Another TV Commercial!

Our German friends might see Xsara in another TV commercial soon (if the director managed to get all 3 dogs in the same shot) ... In any case, she worked really hard yesterday and I am very proud of her, no matter the outcome. Tani was also supposed to be in the same commercial, but we had to replace her due to her leg injury.

Other than that, we are quite busy with agility, rally-obedience, tricks and long walks. Weather is perfect for outdoor activities and Xsara loves every second of it :)

Recall

Xsara really amazed me today so I want to post this on her blog. We were on our morning walk, as suddenly a rabbit crossed our path. Tani barked a couple of times, but wasn't really interested in the animal, while Xsara has a very strong hunting instinct, specially for rabbits! She was out of my reach so the only thing I could do was to use my voice. I yelled "freeze" and she actually listened :) She stopped, waited for me to come to her, still looking at the bunny who was running away in panic, but didn't move a bit! I was really impressed, Xsara has a good recall for a hound, but anybody who has experience with beagles will know that they forget about everything else once they find a trail, it's like some sort of trance. And if they can see their prey and not only smell it, it's even more difficult. Since I had a full pocket of treats she got a BIG reward, but had to continue the walk on leash, to be really sure. Anyway, I am incredibly proud of her today, she really is one special little girl!!!!

Xsara's Commercial

Xsara's commercial came out, you can see it here: CLICK
Once again, she had to pee :)

Xsara's First TV-Add

Xsara filmed another commercial last week. This was her first TV commercial (and 3rd advertisement overall - she also did one newspaper add for charity as a puppy and was on a billboard for a TV show last year). I must say she did a wonderful job. Tani was originally picked to perform the task and Xsara was only supposed to be her backup, but then another agency took over the project and the new director liked Xsara better. I was very proud of both of them, working in a weird environment inside a studio with so many things going on around them, and they both behaved like true professionals. I will post the video when the commercial is officially released.

Otherwise Xsara is doing great, she is in a very good shape and very playful lately. She loves having Tani around and I am very happy that they are such good friends. She is not too crazy about winter temperatures in Ljubljana (and neither am I), so we try to spend as much time as possible by the sea where weather is a lot friendlier.

Voghera

We have very few trials in the winter. That's why I was incredibly happy when a friend asked me if I wanted to go to Voghera (Italy) with her. 4 trials in 4 days + agility seminar sounds just crazy enough! So we started this new year the way we love the most: on a beautiful ranch by a river in a winter wonderland. I only ran with Xsara on 2 of the trials because that's just enough to keep her craving for more. In the first run I managed to fall when I was performing a front cross, but all of our other runs were clean. So we got 2 3rd places combined and one 3rd placement in agility plus one r. CacAg - far more than I expected in such a tough competition. I really enjoyed seing some amazing runs by far more experienced handlers than myself and people were all incredibly nice, so it really was a wonderful experience.

Winter Fun

Once again, I've been horrible updating Xsara's blog. A lot has happened since my previous post. First of all, I have successfully graduated from college and now I have even more time to spend with my dogs. They are both doing very well and I'm incredibly proud of them.

Xsara and I participated in European Beagle Agility Cup in Slovakia. It was a lot of fun, even though it was incredibly cold. Xsara ran very well and was leading the competition from the first run until the end, but we had a little mishap in our last run. As she came onto the dogwalk, something got into her ear and she started shaking her head so hard that she lost balance and fell off the dogwalk. Luckily she didn't hurt herself, but we lost our prime spot and finished on 2nd place.

We also participated in a Rally Obedience trial in Koper. She really likes rally a lot! She worked very nicely and placed 2nd in a tough competition. Next year we're planning on taking the exam for RO-III.

We have a lot of snow and very cold temperatures in Ljubljana at the moment. Xsara likes playing in the snow a lot! But currently we are enjoying holidays in our beloved Strunjan by the sea, so we got away from extreme temperatures and the snow for a while - even though there even was some snow here for a couple of days! Here are some snowy photos of my sweet little beagle, taken mostly by Polona again (thanks :)):

Another Fun Walk / Photoshooting

Yesterday we went for another walk with Polona, her toller Wi and Polona's fantastic camera :) We were very lucky because we had nice weather, even though it's raining all the time otherwise. But somehow we managed to even catch some sun! It's hard to imagine that only one day before our walk it was snowing like crazy. This weather is really gone wild. Here are some photos from our walk and from Xsara in snow:

Xsara's Trials And A New friend

Xsara is doing very well. I haven't posted in a while (again) because we spend every minute of our spare time playing outside. The trialing season 2009 is going to end tomorrow and I'm very happy with Xsara's runs this year. This is our first full season in the top Grade, so the courses are more difficult and the competition is very hard. She made me very proud on a trial in Ljubljana a couple of weeks ago when she placed 3rd and stood on the podium next to the super La!



Yesterday, Xsara and Tani got a new cousin. Cairn terrier Miki will be the best friend to my younger sister Katja. We still live in the same house so I wasn't sure how the girls would react to an outsider, as they now form a pack. But they both like him very much and he likes them back, so all is good :) Miki is a son of Xsara's agility friend Kin. This is his picture - he is sweet, isn't he?!

Updates

We didn't get lost somewhere in Holland, we're back at the seaside and enjoying the Summer. European Open was a lot of fun and Xsara had some very nice runs. I'm specially proud of our team Fast Snails - we were placed 13th (among 87 teams) in jumping and 29th overall. Other competitors from Slovenia did very well too, and we were very proud to applaud them on the podium.


We're currently staying in our new appartment by the sea where I have a lot of time to work on my diploma. We are also working on many new tricks and hopefully will finally make a new video for Xsara - who is now a big swimmer, by the way. She never liked water too much, but now that we have Tani, Xsara likes to join us in the water as well. But sometimes she does get tired of the little hyper Tani, so she learned how to close herself in the crate. It took me days to figure out why the door was closed even when I left it opened, until one day I saw her closing it with her paw. She sure is one super smart little girl!

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: