I'm glad to report I walked into my quarter in the best company I could imagine – and I mean literally walked, as I was in the middle of our yard when midnight stroke, and spent the next 20min on a walk with Sambo. And realized I lowered my criteria with the years – I usually wished a good portion of snow for my birthday, the last few years I usually spent this day with a horse between my legs and often I would see a nice scarf or something and reported that to my nervous and frustrated relatives without any ideas. Well, for my birthday this year I got a black ciliate that rushes up and down and gives me a big grin every few metres. I admit, this is enough. But I also got a special bonus.
Sambek started with radiations on Monday – he'll have 12. i couldn't go alone through this, there's too much of everything, but at least here I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. They say you realize who your true friends are when you're in trouble and going through a hard time, and I got so many nice surprises these days I'm speechless. Thanks to everybody that is here for me, thanks for all the cheering for Sambo and me, thanks for all the help, the kind words and the support. It's awfully hard to find yourself in a hard situation that you haven't caused and where a happy ending isn't sure even if you put in all your effort. It's horrible to be standing beneath such a cloud, but when you see that many arms reaching for you it's much easier to step forward and walk until you get to a sunny spot. I believe we'll reach the sun soon, with your help too, and stay there until Sambo turns blonde like me and I tan so that I get black like him. Thanks again, you're the best.
So this year I won't wish all the best for me – I already have that. I have Sambo, Olaf, Gregor and all of you who stand by my side. This year I wish… I wish I get some socks that'll stay dry even after 100m of a doggy walk in wet grass, a good piece of cake and a massage that will cure my neck problem. I know, I'm very demanding, but I can upgrade my standards for the first 25 years of my life.
Thanks to all the ones cheering for us and thanks to Sambo for making my life better. I hope I'll live to experience many more birthdays in the company of your woof-s, toothed grins, paws offered for scratching (not to mention the hairy butt) and amazing energy and ideas.
Greetings to all of you, Urša and Sambo (sleeping at my feet)
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Friday, November 28, 2008
Weird reactions
This week I realized that even my optimism and positive energy aren't unlimited. Luckily Sambo doesn't let himself be bothered, his optimism is obviously bulletproof. This weekend I took my agility group to a field trip for the end of the season and Sambo ran back and forth, counting his sheep with the biggest smile in the world. It was nice to see him that happy. Unfortunately his nose started bleeding again, hopefully because of the cold weather and all the running.
Moreover, this afternoon I became an orphan. It's been three weeks since my dad is gone and now my mom has joined him on the other side as well. They're fine I suppose, South America is really beautiful in this time of the year. I never minded being home alone, but since I'm not feeling that good it would be nice to have some company. Sambo is the best cuddling partner, no doubt about it, and Čompo is quite ok to talk to (even though he repeats himself too much).
