A Very Fun Morning (Specially For Xsara)

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:

A Quick Update

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

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 :)

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.

Merry Christmas!

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 :)

Never Boring!

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:

Together Again!

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 :)