HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Today is my best friend's birthday. Yep, it's 9 years already since he roared into this world and I hope and believe that his roaring will stay with me for many years to come.

Years go by but both of us still behave like a couple of kids. Sambo is - well, Sambo, and I (at least this time) blame it on the fact that tonight I haven't slept a minute - long live insomnia. I wrote a short poem for Sambo (the rhymes just kept coming to my mind while I was tossing and turning in bed), but it's in Slovene and I'll spare you guys the translation. :)

Either way - dear Sambo, I wish you all the best in life, may your legs carry you around in your standard working-pace trot for many years, may your throat serve you well and keep producing the most amazing sounds in the world and may a thousand and one silly ideas come to your mind so you keep keeping me busy. Stay the way you are as for me you're the best there is - a friendly, neurotic, goofy boy with sparks in his eyes and a smile on his face that never fades. Love you!



ps: I'll use the insomnia excuse this time too... Happy birthday to Živa as well, a great friend that makes you think that it's really a dog's life ;). I wish you and the Black Death celebrate many, many birthdays togetherin the future. To roadtrips! Happy birthday!

July report

There is no rest for us in Groenenland, so I can't manage to update you about our happenings and mishappenings as regularly as I'd like to, there's just too many things going on. At least I've managed to update the English version of the blog, which is quite a success considering my essays. And before I start with a new one, let me tell you in brief (even I don't believe it) about our activities in July.

The last weekend in June we were supposed to go to the agility trial in Domžale, but we came only as spectators as Sambek apparently had some muscle soreness from all the activities that week. He didn't limp or anything, but I didn't want to expose him (even more), so we only cheered for our doggie friends. A week after that we were back in shape, so on Saturday we went to the agility trial in Ljubljana, whereas on Sunday we visited the summer festival in Rovte, a small village near Ljubljana, where we had a presentation of obedience, agility, frisbee and informed people about a responsible ownership of dogs. At the same time the world dogshow in Stockholm was held which our Swiss friends and roadtrip companions attended. Our cheering from home seems to have helped as both Klark and Leia were second in their class and also achieved some other very nice results on other shows they visited during this massive radtrip. Meanwhile, we stayed at home, wishing ans sighing….

I suppose nobody believed that one. We took walks, clicked, ran and had our fun, and on Saturday we went to Portorož to our only night-time agility trial. We had a great time and did a very nice job too, especially in the second run. The first run was very nice, except for the last but one obstacle. Fact is this combination was quite hard for speedy dogs as the temptation of the tunnel next to the distance jump was too big for many dogs, which went directly from the dogwalk into the tunnel and disqualified themselves. Many dogs, but not Sambo. Something like that would be much too normal for him, such a banal disqualification would be much beneath him. No, to catapult yourself directly from the (jumped over) contact into the tunnel, positioned 2m to the right of the end of the distance jump would be just too simple. Sambo really put an effort into it and jumped over the distance jump, made a sharp turn to the right and after a professional looping popped just about 5cm of his snout into the tunnel, only a little bit of it. So actually we were just a little bit disqualified. The second run was even nicer and this time flawless, so we really deserved the applause at the end. With this the first part of the season was concluded and it was time to do some summer relaxation.

Which in practice means that there are no trials or trainings, but we find another way to keep ourselves busy. Sambo apparently had a patriotic inspiration and took advantage of the reparation works of our club's obstacles and put on his national colours. He diligently glazed himself with yellow on his flank and ear and put some red onto his hind foot. Thus he transformed himself into his own flag and since there isn't any show in the near future he remains that way to this day. Gregor tried to clean him up a bit but he wasn't entirely successful…

The end of the month was more mine than Sambo's I admit, cause I started working (isn't exactly what I planned, but there aren't many jobs for 2-3 times per week and one has to earn money for dog kibble) and got also some translations, which of course require quite some time. that of course doesn't mean that Sambo was at home, dust accumulating on top of him. As always we went on walks and runs and also had did some hiking – we visited a beautiful waterfall near Kranj with our agility friend Katja and her two doggie friends and went to Kurešček with two buddies from the doggie forum. All in all, we weren't bored and I assume this won't change in August either… Until next time!

Expedition to the waterfall - Sambo, Tai and May

Blisters, screes, sun and nettles

This week was really Belgian. On Sunday I roamed around Vrhnika for almost 4 hours with my friends from highschool (and of course with my most loyal companion) and Sambo got to try out his new equipment – a backpack with a harness that will be useful especially for our two- or three-day hike in the mountains that we're planning for the end of the summer / beginning of fall. On Monday my poor Belgian soul had only two regular walks, which I tried to correct on Tuesday, when we went running for an hour in the usual good company.

Wednesday was meant for hiking. Despite of my scepticism due to the hot weather the last few days and the chosen destination our guide decided to conquer Bivak II once more, a mostly rocky and quite big mass above Mojstrana. Soon I realized that my mountaineering boots weren't that perfect for my foot (it may be partly because they're inherited from Gregor, but I doubt it since he wears only two sizes bigger than I do…). Anyhow, after an hour or so the boot started to rub the area above my heel which I unsuccessfully tried to ignore up until the moment when my mind got occupied by the awareness that we're rising above the trees and that we'll be trapped between the rocks and the sun for the next three hours. I admit, the third ascent to this destination can easily be matched with the first one regarding the difficulty, when they took me onto this negligible 2200 m in the phase of recovery from a severe bronchitis I had… up through the scree! One would think that after such an experience a person, a normal Homo sapiens, could only be fooled once. Since this is the third time I went to this peak I wonder where would Darwin place me in the branches of the tre of evolution. It's probably better that I don't know it.

Even though the temperature of the air fell in reverse proportion to he height we were gaining, the ascent was still very hard in such a sunny and sultry weather and I have to say that this is probably the only time in my life I really sweated like a race horse. The other members of the expedition were in similar condition too; the two human members were marinading in their own juice, like me, and the dogs were grateful for every tiny twig that cast a little piece of shadow. An hour before the top they gladly took the opportunity to cool off in the cold shadow of a rocky cave and we crawled and hopped to a bench over a big area of nettles to take a short brake before the last effort. But you have to admit that Bivak II always redeems itself for the torture of hikers with truly beautiful views and the descent offers a true adrenalin-filled experience with a nicely relaxed finish – half an hour of sliding down the scree, some walking on a rocky surface and then a stroll through the forest to the car on a gently sloping path.







Thursday wasn't that exceptional, so we only had our regular walk and agility training, and today we headed to the mountains again, but this time in a more easy version. We went to Komna, but since we had a limited amount of time we really only went there, but didn't get there. This time we tried out the boots too; they were bought to protect Sambo's feet on our summer vacation on the seaside – last year he got some very nasty cuts when running through the rocks. The weather was very pleasant, sunny and not too hot, and if you're in the woods and near water it's always quite magical anyway… To as many such outings as this one!





My boys



Sambo thought it would be fun to get in between my legs, as he often does at home… while walking downhill… with saddlebags on him…



At the end it feels good to refresh oneself

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (or at least as far as we make it...)

The Black Death loves many things, travelling being one of them. Since he's a smart boy, he figured out that there's only a slim chance of getting a nice roadtrip during the exam period, and the poor fella's allowance is too small for him to afford a car. So, as it becomes of a youth of his age and the time of the year, he decided to become a backpacker :). His first adventure is of a more local sort, he conquered one of the hills nearby the city where we live, but he has an all-european tour in mind, considering his hitchhiking is successful enough, of course. So if you happen to run along the guy pictured here, please be generous and take him on board so he won't be deprived of his summer adventures because of my exams...




He added me himself using photoshop in this pic, so I wouldn't feel too left out. Looking at it I almost feel like if I was there for real...

And our brain finally caught up with us...

As I've told you in the previous post there was a double show in Hrušica for the first time this year. On Saturday my two favourite boy took me and Živa to the show and took me for short a walk with them near the show area. I was working as a ring steward with the first FCI group both days and I have to say that quite a few very nice and interesting dogs came to the Serbian judge Sunčica Lazić the first day. After work we stopped for a walk with Ivana and her numerous pack on the way to the hotel and Sambo and I took the opportunity to pose together after a long while; the fact that I was wearing some decent clothes was worth the session anyway…



Gravity doesn't really work on Belgians...



A big smile during the walk :)



On Sunday I worked with the shepherds again, this time the judge was Kenneth Edh from Sweden. Towards the end the rain tried to give us some trouble, but we still came to the end successfully as the last ring working (it was a tie with Živa's ring). So we came to the end of another successful weekend but had no time to rest because new obligations came with the new week – studying, arranging the house, agility trainings and more.

On Friday I finally managed to get some sleep and gather my stenght for the busy weekend that was ahead of me. On Saturday I had to get up early and go to the agility traning (Thursday's training was cancelled because of the rain, so we had a substitute trainig). After agility training we rushed home to help with the preparations for my dad's birthday picnic. Of course the preparations weren't the only tiresome thing, the picnic itself was quite tiresome too – so I escaped from it, to another picnic, this one in Gregor's honour. And yes, my pants still fit :).

Sunday came with another opportunity for new RO successes and Sambo and I joined the battle full of optimism. The trial was a very pleasant one despite of the raindrops here and there. There were 6 competitors in RO II and Sambo and I were the last to perform. We did very well, the only evident mistakes were a crooked Sit in one task and a less than perfect side step in another. I was pleased with our performance as we did much better than in Ljubljana, but I know we can do even better. Well, the judge was obviously less critical than me, he gave us 164 out of 170 points, which meant we were second! Here's our performance in RO II.

Since there was only one competitor in the RO III category I volunteered to double – you have to work in pairs in categories III and IV. i wanted to take the opportunity to train because I never practice with signs and I never do whole courses, I only train individual tasks as tricks. Furthermore, we'll probably compete in this category on the next trial as we have all the necessary requirements to advance into a higher level. I predicted our performance in III to be better than in II and so it was. Despite three not exactly shiny moments – the first one was my fault, I got lost in the course, again!, I have big problems with orientation between the signs (I would probably do better if I ran through the course, like in agility), especially if there's a 270 degrees turn in the course, so ¾ of a circle. I usually forget to stop, make a full circle and after two steps I realize that the next sign isn't ahead of me. That was the case here too. The second moment was fate or better said bad luck, I actually started training the table on our club's training field since I had problems with this obstacle, but this trainings don't help me at all in trials because our table is considerably larger than the one prescribed for RO and Sambo apparently doesn't perceive this as a table at all. It seems that we'll have to make a smaller table in order to train it effectively. The third moment was contributed by Sambo only, while performing one of the tasks he remembered he's a reincarnation of a Friesian and got in between my legs. Pure Sambo! I though that the least appropriate moment for such a move was when I'm walking down the stairs, now I see I can fear such an episode on RO trials too… Nevertheless, I'm very content with his performance – here's our RO III.

Enough for today. The weekend tempo hasn't calmed down yet, this Saturday I'm working on CACIB Portorož and we have agility trials the next four consecutive weekends. I hope they'll be more successful than the last ones, I'm certainly optimistic about it (as always) – apparently our brain finally caught up with us, at least in rally, so we're not only pretty anymore ;).

Greetings from the second place, type you next time!

Action!

Last time I forgot to add a shortened clip of the show in Kočevje, where you can see Sambo's tail set almost on perpetuum mobile mode. Due to the lenght of the clip I cut out the parts where Sambo is stamping his feet like a ram before the attack and deprived you of some good fun (the lesson of the sotry being that it is not wise to click a dog with some footwork tricks a week before a show because he can perform a Footlose scene, like Sambo did; the only thing missing was a good soundtrack…).

As you can see I forgot to pack things three days in advance on Friday so I showed Sambo in very sporty clothes for a change (euphemism for 'the same rags I wore all 4 days with only one shower along the way'; now you know why the shower before going to bed on Thursday was such a good investment…), but thinking it through it's better to show in raggy pants than to run agility in summer linen pants and flip-flops…

On Saturday we went to the agility trial in Žalec where the last requirement for the advance to the highest level escaped from us in a most imbecile way – when we make all 6 contacts, when no bars fall off we get a refusal in a really stupid place and 5 points for it. Ok, the run wasn't perfect – towards the end I sent Sambo to a jump, yelled at him because I thought I got the jump wrong and then tried to start him up again, which is quite difficult with a dog that doesn't know (or doesn't admit to know, I'm not sure) the command Forward, especially if your course ends with three jumps in a straight line and uphill (you can't see it in the clip, but the field is quite inclined and the finish was uphill, of course). It's interesting that I actually find the run quite good, even though we managed to make a refusal, even though I almost killed myself a few obstacles after that (when we had to make a 180 degree turn while running downhill) and even though we really looked like Dumb & Dumber on the finish line – first I got wrong that I got the obstacles wrong and then Sambo turned towards me after every jump and roared at me to say 'where the hell are you, speed up!'. Oh well, we do make sure that the audience is entertained. Judge for yourselves, here's our first run.