On Monday came the first snow this year, but I somehow couldn't be as enthusiastic about it as usually. Winter, my time of the year, and snow, my big love, but the good mood didn't want to join me. The week passed by quite quickly, probably because I had something to look forward to on Friday – I had to have my wisdom tooth pulled out, what could be better. Surprisingly and totally unexpectedly this tooth pulling was the highlight of the week and I think it was the first time this week I had a good laugh. Gregor drove me to the centre, he went to find a parking space and I went towards the dentist's office, convincing myself I wasn't afraid and that this time it will be much less stressful than the first time (they had to remove the first wisdom tooth surgically and to do it, they covered my head with a white sheet so that only my mouth was uncovered, and after the procedure they took off a red sheet…). My wonderful dentist was already waiting for me, so we got to business. First injection, ouch. Second injection, double ouch. While we were waiting for the injections to start working, my dentist gave me instructions for the following days, among others which drugs I should take. In less than a minute he was sweating more than I was as I asked him if any of these drugs contain ephedrin as I once had a reaction to it – a flu medication contained ephedrin and after an hour of lying on the couch I though my heart was going a bit fast and my vision was a bit blurred. I took my mom's heart rate measurer from the table and it showed my heart was going a mere 200 beats per minute. Since the dentist wasn't sure what caused this reaction, he got pretty worried as the painkiller he gave me could also contain this substance. After a few minutes it was obvious I was ok, so he and the nurse started operation Wisdom tooth. And finished it too, because the tooth was out in less than a minute. But if you think I was out in a minute too, think again. I was so reliefed that the procedure went that quickly and painlessly that I just wanted to smile and laugh; then the dentist, poor ignorant soul, made the fatal mistake of telling me to bite together, but not too quickly and not too much because he still needs his fingers. He couldn't get nowhere near my mouth for two minutes cause I was laughing so hard the first minute he could only wait for me to stop, and after a minute he and the nurse started laughing as well, so they got incapacitated themselves. After I calmed down a bit I remembered there where two girls in the waiting room and that they probably haven't heard a roar of laughter from a dentist's office yet. So we started laughing again. Before leaving the office I told my dentist that the next time I have a bad week I'll come to get another tooth pulled out, it's definitely cheaper than shopping and I also get a good laugh at it. When I got into the waiting room the two girls where staring at me with such an expression of shock that I, of course, started laughing again. At that moment Gregor came, surprised I was already out, and laughing! We waited there for 15 minutes to make sure everything was ok with me (at least in the dentist sense) and then we went home.
In the afternoon it started snowing again. At first I didn't plan to go for a walk as it is still a good idea to avoid cold after such a procedure, but I changed my mind. Who knows how many snowy walks we'll experience, we have to make the best out of each one. And so we went. Two friends, together in the dark and the silence, which was interrupted only by the screeching of the snow beneath our feet. The streets have a special charm at nightime, even more so if it's snowing. I often call Sambo Waffle, and this night he surely looked like one, a waffle sprinkled with sugar; it's funny to see him, the blackster, sprinkled with snowflakes on the top. And he races around, with his ears folded back on hs shoulder blades and a big smile over his face, so quickly that his feet almost unbuckle… Without him I would never know the charm of night walks in the snow, even with a hole in your gums and a swollen cheek. Thank you for your company, Sambek, you're the best!
Moreover, this afternoon I became an orphan. It's been three weeks since my dad is gone and now my mom has joined him on the other side as well. They're fine I suppose, South America is really beautiful in this time of the year. I never minded being home alone, but since I'm not feeling that good it would be nice to have some company. Sambo is the best cuddling partner, no doubt about it, and Čompo is quite ok to talk to (even though he repeats himself too much).
On Monday came the first snow this year, but I somehow couldn't be as enthusiastic about it as usually. Winter, my time of the year, and snow, my big love, but the good mood didn't want to join me. The week passed by quite quickly, probably because I had something to look forward to on Friday – I had to have my wisdom tooth pulled out, what could be better. Surprisingly and totally unexpectedly this tooth pulling was the highlight of the week and I think it was the first time this week I had a good laugh. Gregor drove me to the centre, he went to find a parking space and I went towards the dentist's office, convincing myself I wasn't afraid and that this time it will be much less stressful than the first time (they had to remove the first wisdom tooth surgically and to do it, they covered my head with a white sheet so that only my mouth was uncovered, and after the procedure they took off a red sheet…). My wonderful dentist was already waiting for me, so we got to business. First injection, ouch. Second injection, double ouch. While we were waiting for the injections to start working, my dentist gave me instructions for the following days, among others which drugs I should take. In less than a minute he was sweating more than I was as I asked him if any of these drugs contain ephedrin as I once had a reaction to it – a flu medication contained ephedrin and after an hour of lying on the couch I though my heart was going a bit fast and my vision was a bit blurred. I took my mom's heart rate measurer from the table and it showed my heart was going a mere 200 beats per minute. Since the dentist wasn't sure what caused this reaction, he got pretty worried as the painkiller he gave me could also contain this substance. After a few minutes it was obvious I was ok, so he and the nurse started operation Wisdom tooth. And finished it too, because the tooth was out in less than a minute. But if you think I was out in a minute too, think again. I was so reliefed that the procedure went that quickly and painlessly that I just wanted to smile and laugh; then the dentist, poor ignorant soul, made the fatal mistake of telling me to bite together, but not too quickly and not too much because he still needs his fingers. He couldn't get nowhere near my mouth for two minutes cause I was laughing so hard the first minute he could only wait for me to stop, and after a minute he and the nurse started laughing as well, so they got incapacitated themselves. After I calmed down a bit I remembered there where two girls in the waiting room and that they probably haven't heard a roar of laughter from a dentist's office yet. So we started laughing again. Before leaving the office I told my dentist that the next time I have a bad week I'll come to get another tooth pulled out, it's definitely cheaper than shopping and I also get a good laugh at it. When I got into the waiting room the two girls where staring at me with such an expression of shock that I, of course, started laughing again. At that moment Gregor came, surprised I was already out, and laughing! We waited there for 15 minutes to make sure everything was ok with me (at least in the dentist sense) and then we went home.
In the afternoon it started snowing again. At first I didn't plan to go for a walk as it is still a good idea to avoid cold after such a procedure, but I changed my mind. Who knows how many snowy walks we'll experience, we have to make the best out of each one. And so we went. Two friends, together in the dark and the silence, which was interrupted only by the screeching of the snow beneath our feet. The streets have a special charm at nightime, even more so if it's snowing. I often call Sambo Waffle, and this night he surely looked like one, a waffle sprinkled with sugar; it's funny to see him, the blackster, sprinkled with snowflakes on the top. And he races around, with his ears folded back on hs shoulder blades and a big smile over his face, so quickly that his feet almost unbuckle… Without him I would never know the charm of night walks in the snow, even with a hole in your gums and a swollen cheek. Thank you for your company, Sambek, you're the best!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
The blonde, the niggers, the ghost and the mouse
If you have read the last post you know Gregor went away and left me all by myself. But if you think I was a lone this month, you are way wrong! Yep, visitors just kept coming… But not the kind you would expect. Already when Gregor was still here we noticed something weird was going on in the house. He was working on the cmoputer and I was next to him, watching TV on the couch. And the radio turned off and on, and off and on. After a minute or so Gregor turned around with an annoyed expression and asked if it was really necessary that I play with the radio as well as the TV. I raised my hands and showed I was holding only the TV remote, while the one for the radio was on the couch, lying between us. This kept on for a day or two and then Gregor figured out that the radio turns on and off when you use the button to go down the programmes for the TV (but not if you go by the numbers). That obviously the frequences are mixed up. Ok, a totally legal explanation. But that wasn't all…
We returned to home to a playing radio, so that we accused one another that we forgot to turn it off before leaving home. Of course we couldn't agree on which one of us was the forgetful one – until one morning we heard from the bedroom that the radio in the living room suddenly turned on. And the next day again, at approximately the same time. ok, so maybe the radio has a timer about which we didn't know anything. The problem is that after a week we realized that the radio doesn't turn on every day and also not at the same time. Hm. This probably can't be explained with frequences, right? My friends tried to convince me there was something wrong with the (new) radio. Very well, I could accept that too. But then the day came when I went from the kitchen to the balcony across the living room. When I was halfway there, the TV turned on (the radio was off). Apparently this itself isn't interesting enough, so the TV turned on at one of the high budget, highly intelligent movies with Jean Calude / Dolf / Steven as the main character; this of course means that not only did the TV turn on suddenly and very unexpectedly, but it turned on during a machine gun blast, turning the bad guys into a strainer. I got so scared that I landed on the balcony in one jump and for the rest of the week I crossed the living room with a very sceptical face. Most friends were out of ideas at that point, only one still persevered that the (new) TV was busted as well :). As far as I'm concerned, there's only one explanation – we have a ghost. A ghost that runs the radio off and on, that one time (until now…) turned on the TV as well and that changed the broadcasting station on the radio a few times last week (and I have never done this myself, I only listen to one station). As you can see, even though Gregor isn't here, I'm not alone – if I don't find company myself, company finds me, even if it's a bit on the unmaterial side. Anyhow, Casper is having a blast, but is obviously a bit shy as he never turned the radio on while I was in the living room. Well, after two weeks of spending quality time together he obviously got comfortable enough and turned the radio on even when I was in the living room reading, and he even turned it off a few times.
