Agility Beagle Xsara

Back On Track

2012-01-30T08:59:00.000+01:00

Once again, I'm really lazy with updates. I actually have some bad news to report. A couple of weeks ago, Xsara apparently pulled a muscle or something similar. Her lower back hurt, and her hind legs were really stiff. Our vet prescribed her bed rest and something to ease the pain, but since Xsara has always had sensitive digestion, it really messed up her intestines. After a week, her back was back to normal and she could run and jump around, but it took us another 2 weeks for her digestive system to recover. Now she seems to be OK (knocking on wood), but I'm still very careful with what she eats and we're taking it easy. Long walks in the woods, home made meals and a lot of cuddling seem to be really working for her. Isn't she cute?!?!

Calendars 2012

2011-11-07T11:20:00.001+01:00

Xsara, being such a pretty girl, is featured on two calendars for 2012.

The first calendar is by Iztok Noč, my Miss March sure has a pretty smile :) It's a doggy calendar that represents dogs doing several sports and other funny things. On December you can also see Xsara's pyrshep "sister" Tani doing frisbee. The calendar can be ordered at ntrbizan@gmail.com.

The second calendar is an agility calendar by another really talented photographer (well known Maja Rokavec) who shot many of Xsara's action photos on this blog. January has never been more cute :) Tani is on the calendar as well, she is Miss June. You can order it at maja.rokavec@gmail.com.

Both calendars cost 10 euros. Aren't they absolutely beautiful?!?!

Xsara in International Press

2011-09-11T08:49:00.007+02:00

I have to share two articles with all our readers :)

The first one is a really cool article about a Beagle called Levi from South Africa. Levi and his human Annaret are our cyber friends, we only get to meet in person on World Championships. They are really good in agility, in fact they are so good that a magazine Dogs in Africa decided to publish this article about them. Xsara is mentioned in the article as well together with the link to our blog. I'm really proud of both, Levi and Xsara because beagles who work with their humans and are loving it always make me smile :) Here is a photo of the article, click on the photo to enlarge it enough to read it. Blogger keeps rotating the photo making me insane, I hope you can read it anyway!

The second one is an article about agility that was published in a French newspaper. Valerie Teppe took this photo of Xsara when she was on holidays in Slovenia and they published it together with the article. How cool is that!?

Corsica ... Again :)

2011-09-09T16:12:00.017+02:00

We liked Corsica so much last year that we had to return this year as well. Xsara is not much of a swimmer, but she really enjoys hiking, sleeping in a tent with us and spending so much time on fresh air. She is now even more full of enthusiasm, happy and playful and totally ready for the competitions ahead of us!

Can you find Xsara here? :)

Summer 2011

2011-07-04T13:39:00.003+02:00

Summer is here, I haven't updated Xsara's blog in months, but who has the time?!

Unfortunately, Summer has started badly for Xsara. She pulled one of her nails out on one of our walks and she is limping. It had almost healed and we started training again, but then she managed to lick it through bandages and now it's infected. She's on antibiotics, has to wear a sock or a shoe at all times and is hopping on 3 legs, but she still has the biggest smile on her face. She is such a sweet dog, really! The vets say her leg should be back to normal in a week or so now that she's on antibiotics, so I really hope she'll be back to normal before EO. Before getting injured she had quite a good season and she managed to qualify for the event, so I'm really proud of her.

Busy Winter for Xsara

2011-01-31T14:14:00.002+01:00

In Slovenia, we normally don't have many competitions in winter so this used to be quite a lazy period for us. But having a young, active pyrshep in our lives, some things had to change. So I decided to attend more competitions abroad to spice up this winter for us. Xsara likes indoor trials, she is always happy to run, happy to play with me and happy to get her reward at the end of each run. And as much as she loves Tani, she is also happy to spend some alone time with me on agility fields :) She really is a sweet girl! Yesterday we had a competition in Croatia where she was 3rd in agility A3 medium. Thanks to Maja Rokavec for this fantastic photo of my pretty girl :)

Happy Holidays

2010-12-24T10:18:00.011+01:00

Xsara and I wish happy holidays and all the best in 2011 to all our friends.

Thanks to Maja Rokavec for a lovely day on Lake Cerknica and a new set of fantastic photos of my dogs!

Beagle Agility Championship

2010-12-08T20:05:00.008+01:00

Last year, Xsara and I didn't have much luck in agility championship for beagles in Slovakia because she fell off the dogwalk in her final run. This year, luck was on our side, so I'm proud to say that she won :) She was in a great mood and ran really well both days even though we had incredibly cold weather: -17°C! I wasn't the best handler she could have, it was hard for me to run two dogs on different courses, having to memorize both at the same time as I only had about 10 dogs between Tani and Xsara. But all turned out well and it was fun.

There is a lot of snow in Ljubljana and we spent a couple of days there for the girls to enjoy snow for a while. Now we're back to the coast where weather is much better. Xsara really likes it here. I am teaching her many new tricks, we go for long walks, we play together and train when we can and we also cuddle a lot. Thanks to Lenka Wami Blachová for beautiful photos of Xsara from Motešice (Slovakia)!

And here are some photos from one walk in the snow:

Is it a Cat? Is it an Owl? No, it's Xsara Catching a Mouse!

2010-10-27T14:53:00.006+02:00

Beagles are full of surprises and you'd think I've learned that by now, but my little Xsara still amazes me.

This week she stole some dog food from the counter which is nothing overly surprising, although the task required a lot of strategic planning as she had to do some furniture moving. But apparently it was a no brainer for her since the dogs were only alone for a couple of hours and were already happily asleep when I came home.

However, since I decided to skip their breakfast the next morning (thinking they'd eaten enough food the night before), she apparently felt she was way too hungry to wait until dinner. And so, on our morning walk she totally shocked me by catching a mouse, apparently thinking that a little snack would tide her over until dinner.

She'd never done anything similar ever before, so I still can't believe it! Maybe she was just playing with the little creature, I honestly don't know. She has been extremely playful lately, I think she just can't stay indifferent towards little Tani constantly inviting her to play. Anyway, I told her to spit it out and she did, the mouse was a little disorientated but she wasn't limping or anything so she managed to escape far away from my little predator who continued the walk on leash.

I don't usually take a camera on our walks, so I don't have any visual documentation of the event. But thanks to Maja Rokavec and Monika Pleterski for these cute Xsara photos from our competitions!

Updates

2010-09-13T09:18:00.007+02:00

I really became horrible updating Xsara's blog! But well, Summer is our favourite season and we love to spend as much time as we can outside.

Xsara is doing great, she has very nice times on trials lately (4.4m/s, which is great for her). I measure her excitement on trials by the level of her barks and howls and well, she's very loud :)

EO was not her favourite thing this year, it was cold, muddy and it rained all the time. She has a strong preference for higher temperatures. But we were together and she really likes agility, plus most of her friends were there, so it was OK.

After EO we seriously needed to defreeze so we went to Corsica where she met tiny little rabbits. She was only interested in them if they were moving, once they stopped she didn't know what to do with them any more. She doesn't like to swim, but apparently the places we visited were just too tempting so even she decided to get a little wet :) She also loved hiking, camping and being outside all the time, so we're defenitely going back!

She and Tani are best friends, they play together, sleep together, cuddle together, they are inseparable. I'm very happy that they get along so well, and Xsara is defenitely very happy to have company.

New Photos

2010-07-14T12:56:00.010+02:00

Here are some new wonderful action photos of Xsara, taken by French photographer Valerie Teppe (thank you, Val!). Xsara is doing great. She really enjoys summer and extremely hot temperatures. I must constantly monitor her sun exposure and make sure she doesn't get too much of it. Every time I look away, she sneaks to the terrace and tries to catch some sun before I urge her back into the house. I find this obsession very funny. Anyway, here are the photos I was talking about and I guess I'll see some of our readers on EO next week :) Can't wait for the Czech adventure to begin!

Happy Birthday, Xsara!

2010-06-27T10:44:00.004+02:00

I can't believe it's been exactly 6 years since Xsara's breeder called me and told me she had a puppy for me. It seems like yesterday. And yet, Xsara and I have been through so much together, that at the same time I feel like she's always been with me. I only have one wish for her birthday. I wish she would stay exactly as she is - my healthy, happy and sweet little dog who likes to cuddle under the blankie even when it's 40°C outside, who howls like crazy when I bring her to the startline and always gives her best, who loves all people and animals, specially her family, who has the cutest puppy-like expression in the world and who would trade anything but her green ball for a piece of cheese :) I promise I'll do everything I can to keep that tail wagging for many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many ... years to come!

Summertime

2010-06-17T18:01:00.005+02:00

Summer is defenitely Xsara's season. She loves hot weather and wants to be in the sun all the time. Of course, I don't let her do that. Every time I tell her to go in the shadow to cool down a bit, I get an annoyed look from her. But she's a good girl and she listens to me. She's having some really good runs this season, and she obviously enjoys every second we spend doing agility - and so do I :) Here are some beautiful pictures from one of our summer walks. Thank you, Polona!

Season 2010

2010-05-10T09:56:00.002+02:00

Agility season 2010 has started in Slovenia. Xsara is in a very good shape. She is extending nicely and is jumping much better than she used to (her specialty is jumping 65cm high over bars that are only 45cm high, but it looks much better now). She really likes having alone time with me when we do agility, rally or tricks. Don't get me wrong, she absolutely adores Tani, but she used to be my only dog for so long and I think she is really happy when we have some special alone time together. I guess that's why she loves trials even more now. She gets to play with me while Tani has to stay in her crate and wait for us to come back from the run.

Another TV Commercial!

2010-04-26T10:25:00.004+02:00

Our German friends might see Xsara in another TV commercial soon (if the director managed to get all 3 dogs in the same shot) ... In any case, she worked really hard yesterday and I am very proud of her, no matter the outcome. Tani was also supposed to be in the same commercial, but we had to replace her due to her leg injury.

Other than that, we are quite busy with agility, rally-obedience, tricks and long walks. Weather is perfect for outdoor activities and Xsara loves every second of it :)

Recall

2010-03-02T16:41:00.002+01:00

Xsara really amazed me today so I want to post this on her blog. We were on our morning walk, as suddenly a rabbit crossed our path. Tani barked a couple of times, but wasn't really interested in the animal, while Xsara has a very strong hunting instinct, specially for rabbits! She was out of my reach so the only thing I could do was to use my voice. I yelled "freeze" and she actually listened :) She stopped, waited for me to come to her, still looking at the bunny who was running away in panic, but didn't move a bit! I was really impressed, Xsara has a good recall for a hound, but anybody who has experience with beagles will know that they forget about everything else once they find a trail, it's like some sort of trance. And if they can see their prey and not only smell it, it's even more difficult. Since I had a full pocket of treats she got a BIG reward, but had to continue the walk on leash, to be really sure. Anyway, I am incredibly proud of her today, she really is one special little girl!!!!

Xsara's Commercial

2010-02-05T23:41:00.003+01:00

Xsara's commercial came out, you can see it here: CLICK
Once again, she had to pee :)

Xsara's First TV-Add

2010-01-27T13:57:00.003+01:00

Xsara filmed another commercial last week. This was her first TV commercial (and 3rd advertisement overall - she also did one newspaper add for charity as a puppy and was on a billboard for a TV show last year). I must say she did a wonderful job. Tani was originally picked to perform the task and Xsara was only supposed to be her backup, but then another agency took over the project and the new director liked Xsara better. I was very proud of both of them, working in a weird environment inside a studio with so many things going on around them, and they both behaved like true professionals. I will post the video when the commercial is officially released.

Otherwise Xsara is doing great, she is in a very good shape and very playful lately. She loves having Tani around and I am very happy that they are such good friends. She is not too crazy about winter temperatures in Ljubljana (and neither am I), so we try to spend as much time as possible by the sea where weather is a lot friendlier.

Voghera

2010-01-08T10:17:00.002+01:00

We have very few trials in the winter. That's why I was incredibly happy when a friend asked me if I wanted to go to Voghera (Italy) with her. 4 trials in 4 days + agility seminar sounds just crazy enough! So we started this new year the way we love the most: on a beautiful ranch by a river in a winter wonderland. I only ran with Xsara on 2 of the trials because that's just enough to keep her craving for more. In the first run I managed to fall when I was performing a front cross, but all of our other runs were clean. So we got 2 3rd places combined and one 3rd placement in agility plus one r. CacAg - far more than I expected in such a tough competition. I really enjoyed seing some amazing runs by far more experienced handlers than myself and people were all incredibly nice, so it really was a wonderful experience.

