Erbet from TURKMENIA

When translated from Turkmen, it means "demon" or "evil spirit". She was this kind of a dog, all her life long, a dog respected by all the "asiatists" who knew her. Respected for her courageous nature that combined the strength of an inflexible fighter, high intelligence and excellent figure qualities. Erbet was presented on bench-shows since the age of 10 months and until the age of 12 years, and always had excellent marks and a winner's or an awardee's title. There was something in this dog that bewitched you; many people couldn't stand her severe look, though Erbetka (or, as we called her at home, Erby), was the most tender creature when dealing with her own people. In 1990, when we visited Turkmenia another time, our buddy Kurban who was told we needed puppies, told us that he was going to visit a kishlak near Afghanistan border, and the herder out there had puppies. Kurban told us that when he had seen the puppies' mother for the first time, he had thought about a white donkey standing near the herd. He also told us that the dog was very violent and killed several wolves and even a hyena. "If you take a puppie, it will be a fighter having no equal", - Kurban was saying. I was listening to him, but didn't give much value to his words. During those long years of moving accross Middle Asia, I got accustomed to hearing impressive legends about calf-sized dogs with lion's strength; as to a dog's age, it was especially hard to find out the truth.Sometime I asked: "How old is the dog" - and got replies like "I don't know exactly, some three years", then looked into the dog's mouth, and there were already no teeth. One of our friends, Ashir, had a dog. For many years, when we visited him, he kept telling us: "Take my Sakar, he is three years old, good Alabay". Sakar was good, only he was born about the same year when the Second World War ended. For these reasons, Kurban's beautiful tale about Erbet's ancestors was paid no heed. I regreted that badly afterwards. On the appointed day, Kurban brought us a puppy. White fatty female with grey spots and big muzzle already had sort of a hypnotic look. In the house where a lot of experienced "asiatists" gathered, everyone started checking the puppy for the solidity of the nerves: shook her by the back of the neck, lifted her holding her by the tail, but the puppy remained steadfastly silent. Kurban went away, happy with the fact that we were satisfied, and on the same evening we brought home another puppy of the same age, named Orlan after his father. Little Orlan give our fatty girl such a bashing that she hid in the corner begging for mercy.

"So beautiful tales about unconquerable dogs turn out", thought I. If I knew what was in store for me... It didn't take long to I find out. That our trip was a lucky one, and we brought 23 Asiatians: Lama and Lastochka, very big females descending from White Ekemen; Malysh (White Ekemen's son) and his son, Sakar's daughter (that dog is well known, owner L. Kuznetsova, later S. Semeryakov); Belka, a daughter of Bely Medved; Gaplan, the last son of Gek Ekemen, and puppies, among those puppies was Kuzya, a little scalawag. He was very weak, but we decided to keep him, as he was a son of very good dogs. We put him in the same bag with Erbetka, and they were hiding their noses in each other's fur for the whole flight time, until we came to Novosibirsk. How we (four of us) managed to bring all those dogs to Novosibirsk is a separate story, now let's get back to Erbet. She treated Kuzya with a lot of tenderness, licked him all the time, and when coming back from a walk, immediately rushed to the bedding to make sure Kuzya is all right.  When Erby was 2 months old, some friends of ours came to visit us with their 1-month-old puppy and put him on the same bedding where Kuzya was. And immediately after that Erbet came back from a walk. What happened the next minute, shoked us. As usual, Erby rushed to check her favorite, but discovered a newcomer there, she attacked the puppy furiously, seized him and was thrashing him madly. We, three adults, set the unfortunate creature free with a considerable difficulty. During 12 years of dealing with Asiatians, I never saw this before: the puppy's skin was literally torn in pieces.

The second thing that made me think hard and start training this little monster immediately, happened when Erby got 6 months old. We were walking in the park when I saw an "Easterner" male well known to dog breeders and having a very bad reputation. His owner liked setting him on other dogs on the quiet, it was an adult and very pugnacious dog. I hoped to shield Erbetka at time and ran to her, but she saw the dog running to her and rushed to meet him. The dogs were hidden from me behind the shrubs, I heard a thud, then a wild yelp and horrible obscenities from the other shepherd's owner. "It's the end of my dog",I thought when strugling throug the bushes to the spot of the drama. Then I come to the place and see: the male dog is lying with his paws up, and my "evil spirit" is sitting on him and, seizing him madly by the neck, shakes him to and fro. The man is running around the dogs and swearing at me. I don't remember how we managed to pull them apart, but I never more saw that dog, as well as the man, in that park. Generally, Erby wasn't at enmity with male dogs, gladly played with them and even flirted as a dog would, but when any sort of stir happened, she rebuffed vigorously.

