30.11. - new puppy update and pictures from our walks
16.11. - Bi played on the snow for the first time today! I'm posting some photos from our hiking trips, a puppy agility video and new puppy update
11.11. - a new video, showing some new and some old tricks, beginnings of running contacts and some other aspect's of Bi's puppyhood
8.11. - new puppy update & pictures
28.10. - new puppy update & pictures
17.10. - new puppy update & pictures from our walks
10.10. - Being Bi, a new video of Bi at age of 15 weeks, showing some shaping games we play and some bad puppy manners that make me laugh every day (baaad trainer!)
- new old photos of Bi at age of 11 weeks, taken by Andraz Cerar. And yes, I have a new preference for BC ears: the bigger the better! Can't stop laughing at those elephant ears! I think her plan is to use them for flying, she sure acts as if she could fly already, testing my catching skills.
- some changes on pages about us, Bu and new page for little Bi
3.10. - new puppy update and photos from our weekend at the sea-side.
23.9. - adding videos I promised:
- Bi, showing tricks at age 3 months
- La's runs from a competition last weekend
20.9. - Happy 7th birthday, my crazy little La!
Every next year, I appreciate more what a great dog she is. Especially this year, after what she had to go through this summer... It sure was a reminder of how much she means to me. To many, many more years, my one in billion dog, you know that the world wouldn't be the same without you!
For her birthday, she got to do what she loves most: compete. For
everybody, asking how is she now, I'll upload a video of her runs as soon as
Petra sends them to me. You'll see, she is skinny but as crazy as ever, again
having way best time from all in both runs.
Yeap, 20th seems to be a good day to be born... Happy 3rd month birthday to my
other birthday girly Bi!
new on the site:
puppy update and
pictures from our walks
14.9. - new puppy update and pictures
5.9. - again, my weekly puppy update, new puppy pictures, this time with big thanks to Andraz Cerar and some agility photos from recent competitions, mostly taken by Iztok and Andraz. And yes, of course La is back to competitions by now! Nothing can stop my crazy little La!
31.8. - some puppy update, a presentation video of Bi and some pictures - mostly taken by Polona-Wi - thank you!
23.8. - As many people asked for it, I'm adding a new page with puppy training updates and a new photo album of Bi from age to 8 to 9 weeks.
18.8. - Presenting the new addition: Beck's Hill Fast and Furious - Bi:
14.8. - We didn't learn that many new tricks that summer as we were busy first with La's rehabilitation, then with hiking and swimming and playing... - so some of the tricks on a video are not real tricks, but it's still a cute video: so here it is, summer edition of dog tricks - Wannabe Tricks.
I'm also adding some new photos from our vacations.
10.8. - Just a short update
today as we've just got from the sea side and are about to leave for the
mountains. And yes - La is going too, of course! She is back to her normal
weight, back to her normal life, back to her crazy self. It's only her shaved
belly that still speaks about what she has gone through. So for all those that
were asking if I would retire her: the answer is of course not!!! A life of a
couch potato is not what she was fighting for. Not La.
For those who are asking if we're going to Helsinki: no we don't. We missed
qualifications because of the operation, so this will be the first time after 11
years that we're not going!
Two beautiful pictures from Lo and Bu from EO, taken by Polish friends. Big
thanks to Olga and Maria! More to come soon.
6.7. - La keeps recovering at the only speed she knows: FAST - see&read more...
- new answers to FAQ: my running contacts
- a quickly made tricks show with Bu that I needed to do on a short notice, so it's not a very fancy one, will do another one when I have time
- some pictures from Corsica. We shortened our stay there because La started to vomit, but we did quite some hiking before that. It's funny because while their beaches are like in Sardinia, their mountains are like Norway: the green was just as green, our shoes were just as wet and we were just as cold as in Norway. But it sure is gorgeous!!! Great choice for all hiking fans!
And in case you'll be mailing me in weeks to come and wonder why I'm not answering my mail: we're leaving abroad for some seminars next week, so I won't be checking my mail for some time.
2.7. - I'm happy to announce
that La won again. This is her most important win, the only one that really
counts. Vets didn't think she has many chances, but then, they don't know what a
special dog La is, how much power, strength, determination and lust for life she
has in that little body of hers. Another thing they don't know is that dogs that
really love their life and have something important to fight for, will fight and
will live. That belief was also what kept me optimistic throughout the whole
process. My only thought when she was being operated on was: if she can climb
any mountain, if she can fly over any height, she can win this one too.
Special thanks to Metka Simundic, dr.vet.med., and to all the staff at Prva K
for taking such a good care of us, to Butinar, dr.vet.med, who operated on
her, to Tanja and her Shaja who gave blood to save La and of course to all
who helped with suggestions on her postoperative care and on how to gain back
some weight or were keeping their fingers crossed for her. And to La for being a
miracle dog again.
All this again reminded me of how lucky I am to have her, how special she is and
how much she means to me. As many people that were mailing me in those difficult
days stated: there are many great dogs out there. But there will never be
another one like La.
To read the whole long story, go here.
30.5. - Wow, updating twice in the same day, that's my personal record! But I really wanted to share this video with you, to answer all those who think long-strided dogs can't do running contacts... I think Klepto sure proves that wrong! Nice dog-walk huh!?! It still makes me smile, even after all the running dog-walks I've seen... Good job Jef!
