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

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!

Little Things Make A Big Difference

We didn't go to the trial, but we had a great weekend nevertheless - at least until Sunday afternoon when I had to go to work. On Saturday we went to the seaside. It was cloudy, but a little warmer than here. I really love the sea and luckily Slovenia is so small that it only takes you one hour to get from Ljubljana (in the center of Slovenia) to any border, including the coast.

While we were there, we also stopped in Italy to buy some pills against heartworm which cannot be bought in Slovenia (even though the mosquitoes on our side of the coast are just as much infected as the Italian ones). Unfortunately we didn't have the time to go to Miramare this time, but we will probably go there next week.

Miramare is a castle in Italy, just by the sea, and there is a wonderful park around the castle. They were both built by order of the Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg in 19th century. The park had no vegetation in the beginning so the Archduke filled it with exotic plants. Today it is a natural reserve and it is just incredibly beautiful.

Sunday was the day for charity. Before I had to go to work we attended a charity event for Repkov sklad (Little Tail's Fund), which helps to provide money for veterinary expenses for rescues, strays and animals with owners who simply cannot afford to pay for a lifesaving operation. They also provide food and temporary residence for these animals. They are doing an incredible job and Xsara and I donate them practically all of the food we win on competitions.

The event was a race, but not a competitive one so you could walk slowly if you wanted to. They also had a presentation of canine disciplines and one of the organizers asked me to demonstrate some tricks. We actually never performed tricks in public before - we do it for friends and as a warm-up routine before runs, but not like that. I was happy to do it but Xsara was still a little uneasy because there were so many unknown dogs. She did well, she only refused to do the handstand and she needed a little more encouragement, but the tricks that she did were very nice.

Events like this one always make me remember how lucky we are. Big thanks to those who are helping the less fortunate dogs and making their dreams of a happy home come true!

Here We Go Again

After the injury the vet said Xsara should wear her shoe for about 2 weeks. I waited for an additional week to be sure, and took her outside barefooted. And while she was playing with a friend, her nail started bleeding again.

It's just a little scratch and it doesn't seem to hurt her at all, but it's hard to know since she's one of those dogs who never show when they're in pain. That's actually something that's freaking me out, because I fear it would be so hard to notice if she got really hurt. That's why I really pay attention to her movements. I think I know them quite well (I guess agility handlers often do since they spend so much time looking at their dogs in action). I hope I'd notice if there were any changes. But when she hurt her nail, none of us noticed until she finished the course and stopped to drink - only then she lifted her paw.

That means I have to be the one who sets limits for her and sometimes it's so hard to decide. I feel like I'm torn between her desire to be active and my desire to protect her. Xsara's health and happiness are my absolute priorities, so as her handler I have to figure out how to maximize them both.

I choose to let her run and do agility, even though I know there are some risks of injury. I just can't imagine Xsara spending her life on some couch, maybe she would get used to it but a dog like her wouldn't be happy in this situation. And I find quality of life extremely important. However if she doesn't know when to stop and doesn't let me know she's hurt, I have to set limits. That's really difficult because I don't know if I'm actually doing us a favour or if I'm just being overprotective, so I rather choose to protect her.

That's why I decided I won't take her to the trial tomorrow. If the trial was outside on the grass, I would maybe consider it more. But it's in the stables again and sawdust gets everywhere so I don't want her to be barefooted on that kind of surface yet (we currently train with the shoe on). Instead, I'll take her to the seaside again and I'm sure we'll have a great time together. After Saturday there will be no trials for almost a month, which should be sufficient for a full recovery.

Trust Not a New Friend

Yesterday we went to the first agility class after the injury. It was raining quite a bit so we didn't stay very long but Xsara was soooo happy! She was on the A-frame the second I unleashed her and than she ran back and forward over the dogwalk while I was trying to memorize the course - she even did the contacts while running around like that, at least those that I was able to see were nice.

First we did a couple of very short combinations (some jumps and a tunnel) to see if she would be fine. Since she apparently felt great, we ran two courses (each of them twice), with breaks between the runs. It was so great to run with her again, she lightened up in a second and seeing her so carefree and happy is always just the best feeling ever.

The tricks-training-session after agility (also known as "the dinner") started without any shaking! She was a little more nervous for breakfast, but way more confident than last week. She is still a little uneasy around the dogs she doesn't know, but fine with those we meet at least occasionally. I'm happy with the improvement but I hope she will soon rediscover the joy in meeting new dogs.

