Evolution

A quick course or Evolution in a day. At the beginning there was

Homo sapiens. Today I watched the clips of Skinner and his pigeons for an inspiration before the agility training and an easier dealing with the eventual clumsiness of the students with the rewarding and marking the (good and bad) behaviours of their dogs. Skinner was a wise man.

Homo erectus. What can I do, even years of experience don't guarantee a correct functioning. Today I forgot that despite of my not exactly magnificent hight my head still reaches higher than the frame of the kennel door. I think that the stroke hurt even the neighbour that was crossing his backyard and waving hello...

Homo habilis. Ok, I can't hold it against them, after all - they're beginners, but I'd still like to know if there's a person that in the first few months of his or her agility training gets the direction of the turns right in at least 25% of the cases. I also admit them the aggravating circumstance that besides all the standard components (where's the dog, where are they, where's the obstacle, where are they heading) they also have to think about where's the mud patch where half of their classmates lost their fight with the laws of rotation and gravity and met the ground and the half that's left will face that soon. Anyhow, I have to admit that it's fun watching :), and I also know that they'll get better, we all know that practice makes perfect.

Homo moronis. I think that it happens with most people that their physical, cognitive and morally-social skills decrease towards the end of the day. But I still didn't expect such a decline from early in the morning to the evening. We went for a walk, 2 girls + 2 off leash dogs. We finished our round, chatted and ran around and for the end we got a special treat. Since I'm always on the lookout I sensed that there were two bikers approaching from behind. Both dogs were on the grass and the two of us were on the margin of the path, but we still called the dogs so that they wouldn't think of crossing the path right in the wrong moment. Subject A passes by, but subject B yells at us 'Two off leash dogs, and without a muzzle on them!' I answered, with a smile, that he doesn't have one either (and added in my mind that he could obviously use one more). Subject B, who was already past us, turned back, roared that he's also a hunter and that he could come and shoot both the dogs and the two of us (the fact that he almost ran over some of the passers-by since he was still driving forward while looking back at our 'threat to the surroundings' dogs is unimportant). He could, he could indeed. Just like I could remove his testicles in many inovative ways, but that doesn't mean it's legal (yeah, I know, I was disappointed too when I found out…).

Anyways, I sometimes think that the more progress we make with technological advances, the more we recede in evolution. But I didn't think that I would experience such a reverse proportion in a single day. And I'm not going to bed earlier than in a few hours, who knows how will this day end… I only hope that tomorrow I wake up with all my fingers and two opposable thumbs. Since I'm an optimist – type you later!

Twosome's good, threesome's the best!

Yesterday we finally managed to get a friend for our joint running adventures. The last few weeks the weather has been truly awful (my hip didn't contribute to my well-being either), so I could go running only once a week and my will to run fell in accordance to the decrease of the frequency. So when Sambek saw me getting dressed into my running gear his smile went not only from ear to ear but all around his head and he couldn't believe that we're really going running, and in a threesome way! Maybe he was a bit bewildered because once for a change the running adventure we were setting on wasn't of the vampire kind; you have to know that we usually go running late in the evening when it's (almost) dark outside and yesterday we went out in broad daylight. Having said that, there were many more people running and walking than we're used to. I even had a leash with me, just in case, but I used it only once, on the encounter with two girls with three dogs. We were approaching each other and when they saw us one of the girls started reaching out hastily to grab one of the dogs. I threw Sambo a lasso around his neck and passed by when one of the other two dogs placed himself in the middle of the path, his tail wagging. At that moment I remembered having met this group a few times before, so I let Sambo go and the scenario went like usually – he wagged his tail, the bitchy little bitch snapped at him a bit and we went our separate ways.

For a change we also met some dogs that were on leash even before we met. My best dog in the whole world dedicated a raised tail and a 3 metre bypass to a Bullmastiff; to the rest of the dogs, that had a less perilous look, he didn't dedicate neither a glance nor a single raised hair, he simply sailed by them with an unchanged tempo as if they didn't exist. It's nice to have a good dog :).

Singing in the rain

I have to say that this year April's weather was reaččy April-like after a long time. The last 2, 3 years we rarely had to cancel our training because of the rain (but we had to do so in June, July, September…), but this year April was true to itself and served us a great ammount of it already.

I had to cancel two trainings so far – and I rather don't even count how many mud-baths and prolonged braking distances we had on our soaked training place. At least I make good use of the bad weather and teach Sambo stuff and do some studying myself. One exam down, erm, well, 'n' to go (but it still feels good), and Sambo is mastering two new tricks.

During the week we go for walks, herd our friend Klark, click and the weekends are doggie style, what else. Gregor and I seized the opportunity and went to an exotic animal expo one weekend in April, where we made friends with a 3 m long python. One weekend we went for a short hike to the mountains and last weekend was really doggie style as there was an international show in Celje. There I worked as a ring steward the first day and showed my friend's Dobermann the second day. And again after a bunch of dogs I petted I returned to the most beautiful of all :).