There were even some lethal cases. I scolded and even hit her in such situations, but it was useless. In such moments, I regreted that I hadn't listened to Kurban's tale in Turkmenia about Erby's ancestors. Sometimes I thought she wasn't a dog at all, but a new, special sort of an animal. By that time we had three Asiatians in our yard: the 5-year-old Joyce, that had been brought from Maryy region as a puppy, the 2-year-old Nisa-Bichara who had come to Siberia in the age of 7 days, and the 10-month-old Erbet. At home, Erbetka was a peaceful creature, lay down on her back before Joyce and Bichara, licked their muzzles. Neither Joyce, nore Bichara liked playing, they were both very serious, even somewhat withdrawn, and when Erby tired them with her games, she received severe treatment at times. She lay down on her back at once as if saying: "I got it, won't do it again" and never tried to snarl back. We wondered why that dog was so humble at home and such a monstrosity when out of it. But the idyls wouldn't last forever. Once while playing, Bichara overthrew Erbet, the latter assumed, as usual, the pose of humility. Bicha should have gone away at once, but she decided to reinforce the impression, and shook Erbet once more by the neck. This was the last feather, and the end to their peaceful relations. A wild fight started, neither of the dogs wanted to surrender, and by the time we pulled them apart, they injured each other badly. Erbet's skin was hanging loosely on her shoulder, but when I saw Bichara, I almost got sick. Her muzzle was one bloody jumble, all the "facial bones" were visible. Since that fight, Bicha and Erbet became the worst enemies. But we noticed one remarkable thing. When we visited bench-shows, the dogs were lying side by side in the train's compartment or the airplane saloon, but as soon as we emerged to the platform...

Erbet was growing, and we were getting fined for her "outrages", local dog breeders called her "bloody Mary", and whenever we appeared on the playground, everyone rushed to catch their dogs. It should be noted that the dogs weren't too anxious to make her acquaintance. Sometimes I thought she could hypnotize; when a dog came her way, she turned into a "cobra", the body strained, the paws wide apart, and the tail nearly "cracking" (Erbet's tail has never been down, even in her sleep), the head risen high, and the whole dog "frozen" in this pose. In such moments, she seemed to have grown in size. A few seconds of such hypnotism, then a flash-like attack, a vigorous seizure near the ear, the adversary is thrown to his back, and only a few could rise after that. Like a bulldog, she got at the enemy's throat, leaving the adversary no chances at all. The whole fight was carried out in absolute silence. She had her own fight technique and extraordinary strength. Dogs feared her; sometimes a stupid hairy mongrel rushed at her, but stopped half-way and ran away with her tail between her legs. The bravest ones barked at her from a safe distance.

There was another incident. After her just another winning on a bench-show we were acting for a documentary film for the "Kinopolis" TV program. Here I go, beautifully dressed, in high-heeled shoes, Erbet stepping ceremoniously alongside, all her medals on her neck (she had 85 of them). Going near private houses. Near one of them, a woman is standing, by no means a "Thumbelina", something about 120 kilograms at least, and a middle-sized mongrel is sitting beside her catching fleas. And suddenly his attention is attracted by Erbet, her medals clinking. He barks and runs towards us and starts circling around us. With my last bit of strength, I'm holding my ground on my heeled shoes, Erbet assuming the cobra's pose. I command her to stay tight as severely as I can, then ask the owner of the mongrel to take her dog away. But she is so touched by her dog's "bravery", my appeals remain unheeded. I feel like my strength is leaving me, Erby is strained to the limit, and here the worst happens. Her lead cracks.. The mongrel, seeing Erbet approaching, rushes to his wicket, but as the woman is standing there, he decides to slip between her legs. He slipped all right, but Erbet got stuck. At the same time a man came out of the house, attracted by the noise, and the picture he beheld was a marvelous one: his Polkan running around the yard, followed by his wife riding a huge dog...

I should note that we never set Erbet on other dogs on purpose and always muzzled her when going for a walk. But the events of 1994 pretty much laid me down and made me quit my "doggie life" for a year and part with many of my dogs, Erbet included. Sergey Semerikov, her new owner, visited all the cynologist undertakings with her, including fights. Her adversaries were always strong and well trained: pit bulls, Caucasians, Asiatians, but she NEVER lost! She fought until she got 8.5 years old and remained unconquered.Once Sergey brought Erbet to fight one famous Caucasian female that had 23 fights and won them all. Her owner, absolutely sure his dog will win, demanded a $1000 stake. The dogs were brought to the ring, their collars taken off, and they started moving towards each other. And suddenly the "cool" Caucasian falls on her back and opens her belly before her, trying to lick her snout. Usually, only puppies behave this way when they meet an adult dog. They fall on their backs opening all their vulnerable spots, as if saying: "Don't touch me, I'm smaller and weaker than you are". But an adult, fighting dog... Not only people got stunned, but Erbet herself, too. She stood motionless like a stone sculpture, choking with growls. The Caucasian's owner was running around, yelling: gobble, kill. He lifted the dog and throwed her on Erby, but the Caucasian fell again and crawled on her back. So, Erbet won $1000 accompanied by mad laughter of her audience.

