Moving out, doggy style!

Yeah...me and Liska are on the move again.
The luckiest thing (for us, that is...) happened the other day, when our good friends Christina and Zalomon suddenly had a room for rent and invited us to come and live with them in their big, lovely flat.
We've been hanging out there quite a lot lately, and we are looking so much forward to settling down there - dogs and people.
Liska and Zalomon are really good together, and so far I can easily say the same about me and Christina, although we have not known each other long.

Today, I've been training with Liska. She is really good at walking side now, and I'm eager to learn her all sorts of things. Easier now too, when summer has come and we stay outside for many, many hours every day.

The weird ways of puppies...

This weekend, me and Liska went to Ola in Zilina for Liska's first sleep-over away from home. Of course, it was not all that scary seeing as I was there all the time. She got a fair bit of travelling practise, which she really needs, and she went crazy in Ola's collection of old plastic bottles while me and Ola played GameCube. Fun for the whole family..!
For some strange reason though, she really didn't like the stairway up to the flat Ola lives in on the 4th floor. She was even shaking, and this fear that I couldn't work out, even drove her to pee inside a couple of times. She's been housebroken for weeks, and I was afraid she'd see the convenience and start peeing on my carpet once we got home again. Luckily, she hasn't even thought of anything like it since we got here this morning.

Being in Zilina with her, made me realize how wise it was to not get a dog to live with us there. Martin may be a city too (well, more of a town really..), but Zilina has almost no green lungs. It's either shopping districts or traffic wherever you turn your head.

I bet Liska's glad to be home again, running the fields and all. It's easy to see she's able to tire out a lot better here. While being inside, she mostly just lies flat out on the floor. No bottle-chasing here...

Home alone

I just want to brag about how good my puppy is..
Today she was home all by herself for 2 hours while I went to school!
And nothing was torn apart when I got home either!
I was so worried she'd cry and bark. (She's not really much of a barker, but we have 2 havaneses living upstairs from us who answer back to her when she cries, and then we've got it going!)

I mean - I've been away before just for practise.

I've gone to the Chinese restaurant to get take-away, been to the shop...things like that - things that usually take up to half an hour. At first, she'd start crying the moment I went out the door and then just go on and on until I came back. Now there's just a little cry, then I hear her walking around a little, then silent. But she has never managed as long as this without sounds of protest before.

I was so proud of her that I went to the carpet-shop and bought her a really good, soft and solid carpet for her crate. Now she's been playing in there for half an hour, rearranging it in her own way.

My playful girl

Liska just loves to play - especially when I take her to the forest and let her run wild!
Lately, I've started to take her for walks together with some friends and their dogs. Zalomon is a handsome and really well-mannered collie, and Angel is the most beautiful poodle ever to be seen!

I think it's really good for Liska to hang out with other big dogs. That is, after all, what she'll be too in a few months!
She's grown so brave over the last weeks, and she tries to tease these two older dogs as much as they tolerate. They seem to know she's just a baby, and treat her really well. The first couple of times we met Salomon, Liska would draw back and not even go over to smell him. Now she's really comfy around both him and Angel! I think that's just great:)

Liska likes to play rough - but mostly with dogs her own size or less. And even better - the old and grumpy dogs we meet out on the street. Teasing them seems to be a favourite! Maybe it's the snarling she finds tempting..?

Not only does she like to play around with other dogs - she can have a lot of fun just on her own. Just watch this:

Karen Kristine was here

The most amazing two weeks of Liska's life so far, I daresay!
Karen Kristine is my little sister, and she is fantastic with dogs...and kids...well, she's generally just fantastic!

Those two weeks, we were the three top girls of Slovakia. No one had as much fun and play as we did.
Liska cried when Keigy had to leave for Norway again. Let's just hope she doesn't wait too long before she comes to visit our happy little household again:)

I put out some pictures from when sis was here.

As amazing as Liska may be, she is not a great fan of shopping...maybe due to the fact that she's not one of those handbag "dogs" you often see people carry around the mall. Me and Karen Kristine on the other hand, felt the urge to spend some money (why have them if you're not going to use them, right!?), and Liska was tearing Ola's place apart for some hours while we shopped till we literally dropped:D

Ola actually put a video on YouTube on her crazy behaviour..you should watch it. She's so darn cute!

My choice

Getting a dog is really hard; with all those lovely breeds to choose from it's not easy to pick out the one that would be just right for me!

I burned a lot of lazy hours in front of the computer and with my nose buried in dog books before deciding to take a Tervueren into my household - but I have yet to regret it for even a second!
Liska is everything I was looking for; a lovely, soft and hairy exterior, a quick and eager learner and an amazingly playful best friend! And when she grows just a little older, we'll spend our weekends at this great agility-track I just stumbeled over the other day.

I want a dog that is able to go for long walks, or run beside my bike on the way to new adventures.
I want a dog that can easily spend a week mountain hiking without getting exhausted.
An intelligent dog that can be trained to do almost anything.
A dog that is more about playing, working and running than cuddling and grooming.

There's no doubt I found the love of my life in Liska :)
Thank you, Nobby Rock!