European chaos

We have put another roadtrip behind us and I am sure you weren't so naive as to think that you will get through without another lengthy travelog. But I'll try to make it shorter this time, promise. Let's get started!

FRIDAY – LAZSLOLAND

Usually our roadtrips begin with 'We took off early in the morning…', but since this time we had to travel merely 460km to Budafest we started our journey at exactly noon. Our expedition consisted of Katja and Neca with Nuba and Firer in one car and Gregor and I with the Black Death in the other; we met with our usual travel buddies Živa, Uroš, Klark and Leia in Budapest itself since they came a few hours behind us. Sambo and Nuba had obviously hear that mud baths are good for the skin, so they decided to take the opportunity to bathe in lake Balaton (means Muddy lake) where we stopped for an hour to stretch our legs and let the dogs have some fun. We arrived at Budapest at 18.30 and had some trouble finding our hostel since the GPS lady failed on us right at the most critical point. After some struggle we managed to finally find it, unpacked our stuff, made ourselves some dinner, took the dogs for a walk to a park nearby and went to sleep. But not for long…

SATURDAY – STANDING, RUNNING AND RAINING

Saturday started even earlier than planned – we have planned to get up at cca. 6.15, get the dogs and ourselves ready and go to the show (which was 7 km from the hostel) at around 7.00. But it didn't quite go that way… To begin with, a mammoth stampede started pounding through the hostel's stairway before 5am, people were slamming doors, all in all, the wake-up call came a lot earlier than planned, but considering the way things developed further on this wasn't that bad at all. We took off a bit before 7am, drove through the first 4 km towards the show without any problems, and then… And then not any more. The traffic stopped, and when I say stopped, I mean STOPPED. It took us more than an hour to do 1 km and after this hour of watching an increasingly longer caravan of dogs and people migrating on the sidewalk, passing our car, we decided to join them as well. And so we did - Neca, Živa and I with Sambo and Nuba walked a bit more than 2 km to the show. In the rain. Heavy rain. When we got to the show grounds we wanted to find the hall for Great Swissies and Bernese Mountain dogs asap, which was rather difficult to accomplish as there was no map of the show grounds and the security guards and doormen only nodded their heads to our questions. After a tormenting rave through the show grounds we finally arrived to the right hall, completely soaked, found the Swissy ring, where Neca and Živa stayed, while Sambo and I went to find the Bernese ring, where Tončka awaited us with an expression of total relief. Due to the traffic hold-up the judging started with a delay, so after two hours of agony I could handle little Bina after all, the Bernese puppy with whom I was training the last few weeks. Sambek guarded the Bernese headquarters and dried himself, while Bina and I went to the ring to compete for a nice placing in the puppy class with three more females. The babe was very cooperative, she ran beautifully and stood really nice, and most of all was all thrilled and happy to be doing something with me again; I was at least as happy because she convinced the judge she was the best and we won! We were all overjoyed, including Gregor, who finally got to us after two hours and a half in the car (for 3 km)!!! The second I was finished with Binny we took Sambo and rushed through the hally to our clubshow. And almost got there with an empty leash. While we were running, a guy was standing in the middle of an isle with an Akita on a long leash and was probably thinking about his winter vacation or something; he sure wasn't thinking about his dog, who, without hesitation and any overture, jumped right at Sambo's neck. Sambo somehow got off his collar and tried getting rid of the dog that was hanging from him, without any success - he only managed to move him 2 m away. Then the guy finally woke up and tried pulling the dog back but apparently the dog didn't think it was already time to let go, so the guy lifted his dog by the collar - and Sambo as well, since he was hanging from the Akita's teeth. When the dogs where in midair, I dropped the leash from my hands and jumped to them, screaming again, and swinged towards the dog; he released the grip for a sec, which I took to push Sambo away. I put Sambo back on the leash, cursed the guy's complete family and ancestors back to Adam and Eve and I think he got the point even though it was in Slovene. I quickly checked Sambo's neck, ran forward and yelled to Gregor behind me if Sambo was limping, but luckily everything was ok. Again, thank God for Sambo's mane, if it wasn't for that I don't think his neck would still be in one piece…