I don't really care about forcing her to interact with other dogs if she doesn't like them. I don't socialize with strangers just because they're people, eather. That's up to her. But I do want her to feel confident around them and not be intimidated, scared or even aggressive. So I'll watch her behaviour really carefully for as long as this moody feeling lasts.

Back in the Saddle

Yes, we got rid of the stupid collar-satellite-lampshade or however you want to call it. And Xsara's tummy looks fine so I let her run around with her friend this morning. It started to snow again so I had to put on her shoe, but it doesn't bother her anymore. It doesn't look like the snow is going to stick, though, since it already turned into rain.

However I noticed some behavioural changes since the operation. I don't think it's hormones, I think she just got so scared because of the procedure. She is very shy around other dogs and she is afraid to do something wrong. We are working on a new trick and when we start a lesson I have to encourage her a lot more than usually. I am more generous with rewards and I keep telling her she's the best and that she can't do anything I wouldn't like. This only lasts a couple of minutes and then everything is back to normal, the tail is wagging and she performs beautifully again. But then the next training session again, starts with her feeling insecure.

I try to encourage her as much as I can during the day, when I see her behaving bravely (I don't ignore the shyness but I try not to reward it too much either. When she gets shy I only use verbal encouragement if possible because I don't want her to think that I want her to be insecure). The progress is evident, we managed to really shorten these flashes of insecurity and hopefully they will disappear soon.

I'm taking her to the agility training on Monday, if she won't feel like jumping yet (which I highly doubt, by the way!), we will just play with a ball or tug or do some tricks there. It's an important part of her life and I want her to know we will still be playing agility together.

Another thing: I want to thank CollieMan for the beautiful post he's written and for the poster he made for Xsara (with the soccer ball). That was really nice of you, so thank you again :)

Stupid Stitches, Silly Collar

27 hours until we take out the stitches and lose the stupid satellite-collar! This week we learned that we really suck at this whole resting and being still thing. Xsara is incredibly bored and wants to go play. She is feeling fine, the collar is bothering her but she acts like her usual self. She still needs to wear the shoe when we go outside, but she doesn't limp or show any signs of pain.

To cheer her up I naively thought taking her to a trial to see her friends would be nice for her, since it is so normal for us to spend weekends in their company. The weather was sunny and warm and the trial was in the stables near an old castle, so very pretty. But Xsara didn't understand why everybody else got to run and play and she had to watch them, so we didn't stay long.

The trial was also the final of Eukanuba Winter Cup. If we could compete in at least one of the last two trials, we would very probably win it, but since there were only four Winter Cup trials, we missed half of them. So the Cup ended yesterday with Xsara's Parson Russel friend winning the series. We are very happy for him and his handler because we know how hard they've been working to improve his contacts and stop having off courses. They will compete in A3/J3 from now, so we went to celebrate with them afterwards.

We were almost happy to see that the weather is kind of crappy today. It's so much easier to stay inside :)

The Brave Xsara

It wasn't easy, but Xsara was spayed on Tuesday. The operation went very well and she is recovering really fast. We are already doing some easy tricks and obedience, mostly to let her know nothing has changed since she seemed to be worried about that.

Xsara is an incredibly friendly dog, but if there's one thing she hates, it's probably vets. Well, she doesn't really hate the vet, she just hates his office. So the whole thing was very scary for her.

First we did the pre-anesthesia test, which showed that all of her organs are working properly. The most important organs for the anesthesia are liver and kidneys, which process the medications. The vet asked me if I wanted to be in the surgery during the operation, but I didn't think it was a good idea since he couldn't administer any sedatives to me.

Waiting was the most difficult part for me, while Xsara probably thought the entire day sucked pretty much the same. Luckily her uterus was very nice so the vet didn't have to remove it. This reduces the chances of her becoming incontinent because of the procedure. The vet also looked at her paw and said the nail is healing very nicely, probably also thanks to the EMT gel I've been apllying into the wound. I'm so glad I ordered it for my birthday!

Anyway, I was able to take her home as soon as she woke up. She was very cold, sick and terrified and she wouldn't stop shaking. I wrapped her into all of the blankets I could find and cuddled her until she felt safe again. I was kind of questioning my decision, but having her spayed was the right thing to do.

