Agility Beagle Xsara

New Publications And A Vet Scare

2012-05-20T20:13:00.002+02:00

Xsara filmed another commercial, this time we were invited to a filming in Beograd, Serbia. I planned to attend an agility competition in Croatia that same weekend so it was quite a challenge to organize everything in only a few days. But everything went smoothly, she was a true professional on the set and she charmed the entire filming crew. Here comes her latest commercial for wireless internet :)

Only a few days after the she shoot, we had another really important appointment, not nearly as exciting as the first one. She had an operation, our vet surgically removed two lumps - one from her neck and the other from her thigh. Both lumps turned out to be benign, so that's a true blessing! She is already hopping around with no stitches and being more playful than ever <3

She was also featured in Slovenian major canine magazine Moj pes (My dog). Her photo was beside the article called "Do dogs lie" :) Isn't she cute stealing a piece of bread?!

Super Beagle

2012-04-17T07:55:00.000+02:00

Xsara has been a really good girl, I really have to brag with her. Last week we had an agility competition in Zagorje, and it was also EO qualification. She was 2nd in Medium 3, so she got to stand on the podium next to our idol and dear friend Silvia Trkman. I have to say she's been jumping very nicely lately, I modified our training to mostly straight lines with lower jumps to make her extend her legs and to keep her in good shape. I think it's really helping her a lot. And she started to play with a ball, so she's much more relaxed in her back when she runs, she doesn't prepare for the jumps that much because she's not thinking about the jumps but waiting for a ball. Thanks to Uroš Bokal for this cute photo!

Anyway, this past weekend I entered her to a rally obedience competition. Rally has always been something she really enjoys, so I wish I had the time to train it more often. I love to see her wag her little tail from the second I put her obedience collar on (it's a choke collar, but of course we don't use it for choking because she doesn't even have her leash on, we use it for entirely different purposes and it's all positive reinforcement). Anyway, there was some misunderstanding with starting order so I took her on the start too soon and then realized I had to wait and her concentration wasn't what it ususally is because of the waiting, but she did really well anyway. She placed 3rd so she got to stand on the podium again, this time next to border collies. I have to say, she's a very special little girl :)

Back On Track

2012-01-30T08:59:00.000+01:00

Once again, I'm really lazy with updates. I actually have some bad news to report. A couple of weeks ago, Xsara apparently pulled a muscle or something similar. Her lower back hurt, and her hind legs were really stiff. Our vet prescribed her bed rest and something to ease the pain, but since Xsara has always had sensitive digestion, it really messed up her intestines. After a week, her back was back to normal and she could run and jump around, but it took us another 2 weeks for her digestive system to recover. Now she seems to be OK (knocking on wood), but I'm still very careful with what she eats and we're taking it easy. Long walks in the woods, home made meals and a lot of cuddling seem to be really working for her. Isn't she cute?!?!

Calendars 2012

2011-11-07T11:20:00.001+01:00

Xsara, being such a pretty girl, is featured on two calendars for 2012.

The first calendar is by Iztok Noč, my Miss March sure has a pretty smile :) It's a doggy calendar that represents dogs doing several sports and other funny things. On December you can also see Xsara's pyrshep "sister" Tani doing frisbee. The calendar can be ordered at ntrbizan@gmail.com.

The second calendar is an agility calendar by another really talented photographer (well known Maja Rokavec) who shot many of Xsara's action photos on this blog. January has never been more cute :) Tani is on the calendar as well, she is Miss June. You can order it at maja.rokavec@gmail.com.

Both calendars cost 10 euros. Aren't they absolutely beautiful?!?!

Xsara in International Press

2011-09-11T08:49:00.007+02:00

I have to share two articles with all our readers :)

The first one is a really cool article about a Beagle called Levi from South Africa. Levi and his human Annaret are our cyber friends, we only get to meet in person on World Championships. They are really good in agility, in fact they are so good that a magazine Dogs in Africa decided to publish this article about them. Xsara is mentioned in the article as well together with the link to our blog. I'm really proud of both, Levi and Xsara because beagles who work with their humans and are loving it always make me smile :) Here is a photo of the article, click on the photo to enlarge it enough to read it. Blogger keeps rotating the photo making me insane, I hope you can read it anyway!

The second one is an article about agility that was published in a French newspaper. Valerie Teppe took this photo of Xsara when she was on holidays in Slovenia and they published it together with the article. How cool is that!?

Corsica ... Again :)

2011-09-09T16:12:00.017+02:00

We liked Corsica so much last year that we had to return this year as well. Xsara is not much of a swimmer, but she really enjoys hiking, sleeping in a tent with us and spending so much time on fresh air. She is now even more full of enthusiasm, happy and playful and totally ready for the competitions ahead of us!