Winter Fun

2009-12-23T00:46:00.008+01:00

Once again, I've been horrible updating Xsara's blog. A lot has happened since my previous post. First of all, I have successfully graduated from college and now I have even more time to spend with my dogs. They are both doing very well and I'm incredibly proud of them.

Xsara and I participated in European Beagle Agility Cup in Slovakia. It was a lot of fun, even though it was incredibly cold. Xsara ran very well and was leading the competition from the first run until the end, but we had a little mishap in our last run. As she came onto the dogwalk, something got into her ear and she started shaking her head so hard that she lost balance and fell off the dogwalk. Luckily she didn't hurt herself, but we lost our prime spot and finished on 2nd place.

We also participated in a Rally Obedience trial in Koper. She really likes rally a lot! She worked very nicely and placed 2nd in a tough competition. Next year we're planning on taking the exam for RO-III.

We have a lot of snow and very cold temperatures in Ljubljana at the moment. Xsara likes playing in the snow a lot! But currently we are enjoying holidays in our beloved Strunjan by the sea, so we got away from extreme temperatures and the snow for a while - even though there even was some snow here for a couple of days! Here are some snowy photos of my sweet little beagle, taken mostly by Polona again (thanks :)):

Another Fun Walk / Photoshooting

2009-11-06T12:06:00.015+01:00

Yesterday we went for another walk with Polona, her toller Wi and Polona's fantastic camera :) We were very lucky because we had nice weather, even though it's raining all the time otherwise. But somehow we managed to even catch some sun! It's hard to imagine that only one day before our walk it was snowing like crazy. This weather is really gone wild. Here are some photos from our walk and from Xsara in snow:

Xsara's Trials And A New friend

2009-10-02T12:46:00.006+02:00

Xsara is doing very well. I haven't posted in a while (again) because we spend every minute of our spare time playing outside. The trialing season 2009 is going to end tomorrow and I'm very happy with Xsara's runs this year. This is our first full season in the top Grade, so the courses are more difficult and the competition is very hard. She made me very proud on a trial in Ljubljana a couple of weeks ago when she placed 3rd and stood on the podium next to the super La!

Yesterday, Xsara and Tani got a new cousin. Cairn terrier Miki will be the best friend to my younger sister Katja. We still live in the same house so I wasn't sure how the girls would react to an outsider, as they now form a pack. But they both like him very much and he likes them back, so all is good :) Miki is a son of Xsara's agility friend Kin. This is his picture - he is sweet, isn't he?!

Updates

2009-08-14T11:05:00.006+02:00

We didn't get lost somewhere in Holland, we're back at the seaside and enjoying the Summer. European Open was a lot of fun and Xsara had some very nice runs. I'm specially proud of our team Fast Snails - we were placed 13th (among 87 teams) in jumping and 29th overall. Other competitors from Slovenia did very well too, and we were very proud to applaud them on the podium.

We're currently staying in our new appartment by the sea where I have a lot of time to work on my diploma. We are also working on many new tricks and hopefully will finally make a new video for Xsara - who is now a big swimmer, by the way. She never liked water too much, but now that we have Tani, Xsara likes to join us in the water as well. But sometimes she does get tired of the little hyper Tani, so she learned how to close herself in the crate. It took me days to figure out why the door was closed even when I left it opened, until one day I saw her closing it with her paw. She sure is one super smart little girl!

A Very Fun Morning (Specially For Xsara)

2009-07-22T20:01:00.010+02:00

Yesterday we went for a walk with Polona, her toller Wi and Bamm Bamm, who is staying with Polona for a couple of weeks. We had a great time together, but Xsara got me very scared. She was behaving very nicely, came whenever I called her and played nicely with other dogs, when suddenly I heard the familiar beagle-scream that they produce only when they find a trail. I tried to run after her, but my neck got stuck in Tani's leash so I had no chance at all. I tried to follow her anyway, while Polona and the other dogs waited where Xsara left. I called her and followed the barking, but she was moving way to fast for me to follow her through the bushes. Then I couldn't hear her any more and I got really scared, so I decided to return to the others, hoping that she would come back soon (beagles should know how to return to the spot where they left). And she did come right after me. The entire chase didn't last long, maybe 10 minutes - but it seemed like ages to me. I was soooo happy to see her, I think I hugged so hard that she lost her breath for a second and then I kept her on leash for the rest of the time. She is my sweet little girl, but deep inside, there are instincts that she cannot resist. I will be extra careful from now on!

Polona took some amazing pictures of my girls, so BIG thanks to her! Here are pictures of Xsara, while Tani's pictures are on her blog:

Birthday Pawty Pictures

2009-07-11T11:04:00.020+02:00

As promissed, here are some pictures from Xsara's birthday party - big thanks to Daša for taking them!

Xsara's B-day guests were:
Lija
Lana
Kate
Cherie
Katka
Bones
Tani
and of course the party girl Xsara :)
We hired a clown to amuse the guests
... there were doggy games such as tug-o-war
... the 3 little puppies ran around like crazy
... and the others preferred to cuddle
Xsara looked a little unhappy with her limber tail syndrome
... but she had fun too - her favorite part of the party was the cake
... other guests enjoyed the cake as well

All doggies were pretty tired after all of that and they agreed that the party was a big hit :)

New Action Pictures

2009-07-02T09:52:00.012+02:00

Here are some new pictures from our trials - one of them in pouring rain. Xsara got limber tail syndrome on that trial, but it already looks much better. I kept her in a warm place and dried her after every exit, but sometimes these things just happen. Luckily it's nothing serious, she's not in any pain and doesn't need any medications, so hopefully, she'll be back to wagging like crazy very very soon!Her Birthday Party was a lot of fun. I'll post pictures as soon as Daša mails them to me. All the dogs played nicely, except for our party girl who was busy guarding the kitchen and her cake. She got a very big piece and it took her about 3 seconds to finish it, so apparently it was delicious. Tani got her share of fun as well as there were 2 other puppies on the guest list. Photos to follow ...

Happy Birthday!

2009-06-28T00:47:00.005+02:00

Happy 5th Birthday to my sweet sweet little Xsara and her siblings!

We are a little tired after two trials and an all-day agility seminar with AWC 2009 judge Manuel Alff, all in the past 3 days. But we sure had a great time. Xsara ran very nicely, specially on the workshop and in her 2nd run on today's trial, when she got through a very twisted course with no faults and faster than usually.

We are having Xsara's agility friends over tomorrow, and of course there will also be cake and presents :)

Telepathic Little Dog

2009-06-15T10:52:00.007+02:00

Our weekends are still full of trials and fun little trips. I'm happy with Xsara's runs this year - even though she doesn't run clean all the time, she is starting to be more independent on course, and I really hope she continues to do so.

We are also working on some new tricks, and she absolutely loves learning new things. She is a very very smart little dog. She is quite different from Tani who will try a thousand things with a new object and keep trying until she hears the click. Xsara will sit and think, and somehow figure out what I want her to do with it right away. I never know how she does it, maybe we're so bonded that she can telepathically feel what I want her to do. But she never needs more than a couple of tries to figure out what the trick is.

Here are some new pictures of my smart little girl, taken on our hiking trip yesterday:

More Trials

2009-05-25T07:03:00.006+02:00

Xsara and I had a very nice weekend. On Saturday we had an agility trial in Slovenska Bistrica. We had great two runs - unfortunately with one disqualifying mistake (tunnel under the dogwalk). But I was very proud of her because we got through some very difficult sequences with no faults, and quite fast as well. The courses were very tough and only a handful of dogs got through with no faults while many excellent dogs got DQ. I was veeeery proud of my little girl!

On Sunday we had a Rally-Obedience trial. When we saw the courses, I first considered pulling us out of the competition. There was my least favourite excercise in the world: there are 4 bowls of food on the ground and the dog must heel around each of them! And as if it weren't enough, this excercise was in the straight line from the tunnel - it would be so easy for the dog to run ahead :) But I decided to go through the course anyway, taking it as an opportunity to train. We started extremely well - even the judge said that the beginning of the course was absolutely perfect! She did sniff the bowls though, but not as much as I feared she would. However, once a beagle starts sniffing, it's hard to convince them to stop, so she was a little distracted by smell for the rest of the course. She still did the excercises very nicely, but with a little bit of sniffing now and then - and in the last excercise I accidently stepped on her foot :/ We were 4th, but with muuuuch nicer work that the previous time, so I was extremely proud of Xsara again She sure is one special little girl!!

Photoshooting

2009-05-22T11:15:00.013+02:00

Xsara and Tani had a photoshooting in Hrušica on Wednesday. Big thanks to Iztok Noč for the pictures! Here is the result:

For some action pictures of Tani visit her blog: CLICK.

A Trial and a Trip to Bohinj

2009-05-17T20:31:00.005+02:00

We had another agility trial yesterday, this time in Ložnica. Xsara made me very happy with two nice runs and 4th place. Once again she was running a little better than before her illness, so apparently she didn't need much time to regain her confidence after all. I know this is still not her full speed, but as long as we keep improving I'm very very happy.

Today, we decided to go for a trip because weather was perfect for a loooong walk. I've never been to this beautiful lake not so far away from home, so we went to Bohinj. Xsara doesn't like to swim, but I wanted to see if Tani would enjoy water so that at least one of my dogs would swim with me in the Summer (and Tani liked water a lot). We had a lovely time together, enjoying the beatutiful surroundings and each other's company. When we got back home, the girls were both exhausted and happy, and now they are both sleeping on my bed :)

Monza - Frontline Combo

2009-05-12T17:10:00.011+02:00

Italy was great: the weather was perfect, we saw some really good handlers and dogs in action and we also got the opportunity to see some other interesting canine disciplines, such as goose herding, flyball and freestyle. Xsara ran beautifully, I was so very proud of her. Unfortunately I made some handling mistakes (or to be honest, they were all the same mistake) - she was in a great mood for running and trying to speed her up even more, I called her too soon, so we got a couple of refusals. I have to work on my timing, apparently :) She was very responsive, so I was very very happy with both our runs. We also had a lot of fun outside the course, camping and watching the rest of the trial with our friends, so all in all it really was a wonderful weekend!

European Open 2009

2009-05-08T03:25:00.008+02:00

We got accepted to European Open 2009 :) It's one of my favorite trials because it's an opportunity to run courses from judges we don't see every weekend and see so many excellent competitors from around the world. And it's also a lot of fun to camp with our friends and talk about agility and dogs until very very late every night.

Here are some Xsara's pictures from the trial in Ptuj.

Regaining Confidence

2009-05-03T14:25:00.009+02:00

First of all, I made a new blog for Tani, so from now on this blog is back to being full-time about my amazing little beagle :) I think each of them deserves her own blog, so to read about Tani's progress you can click HERE. She's doing great, by the way!

Xsara is also doing amazingly well. With every trial she is gaining back her confidence and I am very proud of her. She's been out of training and competing for quite some time and it's so nice to see her be happy and healthy again! In yesterday's trial she ran her full speed again, agility even faster than her average speed before illness, so I was jumping through the roof! If she hadn't knocked the last bar in jumping, she would be third. It was all my fault, of course - I was so happy with her run that I started praising her a little to soon, causing her to lower her hind legs. But nevertheless, all contacts were perfect, she was in a great mood and a joy to run with.

I have some new pictures of her trials. Looking at them, I am often amazed by how high she actually jumps sometimes. She is often 65cm in the air, like large dogs - and sometimes she takes off metres before the jump (and yet she hardly ever knocks them). I think we might need a technique to regulate her jumping a little, but right now all I care about is boosting her confidence so that she will be more independent on course again. I want her to just run and have as much fun with me as I am having with her.

This is the smile I love so much :)

More Trials

2009-04-20T23:57:00.017+02:00

Xsara had two trials this weekend. On Saturday we had an agility trial in Gornja Radgona. I am very happy with how we did as we had two clean runs. Her contacts have improved a lot and she seems very happy to be back to competing and training. We were 5th, running after 3 pyr sheps and a poodle. We had a lovely day there, it was a lot of fun. Even though Gornja Radgona is far away and we had to wake up very early in the morning, it's one of my favorite trials.

On Sunday we had a Rally-Obedience trial. Unfortunately I cannot brag with great results there, as Xsara was sniffing a LOT. She worked perfectly outside the ring before and after our turn, but wasn't so willing to cooperate on course. We still scored 161/170 and were placed 4th, but I know we can do a lot better than that. I hope we will do better next time.
I haven't made any new tricks videos yet, but I have some beautiful pictures to share. Big thanks to Iztok Noč who took them!