And so we were back on the rain again, running towards the other end of the show grounds where our clubshow was being held under a tent. We came there just in time for me to borrow a towel and wipe poor Sambo, soaked all over and covered in Akita saliva, and relax and calm him down an bit. We were on in 5 min, with Vito de Chemin des Sorcieres keeping us company in champion class. Sambo ran and stood quite ok, but it was obvious he wasn't his usual self (how could he be, considering the circumstances); apparently he wanted to get some revenge for the early wake-up call and stretched the whole way to the show in the car because the only critique the judge had for him was that he was a bit long in body. My French isn't the best, but I managed to overhear part of the description – among other things he has an excellent expression, ear setting, eye shape, topline, a well balanced, connected and elegant movement, and the comment to the ring steward that he is the only dog that let himself be touched without any problem. Which was unfortunately true (the ones I saw) as most dogs started shrinking as the judge approached them and some even snapped towards her… A sad truth with a working breed. Anywho, Sambo did well except for his lengthy body, he got lots of compliments from the judge and R CAC after Vito. Since we were wet and very cold due to the low temps, the rain and the wind we headed back to hall A to the Bernese ring after our judging. There we defroze a bit and after that Binca and I went to our next battle – with the male puppy to go to the BIS. We presented ourselves very well again, ran super and – won once again! We were really ecstatic, happy that the running up and down in the rain payed off. So we went to the BIS as well; we didn't get far, but we were still happy with the result and with showing off a bit in the BIS of a Eurodogshow. The day ended with a lovely walk in the park where we relaxed, got some fresh air and gathered our stregth for our Eurodogshow.

SUNDAY – ANOTHER VICTORY, PASSING THE SCEPTRE

Sunday was Sambo's day again, he was in a much better mood as the previous day (I would be too, dry and without an Akita hanging from my neck). This time the judge was Norman Deschuymere from Belgium. Sambo was in champion class again and his competition was Vito and Bergerac Fax - Chester, another old acquaintance. The atmosphere was much better, surely also due to the conditions, which were really awful the previous day to be honest. This time we were indoors, nice and dry, and we had more space around the ring to camp and follow the judging. Sambo was, to put it plainly, in a samboid mood – lively, playful and frisky, as usually he entertained the audience by doing tricks while waiting for his turn, and when his turn came he stood very well and ran like a train. The judge touched him from nose to tail, motioned us to run again and then pointed to the new winners – us! The happiness was indescribable, and so was the surprise – for me Sambo is the best anyway, success or no success, and I am also very well aware of what I have (probably nobody could find as many faults on him as I do), but still, winning champion class on a European dogshow under a specialist is a tremendous success, and if we take into consideration that the winning dog has nine years, the success is probably nothing less than amazing. But then again – Sambo IS amazing :) . Obviously not only for me as he had quite some fans there, among others our Italian Tervueren friends and a gentleman that applauded enthusiastically every time we ran (which I noticed only when running the third round as I tend to be totally unaware of what is happening around me while working with Sambo (even if I see only when looking at the video that I nearly knocked Gregor over while running), may it be on Rally Obedience, on the agility course or in the show ring). Sir, I have no idea who you are, but thank you for your support and I hope we meet again.

After winning our class we competed for the CACIB – European winner – title with the winner from open class. The judge examined Sambo thoroughly once more but decided for the other dog this time, so Sambo passed the sceptre and the new European champion became Apache de la Douche Plaine. Sambo ran for the last time with the second dog from open class, won and thus got the R CACIB and the unofficial title of ViceEuropean champion. I think we can be very proud of ourselves, Sambo showed (not only in my opinion) the best movement once again and I could see once more that even though we go to very few shows, even though Sambo doesn't come from a widely recognized kennel and even though he is a year or two or more :) older than most other dogs, we can successfully compete even on the most important shows.

And what is the most important thing after all the kilometres we drove, the rounds we ran and the (un)successes we achieved? That he is mine and I am his, that we have fun together and enjoy ourselves big time, what else! That I come home to a turbo tail, the biggest toothed smile on the world and a snout that shoves in between my legs and parks there, waiting for a portion of scratching. So I say – to many more fun and exciting moments and enjoying this life together!

Sambo after his win





CACIB male, Apache de la Douche Plaine



CACIB female and BOB, Paris de la Terre Sauvage



ps: if the title isn't obvious enough from my essay – the show was an organizational catastrophe; apparently the organization committee thought it was completely acceptable that at an event of European/World proportions the staff on the most critical points (food stands, entrance, stands with dog articles) speaks nothing but Hungarian. I'm well aware that a 60-year-old woman selling pretzels doesn't have a Cambridge certificate in English, but I think it is unacceptable that panic spread on 70% of the stands I visited when I spoke to them in English. Furthermore, they could have predicted traffic problems and did something to avoid them; I can, however, commend on the carpets in the rings as they were very good to run on and the size of the rings was great as well – on the European show, I would rather not comment on the clubshow (I admit, the weather didn't help the organizer)… All in all, we had a good time, as we always do, although the organizers could have done a better job. But what can we do, that's part of the game and we love to play! Plans for Bratislava 2009 are already in progress :).