Last weekend I went home to keep my mom company and before I left I said goodbye to Casper and ordered him to be good, watch over the house and not to turn the radio on since that would be uneconomical, with me being away for the whole weekend. I came home after three days and the house was completely silent. I took off my shoes, greeted Casper, put the coat on the chair and went into the kitchen to make myself some tea. Not even a minute passed by when the radio turned on :). Obviously Casper was really glad I was home again, I'm surprised he didn't bring me my slippers…
So there you have it, these are my adventures with my new friend, Casper. But he isn't the only visitor I had while Gregor was away. A few days after he left I went to the garage to get some chopped wood for the fireplace. I said hello to Olaf in the darkness and then heard a grating sound. It took me a moment to realize Olaf didn't get anything hard to eat so that he could be granting… I moved towards the end of the woodpile and realized the sound was coming from there. I followed the sound and found myself right next to it, but the little intruder didn't let himself be bothered, he kept nibbling at the firewood right until the moment I turned the flashlight directly into the rift between two logs where he was obviously hiding. I wasn't exactly crazy about the idea of my proprietorial rodent getting a roommate as the garage is stacked with nice, aromatic logs, Olaf's food and hay and the little cheeky fellow (probably a field mouse) unintentionally came into rodent Mecca, but I would prefer not to have a rodent colony in the garage. Anyways, the symbiosis lasted for about a week and then the granting stopped. My mom says Olaf got rid of his competition. But I know that it was Casper who helped me with the uninvited guest.
We returned to home to a playing radio, so that we accused one another that we forgot to turn it off before leaving home. Of course we couldn't agree on which one of us was the forgetful one – until one morning we heard from the bedroom that the radio in the living room suddenly turned on. And the next day again, at approximately the same time. ok, so maybe the radio has a timer about which we didn't know anything. The problem is that after a week we realized that the radio doesn't turn on every day and also not at the same time. Hm. This probably can't be explained with frequences, right? My friends tried to convince me there was something wrong with the (new) radio. Very well, I could accept that too. But then the day came when I went from the kitchen to the balcony across the living room. When I was halfway there, the TV turned on (the radio was off). Apparently this itself isn't interesting enough, so the TV turned on at one of the high budget, highly intelligent movies with Jean Calude / Dolf / Steven as the main character; this of course means that not only did the TV turn on suddenly and very unexpectedly, but it turned on during a machine gun blast, turning the bad guys into a strainer. I got so scared that I landed on the balcony in one jump and for the rest of the week I crossed the living room with a very sceptical face. Most friends were out of ideas at that point, only one still persevered that the (new) TV was busted as well :). As far as I'm concerned, there's only one explanation – we have a ghost. A ghost that runs the radio off and on, that one time (until now…) turned on the TV as well and that changed the broadcasting station on the radio a few times last week (and I have never done this myself, I only listen to one station). As you can see, even though Gregor isn't here, I'm not alone – if I don't find company myself, company finds me, even if it's a bit on the unmaterial side. Anyhow, Casper is having a blast, but is obviously a bit shy as he never turned the radio on while I was in the living room. Well, after two weeks of spending quality time together he obviously got comfortable enough and turned the radio on even when I was in the living room reading, and he even turned it off a few times.