Xsara:

Tani:

I have managed to make contacts with Tani's sisters. Little black girl Rayas is in Switzerland and she has a very nice webpage. The fawn-merle girl is now known as Razz and she lives in Spain. All three sisters will be agility dogs when they grow up.
Razz:

Rayas:

A Little Bit Of Everything

2009-04-13T12:31:00.009+02:00

I've become totally horrible with updates on this blog!! We had very bad weather for a week and couldn't train outisde, but it's been lovely for the past few weeks and now we're mostly outside.

We had a 4Fun trial a couple of weeks ago and Xsara won the open cathegory, making me very proud. Then yesterday we had a trial in Austria. Our first run was pretty bad because I forgot the course (it happens) so we got a refusal and knocked the long jump, but the second run (agility) was great, all contacts were super and even though the course was very difficult we were 2nd, so overall we finished on 5th place (but only missed 2nd place for 1 point). Not bad at all, specially since we haven't competed in so long. We have a lot of trials in the next weeks as well, plus some rally-obedience trials and a herding test for Tani, so we're super busy. Here are some pictures from Austria:

... we also filmed some of Tani's new tricks:

... and went to the seaside again:

Why am I a workaholic when it comes to my dogs? Because of this look in their eyes! When it comes to learning new things, they both get green sparkly eyes and wag their tails passionately - and I'm crazy about that :)

Tani and Xsara are doing great, they are still very good friends and I have no problems taking them everywhere with me. I thought I would have more problems getting Tani used to competitions (a lot of dogs, people and sounds), but she was totally fine and acted like a pro :) Xsara is constantly regaining muscles as Tani keeps her very busy, so she is in a very good shape now (but they are currently both on hyper calories diet). Will post again as soon as I have more time! Thanks to everyone for your comments, I always appreciate them.

Puppy Tricks (part 2)

2009-03-24T07:32:00.003+01:00

Here is part 2 of Tani's puppy tricks, filmed during our trip to the seaside on Sunday.

You can see how nicely Xsara and Tani play together, for those who were asking how they get along. They are very good friends, only 2 toys are absolutely off limit for Tani and Xsara won't let her near them (nobody touches the green ball but Xsara and I). Tani has some very beagle-like characteristics (not distrustful of strangers at all, everybody is her best friend and gets tons of kisses if notices how wonderful she is). Xsara is even more playful than before, I think she really likes having company. So all is good :) Hope to make some new videos soon (we really need to do a new tricks video for Xsara as well)!

Puppy Tricks Part 1

2009-03-18T17:57:00.002+01:00

We only filmed a couple of tricks on Sunday, but I made a short video anyway, so that you can see our little girl in action. She knows some more triks and is learning new things every day, so part 2 will arrive shortly :)

A Quick Update

2009-03-09T09:29:00.009+01:00

A quick update while the girls sleep :) They have become very good friends, they play together, cuddle together, eat together, Xsara really looks after her and I think she's very happy to have somebody to play with 24/7. Tani is crazy about Xsara, she constantly gives her little kisses and is very happy when Xsara kisses her back. I expected there to be more jealousity, so I'm very happy to see them be such great sisters to one another.

As pyrenean shepherds need so much socialisation, I pretty much take Tani with me everywhere I go. I have a little doggy backpack (similar to a sherpa crate) so I just put her in and off we go. She is very brave, loves people and animals and is incredibly nosy :) She is still a little afraid of trucks and buses, but not too scared around them at all. Every time Tani and I come back home, Xsara will first check if I brought Tani back and be clearly happy to see her, only then will she greet me as well :)

I'm also happy to report that Xsara is back to training and, naturally, we take Tani with us when we train. Yesterday we tried sending her through the tunnel for the first time and then we ran around the wings of jumps with bars on the ground. With Xsara, we're working on her being more independent on the course. I think it looks quite promissing, I'm very happy with yesterday's training, really. Her weaves entries are very good and her contacts are also more and more independent. She is very happy to be running again, that's for sure!

We took the girls to the seaside a couple of times as the weather finally improved for the weekend. There is already Spring on the coast so we had such a wonderful time. Unfortunately, I think Tani will probably not be crazy about swimming, so I will have two dogs and none of them will swim with me, urgh! I'm also teaching them tricks full time. Tani already knows "cik" (go around an object and turn left), "go on" and "get in the bowl". With Xsara I was a little busy practicing a routine for a tricks show we participated in (at the opening of a new pet store), but am planning on teaching her some new tricks as well.

Now they are awake again so I'm taking them for a loooong walk! Will write again as soon as I have more time! Thank you all for your comments and welcome wishes for Tani, we really appreciate it :)

Proud To Present Désirée de Loubajac

2009-02-26T07:01:00.008+01:00

Yes, she's here and she's one funny little girl. We all have fallen in love with her right away. Xsara is a great sister, they sleep together in my bed and she even lets Tani near her food bowl, so she really took me by surprise. They look very cute together. Xsara is very careful when they play and lets her gently know if she gets too much into her face. Tani is totally fascinated by Xsara's tail so she likes to walk behind Xsara and watch it as it goes left and right.

One word to describe Tani best would be fast. Everything she does is speedy! She is always alert, looking around and listening to every little sound. She loves to run and play and she adapts very well on new surroundings. Everyone who will stop to admire her will get a big wet kiss. But in her heart she decided right away that she only belongs to me, so she follows me everywhere. She is always eather behind my back on between my legs, like a little duckling.

We try to take her to as many places as possible as pyrenean shepherds need a lot of socialisation at a very young age. In the night she literally falls asleep (she tries to be awake for as long as she can, until she drops on the floor with a big smile on her face). So we're really really busy. But at least she sleeps all night long, she only needs occasional potty breaks and goes right back to sleep. But during the day she really doesn't sleep much, so again I don't have much time for the internet. I'll try to do better and write more regularly, I promise!

Schnappi Rhimes With Puppy :)

2009-02-06T17:24:00.006+01:00

Yes, well, I'm sure you've all deduced that we're getting a new puppy :) So I'll stop being misterious. Why do I keep calling her my Christmas present? It's because she was born on Christmas! A very cool date to celebrate her birthday, I must say. I didn't want to talk publicly about her until I was absolutely sure about everything - and now I am :) So let me tell you more about Xsara's little sister: First of all, I decided to try another breed this time. I love beagles and will always have them, but I also want to try something else. So we're getting a beautiful little pyr shep. I will go to the Pyrenees to get her in two weeks. She is a sweet little blue merle girl from de Loubajac kennel. Her mother is Pecquelette de Loubajac (also famous La's mother, so they are step sisters), while her dad Hobnob's Victor comes from Sweden. I have her pictures but cannot post them for copyright purposes. However, I promise to post some when she comes to stay with us. I will try leading a separate blog for little Tani (short for Katana, 'cause we're naming her after a cool motorcycle) because raising a pyr shep puppy will be a lot different from what we do with Xsara.

Otherwise not much news to report. We still have snow, rain and lousy weather, but were able to attend a couple of training sessions nevertheless. Xsara seems to feel great, which, of course, makes me incredibly happy! Whenever the weather permits, we go out and play in the snow and go for long walks and she seems very relaxed. I'm sure she'll love to have company, to play with and to misbehave together :) Her billboards are still accross the country and I finally got used to seing them everywhere. I like the feeling, but I have to say it's still kind of weird.

UPDATE: To clear things up - I see some people think we're getting a Great Pyrenees :) Pyr sheps are very small, nervous shepherds that work together with them, so it's quite a different breed! We're getting one of those.

She's A Star

2009-01-22T08:36:00.011+01:00

I haven't posted in a while but things have been quite crazy here (mostly for me). Xsara is well enough to train, but unfortunately bad weather is now keeping us away from our training centre. We do some flat work, obedience and theraball tricks, but can't wait for some actual stuff. However we have some very big news to share:

Xsara was invited to be the poster-girl of a TV show here in Slovenia. We had a photo-shooting on Friday and her pictures turned out very nice, so she is now on jumbo billboards! I saw two of them yesterday but didn't have my camera on. Aša was able to make a snap with her phone on her walk with Sena and they sent me this picture, so thanks! Xsara had to pretend that she's a boy peeing on her neighbour's door for the poster (the title of the show is "It's nice to be a neighbour"). She got a little confused because the photographer couldn't decide if he wanted her to lift her right or her left foot and I had to stand behind her back so I couldn't help her much (and we only had one day to prepare for everything). In the end she would try to lift all her paws at the same time. She still lifts her back legs whenever I tell her to do something, it's really funny. Anyway, since it was a paying job and she did so well around all the cameras, lights, people jumping around and everything, I bought her a very fancy new fleece overall coat the next day (which was also my birthday, by the way). The hair on her tummy hasn't fully grown back yet, so she's very cold outside. She looks very cute in her outfit.

In my previous post I was talking about a potential big Christmas present for us. It looks like it's really going to happen! I'm so so happy. I don't want to share all the details until we're absolutely sure about everything, but it rhimes with Schnappi :) Shouldn't be too hard to guess, right?!

We're Back!

2009-01-05T09:28:00.020+01:00

Happy New Year everyone! We're back from the seaside where we spent one week around New Year. We had a great time, as always. Long walks, a lot of sunny weather, no TV or computers, just bonding, playing and relaxing. It was really great and we are already looking forward to go back!

On the morning after New Year, Xsara got a visit from Dedek Mraz. He brought her a Wubba and more natural treats (100% freeze-dried bison meat). She also got a new tugging leash, because she's obsessed with tug games lately. She really likes all of the presents. She is even more playful than usually, so I think that home prepared food really suits her. We might get another really big Christmas present, but it's to soon to talk about. I have my fingers crossed!

A couple of days before going to the sea, we went back to training for the first time in months. It was great! Xsara was very happy to be back, she jumped out of the car and started running around like crazy, making circles around her friends Bode and Gayo and herself. Once I managed to kind of calm her down, we ran a couple of very short sequences (a couple of contacts - all of which were great, and some turns and tunnels). I rewarded her a lot, mostly with tugging and a ball, but also with food. We didn't stay long and when we finished we went back home right away, with no waiting for everyone else (thanks to Daša who allowed us to do so). I was very happy with how it went. We're going back to training today and in the following days I will go there by myself once and run with Bode again. I don't want to run with him in front of Xsara because it could get her nervous, but I really want to run with him and Manca offered so ... :)

Anyway, here are some pictures from our vacation:

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T09:42:00.008+01:00

Happy Holidays everyone! Apparently Xsara was a good girl this year, so Santa left her something under the tree. Her gifts were ordered from our favourite online store for agility enthusiasts :) She knew it was for her right away, so she jumped on the package and started to unwrap it - with our cat closely monitoring her every move. With one move she opened the gift and the baggy of natural treats for active dogs, so the treats fell out of the baggy and it took us some time to clean up the mess. Then we proceeded with the other present: a tug toy with real rabbit skin. She went crazy over it, so this year Santa really got her the most perfect presents ever. We also celebrate New Year in Slovenia, so next week we're expecting another nice old man with a bag of gifts. We call him Dedek Mraz (Grandpa Cold).

Today we had a very relaxing morning after a real drama. Xsara's sister Sena ran away two days ago, chasing an animal in the woods. We spent an entire day looking for her, we even went there in the middle of the night in case we would be able to hear her in the silence. Xsara helped us as much as she could, but she got very nervous in the woods so after a while we took her home and went to continue searching for her ourselves. We were soooo worried about Sena, it's really cold outside and she had been out for 24 hours! But then her people called us and told us that someone found her and saw a poster of her missing, so she was reunited with her family on Christmas Eve. She is very tired, but otherwise she's fine. I hope Santa gets her a GPS device so she won't get lost again :)

Xsara's Personal Chef

2008-12-18T10:14:00.006+01:00

We had another vet appointment yesterday. Her blood work and ultrasound are a lot better, but some parts of her intestines are still inflamed. She cannot digest processed food well, so we will probably have to cook for her. We can try different brands of kibbles and cans to see if there is any formula that suits her, at least for our shows abroad it would be a lot easier. It will be a little complicated, but with the right diet she'll be totally fine. We just need to find out what the right diet for her is, and that might take a while. It seems like she's always had sensitive digestion, so it's not stress related. I never considered her to be under stress, so this diagnosis makes sense to me. I'll be more than happy to learn how to cook for her, if that will make her feel better.

We can slowly start to include our normal routines back into our life. Since her intestines are still a little inflamed, we will start in baby steps. We will go to a trial as spectators on Saturday, where she'll be able to see her friends. But we won't stay there for too long. I also ordered a theraball DVD to learn some easy exercises that will help her to regain muscles before going back on course. And after consulting with our vet I also decided to try an Ayurvedic medicine that is supposed to help with digestion. When we will go back to training, I will reward with tug games and balls more than food, and I will try out some home made treats recipes that will be even more tasty, easy on her digestion and chicken free, as she is allergic to poultry. If you have any recipes to share, please let us know. We would really appreciate it!

