Recently I have been told it is about time I brush the dust off my homepage… so here I am, trying to bring it back to life. It has been so long, that I don’t even know when and how to begin… so here is a little update on us…
A lot has happened over the years. I had to say goodbye to my unbelievable Kiša and my sweet little Šja and in some ways that was the end of an era for me. I no longer felt like traveling, teaching seminars or competing. Just got tired of it all. I was also desperately looking for a house to buy, because living in the city really started to make me miserable as hell. It got to the point where I started to doubt every single one of my life choices and considered a career change or at least moving to another part of the world. But before I completely drowned in self-pity, things started to turn for the better. I found a little farm to rent, close to where I spent a huge part of my childhood. We moved and it felt like home the second I opened the first box. It is simply as if we have been here forever. I just LOVE the freedom this house gives us and I greatly appreciate how much easier it is to get things done in a tiny city, where there are no queues and you can always find a parking place.
And since a farm is not a farm without farm animals, I got myself some lovely chicken AND…. tada… my very own personal flock of sheep. Believe it or not, I don’t think I was ever this excited about anything since I stopped believing in Santa Claus, when no matter how many times I asked, he never brought me a dog.
So somewhere between taking care for my farm animals, cutting grass and planting my garden, my passion for dog training slowly came back. And now is time to mention another major thing that happened since we “disappeared” – Baxus. He is the second dream come true for me. You see, when I was a little girl, I was OBSESSED with dogs. So whenever I could, I ran to the nearest dog school and watch people train their dogs. What fascinated me the most were IPO dogs (schutzhund training or IGP as it is called now) and for some reason that never changed. I dipped my toes into the sport with Kiša and Če, but I always had a plan to do it “for real” some day. So one “spur of the moment” and a couple of funny coincidences later… here is Baxus. The whole 38kg’s of him. And as it turns out he was exactly the dog I needed. There are a whole lot of things I could say about him, but let’s save it for his own post. For now just a little video from our recent exam to give you an idea of what we have been up to.
And that was not the only addition to the gang. Mr. David Bowie joined us as part of the “training cats for camera” project I am involved in with a couple of my friends. He is a handful, but also funny little creature with frosty blue eyes… He is not the sharpest pen in the box, but loves to do stuff and is pretty relaxed with the surroundings, so we will see if he’s got what it takes to be a movie star.
Speaking about movie stars – Če was busy filming a couple of projects in the past year, and she is truly amazing. She just has the best working ethics ever and just have a way of figuring things out instantly, despite the fact that the demands on the set are far from being black and white and last moment changes in scenario/setup are the only things you can really count on. After her old hip injury kept reoccurring I have decided to retire her from agility. She has 0 self preservation instinct and I really wanted to have her happy and fit for as long as possible… so quitting high impact sports was the only logical conclusion. Rather unexpectedly I had to make a similar decision regarding little Joey. That was a harder pill to swallow, but at the same time I knew instantly that it is the right thing to do when he was diagnosed with lumbosacral stenosis. It was really unexpected and sudden, but it is what it is. So now little funky punky is my tireless farm assistant, making sure I do everything right. Since I finally got sheep, I am hoping to bring his herding to a higher level as well. I gave sheep some time to settle, but we are now starting with some light training and both Joey and Che are enjoying them very much.
And last but not least – Šaj. She is the absolute boss on the farm and is living as a true queen. She just loves spending time outside, patrolling the property or lying proudly on the doorstep, making sure no one arrives unannounced. And even if it is almost impossible for her to love life even more, things will get even better as I got us a pool and I am pretty sure she will be the first one to test it.