The Black Death is feeling like a million bucks, the ants are flying off his pants and once again he's spending more time in the air than on the ground as he spends most of his waking hours skipping around like spring bucks, the gazelles that show off in front of the lions with spectacular jumps. Most of the time the thing is quite amusing, but the other day I didn't feel like smiling at all for a moment cause the little monster dedicated me a biiiiiiig smile 'up, close and personal' – he ran past me and thought it was a good idea if he made me a nice display of his smile right by my face, so that his teeth snapped a cm or two from my left cheek. I wonder what would the lions' reaction be if the spring bucks would start showing their teeth besides prancing around them…

New guidelines

Metrosexuality is a fassion guideline that embarks an increasingly bigger part of the human population. Now it's spreading to dogs too. A few days ago I noticed that Sambo's wooly undercoat began separating from the overcoat. His coat doesn't come off him by itself, but the grey coat in the middle of his otherwise shiny black coat bothers me so much that I decided to brush him to get the dead wool out (I know, I'm getting worse, it's only been two months since I've last brushed him…). But considering the fact that brushing his coat represents a reciprocal torture and cause I was already disappointed in myself since I was preparing to engage in such an unnecessary activity (to me) such as brushing my dog, I decided to go one step further and make things at least a bit easier for both of us. So I went to get my hair conditioner and sprayed him on the critical areas, rubbing the conditioner into his coat. After a few minutes I started to brush him and I have to admit that the conditioner was a wonderful idea. Those 8,5 minutes were noticeably less stressful and yapping from both sides than usually, so conditioner with shea oil – two thumbs up! And so it was that besides all other not exactly manly nicknames Sambo became a metrosexual too…

Spring pleasures

We took the opportunity a nice, sunny Sunday was offering and went to Kurešček for a walk. We expected to find some last remains of this year's snow, but we did not expect to trudge through snow for half an hour, realize this was too much, turn back and enjoyed the sun in the meadow. Yesterday was the first time this year I got back on the horse (or better said – mare). Except for some adrenalin, well known rodeo elements the ride was very pleasant, but my aching muscles today aren't that pleasant. Nevertheless, yesterday was great and I hope that Sambo and I can start getting around regularly on 10 feet again.

Is it a bird? No!



Is it a plane? No!



It's Sambo! :)





We practiced for the filming of Karate Kid again...



And for the Olympic games :)

Last breaths of winter

We continue with our clicking and learning of new tricks, we still amuse our agility classmates (actually this relationship is completely reciprocal) and besides that we're working, studying… All in all, we have no shortage of action and sometimes it happens that despite of my multitasking nature there's too much of everything and my wires get mixed up… For example, the other day I was grumbling over the electrical gate that wouldn't open and then I realized that I was trying to open it with a clicker. And no, that doesn't mean that later on I tried to click Sambo with the remote control of the gate; but I did have our malign bird on my shoulder the other day when I went to get a frozen chicken for Sambo's dinner and I almost threw the wrong bird into the oven… /just kidding :) /.

A few days ago I told Gregor that I wanted to experience some real snow for the last time this winter, so we decided to go for a roadtrip to Pokljuka (where cross country skiing competitions are held every year). We went there on Friday and I'm happy to report that Pokljuka didn't fail me – it was Siberia. The snow was falling with force, the wind was blowing hard, the temperatures were low and there was even up to half a metre of snow on the ground. A true winter expedition, to tell the truth. Sambo had a blast and so did we. Happy and content to have experienced some hardcore snow for the last time this year, we drove home… to snowy Ljubljana. There was some heavy rain on the way home, but when we came to Ljubljana it was all snow. So we had a bit of snow at home too, although not much of it sticked to the ground. But the aesthetic effect was just as welcome :).

Put your paws up and your head down...



... and then we're also shy...



A wolf in Siberia...







Snowy sprint

The season has officialy started here. I can't say that the action has started since the action rarely takes a break here in Groenenland, but surely we have more of it now. We run, click and also agility trainings started again. Most of the old fighters are still with me, the rookies look fairly promissing and as an extra bonus I have Shenzi, Sambo's not-so-secret admirer who still loves him, of course, but most of all it seems that she really worked hard during the winter since she's flying over the obstacles and what's even more impressing, she got rid of her 'tunnelophobia'. Good work, Shenzi and hanlder Nuki!

Yesterday we went to our second trial this year. Unfortunately this wasn't as successful as the previous one. Sambo was back to being his old self – hyperneurotic and a stranger to contacts, maybe he managed to do one (by mistake, of course). Apparently I'll have to make the 10 min game of dogdeball an obligatory preventive measure if we are ever to move from our 'status quo', the second level with 2/3 of the requirements. Oh well, at least we had fun – but then again, we always do.

Today we had a completely new type of action. There was a fund raising run/walk for homeless animals and last year I wanted to go but I couldn't, so this year I wouldn't let myself be stopped by anything. And I didn't. I didn't let neither the bad weather nor my hurting hip stop me , I armed myself with my two guys and my running equipment and went to the gathering place. There I met with some doggie friends and soon an agility friend and I pushed our way towards the start line. After a minute or so I had second thoughts about being at the front cause I wasn't sure if behind us a stampede of runners eager to go, full of testosterone and Isostar wouldn't break free. Luckily this wasn't the case; we survived the start in a presentable shape got outrun by a few individual runners and a few runners with dogs, but otherwise we kept our good starting positions right to the end. It was a 2.6 km round and at first I wanted to run two laps but I quickly saw that one would be completely enough. Firstly, we ran on a harder surface than I'm used to and my hip started to complain, but most of all I missed one detail: in order to have my hands free I tied one leash around my waist, put Sambo on a harness and clipped his leash onto the first one. The system worked flawlessly for the first few metres. But then Gregor outpassed us on a bike to take a pic of us and foam came to Sambo's mouth, he started pulling as if he were on the Iditarod and the leash I had around my waist instantly turned into a corset. The more he pulled, the more my silhouette got baroque-like. I suppose you can easily imagine that after two minutes of running like this I saw that I couldn't last more than about 15 min of running without being able to breathe, so we unanimously decided to end our run with the first lap. Nevertheless, the quad Urška/Urška/Sambo/Lu with Gregor as the steersman fought well and ran and cycled across the finish line with our heads held high. It was fun, tough and adrenalin-fulled. We'll definitely repeat it next year, but I have to figure out a new system for around my waist so I won't look like a projectile snapped in half.

Until next time!

The beginning of our action in a torpedo style



A smile for the camera...



Victory! :)