The Greatest Wealth Is Health

2008-12-10T09:27:00.010+01:00

First of all big thanks to everyone sending us "get well" wishes and the first Christmas cards. It's nice to know that there are so many friends who think of Xsara and wish her all the best. We really appreciate the support!

Our girl seems to feel fine most of the time, but mornings are still a bit of a problem. She wakes up at 5 a.m. feeling sick, throws up a little bit of gall and goes back to sleep for a couple of hours. She then wakes up again at 7 a.m. feeling great. This started two days after we switched to soaked kibbles, so our vet says it's most likely related to the change in diet. Which means we're back to cooking. I normally never cook for myself, I always make things explode or I hurt myself in the process, so it's really best for everyone if I stay far away from the kitchen. I even managed to cut myself with cheese two times (no knife, just cheese), so you can see it's clearly not the best idea for me to cook. But somehow I never mess up when I cook for Xsara (OK, maybe I got a little burn a couple of times, but nothing big). And to be honest, I like cooking for her. It's something I can actively do to make her feel better, so it's comforting for me as well. Being such a nice little girl as she is, Xsara loves to help out in the kitchen. As you can see, her job is to do the dishes.

Health Update

2008-12-02T18:28:00.006+01:00

We are just back from the vet. Xsara is better, although she is still a little paled and she lost more than 1kg (2.2lbs). It's understandable considering she's on light food diet, but it's not the best news. The good news is that she can be taken off antibiotics and will only continue to take gastric acid inhibitors! Our next vet appointment is in two weeks, then we will decide how to proceed. Tomorrow we can try changing her diet to soaked kibbles and see if she will digest them well. We still need to divide her meals into many small portions. And, of course, she still needs to rest and cuddle a lot, and she can play and run if she doesn't get overly excited - but she cannot train yet.

Last week we got a little bit of snow in Ljubljana. She really liked that and she was so cute running around like a little puppy. But it started raining a couple of days ago and all the snow melted away. At least for now! It seems like after two years of practically no snow, we will have a real winter this year.

Never Boring!

2008-11-23T17:26:00.017+01:00

I am happy to report that Xsara keeps getting better and better. We had a check up at our vet and he was very glad to see her doing so well. We now know that the meds are definitely working, so he prolonged this therapy until the beginning of December. We are taking it easy while she's on two strong antibiotics and acid inhibitors, but resting totally bores her :) So I am doing my best to occupy her with easy but very fun stuff while she is recovering from this illness. Thanks to Azu for a great toy idea you can see on the picture. It's a maze made out of PVC pipes. You put a ball in the maze and the dog's task is to get the toy out, using his paws, mouth and, naturally, brain. We are having a lot of fun with it.

This weekend we had a very nice weather and we spent most of the time outside. The vet said she can run as much as she likes to, as long as it's relaxing and she doesn't get overly excited. So we had two fun outings. Yesterday we were doggy sitting Xsara's niece Luna. We took the girls to the spring of river Krka where we went for a long walk and they could play in the meadows. We really liked having Luna around, she is a very cool dog.

And today the weather got even better, the sun was shining and the day was perfect for a hike. Of course, hiking would still be too much for Xsara, but we know that she absolutely adores the fresh air and long walks where she can be off leash, so we decided to take her to Velika Planina. It's a big Alpine meadow and you can get to it by rail car. We went for a very long walk up there and there was even some snow on the top, so Xsara had a great time. You can see how she learned to ice skate on a little frozen lake:

And here are some other pictures from this walk:

Finally Some Good News!

2008-11-17T09:22:00.005+01:00

Seems like the medicines are starting to show their positive effect! Yesterday evening the feces were brown and more compact with no blood in them, and this morning half black half brown, which is very very good (the organism calms down at night and mornings are usually the worst part of the day for ulcer patients). I've never been so excited about poop before, but today I definitely am!

Also, we finished the box of anti-vomiting medications two days ago, and she hasn't thrown up since she's off pills. Hopefully she will continue to feel better and better, now that we definitely know that the meds are working properly.

Thanks to everyone sending us positive vibes, we are very grateful for all your messages of comfort. Currently I don't have much time for blogging, but will visit all of your blogs to thank you individually as soon as I can.

We also have a treat for all agility freaks: Xsara is on the official Slovenian agility calendar again, this year she is miss September. The calendar is made by the staff of Agility Portal Slovenije.

Update: We just got the test results for ehrlichiosis from the Faculty of Medicine. They test two blood samples using two different methods. Both results were negative, so Xsara does not have ehrichiosis!

More Updates

2008-11-16T12:07:00.002+01:00

Big thanks to everyone expressing concerns about Xsara's health. It's nice to know that there are so many people who care about her. I wish I could tell you we finally have some good news, but unfortunately she's still not well.
She was constipated for 3 days, didn't poop at all. We went back to the vet and he X-rayed her. There is no blockage in her digestive tract, which is good, so he told us to include some flax seeds and more rice in her diet. That helped and she can now poop again, but her feces are still black, which is bad. It means she is loosing a lot of blood and that there is still blood in her digestive tract. She is also a little hypothermic, but not pallid. I am very worried, but luckily the vet calmed me down a lot. Her body weight hasn't changed a bit, which is also good and she seems to feel fine. I'm trying to be calm, even though I am incredibly worried about her. I will keep you posted on her condition.

More Bad News

2008-11-11T15:33:00.004+01:00

Xsara felt better for a couple of days. And then yesterday she started throwing up again - luckily she didn't vomit any blood this time, but there was blood in her excreta. So we went back to the vet. He performed an ultrasound exam on her and had plenty to see! Her entire intestines and stomack are inflamed, and she does also have ulcer. She was prescribed stronger antibiotics and a more powerful inhibitor of gastric acid, plus he gave her something to stop the vomiting. She is not feeling well at all, she sleeps all the time and really is low on energy.

We have absolutely no idea why this happened! But she is very pain tolerant and it's most likely that her tummy has been bothering her for quite a while and she didn't show it to us (apart from occasionally throwing up saliva after eating notable amounts of corn in the field, but I'm quite sure that's a normal reaction). The whole thing is weird because she is not stressed out and she NEVER got any medications that are known to cause ulcer (Rymadyl, Medrol, Aspirin ...). Some vets think it's possible that my absence set it off, specially if she had a pre-existing condition (if that was more of a stress than we thought) - or it could simply be bacterial. We honestly don't know at this point. But the main thing right now is for her to recover fast and be her happy, carefree self again.

A Little Update

2008-11-08T21:41:00.009+01:00

We've seen 4 different vets in the past few days and consulted some other people who could help us out. Luckily, most of them agree with the first diagnosis (ulcer), which is not the nicest diagnosis to have, but it's better than the alternative. However we're testing her for ehrlichiosis as well, just in case (although it's far less likely). We're expecting the results to come in in a couple of days.

The main problem is that although the vets agree with the diagnosis, they have different opinions on the best way to treat ulcer. So I have to decide between 3 different medications. Big thanks to our famous agility friend who has riecently been through a smiliar situation and has done many many research on the subject, for sharing what she's learned with us. Having all this information made my decision a lot easier.

Xsara is currently feeling a lot better, she hasn't thrown up since we started her treatment, she is playful and has appetite. But she does sleep more than usually and likes to press next to me all the time. We're very grateful to everyone sending her positive vibes! To lighten things up a bit, I'm finally posting a couple of photos from EO:

Bad News!

2008-11-05T10:51:00.004+01:00

Our little girl is sick again :( She threw up brown saliva this morning and this usually means blood in the digestive tract, so I rushed her to the vet. Since this wasn't the first time she's vomited in the past months (although blood was involved for the first time), the vets suspect it's ulcer (although it could still be just gastritis). They started her on antibiotics and two other medications, strict diet (no food for 24 hours!) and no stress. We have another appointment tomorrow and we'll see if she will feel better and if they will have to do any more tests, however she will most likely be on medications for at least one whole month. Side effects are mild, but she could feel tired a lot and be low on energy. I really hope she'll feel better soon, all I want is for her to be a healthy and happy little dog!

Together Again!

2008-11-03T09:31:00.024+01:00

I've been back at home for 3 days now but haven't been able to post much because I've been busy bonding with Xsara. Many people asked me how she deals with my absence and I haven't really been able to answer because I've never been away for an entire week without her. But now I can tell you that she actually took it very well. She would mostly sleep while Gas was at work and they spent the rest of the time taking looooong walks, even though it was raining all the time. They went to a beagle convention organised by our breeder and Xsara had fun seeing many of her siblings and other relatives. But by the end of the week she was getting a little nervous and would watch the door more than usually.

I missed her like crazy, but the trip I took with my grandfather was amazing. I've always wanted to go to Africa and now I was able to see a little piece of it. I really hope to experience more of this oncredible land some day, and it will be easier now that I know that Xsara would be OK with me gone for a week or two. Anyway, I took many pictures and here are some of the most interesting ones:

As I said, I missed Xsara like crazy and was really anxious to see her when we landed. When we got home she jumped in my arms, gave me a big wet kiss and then went sniffing around our room to see if everything was the same. She really didn't make a big hello out of it, but I think it's because she knows that we belong together and that I would never leave her. However for the next 3 nights she would sleep so close to me that she almost pushed me off the bed.

To reassure her that we will now continue to do all the fun things together, I immediately took her out for a long frisbee session and yesterday we went for a nice trip. Gas wanted to go to the sea and I wanted to visit my beloved Isonzo river, so we went for a hike to waterfall Boka and then to watch the sunset and have a dinner by the beach in Lucija. Luckily, Slovenia is small enough so that you can do all of it in one day :)

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T12:25:00.007+01:00

I don't normally dress Xsara up into costumes, but we found these adorable fairy wings at a children's store and couldn't help ourselves. So this year Xsara is a Food Fairy for Halloween.

Do you think she doesn't look scary? Well, she's horrifying ... to a hamburger :)

Happy Halloween!

New Action Pictures

2008-10-22T08:51:00.011+02:00

Big thanks to Iztok and Andraž for these amazing pictures of Xsara, taken on the previous few trials!

Tomorrow I'm going to Djerba to enjoy some sunshine before winter. I think Xsara will love having Gas all for herself, while I know I will miss her like crazy! We will be back to blogging next week.

National Champion 2008

2008-10-19T08:00:00.010+02:00

Yup, that's right! For the second year in the row, Xsara won the combined National Championship in Agility on A2/J2 Medium level. Even though we have been competing in A3/J3 for the past two trials and missed the first trial of the season due to her nail injury, we still had enough points from 9 out of 12 trials. I am super proud because the competition was a lot more difficult this year. It really gives us a nice closure for A2/J2 and now we can set new goals for the next season.

In the final trial of the season we also competed in A3/J3. In the first run we missed the teeter contact, and in jumping we were disqualified due to the wrong tunnel entry and had one knocked bar. Xsara wasn't in a great mood for running, she had an upset tummy the day before and is on a risotto diet. But looking at the videos I think we did some parts of the course quite well. Courses of this type are very difficult for us because the handler stands still and sends the dog around the same jumps, while Xsara performs her best when I run with her and pull her ahead with my movement. We need to gain speed in situations like this, so this will be our main working focus in the next weeks or months. I really hope that we will soon be able to bring the attitude she has in training to the trial field, because we do a lot better in training (well, most teams do). Here are the videos of our runs:

Agility

Jumping

We also had another Rally-Obedience trial last week. Xsara did very well, but she missed the entry into her favorite agility obstacle - the weaves! It was funny to see that many agility dogs had problems with agility obstacles in obedience, because they don't really expect to see them there. She got a very nice score considering we didn't get points for one exercise. We were 5th, but without this silly mistake she would probably have won.

We also have to tell you that we are now driving around safer in our new Hyundai Getz! Well, it's not completely new, it used to be my mom's, but she bought a new Getz this week (she is a huge fan, what can I say), and gave me a really good price for the "old" one (well, at 5 years she is not really "old" yet, but she's older that the new one). Pictures to follow!

Help Clint With Just A Click

2008-10-08T16:21:00.006+02:00

Xsara and I were so touched by a post on River's Blog, that I decided to publish it here as well, I hope that's OK with River's people (otherwise please let me know). Anyway, there is a Shelter Challenge going on HERE and one of the organizations in the competition is For the Love of Dogs in Tennessee (TN). The rescue with most votes will get a cash prize. Winning this challenge would help them raise money for Clint's hip surgery, so they are asking for help. It doesn't cost a thing and the site doesn't even require a registration. All you need to do is to go to the site: $100,000 Shelter Challenge. Fill in the name For the love of Dogs and the state is Tennessee (choose TN). Then they ask you to type in the name of the animal in a picture. You can vote every day until December 14, every vote will be greatly appreciated. Clint thanks you!