Last weekend I went home to keep my mom company and before I left I said goodbye to Casper and ordered him to be good, watch over the house and not to turn the radio on since that would be uneconomical, with me being away for the whole weekend. I came home after three days and the house was completely silent. I took off my shoes, greeted Casper, put the coat on the chair and went into the kitchen to make myself some tea. Not even a minute passed by when the radio turned on :). Obviously Casper was really glad I was home again, I'm surprised he didn't bring me my slippers…
So there you have it, these are my adventures with my new friend, Casper. But he isn't the only visitor I had while Gregor was away. A few days after he left I went to the garage to get some chopped wood for the fireplace. I said hello to Olaf in the darkness and then heard a grating sound. It took me a moment to realize Olaf didn't get anything hard to eat so that he could be granting… I moved towards the end of the woodpile and realized the sound was coming from there. I followed the sound and found myself right next to it, but the little intruder didn't let himself be bothered, he kept nibbling at the firewood right until the moment I turned the flashlight directly into the rift between two logs where he was obviously hiding. I wasn't exactly crazy about the idea of my proprietorial rodent getting a roommate as the garage is stacked with nice, aromatic logs, Olaf's food and hay and the little cheeky fellow (probably a field mouse) unintentionally came into rodent Mecca, but I would prefer not to have a rodent colony in the garage. Anyways, the symbiosis lasted for about a week and then the granting stopped. My mom says Olaf got rid of his competition. But I know that it was Casper who helped me with the uninvited guest.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
October news
It's been a while since our last report, but as usually that doesn't mean nothing has been going on in Groenenland. On Sunday, 12.10., the last RO trial this year was held; the Waffle and I fought against very good competitors once again. And won! For the second time in a row! This time I was really sure we didn't work that well and that our Croatian colleague, Tanja, deserved to win, but after seeing our video I realized we didn't do that bad at all. I would still deduct more points than the judge did and I still think that Tanja should have won, but I have traumatized about it enough at the trial, now I'm just hapy about our success :). The second big surprise was at home, when I took a look at our working booklet and realized our qualifications this year were disqualification, second place and then two first places. I didn't remember we were that good this year and I was even more happy about it because we were fourth alltogether this year, even though we attended only 4 trials out of 7.
On the 18th Sambo and I went to the last agility trial this season, where we enjoyed the nice weather and good company. A few days after that Gregor left us as he wanted some more vacations (and a break from us, probably), so he went to Morocco for a month. So, Sambo and I moved to Orle to guard the house, where I'm having a crash course in starting a fire and Sambo is making friends with the village dustmen and postman. But Sambo isn't the only one with a new friend… More about it next time.
This weekend we went to the last two shows this year. On Saturday we went to our international show in Vrtojba, where I worked as a ring steward and handled Bina, while Sambo and Ula competed in JH, where they were 5th. On Sunday we went to Zagreb to the Croatian specialty for BSDs. Sambo was entered into champion class, where he got an excellent, then we competed against the male from open class and won, and after that with our friend Essa, won again and so got CAC, club champion and BOB. After the judging of the Malis Sambo competed against the BOB male for the BISS title. The victory of the local dog wasn't a surprise, even though the judge's argumentation for it was very far-fetched to say the least. But this is part of the game and certainly not a reason for bad mood. Another reason to keep our spirits high was an older couple who came to me after the judge's decision and started appologizing for it, saying something like that should never happen, and I came from so far away, and how could the judge do that, how could that dog beat Sambo… They were certainly more disturbed by it that I was and I thank them for their kind support. At the end they did a competition in handling, so the presentation of the dogs was what was evaluated. Sambo and I won, to the great satisfaction of the above mentioned couple, so we got another trophy. I think such a competition is a very nice and useful decision as most exhibitors don't frequent to shows and don't know how to behave in the ring or show their dogs properly. A correct presentation of the dog makes the judge's work much easier and it certainly looks much better than a handler, lost in space, with a wild mustang jumping all over the ring. My compliments to the organizers, I truly hope they will keep up this kind of education in the future.