A lot of times I heard that fighting dogs are not fit to guard and don't bite people. Erbet disproved that point of view totally. She, when necessary, attacked humans just as well. She was a very calm dog, never barked for nothing, you wouldn't hear or see her at home. But nobody could ever enter our yard when Erbet was there! The house and its inhabitants were sacred. And she knew exactly who should be attacked immediately, and who can just be warned with a growl. There was an incident. Our friend Abdulasis from Uzbekistan came to visit us and brought his friend with him. That man only accepted dogs when they were enchained. He wasn't happy at all to spend the whole night in a house with a dog. We assured him that this was a trained dog that wouldn't bite him and showed all her medals, which calmed our guest. But at night, the following happened. Our guest woke up and went to visit a toilet, but as soon as he emerged from his bedroom, Erbet appeared, her fangs bared, and started approaching him. He moved back, she followed, so they reached the sofa. The man was forced to sit down, Erby also climbed the sofa, thrust all her weight upon the man and bared her teeth. In the morning we woke up to see the following: our guest sitting, half-paralized, on the sofa and Erbet sitting near him with her snout on his shoulder. As soon as she saw us, she wagged her tail, jumped from the sofa as if saying: "My mission is complete, now you are welcome to look into it". After she departed, our guest was sitting motionless for some time and repeating, as if enchanted: "I so fear, Erbetka very big teeth!", then he suddenly remembered for what reason he got up at night and rushed from the room, mixing Russian and Uzbek words and swearing at us, Siberia and Abdulasis.    

Erbet was absolutely fearless. She feared neither water, nor fire, petard explosions only excited her. Once in winter drunk youngsters throwed a petard at her, alight and whistling. They believed it to be a good joke, but a second later their laugher turned into bitter tears. Once we came to a court where the dogs were trained to develop their malice. The dogs were tied up around the court, the trainer in his thick working clothes approached them all in turn and checked the strength of their bite. I tied Erbetka to a tree and watched the events from a distance. Dogs were straining at the running trainer and barking at him. Erbetka looked absolutely calm, it seemed like nothing interested her, but it was an illusion. When the trainer reached us, he lifted his arm at me, quite unexpectedly. At the same moment, all four paws lifted from the ground, and the jaws closed on his shoulder. A jerk, and a man weighing 85 kg was knocked off his feet. It all happened very fast; nobody was ready for such a course of events, and Erbet rested her paws against the ground, pulling the trainer's body under hers. After my prohibitive commands, Erbet stopped skinning the trainer, but she wasn't going to release him, either. We decided to switch her attention to somebody else. The group contained an Asiatian, Bichara's daughter resembling her mother closely. With her help we managed to free the trainer who admitted later that it was the first such incident in his long career. "I feel like I have been in Hell", he said.

Erbet was a perfect guard and accepted no fun about it. She was always ready to protect us, anytime and in any place.    It should also be mentioned that Erbet, however malicious, never offended little and defenseless creatures. She treated puppies and kittens with exceptional tenderness, was a perfect mother for her own children as well as adopted puppies. Once she brought up a Siamese kitten together with adopted puppies. As for human's kids, she had special treatment for them. She tolerated all their mischief's. In 1992, we were coming back from Byelorussia, the flight was delayed, and we tied Erbet and Bichara to an iron fence and settled on a bench opposite to them. The dogs, tires, fell asleep. We too, as the sun in Minsk was pretty hot. And suddenly some hidden force made me open my eyes. Near Erbet, there stood a kid 2 or 3 year old. Yes, she loved kids. But now she was asleep, what would she do suddenly awoken, after a busy show. What to do? Yell? I would just provoke her aggression. Run towards the kid? And suddenly, the kid hits Erbetka's head with his toy. The dog literally flew up, prepared to self-defence, but as soon as she saw a kid, she calmed down and gave him her paw. I sighed in relief. The kid's mom, muttering something about tapeworms and infection, took her child and withdrew. And Erbet continued her interrupted sleep. Doggie nervous system is amazing! The dog estimated the situation instantly, unlike us, humans.    

In closing, I would like to tell you that if you have bought a puppy with Erbet in the pedigree, be ready to give serious training to your dog, as her character and fighting abilities are inherited by many of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. A striking example is her daughter Haybat, another one is her son Drakula. Drakula, after being sent to a kennel, spent a year and a half their, but was only faithful to his original owners. The breeders tried hard to subdue the dog, broke a lot of spades beating him, beat his teeth out, but never succeeded in "breaking" him down.    After four years of separation, we took Erbet home again. She was 8.5 years old by the time. She lived 12 years, and every day spent with her was unique.That was a dog doing everything at full force: she fought until she won, defended with self-oblivion, loved with all her doggie heart. She was an ASIATIAN, and that says a lot!    I'm very grateful to Larisa Kuznetsova and Kurban Guydjiev for the gift they gave me, because through all the years Erbet was a gift to us!    

By L. Kononenko  Iskitim, Russia

Translated

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