We had one refusal in jumping too – Sambo thought I didn't show the entrance to the tunnel clearly enough, so he did one spin, but otherwise we did a good job and ended up sixth.

Yesterday we went to our first RO trial this year. The working atmosphere wasn't the best and Sambo followed the mainstream; on the start he yelled as if he were on agility, but as soon as we started with our performance his enthusiasm vanished. He had a very bad concentration and to be honest, we didn't do well; the judge's opinion was that we didn't do three of the tasks so we were disqualified (as many other competitors, even from more banal reasons). Oh well, our rally career sp far was too good to be true anyway, we made three requirements in three trials, so we'll try to prepare better for next time.

The season is in its peek and we have quite some things ahead of us – this weekend there's a double show in Hrušica where I work both days (on Saturday the Black Death and Gregor will be accompanying me), next weekend we have a RO trial in Domžale and the weekend after that there's CACIB Portorož, where I'll probably be working one day and on Sunday I'll probably go to RO in Žalec. Still plenty of action to come!

FMBB 2008

Belgians of all shapes and sizes flooded Slovenija during the second week of May. The World championship for Belgian Shepherds was held in Kočevje from the 9th to the 11th of May with competitions in IPO, mondioring, agility and a show. So Sambo and I migrated to Kočevje from Thursday, when we had agility trainings, to Sunday afternoon when the closing ceremony was held. The Slovene agility team was composed by Vista the Groen, Pia the Mali, Vinny the Mali, Dancer the Terv and the longhaired Batman and Robin, Sambo and his friend Pan. All six of us ran in the individual competition, whereas only Vista, Pia, Sambo and Pan ran also in the team competition.

Thursday beagn early, as same as the days to come. We came to Kočevje in the morning crush and some of the more diligent members were already preparing the obstacles. We set the course and the trainings began. First it was our turn to train, the Croatian team followed, and then the rest of the teams in alphabetical order. I have to say that after a whole day of watching the trainings of almost twenty teams I can now send a dog to the tunnel, to the weave poles, and yes, to hell too :) in a variety of languages. It was a long day and when I came home in the evening the only thing I could do is shower and sleep. A very good investment…

I greeted Friday's morning much too early for my taste; Gregor and I packed our things and Sambek into the pick-up and drove off to Kočevje. This day the real action began – we had to perform three runs, first two individual and then one team run. Surprisingly, or maybe not, I was considerably less nervous during the whole event than on our regular competitions (and you couldn't say I'm a nervous wreck there either), I actually wasn't nervous at all. The judges were Zlatko Gorjan and Mirja Lapanja and I can honestly say that I liked all of the courses, they were medium demanding and very fluent, so it was a real pleasure to run them. Our first run was also the first Slovene run, we were number 14 (out of cca 130 competitors) and thus were the first Slovenes to engage in the bloody fight for fame and honour (I'm only kidding, of course). Zlatko set a nice and interesting jumping which we ran very very well – except for the disqualification mistake, of course. One would think that at his age Sambo could already tell the difference between Left and Right and turn in accordance to it and I, well, I could be a bit less of a moron and not stick with my decision but moved the dog right if he really didn't agree with me. You can see the result on the clip. Around one in the afternoon we had our first agility run, where Sambo obviously couldn't decide wether to jump over the contact as usually, use a geriatric excuse to knock off a bar or surprise me with something completely new, a refusal for example. So he decided for all three options, what else. But since the jumped over contact was the first on the seesaw instead of the second on the dogwalk (which was done nicely) and since he's actually already a year or two over puberty and I contributed myself to the refusal with a less than perfect handling, I forgive him. On Friday we also had the team agility run, which we did very well. So well even that Sambek was the best dog from the Slovene team – Pia and Pan unfortunately got disqualified, Vista got 10 penalty points and Sambo with his standard jumped over second dogwalk contact 5 points. By doing that he ruined my optimistical plan that I designed during the walking of the course, so I didn't have time to do a turn at the end of the dogwalk and lead him past the obstacle nicely into the tunnel. On account of his own iniciative and perspective on doing the contacts on the dogwalk I had to change that plan slightly and improvise on the course to get him over the obstacle and into the right hole in the tunnel. Luckily I'm a good improviser in general, so here's our team agility.

