Sorry for the long wait, this has been a crazy semester for the two students in the family!
Vojak, on the other hand, has had some relaxing months, but he’s done well helping the two-legged get a proper amount of physical activity and fresh air each day. It’s sorely needed when spending the rest of the day nose burried in books and study material.
For Christmas, Vojak godt his very own rucksack, and he bears it proudly for walks in the forest, although he doesn’t always remember it’s hanging there so he tends to get caught up a bit in bushes, fences and other obstacles along the way! We have not been intensifying the load very much in this time. We started just by adjusting the sac and letting Vojak get used to having this foreign element on his body, and with this we had no problem at all. As I already mentioned, he hardly even notices it’s there, so that’s a job done easy for us!
We’re currently up to about 1 kg total, a half kilo on each side, for what he can carry. Usually we have him carry water bottles – one for him and one for us, or some of his snacks. He does such a good job, and the goal is for him to be able to carry his own food for when we go for longer hikes.
It’s been great having Vojak turn the magical 1 year old, we’ve been enjoying being able to jog with him this winter and spring. We got a great jogger-belt and an elastic leash for Christmas too, and it’s amazing how much easier the hard uphill running gets when you have your own Vojak pulling in front!
We’ve also been teaching him tricks on our free time, and he’s a fast learner. His newest hits are the walking-tunnel, the sit-in-tunnel, and some new obedience tasks that we’ve been working on. Yesterday, he put the ball back into the toy-box after playing outside for the first time – we’ve been practicing that for a couple of days, and it just looks really cool!
The water has warmed up to a nice temperature now in the lake Bukovec, so we’ve been taking him there for swims to let him cool down on hot days, and to help making coat shedding a bit faster this spring. There’s a hope now that we won’t have to spend the whole summer picking Vojak-hairs out of our dinner. Now that’s what good times look like if you own a Tervueren!
And one more thing – ticks!! Why do they keep coming back every year? I wish they’d just stay somnolent and quiet like they so pleasantly do during winter time. Vojak’s now equipped with both a tick-collar and spot-on, but they keep turning up! I’m pretty sure they’re extra aggressive this year, seeing as we made do with just the collar last season without making any unpleasant encounters. When the season is over, we’ll do blood work and see if there’s anything to worry about. Until then it’s probably best not to be fanatic – both Babesiosis and Borreliosis are easily treatable if the blood work should turn out positive.
