ŽELJKA HALPER DRAŽIĆ

My name is ŽELJKA HALPER DRAŽIĆ and I love all animals but my favourites are dogs and horses. They are the reason why my family moved into the country, some 20 km away from our capital city, Zagreb.
My first dog was a Hungarian Vizsla. As I used to play tennis professionally when I was very young, that dog was the most useful dog in the world: he fetched tennis balls while we practiced.
I got my first Dalmatian dog in 1992 and my love towards that breed still goes strong. Everybody was trying to persuade me to start attending dog shows and I used to say that poor dogs feel bad at shows and that the people participating are just idle creatures wasting their time. But, luckily, I was persuaded and there I was, at my first dog show in 1992. Among five females in puppy class, my dog was the winner under a very respectable judge who was also one of the most successful European breeders of Dalmatians. Later on, she won the all breeds puppy class – while I didn't have a clue how to handle dogs at shows, I was just watching what others were doing. The most important lesson was that I realised how my thinking was wrong and that my dog was enjoying herself, and that dog shows are just another sport where you and your dog are a team trying to be the best!
In 1994 I got my licence to judge Dalmatians, and today I am an international judge for FCI group 2, for Pinchers and Schnauzers, Mastino Napoletano, Mastiff, and FCI groups 4, 6 and 9. I judged in Scandinavian countries, Russia and in most European countries. Regrettably, due to professional constraints, I was unable to judge too far away from home.
I have been a member of the Croatian breed club for Dalmatians since 1992. I was a vice president and a member of the Club's breeding committee for more than 15 years. This year I became the Club's president. I am also a member of the Croatian Kennel Club committee for national dog breeds.
Our kennel's name is DALMINO and we breed only Dalmatians. We got our first European champion in 1998, and since then we've had one or more European or world champions almost every year. Our dogs are multi BIS/BISS winners, even breeding pair winners, progeny, veteran and group winners at European and world shows. We showed our dogs on three continents.
The biggest success, after winning the group at the world show in Milan, was at the European show in Warsaw where our nine-year-old DuDu won both the veteran and the all breeds BIS. He carries in himself generations of dogs from our breeding and he showed everyone how much fun he had enjoying the limelight like a puppy.

And now at the European Show in Budapest again European titles, and the crown was the result of our new brown hope Dalmino Forever Legend, which was only the third show in his life and became the most beautiful youngest dog of the day (EDS'21.)