brazilians) in Hungary and her parents in Serbia were unique in those years. In addition to Sita's pedigree, her colour was also a rarity, a dark brown base colour covered with a slight greyish tint called cinza vinegar. As a horse breed, the Achal-teke has this particular double colour, which is more pronounced in changing light conditions. Sita's looks and her nervous system were a guide, and by the age of 3 she had grown into a beautiful, big-boned bitch who was several times they wanted to buy from overseas.
I tried to breed her several times, but she didn't want to have a litter before she was 3 years old, even though we travelled thousands of kilometres to a male with a matching bloodline, Xingu II da Serra de Itanhandu. The first litter was with Tor, the second with Gaucho II da Serra de Itanhandu. I kept puppies from both litters and I became known to my friends and colleagues as the crazy dog girl with a raging big-eared beast in her car to look after her. I spent a lot of time with them, each with their own personality. Studying the behaviour of the fila in the pack and in different life situations is the most educational.
I became a dog breeder when I was an adult? I could be by education, but I would rather say that I got a taste of the world. But the Fila brasileiro is a small population in this country, and a breeder who has raised only one litter his whole life can have a big influence on the development of the breed. Anyone who thinks that breeding is about petting fluffy soft puppies and how good it is for them, doesn't know how bumpy the road to that point is and the one after that, and then there is one's own life. I have learnt a lot from dogs and have had an adventurous life with them that may be unbelievable to people outside this world. I have had people who have helped me on my journey, family who have been very supportive and people who have looked at me with disdain. There are those who don't understand the place of such a dog in our society, who reacts aggressively to the approach of a stranger, dissecting the psychological background of the owner. These people are far removed from the world of guarding breeds and have no idea of the value of a good guard dog in today's soft world. They don't know how challenging it is to achieve the perfect fila, keeping in mind: type, health, nervous system, temperament. At the altar of this, we have to make serious compromises, pushing the boundaries of our fences in a global view of the breed and with the goal of creating dogs as close to the standard as possible.
In 2018 I tried to save my bloodline with a little female, but the mating of Caramburu and Java de Boa Sorte did not result in puppies. In the same year, by chance, a female born at me, Dandara, was returned to me and I tried twice to start again after travelling thousands of kilometres, but failed. I thought it was meant to be and I tried everything.
When looking at a fila basileiro, you should never always rely on first impressions, and the exhibition is based on exactly that, which can be fatal for the fila. However, as a Fila brasileiro keeper, I think it is important to respect the breed's character, not to impose it and to create conditions in which it feels comfortable: "Keep the animal according to its nature" But to the outside observer, I always communicate that they should understand that the character of this breed is beautiful and that they belong in today's "accept everyone" world. I remain a lover of the breed with half my eyes on the world of the fila brasileiro dreamed up for over 20 years by Dr. Paulo Santos Cruz, "the father of the breed", who is considered by Brazilians to be "Mother Nature's Gift".
Katalin Boda
February 2023.
