Motešice (Slovakia)

This weekend we competed in Slovakia (that's actually another country, and it doesn't share a border with Slovenia:)). I'm normally a very humble person, but I think we both did incredibly well, I really ran as if my life depended on it and Tani, well - she was really happy to run, as always, but knowing where to go next of course helps a lot :) So no, we didn't win anything because I had to make some stupid mistake in each course we ran, but we did have some really nice runs I'm very proud of. And I believe a nice run with elimination can sometimes be even nicer than certain clean runs. Anyway, we had a great time, weather was perfect, company even better. Thanks to our dear friend Roman for the videos of Tani's runs:

Agility Open:


Jumping Open (wrong tunnel entry, but I'm soooooo proud of that FC after the straight line):


Jumping 3 on Saturday:


Jumping 3 on Sunday (very twisted course, but I'm really happy with the ending, it was just perfect):


Agility 3 on Saturday (of course, tunnel after the DW is waaaay too tempting, hihihi):


Agility 3 on Sunday (wooooow for that weaves entry after the DW, but I was too slow after the blue tunnel):

Happy Gotcha Day :)

It's been exactly 3 years since Tani and I met for the first time. It seems like it was yesterday, I can remember it so clearly. The smell of Spring flowers in the Pyrenees, the joy that filled my heart when I realized that my long time dream would finally come true, the sparkles in Tani's eyes when she was jumping up and down being such a cute and carefree little puppy ... I always get so sappy when I talk about her :) I love every second we spend together, and all I wish for is to have many many more happy and healthy years together and many many sweet little kisses that she will selflessly share. Can't get enough of those. Happy Friendaversary, Tani!

Winter Training

Although we have extremely low temperatures and we're freezing way below 0°C, we still regularly train and go for long walks. Of course, I make sure Tani is properly warmed up when it's so cold outside, but she would go nuts if we had more than an occasional lazy day once in a while. She really enjoys our training sessions with her dear friend Kaili and her Maruša. Here is a video of one of our very cold winter trainings :)

And Now To Some New Videos :)

Tani and I are taking Silvia's Long Distance Handling class this winter. At first, I was a little reluctant to take the class, I really love to train at Silvia's place in person and the thought of "only" being able to enjoy the fun long distance didn't make me too happy. Boy, was I wrong! Of course, I still love LoLaBu Land in person and I definitely can't wait to go back there in the Spring, but I just couldn't believe how much one can learn by taping their training sessions, watching them slow-mo and then letting an expert like Silvia comment on them! I'm really amazed by our progress and I strongly recommend this class to anybody who wants to speed up their dog, improve their dog's obstacle commitment and work on their own handling. I'm sure you'll love it as much as we do! Here are all the info you need to join: CLICK and some of our videos taken for this class:

Some Old Videos

We spent wonderful holidays with friends and 12 dogs in the house, 2 of which were puppies. We had some time to organize old videos so I'm posting them here, they're over one year old and even though I improved my handling a little bit since then, we had some nice runs back then as well.

This was a very eventful run - first she fell speeding up over the dogwalk and then we had a little intruder on course, but Tani doesn't really care about anything, she just wants to run and I really love that about her!



Another nice run from the same competition, a disqualification but with a really nice DW contact:

And a team jumping run - clean and REALLY loud, so you might want to put your computer on mute before you watch this:

Happy Birthday, Tani!

Merry Christmas to all our readers, and of course, happy 3rd Birthday to the star of this blog, my perfect girl Tani. To those who don't know it, having a dog like Tani was my biggest wish come true. That's why I named her Désirée, the Desired One. And of course, being the self-centered little girl that she is, she was born on the day when all of the World celebrates a birth :) How very Tani-like! :) :) :)

For her special day, she will get a tunnel run in our club by the sea, a long walk on  the beach, a doggy cake to share with Xsara and a bunch of toys that I'm sure she'll love. Happy Birthday also to her sisters Razz and Rayas and their brother Dreamy!

C'est la Vie

Winter is here and we're back to the coast, enjoying warmer temperatures than in Ljubljana. Tani really loves it here, but then again, she really loves to be anywhere as long as I'm there too :) We enjoy long walks in the vineyards or by the sea, we train and do a lot of tricks, the same as in Ljubljana, only with nicer climate. We miss our friends from Ljubljana, but have some friends here as well, and we visit each other when we can.

Anyway, tomorrow we will attend our first competition in two months and I'm really excited about it, but also a little nervous because I don't know what to expect. She's been doing really well in training and I really feel like we're running as a team now, but every now and then we still have days when we don't really connect which results in many mistakes. And of course, we had a day like this today, one day before the competition. I felt like she wasn't listening and only ran around like crazy without considering me at all, she probably thought my handling wasn't clear or something like that, I really don't ever think dogs would ever jerk us around, I'm sure they don't think this way, only people do. So whenever we have an off moment, I try to think what I did wrong or maybe not wrong but just differently than she's used to. And then I try to improve. Bad days happen for a reason, they're not here to make us mad or lower one's self-esteem. They happen so we can grow and learn and become better handlers and better people. I don't really enjoy them as much as I enjoy good days, but they're a part od life so ... c'est la vie :)