September's ending...

The European show is approaching and we're enjoying the first autumn days with some shorter trips (sadly I still don't have as much time as I would want to have), clicking, belly-scratching and agility trainings. His body isn't as agile and fast as it was two years ago, I admit it - but Sambo doesn't, and his legs barely manage to keep up with him most of the time when he flies around with his one-of-a-kind smile. Usually he moves his legs so fast that it seems he has 15 legs instead of 4. but that's Sambo, the Belgian neurosis.

JH victory on the Trbovlje show



Sambo and his levade





Posing with a friend



Sambo's face says: Can anybody please turn him off? All this dog does is bark…



Sunny greetings from us



This is it from me today, I have to get to bed and gather some strength for tomorrow's and Thursday's adventures and on Friday our caravan departs for Budapest. As usual we're mostly looking forward to a nice roadtrip, to meet some old friends and make some new ones, and if we get a nice description and/or result, even better.

Keep your fingers crossed for us, type you soon!

Hyper times

Summer is slowly coming to an end and it's time I report to you about what has been going on here. As you can imagine, the answer is – plenty, which is why I didn't have time to update you regularly. First things first…

A week after Sambo's burthday we attended to the unofficial agility trial in KD Barje. We like to do some swinging on such trials, that is change our original partners, and was wanted by three babes (not bad for a sixty-year-old guy, huh?). Since the weather report was quite nasty only one of them came after all, so Tina was the one who had the honour of doing some agility with the Black Death. Since this was the first trial after the summer break I gave up my running with Sambo since I didn't know in what condition were his joints and I didn't want to overdo it; you have to be a bit careful with a nine-year-old dog who had borreliosis, especially since he's not looking after himself at all. But since it's not proper to be on an agility trial without doing some agility, I borrowed Vista for my share. The four of us did great, but unfortunately Tina and Sambo experienced some technical problems (erm, Sambo's digestion problems); however, they did a great job with the second run. Vista and I did great too, so great even that we were second and if I'm not mistake, we were even the best un-original pair in open class.

A weekend after that passed by in – yeah, you know it, doggie style. Two national shows in two days were held in Trbovlje and my two boys went there with me on Saturday. Turns out that Sambo's so good that he doesn't even have to be entered to a show to get a prize ;). A young handler borrowed him for the junior handling competition and they were second! Congrats, Ula and Sambo! September's first weekend was, shockingly, doggie stylish as well. On Saturday we had a good time at an agility trial, which was as usual more fun than successful, and on Sunday we fought for fame and honour on a RO trial in KD Barje – and won! Both figuratively and literally. The competition was the biggest so far and among the 10 pairs in RO II we impressed the judge enough to get 162/170 points and win! A nice bonus to the event is that third place went to Ike, a Boxer that is even a few months older than the Black Death. Well done, fellas!

On Saturday, the 13th, I gave up Hrušica's agility trial with a heavy heart as I had an enormous ammount of work to do translating and studying and an exam on Monday, moreover the weather wasn't the most hospitable. Since my choices were either to risk a collapse of the immune system because of the weather, the superabundance of work and the lack of sleep or to stay at home, nice and warm, and to read 300 pages of a book for Monday's exam, I chose the latter. After a whole day of studying I had to have some fun, about which you can read next time... Meanwhile, Sunday started very early when Živa and I headed to Varpolje to the shar-pei club show, where we spent the day freezing at a barely plus temperature and on the rain. Nevertheless, we spent such a nice day with our wrinkly friends and, most of all, the judge, Mr. Law, that we decided to accept the invitation and join them for dinner too. We came home at 23.00, but my immune system and brains apparently didn't suffer as much damage as I thought they would, I passed the exam with a 9 .

And so we came to the last weekend, which was – unbelievably – canine as well. There were two international shows in Maribor, where I worked again (and spent the day freezing too, again). Gregor and Sambek went there with me on Saturday and finally we managed to do a fotoshooting of Sambo and Yar, who is developing into a very handsome boy. This doesn't go unnoticed by the judges – after getting second place in FCI I group in Trbovlje's show he got third place this time. Way to go, Olga and Yar!

As you can see we know no boredom, and currently we're especially looking forward for some things, planned for the near future – a week from today we're heading to Budapest to the European dogshow and the Hungarian club show and the next two weekends we have the last RO and the last agility trial this season. And how is Sambo spending the last days of his (first ;) ) reign as Europe's prettiest whiskers? With a smile on his face, what else! He's enjoying himself on agi trainings, learning new clicked tricks, showing how to behave to a Bernese gang and soon we're planning to start with a new series of '10 legged trips'. No boredom in sight!

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...