Can you find Xsara here? :)

Summer 2011

2011-07-04T13:39:00.003+02:00

Summer is here, I haven't updated Xsara's blog in months, but who has the time?!

Unfortunately, Summer has started badly for Xsara. She pulled one of her nails out on one of our walks and she is limping. It had almost healed and we started training again, but then she managed to lick it through bandages and now it's infected. She's on antibiotics, has to wear a sock or a shoe at all times and is hopping on 3 legs, but she still has the biggest smile on her face. She is such a sweet dog, really! The vets say her leg should be back to normal in a week or so now that she's on antibiotics, so I really hope she'll be back to normal before EO. Before getting injured she had quite a good season and she managed to qualify for the event, so I'm really proud of her.

Busy Winter for Xsara

2011-01-31T14:14:00.002+01:00

In Slovenia, we normally don't have many competitions in winter so this used to be quite a lazy period for us. But having a young, active pyrshep in our lives, some things had to change. So I decided to attend more competitions abroad to spice up this winter for us. Xsara likes indoor trials, she is always happy to run, happy to play with me and happy to get her reward at the end of each run. And as much as she loves Tani, she is also happy to spend some alone time with me on agility fields :) She really is a sweet girl! Yesterday we had a competition in Croatia where she was 3rd in agility A3 medium. Thanks to Maja Rokavec for this fantastic photo of my pretty girl :)

Happy Holidays

2010-12-24T10:18:00.011+01:00

Xsara and I wish happy holidays and all the best in 2011 to all our friends.

Thanks to Maja Rokavec for a lovely day on Lake Cerknica and a new set of fantastic photos of my dogs!

Beagle Agility Championship

2010-12-08T20:05:00.008+01:00

Last year, Xsara and I didn't have much luck in agility championship for beagles in Slovakia because she fell off the dogwalk in her final run. This year, luck was on our side, so I'm proud to say that she won :) She was in a great mood and ran really well both days even though we had incredibly cold weather: -17°C! I wasn't the best handler she could have, it was hard for me to run two dogs on different courses, having to memorize both at the same time as I only had about 10 dogs between Tani and Xsara. But all turned out well and it was fun.

There is a lot of snow in Ljubljana and we spent a couple of days there for the girls to enjoy snow for a while. Now we're back to the coast where weather is much better. Xsara really likes it here. I am teaching her many new tricks, we go for long walks, we play together and train when we can and we also cuddle a lot. Thanks to Lenka Wami Blachová for beautiful photos of Xsara from Motešice (Slovakia)!

And here are some photos from one walk in the snow:

Is it a Cat? Is it an Owl? No, it's Xsara Catching a Mouse!

2010-10-27T14:53:00.006+02:00

Beagles are full of surprises and you'd think I've learned that by now, but my little Xsara still amazes me.

This week she stole some dog food from the counter which is nothing overly surprising, although the task required a lot of strategic planning as she had to do some furniture moving. But apparently it was a no brainer for her since the dogs were only alone for a couple of hours and were already happily asleep when I came home.

However, since I decided to skip their breakfast the next morning (thinking they'd eaten enough food the night before), she apparently felt she was way too hungry to wait until dinner. And so, on our morning walk she totally shocked me by catching a mouse, apparently thinking that a little snack would tide her over until dinner.

She'd never done anything similar ever before, so I still can't believe it! Maybe she was just playing with the little creature, I honestly don't know. She has been extremely playful lately, I think she just can't stay indifferent towards little Tani constantly inviting her to play. Anyway, I told her to spit it out and she did, the mouse was a little disorientated but she wasn't limping or anything so she managed to escape far away from my little predator who continued the walk on leash.

I don't usually take a camera on our walks, so I don't have any visual documentation of the event. But thanks to Maja Rokavec and Monika Pleterski for these cute Xsara photos from our competitions!

Updates

2010-09-13T09:18:00.007+02:00

I really became horrible updating Xsara's blog! But well, Summer is our favourite season and we love to spend as much time as we can outside.

Xsara is doing great, she has very nice times on trials lately (4.4m/s, which is great for her). I measure her excitement on trials by the level of her barks and howls and well, she's very loud :)

EO was not her favourite thing this year, it was cold, muddy and it rained all the time. She has a strong preference for higher temperatures. But we were together and she really likes agility, plus most of her friends were there, so it was OK.

