Puli. Ann Arch
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to which the majority of European countries belong. The FCI has extended its area of operation beyond Europe to many countries around the world.
Dr. Raitsits formed an alternative club in the early 1930s, but the FCI refused to recognize it. This club allowed for a variation in both size and color (including particolors). They were also prepared to accept for registration dogs that resembled the breed but had no paperwork to prove their origins. This confused not only the Hungarians but also people from other countries who, in good faith, purchased stock intended as foundation for setting up the breed overseas.
Following World War II, with the gene pool drastically reduced, showing and breeding resumed with quite strong jurisdiction over breeders by the MEOE. This organization was responsible for the first shows and encouraged quality stock among breeders and exhibitors. As the level was so high, the show attracted inquiries from many countries, especially the US and Britain. The British then exported stock to Australia and New Zealand.
The first mention of a Puli in England involved Clive of India, who was bartered from a German ex-serviceman by a Miss Turpin of Stafford for 20 Players cigarettes. He was shown at a Stafford Canine Society Show around 1950. The breed gained strength when the Ingus family lived in London for a while before going on to America. In 1967 they arrived in London with their pet Puli Bodri. In 1969 they imported a bitch in whelp to the worldfamous Int. Ch. Pusztai Furtos Ficko. Hungarian Ch. Kiscellehegyi Furge Csopi whelped four puppies in quarantine. As with all quarantine-born puppies, they were released as soon as they had been weaned, leaving their mother to complete her six months. At a show held by the Hammersmith Canine Society in 1970, Mr. Ingus showed Bodri, and his floorlength corded coat attracted a great deal of attention. He and the puppies were subsequently featured in the national press and on television, where they aroused even more interest in this unusual breed. The Ingus family then moved to the US in 1971.
The Beauceron is a French shepherd dog that many believe was used in the development of the Puli in Hungary.
The Mudi is another Hungarian herding dog similar to the Puli and Pumi; it is said that an occasional Puli pup can resemble a Mudi.
Of the four puppies, one went to Pat Lanz, already very well known for her Rottweilers under her Borgvaale affix. A dog named Immerzu went to Mr. and Mrs. Terry Horan, who later emigrated to Canada, while the remaining dog and bitch went to Nancy and Mike Tomlin, who had pioneered the Briard in the British show ring. Later, imports were brought in by Mrs. Lanz and by Mrs. Stretton, who had become interested in the Puli while her husband was working in Germany. Mrs. Stretton’s linguistic ability facilitated her dealings with the Hungarian breeders.
THE PULI IN THE UNITED STATES
By Stephanie Horan
When the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) determined in the 1930s that the herding dogs currently in use needed some improvement, they looked to Hungary for the solution. Many of the American dogs were vicious and often they injured or even killed the animals they were supposed to protect. The USDA heard that the Puli, a Hungarian sheepdog breed, was reputed to be intelligent as well as much gentler with the livestock. Thus, in 1935 four Pulik were imported into the USDA’s facilities in Beltsville, Maryland. These dogs were bred and were also crossed with German Shepherds, Border Collies, Chow Chows and some Turkish sheepdogs. The dogs were tested at various ages for their herding abilities, but the outbreak of World War II stopped this experiment. The results were inconclusive, and no official report was compiled, but scattered anecdotes describing how the Pulik impressed some of the veterinarians involved have come down through the years. The dogs were all sold.
The American Kennel Club (AKC) recognized the breed in 1936, and the first to be registered was owned by Louis Kiss of Marlboro, New York. He and Bronson Williams of Frenchtown, New Jersey are known to have obtained stock from the dispersal of the dogs at the Beltsville facility. However, it was Nicholas Roosevelt—writer, soldier and diplomat—who raised America’s awareness of the breed when he brought two Pulik home with him after spending two years in Hungary as US Ambassador. After he retired to California, his family continued to have Pulik in their lives for many years.
The Puli remained a comparatively rare breed until the late 1940s. It was then that a two-year-old bitch named Juli II, bred by Bronson Williams, fortuitously came into the ownership of Schuyler and Sylvia Owen of Hope, New Jersey. Juli became the foundation of the Skysyl Puli kennel, and Sylvia embarked on a campaign to put the Puli breed prominently in the public eye. She helped start the Puli Club of America (PCA) in 1951 and was its first secretary. She wrote magazine articles and also the book The Complete Puli and was unstinting in her efforts over the years to bring attention to the breed she loved. The Skysyl dogs were known for their brushed coats, at the time an acceptable style in the show ring in the US, which Sylvia much preferred.
Mrs. Owen bred the first Best in Show Puli: Ch. Skysyl Question Being Is It, who won the trophy in 1968. Skysyl produced several other Best in Show (BIS) and specialty winners, one of the most famous being Ch. Skysyl Harvey J. Wallbanger, who was also a top producer with 48 champion get. Ann Bowley handled the Skysyl dogs for many years, and they formed the basis for her Wallbanger Pulik, of whom the fabulous Ch. Wallbanger Kermit J. Bounce was Herding Group winner at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in 1989, and also garnered an impressive 26 BIS awards during his show career.
CORDED COATS
The Puli is not unique in the world of dogs for its cords. Corded coats occur on other pure-bred dogs including the Komondor (ABOVE), a giant white Hungarian guard dog. The Italian equivalent to the Puli is the Bergamasco (BELOW), a corded herder that comes in shades of gray, black and tan. Perhaps the most popular dog in the world that may be seen in cords is the Poodle, though this coat fashion has a very small following in the Poodle world today.
Ch. Kallopusztai Apor with his breeder/handler Vilma Majores, gaiting around the group ring.
Ellanor Anderson of Bristol, Connecticut began her Cedwood kennel in 1954, and much of her stock descended from Skysyl bloodlines. Her most prominent dog was Ch. Cedwood’s Anthony Gray, who was campaigned very successfully in the late ‘50s into the early ‘60s, and won the national specialty a record total of five times. Many of the Cedwood Pulis were gray.
Both Cedwood and Skysyl dogs became the foundation of the Gooseberry Hill kennel in Wisconsin. Started in 1956 by Mr. and Mrs. John B. McManus, the kennel continues to this day under the name of their eldest daughter, Susan McManus Maas. As well as several winning dogs carrying the Gooseberry Hill name, Ch. Pulikountry’s Apro CD, bred by Robert and Anne Kennedy, became a Best in Show winner in 1971 under the ownership of Gooseberry Hill. He was the first male Puli to win BIS, and also the first in a corded coat.
In 1963 the AKC added the Hungarian Kennel Club (MEOE) to its list of recognized registries, and imports of Hungarian dogs began. A great deal of dissension rose when the imports were seen to be quite different from the American-bred dogs with regard to size, type, color and coat. Before this time, American breeders and exhibitors had been able to obtain very little information regarding the Puli from its native land, and some felt that the breed was now far removed from the Hungarian ideal and had fallen into a state of lethargy in the US. The new imports and their descendants began to do some serious winning in the show rings. A turf war erupted and continued for many years, much of it centered on the so-called “American” Pulik with their brushed-out coats and the corded coats of the newcomers, which the older established breeders disliked.