Puppy Tricks (part 2)

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

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 :)

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.

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!

Puppy Disaster

People always assume Xsara was an obedient puppy because she knows so many tricks now. To tell you the truth - she wasn't! She was destroying my things, listened to me only when she wanted to and she was making me crazy sometimes. The only reason why this behavior changed is TRAINING. She is teaching me so much about dogs, difficult dogs will do that to you. To show you what I mean, I created this funny album with some of her best artworks (I didn't make photos of all of them, mainly because at one point I stopped finding it funny). You can view it clicking on this button:

Seeing this photos anyone will agree I simply have to work with her if I want to live with her, and I love every second of our training. I really believe she needs this - she was bred for work and since I can't go hunting with her, the least I can do is work with her in a different way. And working with her is the best thing in my life. When I can see how she finally understood a new trick or finish a nice run with her, that's just the best feeling ever. It's as close to perfection as one can get!