After EO we seriously needed to defreeze so we went to Corsica where she met tiny little rabbits. She was only interested in them if they were moving, once they stopped she didn't know what to do with them any more. She doesn't like to swim, but apparently the places we visited were just too tempting so even she decided to get a little wet :) She also loved hiking, camping and being outside all the time, so we're defenitely going back!

She and Tani are best friends, they play together, sleep together, cuddle together, they are inseparable. I'm very happy that they get along so well, and Xsara is defenitely very happy to have company.

New Photos

2010-07-14T12:56:00.010+02:00

Here are some new wonderful action photos of Xsara, taken by French photographer Valerie Teppe (thank you, Val!). Xsara is doing great. She really enjoys summer and extremely hot temperatures. I must constantly monitor her sun exposure and make sure she doesn't get too much of it. Every time I look away, she sneaks to the terrace and tries to catch some sun before I urge her back into the house. I find this obsession very funny. Anyway, here are the photos I was talking about and I guess I'll see some of our readers on EO next week :) Can't wait for the Czech adventure to begin!

Happy Birthday, Xsara!

2010-06-27T10:44:00.004+02:00

I can't believe it's been exactly 6 years since Xsara's breeder called me and told me she had a puppy for me. It seems like yesterday. And yet, Xsara and I have been through so much together, that at the same time I feel like she's always been with me. I only have one wish for her birthday. I wish she would stay exactly as she is - my healthy, happy and sweet little dog who likes to cuddle under the blankie even when it's 40°C outside, who howls like crazy when I bring her to the startline and always gives her best, who loves all people and animals, specially her family, who has the cutest puppy-like expression in the world and who would trade anything but her green ball for a piece of cheese :) I promise I'll do everything I can to keep that tail wagging for many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many many ... years to come!

Summertime

2010-06-17T18:01:00.005+02:00

Summer is defenitely Xsara's season. She loves hot weather and wants to be in the sun all the time. Of course, I don't let her do that. Every time I tell her to go in the shadow to cool down a bit, I get an annoyed look from her. But she's a good girl and she listens to me. She's having some really good runs this season, and she obviously enjoys every second we spend doing agility - and so do I :) Here are some beautiful pictures from one of our summer walks. Thank you, Polona!

Season 2010

2010-05-10T09:56:00.002+02:00

Agility season 2010 has started in Slovenia. Xsara is in a very good shape. She is extending nicely and is jumping much better than she used to (her specialty is jumping 65cm high over bars that are only 45cm high, but it looks much better now). She really likes having alone time with me when we do agility, rally or tricks. Don't get me wrong, she absolutely adores Tani, but she used to be my only dog for so long and I think she is really happy when we have some special alone time together. I guess that's why she loves trials even more now. She gets to play with me while Tani has to stay in her crate and wait for us to come back from the run.

Another TV Commercial!

2010-04-26T10:25:00.004+02:00

Our German friends might see Xsara in another TV commercial soon (if the director managed to get all 3 dogs in the same shot) ... In any case, she worked really hard yesterday and I am very proud of her, no matter the outcome. Tani was also supposed to be in the same commercial, but we had to replace her due to her leg injury.

Other than that, we are quite busy with agility, rally-obedience, tricks and long walks. Weather is perfect for outdoor activities and Xsara loves every second of it :)

Recall

2010-03-02T16:41:00.002+01:00

Xsara really amazed me today so I want to post this on her blog. We were on our morning walk, as suddenly a rabbit crossed our path. Tani barked a couple of times, but wasn't really interested in the animal, while Xsara has a very strong hunting instinct, specially for rabbits! She was out of my reach so the only thing I could do was to use my voice. I yelled "freeze" and she actually listened :) She stopped, waited for me to come to her, still looking at the bunny who was running away in panic, but didn't move a bit! I was really impressed, Xsara has a good recall for a hound, but anybody who has experience with beagles will know that they forget about everything else once they find a trail, it's like some sort of trance. And if they can see their prey and not only smell it, it's even more difficult. Since I had a full pocket of treats she got a BIG reward, but had to continue the walk on leash, to be really sure. Anyway, I am incredibly proud of her today, she really is one special little girl!!!!

Xsara's Commercial

2010-02-05T23:41:00.003+01:00

Xsara's commercial came out, you can see it here: CLICK
Once again, she had to pee :)

Xsara's First TV-Add

2010-01-27T13:57:00.003+01:00

Xsara filmed another commercial last week. This was her first TV commercial (and 3rd advertisement overall - she also did one newspaper add for charity as a puppy and was on a billboard for a TV show last year). I must say she did a wonderful job. Tani was originally picked to perform the task and Xsara was only supposed to be her backup, but then another agency took over the project and the new director liked Xsara better. I was very proud of both of them, working in a weird environment inside a studio with so many things going on around them, and they both behaved like true professionals. I will post the video when the commercial is officially released.