You Can't Always Get What You Want

2008-10-05T08:02:00.014+02:00

But if you try sometimes you get what you need. That's how the song goes and those are the best words to describe our first trial in A3/J3.

It was raining on the morning of the trial and the slippery road caused our car to slide out of a curve and we had a car crash. Luckily, nobody got hurt, as I was going very very slowly. Xsara didn't even notice it, she was safe in her crate. The only damage was on our car. We thought that there was no chance we could still make it to the trial, as we couldn't drive there any more. But luckily, agility people are probably the nicest people on Earth.

We called Dasa who was already putting up the tent beside the show-ring and she immediately suggested that she comes to pick us up. I also called my parents and they offered to take care of my car, so we left the car with my mom and went to the trial with Dasa. With a morning like this, I was so grateful that we were fine for the entire day, and I really wasn't nervous about running in A3/J3 any more.

We came to the trial just in time to catch the course viewing. The course was very tricky (tunnel under the A-frame and the A-frame was in the combination twice!). Quite a task for our leading contacts. But strangely, most of her contacts were done better than I anticipated, even though the judge gave us penalty points on the first A-frame. Otherwise our run was nice and we made it through the course with no faults on time. The second course was even more tricky and I'm not proud of myself, but I decided to play it safely. So on two tricky spots I lost quite some time, but got no faults. This time we got a couple of points on time because of my safe strategy, but otherwise I think we had a very nice run. Anyway, with two diecent runs WE PLACED 3rd! An amazing result considering that Slovenia has a very strong Medium team. I never expected we could place so high, so I was super proud. We may not be the fastest team around, but Xsara is a very reliable dog, and I respect her for that. However next time, I'm not going safe any more, I will just run and if I send her to a wrong obstacle, so be it. Here is the video of our Jumping run, thanks to Petrca:

Also another news - we started doing theraball exercises and she loves it. She jumped on the ball right away and on the first day she was already comfortable doing some easy tricks on the ball. That's another thing I love about her, the excitement she puts into everything she does. She is such a cool dog, so full of life and vital energy, and so loving and sweet at the same time. I just can't stop thinking how happy I am that she is fine, as she is sleeping in my lap. I'm taking her for an extra long walk when she wakes up - because today we celebrate life!

Too Much Work, Too Little Fun

2008-09-29T16:41:00.006+02:00

I haven't posted anything new in a while because I had a lot of work, so Xsara was a little bored. Out of protest she learned how to climb on the kitchen counter, which was a disaster so I had to remove one shelve from the room. Sometimes she does something to remind me she's a beagle, and that I should never take her nice behaviour for granted.

We haven't had any trials since the Eukanuba finale, but there will be one on Saturday. This will be our first trial in A3/J3, so it's very exciting. Naturally we regularly take time for our usual trainings and I'm very pleased with our work in both, agility and RO. We also visited a couple of nice places last week: we went back to Kamniska Bistrica and towards Kokrsko sedlo (man, how I love that place!) and to Bloke, where we saw bear traces!

Also we want to express our congratulations to all Xsara's friends from the Slovenian World Team for nice runs in Helsinki!

Hiking, Eukanuba Finale And The Ball That Was M.I.A.

2008-09-15T08:56:00.021+02:00

Last week we had to repair the obstacles in our club. It was still sunny outside and we wanted to finish all the work before it would start raining. Once we started to work we realised that the obstacles were in a worse shape than we had suspected, so we couldn't repair them in time. But we did manage to give them a very unique touch. Do you think this will make it easier for the dogs with contact problems? Hehe, probably not! So we will paint them as soon as the weather improves :)

As I heard the weather forecast, I decided to enjoy the last sunny day of the week hiking with Xsara. We didn't actually even have the entire day as it would start raining in the evening, so we went from the lake of Jezersko to Češka koča mountain hut (1543m). This time I decided to go alone with Xsara and I really enjoyed it. It was so beautiful!

First we saw the lake:

... there were also beautiful meadows with cows and horses:

... and, of course - the pretty pretty mountains! Xsara was posing like a professional doggy model, so here are some of our best shots:

On Saturday we had the finale of Eukanuba Cup - our last trial in A2/J2. It was raining for the entire day and it was very cold. The judge was Bernd Hueppe from Austria. I liked running his courses, but I thought they were a little dangerous for very fast dogs given the weather circumstances. Anyway, we were 3rd (again with very nice contacts) and in combined results for the Eukanuba Cup 2008 we were 2nd. Xsara got a nice doggy sleeping bag from the sponsor, but the best reward for her came on Sunday - after three months we managed to find her green ball and I think she's never letting it go again :)

RO-II exam: Passed!

2008-09-08T11:53:00.005+02:00

We had more trials this weekend. First we had an agility trial here in Ljubljana. Unfortunately I made a handling error and got us eliminated, but was very happy with Xsara's contacts, which were my priority for this trial. I am planning on moving us to the highest Agility 3 Level this season, so contacts are very important right now. We don't have any pictures from this trial yet, so I'm posting a picture from the last week, kindly sent to me by Teja and Luna.

On Sunday we had a RO trial and for the first time competed in RO-II cathegory. In order to compete on a higher level, a team must complete the exam for this cathegory. I wasn't very happy with our performance because Xsara started sniffing on the start and I couldn't get her concentrated on me. But the judge saw potential in us and was very pleased with some of the exercises that she really did well. So we didn't just pass the exam but also finished on the 4th place. I was surprised to see that we could score so high even on our bad day :) Maybe I'm too self-critical.

After the trial we took Xsara for a long walk. I had to work in the evening so we didn't have a lot of time, but I really wanted to enjoy at least a little bit of mountains. So we went to Kokrsko sedlo, but as we didn't have the time to go to the top, we just walked for a couple of hours and then returned to the valley. Xsara loves hiking so much, it's so nice to watch her jump around like an agile little ibex. And the mountains are absolutely amazing this time of year, so we will definitely do more hiking in the next moths.

Pictures from Selca

2008-09-02T11:40:00.008+02:00

Xsara:

Kate:

Tnahks to Andraz and Iztok again.

Trial in Selca 2008

2008-09-01T11:31:00.012+02:00

We had another trial on Saturday and it was held in Xsara's birth town, Selca. Unfortunately our breeder couldn't come because she was on a dog expo on the other side of Slovenia. But we visited her a couple of days before the trial to see their new puppies. The 4 weeks old Z-litter is really adorable - 4 sweet girls and one boy.

Anyway, the trial went very well. We had two nice runs and won in our cathegory, so I was a super proud beagle mummy. Seems like Xsara has gained even some more speed lately, so all the training is really paying off for both of us. I know we are still not running our full speed, so I'm working on it and hopefully we will improve our times even more this season. I have to admit that training with other dogs is very helpful to both of us. So no, I'm not "on the dark side" as someone suggested, but I don't want to hold Xsara back so I have to train a lot more than she does.

Dasa was on the same dog expo as our breeder, so I ran with Kate again, as "the white dog". We started very well but I was so afraid that she would hit her shoulder into the flat tunnel entry (which was placed in a nasty 180° turn) that I didn't call her enough, causing her to enter into the wrong tunnel. After that mistake I got a little distracted and made another little handling error and forgot to run faster than I'm used to, but all in all I think it was still a diecent run.

Our next trial is on Saturday and it's also a team trial. Unfortunately one canine member of our team hurt her toe and another one is pregnant, so it seems like our team won't run. I wish both of them a very fast recovery!

Agi4Fun

2008-08-24T22:10:00.010+02:00

Today we had a 4Fun trial in Ljubljana. I ran with 5 dogs - I wanted to run with 6 but one of them couldn't come, however as it turned out, running 5 dogs can make you quite tired. I was very happy with most of my runs, even though I got DQ in most of them, but some of them were really nice apart from that one mistake. All of my borrowed dogs were really very fast and responsive, but they've never trained with me before, so this experience was new for all of us. I might be too quiet for one dog or too soft for another, which would be different if they were my dogs, training with me from day one. So I think I could handle a BC if I ever decide to have one. And another thing I learned is that viewing the course with so many dogs in your mind is pretty hard, so compliments to those who do it on a regular basis.

My first dog was Bode, who I think I "clicked" with the most. He was going so fast that he broke the weavepoles and he was the only dog who ran for no reward, letting him run is the most rewarding thing by itself. I still played with him before the start and he was playing like crazy, a really cool young dog - border collie, of course. I trained with him once a week ago and we bumped pretty hard, so I was kind of afraid of running with him again. But this time it was a lot better, specially in our first run.

I also ran with two other borders. Kate is an amazingly well trained dog and I also borrow her for Rally-Obedience, so she is used to working with me. I absolutely adore her. Apart from one stupid mistake we ran quite OK - but that stupid mistake of mine got us eliminated.

The last border I ran with was Buffy, also a very nice girl. Unfortunately, she found it very weird to run with me so she was constantly looking for her Petra. We also had some start line problems. Other than that we had two nice runs, and for a dog who had never ran with me before she did very well.

I also borrowed one small dog, a pinscher. Toy, like Buffy, had never ran with me before. We had a very nice first run with the wrong tunnel entry, but otherwise nice (he only wasn't sure if I wanted him to hit the contacts like his handler. I should have waited a little longer for him to stop). Unfortunately we couldn't understand each other well in the second run. That was really a pity. I was surprised to see how fast such a little dog can go, woooosh :)

Naturally I also ran with Xsara. She knocked two bars in the first run which really took me by surprise, but she did very well in jumping. We were 3rd in the combined Medium Open results. I hope it wasn't too weird for her to watch me with other dogs. I will make it up to her with a big dinner and a belly rub.

More Pictures

2008-08-19T14:23:00.021+02:00

On Sunday we took Xsara back to Narnia. The Isonzo river is of the most incredible colour, no wonder why great poets wrote about it. We went for a very long walk by the river and Xsara enjoyed it a lot more than sea - it's not salty and it's very calm, both of which seemed to be big pluses for her. The water is also very very clean and icy cold, so it was very refreshing in these hot Summer days. The place we visited is called Most na Soči (Bridge on Isonzo).

We spent a wonderful day and here are some pictures of this trip:

We also have some new frisbee photos to share:

And I also recieved some agility pictures from Portorož, enjoy:

Gradisca d'Isonzo

2008-08-16T08:38:00.010+02:00

We had a trial in Gradisca d'Isonzo (Italy) yesterday. Unfortunately, I didn't make any pictures of Xsara. We had a really nice first run (contacts), which we won, but unfortunately I made a handling error in the second run so we were DQ. Seems like all dogs and handlers in our class were too relaxed because of the holidays, since nobody qualified in both runs so there were no teams classified in the combined results. I was still very happy with Xsara's runs, it's so nice to run with such a great little dog, she makes me really proud. Our next trial is a 4Fun match next week, for which I borrowed 5 of Xsara's fast running friends to try out. Do you think I will survive running with six dogs? Should be interesting :)

I know that there are many Silvia Trkman fans reading my blog, so I'm giving you a little treat: the first look at her new baby girl, Bi. I'm sure Silvia will write an introduction of her little treasure for her website very soon, she just needs to make Bi very very tired first, and that might take a while because she seems restless :)

Also some pictures from our vacation:

The camp after the storm:

Home, Sweet Home

2008-08-11T00:32:00.010+02:00

We are back - for now, at least. Our vacation was great, Xsara got to rest a little and play a lot. She even went swimming a couple of times, but she's not as crazy of water as I am. And I managed to take the best picture I've ever seen of Xsara with her favorite ball. This was during the first part of our vacation on the island Losinj in Croatia where my father is from.

I've always admired this village and it's nature, and I was really happy to be able to enjoy it with Xsara.

For the second part of our vacation, we went back to Strunjan, where we relaxed a lot. I missed agility super hard, but I think Xsara really needed to rest. They say that you sometimes need a chance to miss what you love the most, just to remember how much it means to you. We have training tomorrow and we'll see if this will reveal to be truth. But even though we didn't do agility, we kept ourselves busy with other activities. Such as frisbee. Frisbee is still fun for Xsara, so that makes me very happy.

We also trained running to the visible target on the ground and Xsara outran me every single time. I really didn't have a chance. And one evening we even took her to a concert where she met my favorite band, unfortunately only the lead singer was missing.

We had sunny weather for the entire time. There was just this horrible storm on Friday night and it destroyed many trees, boats and tents in the nearby camp, so all the unhappy campers had to sleep in their cars. We were so lucky to be in the warm house where it was safe! Everything else was as close to perfection as it gets, although Xsara is very happy to be back at home. She loves adventures but is always happy when we return. I haven't managed to upload all the pictures to my PC yet - I will do so in the following days and post the best ones here. Right now it's already late here so I'm wishing sweet dreams to everyone!

