The kennel "Del Castello Delle Rocche"- the warmest welcome, the best memories.

On February 10, 2001 the "Atlant-Soyuz" aircraft took Giulia and me to the frozen heights (air temperature -50) to land in four hours on the Adriatic coast. We were flying to Italy with several objectives in mind.

Our main objective was to mate Giulia with the Champion of Italy, a remarkable harlequin Obelix Del Castello Delle Rocche. There was a secret goal too - to see if this was the blessed place where I would buy a puppy some day. My third objective was to benefit from the contact with one of the most well known and successful European breeders. The fourth important objective was for Giulia and me to make a creditable showing, to uphold the honour of the fatherland and to try and convince our Italian colleagues that there are good Great Danes in Russia and we could be reliable partners. The fifth and the last. It was my first attempt to do a mating in such a distant country. All the time that I was preparing for this trip and during the trip itself my secret ambition was to overcome all obstacles and make this complicated and exciting trip a success (four hours before the flight I was not sure whether I was going at all, whether I would manage to procure the tickets - procure is the right word - for the much-desired weekly charter flight).

Our trip took nine days, seven of which we spent in Italy - first in the province of Modena and then in Rimini on the east coast of Italy. Beautiful country, wonderful people, sunny weather - this, in short, was my general impression.

Signor Alberto and signora Daniela gave us the heartiest welcome though they had to deal with number of problems: they had to meet us at the airport 200 km away from where the kennel was (the plane was 4 hours late), they also had to find an English-speaking person as an interpreter, find a hotel close to the kennel, whose owner would agree to take me together with Giulia (as I realised later it was not an easy thing to do) and so on.

After getting of the train in Moscow at 7 a.m., going through customs at the Sheremetevo-2 (many thanks to our Moscow friends Mikhail and Stepan Ugriumov who took us to the airport), flying over the whole of Europe, landing safely and covering 200 km by car, late at night we arrived finally at Signor Alberto Malagutti's kennel.

In ""Del Castello Delle Rocche"I met like-minded people who looked for the same ideal of Great Dane and did their best to make this ideal come true. Perfect movements and regular anatomical structure combined with regal grandeur and charm - these were the main points we were aspiring to.

Our meeting began with the exploration of a huge map of the world that we spread on the floor in order to see where geographically Pskov was located. I also showed to my host and hostess the regions where my puppies lived and the distances that the Great Dane's fans thought nothing of covering in order to attend a dog-show in Moscow. It should be notes that immeasurable Russian spaces produced a strong impression on my Italian friends.

In the kennel I had a chance to admire beautiful dogs: big, very strong and broad-breasted, grandiose males and elegant spectacular females. All of them were in excellent condition, well kept and healthy. My favourite Obelix charmed me with his harmonic strength, virility, good-nature and - the most important - wonderful movements. This powerful male demonstrated such a regular and productive trot that he could become a model study for the biomechanics of dog's movements. As I realised, regular body structure and good movements were very important for Alberto and Daniela. According to European requirements all the dogs were tested for HD (dysplasia). As a rule the kennel's dogs had HD-0 index (no dysplasia of coxal joints).

To own a kennel like this is a hard job. However, my kind hosts had the time to spare for every dog. One could clearly see that the dogs were given sufficient love and care, they were used to being in people's company, they were nice to be with, cheerful and obedient. A group of five or six Danes ("the old and the new" as Daniela put it) stayed in the house for the night - they slept in the hall under the big staircase that lead to the upper floor. near the house there were several enclosures for playing and exercising.

The gem of the kennel is the nine-year-old Azim (Champion of Italy, Ch. Riproduttore Azim Del Castello Delle Rocche: Nembo Kid Indios dell'Armida x Dasy dell'Arto Reno). He comes from the first litter born in the kennel and as such enjoys special privileges. He can go where he pleases except for the dining-room. But as I could gather from his behaviour he is often admitted even there. Or to be exact, the entrance to the dining-room is seldom forbidden to him. Grey and wise Azim is a picture of happy old age, he is treated with special love and care and in response he plays with Daniella as a puppy.