
Although the distance was just a bit more than 8 km, the difficulties for us did not stop with the snow and the slope up and down.
The major problem was that Stane, who competed with Heidi, and Barbara, who competed with Kala, started more than 10 minutes in between, so the girls, Kala and Heidi, did not go together as they are used to from all the trainings. Even more, on the trainings Barbara is always with Heidi, Stane on the other hand with Kala. Kala however works with everybody, Heidi usually just with Barbara. So we created a mess for the dogs. Heidi did not work almost for the whole time as she knows how to, also Kala stopped here and there, throw herself into the snow, but because the trail was two-way-ed, they met. And after they met, it was really hard to make them to go into opposite directions. Kala pulled Barbara 1-2 m down the hill on her bottom in the Heidi's direction, cried (she never cried before), Heidi also tried to pull back Stane, but up the hill. However, Heidi and Stane managed to go downhill normally, while for Barbara and Kala there was still the heaviest slope waiting and with Kala not cooperating, it was a disaster. Barbara decided rather to stop when Kala stopped, because in that way she had more control and would not be dragged down the slope. When finally reaching the peak, they had to turn back and go downhill in the direction that Stane and Heidi went. So Kala was most motivated dog in the world to go in that direction. Barbara did not count how many times she was not on her feet. She claimed that she was never so exhausted before. We also noticed, that Kala was for the 1st time not even for a bit tired.
The results: Heidi and Stane were 3rd among "men walkers", 6th among "men" and got 12 points in the 2013 cup of doghikings in Slovenia, Kala and Barbara were also 3rd among "women walkers", 5th among "women" and have now 13 points in the Slovene "doghiking" cup. It sounds pretty OK, however we decided:
- Heidi and Kala are never splited again,
- Heidi and Kala will always go with Barbara,
- Stane will have to start training with toller girls i.e. with Pretty and Gea,
- Heidi will have to wear boots in the snowy conditions, because the hair cut is just not enough for her.
- many of the decisions above will be broken...
D-litter puppies were waiting near the finish line with mother Gea and aunt Pretty: video. They had time of their life.