Holidays Are Over ...

... 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.