2008-07-25T13:09:00.004+02:00

No, I don't have a new dog. Since I haven't recieved Xsara's EO pictures yet, I'm posting a photo from Portoroz with Dasa's poodle Katka. We are on our way to the seaside again and will return in two weeks. In the meantime I'm posting a video of Xsara playing with our new smart toy. This is her third encounter with Nina Ottosson's Dog Turbo. I have to say that I absolutely love this puzzle!

Portoroz and EO 2008

2008-07-22T00:20:00.003+02:00

We have just returned from EO and Xsara is sooooo happy to sleep in our bed. Camping was a fun adventure but with all the rain, mud and very cold temperatures we are extremely happy to be home.

Unfortunately, we didn't have any great results to brag with. Xsara bumped in a double jump after a flat tunnel in our first run, and limped after the last jump. Most courses included A-B-C combinations which are rarely seen in Slovenia (we've never had it in any of our courses before), so many competitors from Slovenia had problems with this, including the most experienced ones. In team trials we had a nice jumping run, but in the afternoon when we had the second run it was already so muddy that I couldn't run in my snickers at all. To put it another way: I'm really not proud of myself right now, but I do try to appreciate every new experience including this one, and I hope we will do better on our next big trial. We also discovered that Xsara likes frisbee (specially if there are any border collies watching her), so we will try it out and see how it goes.

Before EO we had a competition in Portoroz and didn't do too badly there (2nd place). I will post some pictures of both trials tomorrow, right now I just want to hug my dog until she starts snoring and rub her tummy until I fall asleep as well.

News, News, News

2008-07-09T08:02:00.009+02:00

We've been very busy in the past few days, but unfortunately not in the way that we like being busy. Xsara got sick. She was throwing up, refused to eat and was walking around the house like she was scared of everything. Of course I took her to the vet. He said she must have eaten something bad and gave her antibiotics, something to prevent her from vomiting, something for the diarrhea, rehydration powder and some probiotic liquid to equilibrate intestinal flora. He also instructed to put her on an easy digestive diet, so I'm cooking her favourite horse-meat-risotto every day. Luckily I got a Summer job that allows me to work from my computer anywhere I am, so I can be with her 24/7. She's feeling a lot better now, her appetite is back to normal and her playfulness as well. We have the last check-up appointment with the vet today and if she is OK we will go to the seaside for a couple of days - but I'll still keep her on the diet, just to make sure.

I also have a good news: I was informed that we won a photo contest by Red Dingo. I really love their products and as I had many nice pictures of Xsara wearing her RD collar, I mailed them. They will publish the photos in the next few days - and we will get to choose the reward by ourselves.

We had a trial on Saturday, when we still didn't know that she was sick. She was a little slower than usually, but I figured maybe she was hot and kept her in a cool place. She was still 2nd :) I have to say that the "reward on the rope" to improve tunnels (as the Finnish judge suggested) isn't working well for us. Guess what happens when there is no reward in the tunnel?! She entered the tunnel and almost got out, than turned back and went looking for the toy. We got one refusal and lost a lot of time, so I'm not using this method any more. I will still try with the "outrun me to the food" thing and let you know if it's working out.

If Xsara will be completely OK by Saturday, we will go to the trial in Portoroz. Portoroz is by the sea and it's very hot there, so this is a night trial. There are always many tourists so they organize some fun shows for them - there will also be frisbee and dog dancing shows, working dogs and more fun stuff. I will try to take some pictures and post them when we come back from the sea (we will be spending almost a week near Portoroz)!

Isn't She Lovely

2008-07-02T01:03:00.007+02:00

I have some new pictures of Xsara in action, thanks to our Iztok and Andraz again. We are so lucky to have two photographers among agility enthusiasts in Slovenia, so we always have many beautiful pictures of our dogs on trials. Isn't that the coolest thing ever?!

Also I was asked to write a post about working dogs for Halo Pets. Since I really loved the topic that they proposed, I agreed. They also published some pictures and a video of Xsara :)

Our Crazy Weekend

2008-06-30T07:48:00.009+02:00

We have so many news that I don't know where to start. I'll just go chronologically. We had an agility workshop with Anne Savioja on Friday. It was very interesting, she gave me some really good pieces of advice to improve speed and I can't wait to try them out. The most interesting two for me are: to have her follow a food tube on a rope to improve tunnels and to do a short sequence of jumps and have her outrun me - if she doesn't then I get to eat the reward and she has to watch me do it. Since I'm a vegetarian it means that we will be competing for cheese. But we won't try it until Thursday because she needs to rest a little, so I will train with my friend's dog (a poodle) today.

On Saturday it was trial time again and I could tell that by then Xsara was already very tired. I don't blame her - we had a trial on Saturday, RO on Monday, another trial on Wednesday (the photo on the right is from that trial), agility class on Thursday, workshop on Friday and another trial on Saturday, so it was a lot. She was very tired so we didn't run as fast as we could have, but it was still good enough for the third place. Here are the videos of our runs:

First Run (Agility)

Second Run (Jumping)

On Sunday we celebrated Xsara's 4th Birthday. We had a cake (healthy and delicious), presents and doggy friends (including Xsara's BFF Benetton), the whole package. We went only for a short walk because it was very hot, otherwise we stayed on the terrace where it was cooler. Xsara got quite possessive over one of her toy gifts and wouldn't allow other dogs to play with it, but the border collies preferred herding Xsara with the toy in her mouth than actually playing with the toy themselves, and Katka the poodle was to busy trying to jump into someone's lap so it was all good :)

Unfortunately, I also have a very bad news: Sena's people decided that they don't want her to do agility any more. They feel it's confusing for her to have several people teaching her. I was extremely disappointed than their decision because I don't agree with them, but there really isn't anything I can do. I just hope they will continue any type of work with her because she would really benefit from it.

To My Little Princess

2008-06-27T18:31:00.002+02:00

In Good Times And In Bad

2008-06-26T07:15:00.004+02:00

The first two trials of our crazy week are behind us. On Saturday we did very well on a trial here in Ljubljana. With two clean runs we won again, so I was really proud. Maybe my self esteem grew too high because I didn't do so well yesterday (and I want to underline that it was me who didn't do so well, while Xsara was perfect).

The trial was in Murska Sobota, two and a half hours from Ljubljana - and it was incredibly hot. We had a very nice and clean first run (agility), but I made a big handling mistake in jumping and got us disqualified (I made a front cross in front of the jump instead of beside it, sending her around it and causing her to jump from the wrong side). But I was still very happy with the rest of the run, we were pretty fast. We had another team run after that (agility again), judged by WC judge Anne Savioja. It could have been another great run, but Xsara entered the tunnel from the wrong end, causing another disqualification, so we weren't really useful to our team :( It was a very difficult tunnel entry and many dogs made a mistake there. I think Xsara could have found the correct entry, but I am trying to improve our speed and with more speed mistakes are more likely to happen. The rest of the run was, again, great, so I had a really good feeling about it, I was just sorry about the team. I only have the video of our first run (the clean one) - I swear it's a coincidence, I'm not hiding our DQ runs :)

We have training with both beagles today, then agility workshop tomorrow and another trial on Saturday. I hope I won't make any crucial mistakes this time, I guess we will be pretty tired by then. But I know that we will have a great time just being together and doing what we love to do the most.

Walking On Sunshine

2008-06-20T14:02:00.008+02:00

It's weird how many our adventures start with us wanting to go somewhere and result in us going to the seaside instead :) Yesterday, for example, we were supposed to have an agility class, but I completely forgot that Dasa was already in Belgium for a trial. The weather was so beautiful, and it hasn't been nice in a while so it would be really stupid to let it slip. Xsara and Sena were already in the car and Sena's people were gone for the entire day so she was all mine. Gas was also finishing work early, a perfect opportunity for something crazy. We surprised him at work and told him that we were going on a roadtrip.

As most of you have probably realised, I am crazy about sea - we really should just make it easier for everyone and move to the seaside some day (soon). It was warm enough to swim, but none of the beagles wanted to join me in the water. They were both in a great mood for playing so I chased them around with a bottle in my hand and watered them if they weren't quick enough to escape. They seemed to have a really great time (and so did I, of course).

This morning I first went jogging with Xsara to make her a little tired for a while and then I went to pick up Sena again and took her to our training centre because she hasn't done any agility for two weeks. We trained alone for about an hour (with pauses) and she really did very well. She doesn't know the weaves yet, but other than that she really is ready to compete. She is quite fast and she pulls ahead more than Xsara did when we started (or maybe I wasn't experienced enough back then). Eather way, I was very happy with her. Now I have to take Xsara to the vet (it's anal glands party again) and then we have RO in the evening. So we are really really busy, just the way we like it :)

Long Time, No Sea

2008-06-18T16:35:00.007+02:00

This weather is absolutely crazy! It's raining all the time and it got quite cold, so we haven't been on any interesting roadtrips. Last week it was still a little warmer so we went to Iski Vintgar with Ben. Xsara couldn't wait to go swimming, can't you tell from the photo?! I hope she will be in more of a swimming mode when we go to the sea because I would really like us to go swimming together (but I won't force her if she decides against it, of course).

On Saturday we had a Beagle Reunion, organised by our breeder. It was cloudy and cold, but the dogs didn't mind. They were so happy to play together and steal human food from the tables. Whenever food was involved, Xsara was the loudest and the bossiest one. Because of her athletic figure, some people thought she really was starving, so I know they were feeding her behind my back (I could tell by the smirk on her muzzle). Anyway, we saw many Xsara's relatives, including both parents and two dogs from the same pack.

Luckily, the weather is always nice when we have training, so we haven't missed any lessons. We have three trials and an agility workshop (with the WC judge Anne Savioja) next week, so we won't be bored or anything. We will also celebrate Xsara's birthday next Friday (June 27th)- I absolutely cannot believe that she will be 4 years old!! She is still a puppy if you ask me, so playful and full of life. But at the same time I don't even remember my life before her, it's like we've always been together. Anyway, we will have a party, doggy guests, the cake and everything, and I promise to post about it. Just, please, don't make any HB wishes in advance because it's bad luck ;)

IABC 2008

2008-06-09T11:03:00.007+02:00

Our IABC adventure was incredible, far beyond my expectations. We have never ran so many courses in such short time, but Xsara didn't seem to mind. However I decided not to take her to the training today - I'll let her sleep in a little instead (I'll just take her to RO in the evening). Now let me tell you more about the trial and the rosette you see proudly displayed on the left.

We arrived to Szolnok on Thursday and the weather was awful. We had heavy rain showers on our 7 hours drive and it didn't get much better when we reached the destination. We were very happy that we decided against camping and had booked little houses in advance.

On Friday we had registrations, training and the first runs in the afternoon. Here I have to admit that I was a little disappointed because nobody bothered to check Xsara's health certificate. I know that the sticker doesn't necessariliy mean that the dog was indeed vaccinated, but it would still make me feel more comfortable. Anyway, we were allowed to train for 10 minutes on each course (3 in all), but we only decided to try out the contacts and the weaves and not overdo it. The competition started in the afternoon - it was team agility, pairs and open (for those without a team or pair) competition. We did very well in the open class (clean jumping run, 4.11 m/s), got one refusal in teams run (I ran too far away from her) and didn't run in pairs. Here is the video of our open jumping:

On Saturday we had Team Jumping, Individual Jumping and Open Agility (and it was also pairs finale). Both our jumpings were clean, but she knocked one bar in agility. However she was in a great mood for running so we really had fun together. We finished on 2nd place in combined agility and jumping Open (that's why we got the rosette), and 14th place in Individual Jumping. We also resulted as diecent team members, but unfortunately other members of our team made some mistakes so we were 15th. Another team from Slovenia was however 2nd, so congrats to Katka, Kati, Gala and Kuki. You can see Xsara's runs below.

Team jumping:

Individual jumping:

Open agility:

On Sunday we ran individual Agility - and messed up the weaves and knocked a bar, so we finished on about 18th place in medium. We also ran in the Nationals Finale (another clean run, even though I almost missed the course walk). 9 best placed dogs from each country competed in this cathegory and Slovenia was 3rd. Xsara was also the best placed beagle in the competition so we had the privilege to represent the breed in the Breeds Finale. I don't know how we were placed because we had to leave before they had the results, but we had a clean run again (only this time I could see she was a little tired because it was like 5 minutes after the Nations Finale). Anyway, here is the video of our Breeds Finale run:

We came home at about 3 in the morning and are resting a little bit today. I must say I am very glad that we went, it definitely improved my confidence and calmed my ring nerves a lot (I basically didn't have the time to make myself nervous). It was also good to compete with other dogs of different breeds, see many experienced handlers and run the courses of WC and EO judges. And, most importantly, we had a great time with other agility freaks who don't mind running in the mud, rain or under the hot sun (we had all of these) as long as they are running with their best friends.