Friday's night was more interesting because we decided to skip the migration from Kočevje to Ljubljana and back and camp on the scene itself. Despite the powerful sun and the high daily temperatures the night came with a surprising cold. But we survived that too and even though we camped on the scene where the event was held (20m from the agility course) we didn't sleep any longer than we would if we'd be sleeping in Ljubljana. Maybe the serenades of a pack of Pintzers in the car next to us had to do something with it, I have the feeling that the frisbee morning workout of some dogs by our tent at 7 am could also have contributed to that, not sure though. Anywho, this day started early too. Saturday was even more variegated than Friday as we had also the show ahead of us. So in the morning I took Sambo for a walk and then ran to the place where the show was supposed to be held. There was nobody and nothing there. I returned to our camp with the intention to eat breakfast and then go and check again. I wasn't that successful with that plan because they recruted me to help the Spanish agility team with some problems with the organizers. Then I found out that there was something actually going on at the show, the same time they were setting the last obstacles for the first Saturday run, so I knew it was going to be quite intense and I wouldn't have much time for everything.

From that point on the next hour and a half was really full of adrenaline; while I was taking my usual two minutes for Sambo's coat Gregor went to enter us to the show. The three of us ran to the show scene where we came just in time to cheer for our friends from Maribor, Olga and her Yar, and then it was our turn already. The judge was Myrjam Vermeire from Belgium and Sambo, being the only mature male (in champion class), got a nice description, an excellent, CAC and BOS (Best of Sex). The BOB went to a Russian female bred in Finland, Je M'Appele Ilona. There were 5 Groenendaels altogether. After our show I rushed to walk the agility course, ran through the obstacles three times and ran back to the show ring where I showed Navajo, a Terv from our Italian-Dutch friend Sandra. We got exc. 1 and CAC, after which I hurried back to the agility course. Gregor had already taken care of Sambo's warm up, so we just exchanged leashes and Sambo and I were already on the course. When we were done I took two minutes to cool both of us down and then – yes, you know it!, I returned to the show, where Navajo and I got also CACIB, BOB and BIS 3

But let's get back to agility – Saturday's jumping was far from being perfect, we did a really nice job (and fast too), but unfortunately a bar fell three jumps before the finish. But we still got (and deserved) a big aplause from the audience for a really nice run ;). The agility at noon was nice, but not as good as morning's jumping. We could have had a better time and besides the standard jumped over contact on the dogwalk Sambo managed to somehow miss the entrance to the weaves, which isn't exactly typical for his repertoire. But then again it would be too dull if he woud get on my nerves only with the dogwalk, right? So here's our Saturday agility. in the afternoon we had the Team jumping, perhaps our best run. Unfortunately we did this one with points too, I probably didn't show clearly enough the entrance to the tunnel so he ended up in between the two holes, but otherwise it was a very fluent, quite fast run, all in all, a run we can be proud of.

I think we did well in the 6 runs in 2 days so I'm more than pleased with our performances. All four pairs in the team did very well, especially Vista and Pan who fought for our honour also in the Sunday's finals and came in 12th and 19th. Slovenija did even better in the IPO competition, where a Slovene competitor and her Mali bitch even won. Go, Slovenija, go!

As far as the agility is concerned I can say that all expectations were fulfilled, however, the show fell short of my (and I think that also other's) expectations at least looking at the organization. Regardless, we had a good time at the show too, met a few old friends, made some new ones and at large, Kočevje will remain in my nicest memories for the wonderful atmosphere at the event, an atmosphere only becoming of a Belgian event. If everything goes well, we will be able to enjoy a great Belgian atmosphere next year in the Czech Republic too, hopefully competing in the agility and show again…

Until the next time

Urša