30.5. - Bragging with my
puppy students this time:). We did this video as a presentation of my puppy
class for our club, but as I get many questions on what I work on with puppies, I guess
you might want to see this video to get an idea. Puppies in the video are from 3 months to not-puppies-anymore
and are showing what we do in a first half of a course - as you can see, we
focus on attention and body awareness, meaning: we do lots of tricks!:) Good job puppies!
I also added some new links to videos of dogs, being trained by my running
contacts method to
FAQ: My
running contacts and uploaded some
recent agility photos, taken by Andraz Cerar and Iztok Noc. Thanks guys!
19.4. - new FAQ on puppy and tricks training
- some pictures from a demo with La and Bu on a seminar in Limoges, France (merci Valerie!)
13.4. - In case you were wondering where we were last two months... We were mostly aboard, holding seminars, first in USA, then in France and Germany. Now we're finally back home, our competition season is slowly starting, we just had a competition yesterday. In both runs, La had best overall time and Bu had best time in both runs in large class - and one bar down, but not bad at all for my slow, no drive BC! I don't have any videos from this competition yet, but I'm putting up jumping runs from all, Lo, La and Bu from previous competition (with big, big THANKS to Petra who is so kindly filming all our runs!!!) - in that run, again, La had best time from all categories (no surprises here...) and Bu had best time in large class. I'm also adding some recent photos from our walks.
12.2. - As the most enthusiastic of my tricks freaks friends already taught their dogs all the two-legged tricks, I'm adding a new tricks video with some of the tricks we have been working on lately, in case you need some new ideas for the rest of the winter... Enjoy!
I'm also adding some pictures from recent trips to the mountains - yeah, we didn't get any snow in Ljubljana this winter, so we needed to climb some mountains to enjoy some snow. And as you can see bellow, La decided she wants to do some snow boarding and thought on her own to ride on my back on a way down from the mountain:
Oh, and if you mail me after today and wonder why I'm not answering: I will be abroad for almost a month now, so be patient, I'll try to answer all when I get back.
9.2. - five new FAQ in my Running contacts article
- new FAR (Frequent Accusations Rejected): FAR from truth, an answer to rumours
- coming soon: new tricks video!
And, oh, we have another birthday girl today... Happy 2nd birthday Bu!!!
So young and already so smart!:)
31.1. - I'm adding an updated version of running contacts video, featuring 19 different dogs (10 large, 8 medium and 1 small), trained by my running contacts method. If your dog is also trained by my method, but not yet included in this video, please send the video and I'll use it for the next edition.
I also uploaded some photos from a photo session we had for a dog magazine that is publishing an interview with me and needed some photos. Well, here they are... Of course, my favourite one is this perfect heeling of La (yeah, I know, what a great little doggy...):
25.1. - Sorry, not much new over here... Just a video from agility training at our very, very muddy agility field, including some more running contacts and also Bu's new fastest dog-walk I have on video, taking her 1.33s from the time first paws meet a dog-walk to the moment last feet leave it. And for those that think long strided dogs can't do running contacts, there is also a slow-motion video of Bu's 4-strides dog-walk. She sometimes does 4, sometimes 5 strides, depending on an approach and La normally does it in 5 strides.
Oh, and a little brag on Lo: she started her 12th year of age by winning a competition last weekend. She had third best time in jumping (partly thanks to La and Bu that had an off course...) from all jump height categories and won overall competition in A3 medium. Oh, and for those that think agility is harmful for dogs: Lo was on her first agility training when she was exactly 7 weeks old and is training regularly ever since as every break, longer from 2 weeks, causes epileptic seizures. 11 years later, she is still winning in highest category, on her normal jump height.
10.1. - Happy 11th birthday, my good old Lo! To another 11 happy, crazy, barky years!
Lo, 4 months, 1997 Lo, 11 years, 2008
As my good old Lo is pretty much living in the shadow of La for last 6 years (and she prefers it that way, she is not show-off kind of a dog like La is:), let me thank Lo at this occasion for everything she has taught me in those 11 years. I've got my first lesson on patience on our first stop on a petrol station on the way home from Belgium, where I put her down on a grass and while she was following me nicely and tightly behind my heels, as tight that you couldn't see her looking over your shoulder -you needed to turn all the way around- she was so afraid of hands that I couldn't pick her up to take her back to a car. I needed to sit on the floor for half of an hour for her to climb in my lap, so that I could put my arms around her before she saw hands and panicked... She sure taught me to let dogs do things at their own rate, to never ask them something they can't give you and wait until they're ready. For her, it meant 6 months before she dared to go over dog-walk, some more before I could put a leash on her for the first time as she was getting panic attacks before if I tried to do it etc. Still, at 21 month, she was running her first World Championship and ran eight more after that! Before the ere of La, she was the most successful agility dog around, with many, many wins and unbeatable times on grass. And even though she goes by unnoticed by most, nowadays that La is taking all the glory, Lo is still a really great dog with a really big heart, always putting everything into everything she does and always ready to do whatever you wish. She is our clown, always in a good mood, always full of energy, even at her age. She is still competing at her regular height and it's still impossible to tire her out. So... To another 11 years, my good old Lo!
30.12. - To all our visitors: a very, very