EDIT: I just found the results online, apparently we were 5th in the Breeds Final.

Agility Pictures From Maribor

2008-06-03T11:47:00.006+02:00

Thanks to Andraž Cerar!

We are leaving for Hungary on Thursday morning, so I probably won't update until we come back. I will catch up with everybody when we return, I promise :)

Agility Trial in Maribor

2008-06-01T10:16:00.003+02:00

We had another agility trial yesterday, it was held in Maribor, the second largest city in Slovenia (after Ljubljana). We had two nice runs, both clean, so that made me happy. I got a little lost in our first run and almost took Xsara to the wrong obstacle, but she was very responsive when I called her so we just lost some time, but got no penalty points. The contact on the dogwalk also wasn't perfect (she has beautiful contacts in training but not so much on trials), but it was done with her rear foot (I triple-checked it on the video). I wanted to make a front cross after the last tunnel, but wasn't able to outrun her, so I had to make a rear cros and it didn't turn out that well, but it was OK. I was still trying to play it a little bit too safe instead of just running, so that is my mission for the rest of the season - run faster, trust Xsara more and improve our times a little more so that we can go to A3/J3 next season. We have improved our times from last year for about 0.2 m/s, so there definitely is progress. Here are the videos of our trial - I found jumping (second run) quite difficult:

A Roadtrip To Narnia

2008-05-29T12:27:00.031+02:00

We had another beautiful day yesterday. Our Rally-Obedience instructor Polona asked if I would help her film a short video about her crazy furry monsters. We decided to film the video by the river Soča (Isonzo) and make a fun day out of it. We originally wanted to go to the seaside but it was too hot for the dogs to really enjoy it, so we chose a cooler place among the mountains and near the icy river, so clean and blue that it just can't leave you indifferent.

We tried to find the place where they filmed the bridge scene from The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (they only filmed one scene in Slovenia). None of us has actually seen the movie, so it was kind of difficult. There were just so many beautiful spots. But we found a spot with a waterfall in the background that could be the right one. It was also hard to find a place with some grass by the river to shoot Polona's tricks, so we ended up filming the tricks in one of the meadows away from the river and the playing scenes separately, by the river.

Xsara is not a big swimmer, but she went in the water a couple of times and even swam a little. The funniest, however, was Polona's croatian shepherd Kisha who cannot swim. But her swimming technique really improved by the end of the day and she is a better swimmer now. Here are some of my favorite photos from this trip:

I also have some new agility pictures from the latest two trials, thanks to Iztok and Andraz again:

Hiking Photos

2008-05-27T19:42:00.015+02:00

We were in the mood for some hiking today. It was very hot in Ljubljana so the fresh mountain air was a good idea. We originally decided to go for a walk with Xsara's friend Ben and his Simona, but ended up going to Kamniško Sedlo. Since we weren't really prepared for mountains we didn't get to the top this time (we ran out of water and decided to return), but we will go back some other time and prepare for it. However we walked for about 4 hours and managed to escape from the heat weave in the city. Here are some of the best photos from the trip:

We Haven't Lost Our Mojo

2008-05-25T16:56:00.010+02:00

This weekend was a lot better than the previous one! We had an agility trial in Slovenska Bistrica on Saturday and we were playing it a little more safe. We finished on the third place with two clean runs, but our times weren't as good as they could have been if I weren't so afraid of mistakes this time. However they (the times) weren't bad at all, so I was very happy with our performance. We also had luck with the weather, so we spent a really nice day with our agi-friends.

But today Xsara even surprised myself. We had a Rally-Obedience trial and I wasn't expecting anything at all, so I really wasn't nervous. Xsara worked very well and won the trial, even though there were 32 dogs in our cathegory (some of them incredibly good). We got 147 out of 150 points. Now I have to check out the exercises for RO-2 and if we know all of them we will probably try to pass the exam for the higher cathegory before the next trial (if we do pass it, we will be allowed to compete in RO-2 on our next trial).

I'm posting the video of our trial, but it's very bad quality because "our" boyfriend Gas can't seem to understand the whole "zoom in" concept :)

Bad, Bad Barby

2008-05-19T15:12:00.011+02:00

Unfortunately our trial went pretty badly. Our speed was OK, but we again made quite some mistakes, including one bar knocked down by THE HANDLER (for the first time ever). The courses were quite difficult, but the main problem was the terrain. The ground was very uneven and some obstacles were pretty unstable because of this (which is also the reason why I knocked that bar down). We have training later today and I can't wait to improve some of our mistakes from Saturday. I am a firm believer in "everything-that-goes-wrong-is-the-handler's-fault" theory, so I spent a fair amount of time analyzing what went wrong, and we will use this opportunity to learn how to do something better, so in a way it's actually exciting :)

In a couple of hours I have to take Sena back to her people. It was so nice having her around and I really got used to her. If the weather is fine tomorrow, we'll take her to Narnia with us - otherwise we'll have to postpone the trip. But eather way I promise a lot of beautiful pictures! I also got some new agility pictures from this year's trials. They were shot by Iztok Noč and Andraž Cerar - so thank you, guys!

The Party Of Seven

2008-05-16T11:48:00.013+02:00

So two days ago, our group went to Planina for a couple of hours. We were three girls walking seven dogs - two BCs, two poodles, two beagles and a mutt. To be honest, I wasn't too happy about walking two beagles in the woods. Xsara didn't want to stick with the group and constantly walked a couple of steps away from us, and Sena also had some tendencies to go hunting. At one point Xsara even ran downhill to the stream, so that I had to climb in the precipice to get to her. So we decided to go somewhere more hounds-appropriate next week. We will probably go to Tolmin, which is one of the most beautiful parts of Slovenia (it's where they shot the film Narnia) and if the weather is nice we will also go to Nanos (on a different day, of course), which is a mountain on the way to the seaside and requires a little more climbing.

I think Kate probably enjoyed Planina the most. She found a little waterfall in the stream and she could have easily entertained herself for hours looking at it and trying to catch the water with her paws and her mouth. She was absolutely adorable :) Other dogs enjoyed water as well, except for the beagles who don't like swimming. They, however, enjoyed chasing Katka (one of the poodles) around a little pond that we found in the woods. So Sena and Xsara got their share of fun as well.

Yesterday we had agility - Xsara was fast, but made more mistakes than usually, so I wasn't too happy. But I guess, if you want to work on the speed in agility, you have to accept a greater share of mistakes as well. After all, we are both quite new in this field. She is an amazing little dog and running with her is my favorite thing in the world. Sena is also getting better and better. She is already jumping the normal height for A1/J1 and can do a normal sequence without the weaves, which she needs a couple of more trainings for. But when she'll be able to do the weaves, we can already take her to some trials. She probably won't compete regularly, but I think if she can do it, then why not. We have a trial tomorrow, and it's also team competition (our team this year is called Speedy Gonzales), so it will last very long. Sena is going with us because her people are not home yet, so I hope she won't get too bored while Xsara will have to rest between her runs.

We are resting today before the trial, we only have Rally-Obedience in the evening. The girls need some rest and so do I - I had horse-riding lessons every day for the past three days and I really didn't expect it to be such a difficult sport. But the instructor is extremely happy with me and I'll be allowed to ride alone on Sunday (after only three lessons). The picture of me on the horse is very bad quality because we didn't want to use the flash since the horse could get scared of it. His name is Falco - isn't he beautiful?

I'm also posting a couple of portraits of my little treasure from our walks:

The Sun Is Shining :)

2008-05-14T01:18:00.009+02:00

The Belgian Shepherds World Championship is over and although it was fun, it was also very exhausting. But the week we've been waiting for has finally arrived! On Monday I went to pick up Sena who is staying with us for the entire week. I took the girls to agility and RO, and they both worked really well. Sena could already do a sequence of eight jumps, two tunnels and the teeter and Xsara also ran really fast. However they were really jealous when Daša let me run with Kate and they destroyed one of my transporters. I really have to find a way to keep them still while I work with another dog.

Running with Kate was absolutely awesome. I think I did quite well for the first time with a dog that really pulls ahead. She also worked very nicely in RO and so did Xsara. Since Polona wasn't feeling well she put me in charge of our class, meaning that I even got to play the instructor for a while :) So all in all, it was a very successful day.

The next day I decided to take the girls for a little trip. We wanted to go to the lake of Cerknica but ended up by the sea with Xsara's friend Ben and his Simona. Funny how that happened! We went for a walk and stopped for coffee, but unfortunately we couldn't stay more than a couple of hours because I had big plans for the evening: I decided to make another one of my childhood dreams come true so I picked up horse riding. And discovered that I am a natural at it! I know my life sounds a little bit like a fairy tale, but I worked really hard to get here and now I really need some time for myself. So tomorrow I'm taking the girls for a little hiking and then it's back to the stables. I haven't felt so good in a really long time!

Agility Photos

2008-05-08T09:44:00.007+02:00

Thanks to Srdan Mohorič for two beautiful new agility pictures of Xsara, taken in Ptuj!

Our club is helping with the organisation of Belgian Shepherds World Championship which is taking place in Slovenia this week, so we'll be kind of busy over the weekend. I will try to take some pictures of the event, but Xsara won't be going with me because she is terrified of big dogs and it would be really cruel to take her to such an event.

UPDATE: I just got the confirmation that Xsara was accepted to European Open 2008! She will compete both individually and in Slovenia 1 Team with a mix and a miniature pincher.

Three's Company

2008-05-04T12:35:00.007+02:00

Yes, I am now officially working with three different dogs - that's right: three! I had the first agility class with Sena on Thursday and I also convinced Daša to lend me one of her border collies, Kate, for Rally-Obedience. Working with a BC is very weird for me, specially because she's so big compared to Xsara and I have to use my body language a lot more with her. She also needs very clear and determined handling; if she is not absolutely sure what I want her to do, she gets nervous (while Xsara would do it anyway if she was in her position). I think working with Kate will be very helpful to me and that Xsara will also benefit from what I learn with another dog. In addition, Kate is an extremely cool dog, so I really enjoy spending time with her.

Working with another beagle is a real treat and I have to say that Sena surprised me a lot. I didn't really expect her to follow me so nicely in our first training, but she was amazing. We started with obstacles introduction and she tried to avoid jumps at first, but she would already do a set of three jumps and a tunnel by the end of the class. We also started introducing her to the weaves. I thought she would try to escape and go sniffing around since she was in a new place (our course is in the woods, by the way!) without her people, but when she saw Xsara was also there, she really enjoyed being with us. Xsara wasn't really jealous, but she did want to play with me while I was working with Sena so she cried a little - and she was super proud when it was her turn to run with me. Sena will be staying with us for one week from May 12th on :)

I don't know if my working with other dogs is the reason why Xsara is performing so nicely lately, but she is amazing. She just learned a new trick and is now able to wrap herself in a blanket like a cute furry pancake. And she performed so well in yesterday's trial, that she even surprised me. The courses were very difficult and the times were so fast that even most of the fastest dogs got points on time. Our first run was clean, even though the contacts were rough enough to satisfy any fakir and dogs couldn't wait to get off them. The second course was even more difficult, and I made it extra hard by including two additional front-crosses in our run. It was very silly of me, but I am still happy with our performance. Despite my mistakes and one bar down (again, my bad - made the front cross too quickly), we were first in our cathegory and had quite satisfactory times in both runs. Here are the videos:

Agility

Jumping

Busy Like A Really Busy Bee

2008-04-28T03:05:00.014+02:00

Seems like there's never a dull moment around here. We had another pretty eventful weekend, and I have photos to prove it! Let's start with Friday, when our beloved car had her service (of course my car is a "she"), leaving us immobile for the entire day. You can imagine how happy we were when a friend invited us to Šmarna gora, a small hill here in Ljubljana. Unfortunately our car wasn't done in time for our RO class, so we practiced some new tricks at home and went to bed early before the Saturday's trial.

The first trial for Eukanuba cup 2008 was in Gornja Radgona, about two hours from Ljubljana. There were many Hungarian and Austrian teams, since it's close(r) to the borders. Our first run was bad, but it was a clean run. In the second run, however, we got many faults. Since the courses were very difficult many teams were disqualified and we still finished on 2nd place, but that's no excuse for my poor handling. Xsara did great, and as soon as I start to trust her more, our trial performance will have a lot better chance.