And so our competitory season has come to an end. We fought in agility and loved it, we fought in Rally Obedience, where we did amazingly well, and we fought in the show ring, where we also kicked some ass, and much younger, may I add. But now Sambo has to fight another fight; he will undoubtedy fight well and I believe he will win this one too. Sambo was diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of November, a nasal tumor to be specific. Apparently it is not the kind of tumor you should aspire to have – they are malign in 90% of the cases and almost impossible to operate; the good news is that we discovered it at an early stage, so I hope and believe that we will be able to cure it. Right now I'm gathering info, making the arrangements for biotherapy and in a couple of weeks we'll decide what to do.
Greetings to all Belgian lovers out there from me and the blackster, who's enjoying muddy walks and cuddling by the fire. And to finish, here's some pics of our 3 day weekend in Bovec from the beginning of October
Take care, Urša and Sambo
Even though I had serious back problems I decided to do some hiking – and so we went, in an absolutely beautiful sunny day, and came into a totally cloudy area where you could barely see the tip of your nose…
One minute of sun!
Sambo and Essa
On the 18th Sambo and I went to the last agility trial this season, where we enjoyed the nice weather and good company. A few days after that Gregor left us as he wanted some more vacations (and a break from us, probably), so he went to Morocco for a month. So, Sambo and I moved to Orle to guard the house, where I'm having a crash course in starting a fire and Sambo is making friends with the village dustmen and postman. But Sambo isn't the only one with a new friend… More about it next time.
This weekend we went to the last two shows this year. On Saturday we went to our international show in Vrtojba, where I worked as a ring steward and handled Bina, while Sambo and Ula competed in JH, where they were 5th. On Sunday we went to Zagreb to the Croatian specialty for BSDs. Sambo was entered into champion class, where he got an excellent, then we competed against the male from open class and won, and after that with our friend Essa, won again and so got CAC, club champion and BOB. After the judging of the Malis Sambo competed against the BOB male for the BISS title. The victory of the local dog wasn't a surprise, even though the judge's argumentation for it was very far-fetched to say the least. But this is part of the game and certainly not a reason for bad mood. Another reason to keep our spirits high was an older couple who came to me after the judge's decision and started appologizing for it, saying something like that should never happen, and I came from so far away, and how could the judge do that, how could that dog beat Sambo… They were certainly more disturbed by it that I was and I thank them for their kind support. At the end they did a competition in handling, so the presentation of the dogs was what was evaluated. Sambo and I won, to the great satisfaction of the above mentioned couple, so we got another trophy. I think such a competition is a very nice and useful decision as most exhibitors don't frequent to shows and don't know how to behave in the ring or show their dogs properly. A correct presentation of the dog makes the judge's work much easier and it certainly looks much better than a handler, lost in space, with a wild mustang jumping all over the ring. My compliments to the organizers, I truly hope they will keep up this kind of education in the future.
And so our competitory season has come to an end. We fought in agility and loved it, we fought in Rally Obedience, where we did amazingly well, and we fought in the show ring, where we also kicked some ass, and much younger, may I add. But now Sambo has to fight another fight; he will undoubtedy fight well and I believe he will win this one too. Sambo was diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of November, a nasal tumor to be specific. Apparently it is not the kind of tumor you should aspire to have – they are malign in 90% of the cases and almost impossible to operate; the good news is that we discovered it at an early stage, so I hope and believe that we will be able to cure it. Right now I'm gathering info, making the arrangements for biotherapy and in a couple of weeks we'll decide what to do.
Greetings to all Belgian lovers out there from me and the blackster, who's enjoying muddy walks and cuddling by the fire. And to finish, here's some pics of our 3 day weekend in Bovec from the beginning of October
Take care, Urša and Sambo
Even though I had serious back problems I decided to do some hiking – and so we went, in an absolutely beautiful sunny day, and came into a totally cloudy area where you could barely see the tip of your nose…
One minute of sun!
Sambo and Essa
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
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 :).
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 :).
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
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!
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!
Friday, September 26, 2008
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!
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!
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