I'll try to keep my word this time and update this page more regularly. Summer is long over and there are so many things going on right now, so just a short summary of it. It's still hard for me to remember this summer, it was a hard time for me and all of us, but I will not waste my time on writing details, as it would just bring more tears to my eyes, and I never like to remember sad things, but rather focus on positive things and nice memories. So this summer we decided to skip our annual Europe trip and stayed in Spain. I decided I would not compete in European Open, it was just too far, too expensive and only MikMik and Ben had the chance to run there, so we just decided to run some summer competitions in the north of Spain, visit the mountains and seaside, spend time with friends and travel less. It turned out to be a great idea.
Our first northern stop was Rialp in the Spanish Pyrenees. I was so looking forward to this competition, what could possibly be a better option to escape hot Seville than mountains in the north? Well not this time, we were just lucky enough to arrive there in the worst heat-wave, it was as hot as hell, luckily agility competition was usually over in the morning and we could cool in the nearby river in the afternoon - there were open runs in the afternoon as well, but I decided to skip those, I guess running in the morning is more than enough for us. In general I loved this competition, got to see so many great teams and I managed to qualify for the final with all three dogs and then... I don't know how it happened, I sure did not expect that, but I ran first in small category with Ben and he ended up second! He lost a bit of time because he almost fell of a dogwalk, but somehow managed to stay on it and even get a perfect contact. The rest of the run was pretty awesome. Then medium started and I ran first with MikMik and she sets best time, clean run - so she would have won the medium finals if only this surprise didn't happen - I picked up my silly KangaRoo - I was completely exhausted but I knew it was just one more run and then we can take some rest, so I just gave it all again and WOW, clean run, best time, so my silly KangaRoo WON the finals and MikMik was second. I couldn't believe it, so 1 first place and 2 second places in the finals. After that we headed to a the heart of the mountains and stayed there for 5 days just hiking in the Pyrenees and then again our annual stop in Cantabria. My favourite competition of the year. I did not really like the courses that much in Cantabria, not so nice lines and too twisty to get speed out of my dogs, especially for my sensitive MikMik, but Roo was pretty awesome in all the runs he managed to run clean. MikMik was not as fast as she was in Rialp, like I said the courses were just not made for her and she was also starting her heat, but she still managed some awsome runs and even ended on a second place in Open final run. That was a perfect run, she couldn't have done it any better, so 2nd place felt like winning. I'm including some of MikMik's and some of Roo's runs this summer. Ben managed to actually gather a maximum number of bloopers in just 1 month, the best one was in Cantabria's Open final where he was clean right until the end and was even going to win it and then after the dogwalk with a straight exit to the tunnel he decided to turn away from me and run to the jump on the left (yes, he was the only one of maybe 200 dogs that did that :D :D :D)
MikMik's mood drastically changed after summer. I blamed it on her being just to exhausted and tired after so many competitions and hot weather. She got a real nice long break from training and competitions, but something was telling me she was not tired. When Rafa told me it could be because of the hormones, I first didn't believe it. But then I remembered her other heat periods - exactly the same, mood change, hiding in the crate, not wanting to be with anybody, she gets really depressed and is hiding all day. It was hard to believe it at first - my Winnie never had this problem and I haven't seen it in other females, but when I talked to some of my friends I did actually hear some similar cases. MikMik is a very sensitive dog, she is sensitive to pain, weather, my mood, everything. But it took me some time to understand that hormones are not making it any easier for her and I finally took the decision to neuter her. So she and Tes were both neutered on the same day and are now having a long rest until their recovery. Luckily everything went smoothly and they should be OK in no time (well I'll save my words about Tes - she actually woke up out of anesthesia basically jumping and running like nothing ever happened). MikMik handled the surgery as expected - very very dramatically. Her wound is tiny and clean, she was operated on the side so the healing process should go as smoothly as it can. But her response to this was all drama, it's been a week now and she is still hiding in the house feeling sorry about herself. She's funny, sometimes you just look at her and she screams like she was in pain while she actually has NOTHING. I'm not too worried about this - actually I'm just so happy I finally took the decision since I can really see how dramatic she can get and how much really the hormones affect her. The last two days she has been more "visible" and is even joining us on the couch. She makes it actually easier to leave her at home while we go for a walk as she actually doesn't want to join us, but it's super hard to leave Tes at home - she soooo wants to go. But it's just a few more days and then they can both come along if they wish to do so :)
And now the big news - Roo, my silly KangaRoo finally managed to quailify for Spanish National Championship in May 2019!! :D So now I have all three dogs qualified for this big event, it's not that we have any chances to win it or whatever, but it's just so exciting to be able to compete against the best ones! I love big competitions, they fill me with adrenaline, I motivates me to improve, I get to see friends and students who live far away from us and what I love most about it is just seeing many great teams competing. Last year we could not attend this big event due to personal reasons, but hopefully 2019 will bring better days! :D