The next day she felt a lot better, and keeps improving every day. She's still sleeping a lot, but when she's awake she's all over the place. It's so hard to keep her calm, she just doesn't know when to stop until she is so tired I have to carry her to bed and then she falls asleep right away. I feared she wouldn't want to go to the vet ever again, but we went for her check up yesterday and she even wagged her tail when the vet gave her a treat. They will remove the stitches on Tuesday, we can't wait to get rid of the satellite over her head!

The Dangerous Training

They say that accidents never come alone. I guess it's true. Yesterday we got our first agility-related injury, or any type of injury for the matter of fact. Xsara broke her nail during agi training, well she practically pulled it out, since it fell out when the vet just touched it.

She took it very bravely, so at first I didn't even notice she was hurt. She finished the run like it was nothing and Daša even said it was a very good run. But when we finished the course Xsara went to drink and we noticed she was holding her foot in the air.

Fortunately our obedience trainer Polona (who is also a vet) was on the course at the same time and she looked at it. She said the toe was fine. I rushed her to the vet and now she's on 2 weeks rest and antibiotics, she also has a bandaged foot and a shoe over it.

I don't know how I'm going to make her rest for that long! I guess we'll be doing a lot of new tricks where she doesn't have to move a lot (steady tricks?). The vet also suggested to have her neutered now instead of next month, since she currently has to rest anyway and she wouldn't have to do it twice. I wanted to do it after the winter trials, but we can't compete now anyway so it doesn't make much of a difference. If I'm emotionally ready by next week, I guess we'll probably do it then. One way or another, she's going to be my little patient for a while, so we've got a lot of cuddling coming up.

Oh So Hungry

The past two days were very full of events in our house. And Xsara was equally very full. I had some errands to run on Tuesday and Xsara was home alone for the entire morning. Somehow she managed to steal my backpack from the top of the closet, open it and eat the entire 0,5 kg bag of dog treats (1.1 lbs). She was so full that she could barely scratch her ears! I took her for a long slow walk, gave her water to drink and called the vet who said it was too late to make her throw it up. So I had to give her some cream and milk to cause the diarrhea. Yesterday I took her to the seaside for a very long walk and her tummy seams about normal size now. And would you say the little furry thief felt full or regretful about her actions? Of course not - she even had the nerves to beg for food when I was eating a yoghurt!

And it totally slipped my mind the other day: we had a "4fun" trial on Sunday. Since it wasn't an official thing we ran in the "open" cathegory (levels 2 and 3 combined) and were 3rd. I was very pleased since the two dogs who placed higher both run on the 3rd level, which is for the pros. So I think we did quite OK.

How It All Started

How did Xsara get her name? That's an interesting story. First of all you have to understand that I always wanted to have a dog but my parents wouldn't allow one in the appartment. So I waited. I started raising money to buy a house for our family when I was 4. I remember keeping little coins in an old pickles jar. But one day I realised that a house costed a lot more than I could save up.

20 years passed by and I still didn't have a dog. I walked all of the neighbours' dogs, but they insisted I had to give them back after walking them! So I decided to buy myself a car because by then I really needed one. I set my eyes on a nice red Citroen Xsara, a really beautiful car.

Just then my family decided to finally move into a house - which meant I could now have a dog. I found the perfect breeder in a couple of weeks and one month later I was on the waiting list for a pup. I remember being terrified when I went to pick her up, she was so perfect and she deserved perfect. But she seemed to be happy with what she got - the non-perfect me! This is going to sound so sappy, but I really believe that Xsara and I belong together.

However buying and having a dog costs a lot, so I had to give up on the car and spend all my money on Xsara. That's why I decided to name her after my favorite car, so in a way I could have both, a Xsara and a dog. I must say it was really difficult having a dog without a car. I wanted to train with Silvia and the club was on the other side of Ljubljana so we often spent the night before the training at the house of our friend who lived a 45 minutes walk away from the club. That was OK when the weather was nice, but less tempting in snow or rain. Fortunately one year later I could afford to buy a different car, less expensive, but I couldn't care less.

The only thing that matters to me now is that I have my little princess and she is the smartest, the cutest and just the best dog ever. Whenever I'm sad, I remind myself of just that. And every time I look at her, I know I am the luckiest person alive!