Helping Železniki

A Slovenian region Železniki was recently badly damaged by a storm. On Saturday we had two canine events to raise money for these people. The first event was an agility trial and all the incomes went to the Canine Training Center of the region. They will buy new agility obstacles with the money. The other event was a Beagle Gathering (thanks to Boštjan for the photo) organised by our breeder who also lives in the damaged area. The money was raised to help one of the families who lost most of their belongings in the tragedy. It is always nice to help people and we are very glad that we could do so. Unfortunately both events were on the same day so we couldn't stay through the whole of them. But I was happy with one agility run (we had an off-course because of a very stupid mistake of mine, but the rest of the run was great) and it was nice to spend the afternoon with other beagle lovers. We are very proud to be a part of this dogs-loving community that is so willing to help the others! Again thanks to Petrca for the video!

Our First RO Trial

The first Rally-Obedience trial went surprisingly well. We lost most pts on the table since I wasn't confident Xsara would do it from 10 metres and I went closer. We also lost pts on other agility obstacles - the jump was the 1st exercise and Xsara thought this was an agi trial and wanted to run over it. Later on there was the exercise where the dog must heel while you are making circles. On every right turn the dog had the entrance into the tunnel right in front of the muzzle. My agi doggy wanted to go in so bad - she didn't but she kept looking in that direction. Other exercises went well - we gained 65/75 pts and finished on 8th place out of 21 dogs (but only 3pts after the dog that placed 2nd which is probably what we lost on the table). Meaning we passed the RO-I exam and are now allowed to compete. We both definitely prefer agility but it would be fun to do RO trials every now and then.

Xsara Is The National Champion

Xsara is National Champion of Slovenia in her class (A2/J2 M)!

Saturday was the final of National Championship. I was feeling very sick that day and I was handling her horribly. We had two off-courses, but we had enough advantage from previous trials to win the Championship anyway (only one dog could have beaten us for one point if she won but she also had off-course). Anyway, I still can't believe it, I am so proud of Xsara. She really is an amazing beagle and we are lucky enough to have amazing trainers in our club (Silvia Trkman, Polona Bonač and Daša Zakotnik). We still have a lot to work on but seems like we're on the right track.

Beagle Doggy Tricks part 2

We had no trials yesterday. It was kind of weird having so much free time. We decided to make a trip to the seaside and film the second part of Xsara's tricks. I thought it would be nice to do it before I go to Norway. So ... let me know what you think! We forgot to film some of the tricks so I guess we will have to include them the next time ...

Eukanuba Cup 2007

Yesterday was the finale of Eukanuba Cup. I was on a concert in Italy the night before the trial and I came home at 6:30 A.M. At 8 A.M. we were already in Hrušica. I was barely walking but we still managed to have two clean runs with no points on time. But our timing was pretty bad (for obvious reasons) and we finished on 3rd place. We had some good results on other Eukanuba trials and had enough points to be 2nd for this set of trials. The other big set of trials in Slovenia is National Championship, which will end in October.

Agility in Ljubljana, 08.09.2007

This is the video of our second run (jumping) on Saturday's trial. Thanks to Petrca for the video!

Another Trial in Ljubljana

On Saturday we had a trial here in Ljubljana. The course was very weird, I made myself really dizzy running it but Xsara took it pretty well. I was happy because the contacts were done as I wanted and trained them. We had two clean runs and managed to run them fast enough with no points on time. We finished on 3rd place. I was incredibly happy with Xsara's performance. The main problem is in me - I know I should trust her more and run faster, just like we do on training. I'm working on it. Patience ...

We have the introduction meeting for Rally-O tonight, I just can't wait!

P.S.: The entire blog is now in English.

Trial Season Still Going On

Xsara was a very good girl on Saturday's trial. She placed 2nd. The courses were very difficult so I had to make a lot of crosses to cover the way to the wrong obstacle. This showed on our time but otherwise both runs were clean. The team run was a little worse but it didn't change the end result. She was also very good on training today, but she shocked me when one dog tried to attack her and she defended herself angrily. Naughty girl! Now she's laying in bed, all four paws in the air and happily snoring.

Back From Vacation

We are finally back after successfully passing my last exam on the faculty and now only a half of an easy project and the diploma separates me from becomming a journalist. Xsara was the main attraction on holidays. People even asked us if they could take pictures with her on the beach and her tricks were always accompanied by loud a applaus. But she was very happy to come back home. She doesn't really like the sea itself, she only went swimming a couple of times and she only did it to get a cookie. Otherwise she loved laying on the beach, going for walks and developped an infinite desire to catch and retrieve a ball or any other toy. Finally!


Unfortunately we weren't able to include this new talent in our performance on 4fun trial and agility training. I just couldn't concentrate. Even though I never check the combined results during the season I accidently came to know that we were in the lead for National Champioship (Our Sašo wrote it in a famous slovene canine magazine Moj Pes and of course I had to read it). Well, there are three more trials and the situation could change. But it doesn't really matter, as long as Xsara likes to work I'm happy. I can't wait for the trial tomorrow! I missed the trials so much over the summer that I built a course with legos. It even has the timing devices (alge timing). I'm not very talented for arts but I just love to be crafty!

European Open 2007

Our first European Open is over! The first shock right away: the courses were in sand! Like running on the beach - I was moving my legs but wasn't going anywhere. Otherwise we had a lot of fun. The first run was OK, we only had some points on time. But the second run Xsara missed two contacts as if we hadn't been training only this for the last two weeks. Grrrrrrrrr! Otherwise I was glad she was running under such conditions (hordes of dogs, heat, chaos ...). We would finish on 67th place if both runs counted like in my country (and on World Championship). This year only the final run counted for the resulton European Open. We were also 66th in jumping which is not bad with this amount of dogs (all best dogs of Europe). But we could have performed a lot better - after all this was only our first such big trial and I was very neervous. Unfortunately I don't have any photos because I didn't have my camera :( Otherwise we are going to the sea this week and we won't be writing for two weeks. I hope this year we will convince Xsara to go swimming with us!