I hope my ring nerves calm down by June, because I entered us into IABC (International All Breed's Cup), which will be held in Hungary. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing, but I think it will be a lot of fun. There will be great judges, many runs and many different breeds, so I'm already looking forward to it.

Most of our agility buddies went to a trial in Croatia on Sunday, so we rediscovered the joy of having to work on Sundays. Unable to attend the trial, we went hiking to the spring of Kamniška Bistrica. It would have been great to go to the trial, but this was a good substitute. Here are some of my favourite photos of this trip - you can click on a photo for better quality:

Thanks to Alja and Chappi for our photos from the trial! Alja also took this cute picture of Xsara on Saturday:

Beagle's Stuff

2008-04-24T18:58:00.005+02:00

Unfortunately, our agility class on Monday was cancelled because of the storm, but it stopped raining by the evening so we didn't have to cancel the Rally-Obedience class. We decided we would be doing courses on Mondays and new things on Fridays. Xsara did horrible at first, she refused to heel and acted as she had never done any obedience in her life, but after a while she became her normal self again and worked very well for the rest of the class. I guess it's just "beagle's stuff" - I think she is very reliable for a beagle, but sometimes she has to remind me that she is a beagle, and I believe it's best to deal with this issue with a lot of patience.

We had agility training today, and she did quite well. You can see how sad she was while she had to wait for her turn. She knocked one bar and analyzing the video I think I probably made her turn left too quickly, while she was still in the air. The rest of the training was quite OK, I think our running-in-the-mornings is starting to pay off, which makes me extremely happy (but I still have to work on MY running a lot!). I'm posting two videos of our runs - the quality sucks, but you can see the dog and most of the obstacles, which I guess is the point :) Unfortunately you can't see the weaves, but the entrance was very difficult, so she did a really good job finding it right away. You will notice I was out of breath - in my defense I have to say that we had to move all of the obstacles (including the contacts) to the other part of the ring before our class. And they were heavy. Thanks to Simona for filming us.

Forester's Valley

2008-04-21T10:43:00.011+02:00

We were discovering the beauties of our country a little further yesterday. We went to Logarska dolina in Solčavsko. There was still some snow in the valley and a lot of it on the mountains. We could see some snowslides higher up. The weather was perfect all the way, so we really enjoyed roaming around the woods and streams. I was surprised to see how well Xsara behaved being in the woods off-leash. She was constantly paying attention to me and even when I saw that she scented a trail, her recall was absolutely perfect.

We went from the valley to waterfall Rinka. It was funny to see how many people drove there instead of walking, I just don't understand them. They don't know how much they have missed. But that was actually good news for us because we hardly met any people on the footpath - in fact, we only met one couple who gave up half-way to the waterfall and returned to the valley. So Xsara could remain off-leash for the entire time.

We decided we will go hiking somewhere higher for our next trip - this time we only had half-day off because I had to go to work afterwards. I already have so many ideas for the next weekend without trials - which will be in June, by the way :) Hopefully we will find a way to do it sooner. In the meantime, we will continue with little trips that can be equally fantastic.

Anyway, as a result, Xsara was happy and tired, so she just crawled in her bed (and transferred to my bed when the lights went off). We have agility and RO today but the weather-people say we will have storms in the afternoon so it's possible our classes could be cancelled. If that happens, we will have to find something else to do. Any ideas?

Xsara's Little Sister

2008-04-17T13:41:00.005+02:00

Having two beagles is SOOOOO difficult (for further explanation, see the photo). Unfortunately, we only had Sena for two days, then her human baby-sister got a fever - her people decided to stay at home and they wanted their dog back. I didn't expect her to go home so soon so I didn't make any photos of our walks (I was too busy trying to have both of them under control so I could only photograph them when they were too tired to jump around).

I decided I will try working with Sena and see how it goes. She is very different from Xsara, so I will have to discover a different approach for her, but I think it will be an interesting experience. She is way more shy and kind of insecure so it takes her quite some time to respond sometimes, but she is so happy when she gets it right that it's funny to watch her. I think it would be really good for her to "get it right" on a regular basis and see how her self-esteem rises.

Xsara behaved well with another dog in her house - but then again, Sena is her BFF and sister (from the same pack) so I still don't know how she would adjust to another dog in the house. For now, I'm hoping for the best and when the time is right, we will see.

Trial Videos

2008-04-15T00:44:00.003+02:00

Here are the videos of our runs on Saturday - thanks to Petra who is always so kind to film us.

First run (Agility):

Second run (Jumping):

Veni, Vidi ... Succeedy

2008-04-13T12:45:00.005+02:00

The first trial since January went incredibly well. Both our runs were clean and fast enough to bring us the first place in A2/J2 cathegory. The course was very muddy and slippery so I almost fell a couple of times, but I was happy with my handling - I think my directions were clear even on the tricky spots and Xsara was able to understand them on time. I have the video of our first run but it's very poor quality. I hope I will get a higher quality version and post it this week, otherwise I will just post the one I have. Anyway, I am very happy with how the trial went and with Xsara's performance - in addition the weathermen were wrong again and we had almost no rain all day, it was actually sunny most of the time. All in all, this was probably one of my favorite trials so far.

The day ended with another exciting news. We will get to doggy-sit Xsara's sister Sena this week (and in May, too). Her people even said I can try taking her to agility and if she will work with me maybe compete with her, too. Now, that would really be fun!

I'm also posting a photo of a new trick - this is not the "secret" trick I was talking about before, but I think it looks pretty cool. I haven't named it yet, but I will probably call it "get in the bowl" if I don't get any better ideas (I always add the verbal cue in the last step of teaching a trick). The "secret" trick is taking a little longer because we have a lot of other work now (with advanced RO class, agility and regular ground-work), but it's coming, I promise!

Training Video

2008-04-11T01:02:00.006+02:00

I haven't posted any new agility videos in a while, so ... This is one of our runs yesterday, when we were training. Remember Xsara is a barker, so you might want to have the volume on your PC low before viewing the video :)

Family Matters

2008-04-07T11:16:00.006+02:00

The last trial-free weekend is over. We enjoyed having free weekends for a while and visit so many beautiful places that we never have the time to visit, but we really miss trials and friends, so we are looking forward to Saturday.

This weekend we visited Xsara's doggy family. First we went to see her breeder and both parents - the photo was taken from the car on our way there so it's not the best quality, but on the right you can see the village where Xsara was born. The breeder is always so happy to see her and Xsara likes going there, too. I think we are really lucky to have a breeder who cares about her pups so much, and she is always very glad to help us with advice so I enjoy chatting with her. She organizes one or two reunions every year but we often can't attend them because we have trials on weekends. The next reunion will be in June, and the trial will be quite near by, so we will try to attend both events if it will be possible.

Then, the following day, we went for a walk with Luna and Xsara's sister and BFF Sena. We met a lot of other beagles, including Snoopy who is their borther from the same pack. It was nice to see them running around together for over three hours. Sena will be staying with us for one week in May, and I'm so excited - I doubt we will give her back easily :)

On Sunday we attended the first Frisbee 4Fun trial in Slovenia. Of course, we were just cheerleading for our friends, and not participating. I never knew what dog-frisbee looked like and have a much better idea now. It seems like a lot of fun (I particularly liked the freestyle acts), but I'm not really sure Xsara would enjoy fetching frisbees. Maybe we will try it out and see how it goes. We, however, have so many other things right now that it's hard to find time for everything - we are starting our RO II class today, by the way.

I'm posting the video of Xsara's friend Bode and his mom Manca who organized the whole event. Bode was quite tired because they had two days long frisbee seminar before the trial, but he still did great - specially considering this sport is so new in Slovenia. Enjoy!

TV Star

2008-04-02T10:53:00.005+02:00

A little update on our jogging: until yesterday I kept trying off leash. And what happened yesterday? There were no other people or animals that I could see and our jogging route is far from any traffic, so I tried running ahead to see if she would follow me. Maybe the fun was in me chasing her and she would follow if I didn't do that. Well, yes - she followed, but only after rolling in something so disgusting until she smelled so bad that I had to bathe her twice. I think this was probably her April Fool's joke for me :)

So I decided to give the "leash-around-my-belt" a try. We tried it for the first time today, and we'll see how it goes. Since she doesn't have the running ahead of me in agility fully learned, we now jog on leash in one direction, and return sprinting with the ball (like before). This exercise is going really well, so I'm starting to include turns and changes of direction. I would, for example, run full speed until she was at least a couple of steps ahead of me, then say "left" or "right" and throw the ball in that direction. I really try to move my shoulders as well as my arms when I throw the ball, because this way my body language is more apparent to her (I don't want her to overthink it, I want her to just run, run, run). I'm definitely seeing progress, and I hope we will be able to get advantage of this on course.

And an exciting news: a lady with a golden retriever we occasionally meet on our walks told me today that she saw Xsara on TV again. They filmed her during the charity run for Repkov Sklad we attended (the journalist saw us doing cop-cop and asked if they could film it). You can see the TV show here - Xsara is on 12:56 for about ten seconds.

Little Furry Thief's Outing

2008-03-29T23:53:00.011+01:00

We had another case of cleptomania this week. It was completely my fault because I left an opened baggy of dog treats on the counter and went to work. I don't know any dog who would resist such temptation. As you can see in the photo, Xsara felt extreme guilt after stealing and eating all of them. Lucky for me, it was a small bag this time so her tummy is fine.

This weekend we decided to go to Gorenjska, which is the part of Slovenia North from Ljubljana (it's where Xsara was born). We went to a very popular touristic destination - Bled, famous for the castle, the lake and the only island in Slovenia. One of the most interesting things for Xsara was being so close to the ducks. After the walk we went to visit my friend in Dovje and the countryside was so beautiful that I decided to make a slide show. If you want to know a little more about how Slovenia looks, just click here.

Apparently the "remix" function of Photobucket is experiencing some problems (and I'm never using it again), so if you can't open the film, you can see the pictures in an old-fashioned slideshow in my album - this version has no music and effects, but the pictures are the same.

We were out the whole day and Xsara was so tired that she went straight to bed. She is snoring incredibly loudly right now, apparently dreaming of something very interesting because she is barking in her sleep. Every time she goes to sleep because she is tired and not bored, I feel like a good Mom.

Holidays Are Over ...

2008-03-26T13:51:00.008+01:00

... and so is our snow. I'm not snow-crazy but Xsara loves it very much, so it's nice to have it - for a couple of days at least. We also made another trip to the sea (I know, I'm obsessed), so we actually had both: the pleasures of snow and sea in one weekend.

Unfortunately the weather was kind of depressing most of the time, so I spent an entire day planning our summer holidays in Tuscany. Long walks among beautiful hills, vineyards and fields full of sunflowers are just what we need (well, who doesn't, right?). I can't wait :)

We are working on a new trick. I'm not revealing what it is, I'm just telling you it's something awesome and also kind of complicated. We are making great progress with it, so I'm really happy about it. Xsara likes it, too - she gets so excited and I just love to watch her learn new stuff.

We also started to jog. For the first couple of days Xsara seemed to be the perfect jogging partner. Being a true beagle however, she soon discovered that I wasn't keen on making stops and she decided to take advantage of this. She would slow down, let me go on, and when I would be far enough she would roll in something delicious or even try to eat it. The whole jogging thing would then turn into me chasing her around the fields, which she thought was way more fun. I don't want to jog with her on leash because it took me years to convince her to run at least one step ahead of me in agility. So now we jog with a ball in my hand. It's not even jogging any more, it's more like sprinting as fast as we can and in a certain moment I say "go on", throw the ball ahead and then reward her if she outruns me to the ball (she always does). It's fun but I would still like to jog, too. If you have any ideas, I'm opened to suggestions.

We have no trials for two more weeks, so we are just doing our usual training. When the season starts we will have trials every weekend, and hopefully the weather will improve by then. Our biggest challenge this year is to get accepted to European Open 2008. Last year it was probably my favorite trial because we were camping there for the weekend and we got to see many excellent handlers in action - even a couple of very good beagles, which is always a wonderful experience for both of us.

I'm Dreaming Of A White ... Easter?

2008-03-22T18:39:00.007+01:00

The trip to Miramare planned for today was postponed due to ... snow. The weather had been weird for some time now. During the first ten minutes of training on Thursday we had heavy rain, some snow, and sunshine which lasted until the end of the training session. And when we woke up this morning, I was surprised to see it was snowing again (I don't believe in weather forecasts so it's possible other people knew that it was coming).

So it looks like we've got a white Easter this year. I don't think it's going to last for more than a couple of days because it's quite warm outside, so we will enjoy it while it lasts.

We wish you all very happy holidays with your loved ones!