Otherwise Xsara is doing great, she is in a very good shape and very playful lately. She loves having Tani around and I am very happy that they are such good friends. She is not too crazy about winter temperatures in Ljubljana (and neither am I), so we try to spend as much time as possible by the sea where weather is a lot friendlier.

Voghera

2010-01-08T10:17:00.002+01:00

We have very few trials in the winter. That's why I was incredibly happy when a friend asked me if I wanted to go to Voghera (Italy) with her. 4 trials in 4 days + agility seminar sounds just crazy enough! So we started this new year the way we love the most: on a beautiful ranch by a river in a winter wonderland. I only ran with Xsara on 2 of the trials because that's just enough to keep her craving for more. In the first run I managed to fall when I was performing a front cross, but all of our other runs were clean. So we got 2 3rd places combined and one 3rd placement in agility plus one r. CacAg - far more than I expected in such a tough competition. I really enjoyed seing some amazing runs by far more experienced handlers than myself and people were all incredibly nice, so it really was a wonderful experience.

Winter Fun

2009-12-23T00:46:00.008+01:00

Once again, I've been horrible updating Xsara's blog. A lot has happened since my previous post. First of all, I have successfully graduated from college and now I have even more time to spend with my dogs. They are both doing very well and I'm incredibly proud of them.

Xsara and I participated in European Beagle Agility Cup in Slovakia. It was a lot of fun, even though it was incredibly cold. Xsara ran very well and was leading the competition from the first run until the end, but we had a little mishap in our last run. As she came onto the dogwalk, something got into her ear and she started shaking her head so hard that she lost balance and fell off the dogwalk. Luckily she didn't hurt herself, but we lost our prime spot and finished on 2nd place.

We also participated in a Rally Obedience trial in Koper. She really likes rally a lot! She worked very nicely and placed 2nd in a tough competition. Next year we're planning on taking the exam for RO-III.

We have a lot of snow and very cold temperatures in Ljubljana at the moment. Xsara likes playing in the snow a lot! But currently we are enjoying holidays in our beloved Strunjan by the sea, so we got away from extreme temperatures and the snow for a while - even though there even was some snow here for a couple of days! Here are some snowy photos of my sweet little beagle, taken mostly by Polona again (thanks :)):

Another Fun Walk / Photoshooting

2009-11-06T12:06:00.015+01:00

Yesterday we went for another walk with Polona, her toller Wi and Polona's fantastic camera :) We were very lucky because we had nice weather, even though it's raining all the time otherwise. But somehow we managed to even catch some sun! It's hard to imagine that only one day before our walk it was snowing like crazy. This weather is really gone wild. Here are some photos from our walk and from Xsara in snow:

Xsara's Trials And A New friend

2009-10-02T12:46:00.006+02:00

Xsara is doing very well. I haven't posted in a while (again) because we spend every minute of our spare time playing outside. The trialing season 2009 is going to end tomorrow and I'm very happy with Xsara's runs this year. This is our first full season in the top Grade, so the courses are more difficult and the competition is very hard. She made me very proud on a trial in Ljubljana a couple of weeks ago when she placed 3rd and stood on the podium next to the super La!

Yesterday, Xsara and Tani got a new cousin. Cairn terrier Miki will be the best friend to my younger sister Katja. We still live in the same house so I wasn't sure how the girls would react to an outsider, as they now form a pack. But they both like him very much and he likes them back, so all is good :) Miki is a son of Xsara's agility friend Kin. This is his picture - he is sweet, isn't he?!

Updates

2009-08-14T11:05:00.006+02:00

We didn't get lost somewhere in Holland, we're back at the seaside and enjoying the Summer. European Open was a lot of fun and Xsara had some very nice runs. I'm specially proud of our team Fast Snails - we were placed 13th (among 87 teams) in jumping and 29th overall. Other competitors from Slovenia did very well too, and we were very proud to applaud them on the podium.

We're currently staying in our new appartment by the sea where I have a lot of time to work on my diploma. We are also working on many new tricks and hopefully will finally make a new video for Xsara - who is now a big swimmer, by the way. She never liked water too much, but now that we have Tani, Xsara likes to join us in the water as well. But sometimes she does get tired of the little hyper Tani, so she learned how to close herself in the crate. It took me days to figure out why the door was closed even when I left it opened, until one day I saw her closing it with her paw. She sure is one super smart little girl!