No snow?

Spring came fast to Kosice this year as always, and we are not up to date with a lot of things, including this blog. But to tell the truth, all we've done for the past year is living a dog's life - all three of us. Vojak's been doing what he does best; played with the ball/frisbee, barked at a lot of doorbell rings, kissed a lot of friends on the nose/in the ear, harassed a couple of other dogs, made some new friends and chilled out on the sofa with, or sometimes without, permission. The two humans in the family have mostly spent their days nose-down in some book. Luckily, there's always room for some fun, and it might be a good sign that we used it for beautiful walks and playtime with Vojak instead of spending time online updating the blog!

Now, as I am in fact updating it, I have too many things to say about the time that passed, so I think I'll let some pictures speak for themselves. In some of them, you'll see Vojak with us skiing.

We bought skis this season, Vojak thinks it's fun, but it still takes some getting used on his part. That'll have to be left for next winter though, since the temperature slowly is crawling toward 20. And oh...if you haven't noticed, the ticks are here again. Found the first one on my own leg a couple of days ago, and then promptly went to get Vojak some spot-on. We're trying out Exspot this year, fingers crossed!

Also, our local petshop ran out of the Eukanuba Jogging and agility diet that Vojak's been on for the past year, and the sudden change in diet (to Eukanuba Working and endurance) has not been welcomed by his intestines so far. Unfortunately we'll just have to stand picking up some soft feces until they get his original diet back in the shelves (please hurry!).

I love the petshop though - for those who weren't already informed, they have 50% off for vet students on all Eukanuba feeds until June. Just saying.

Feeling especially springy!

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.