Selca, May 6

Selca is a village of about 700 inhabitants, located in the Selška Sora River Valley, between Škofja Loka and Železniki, about half an hour's drive northeast of Ljubljana. The grounds of the Škofja Loka - Železniki Kennel Club/Kinološko društvo Škofja Loka - Železniki are located in an absolutely idyllic setting, part of an expansive area of parks, fields, and meadows at the outskirts of the village of Selca along the Selška branch of the Sora River. A footpath parallels the river, with several access points where dogs can go splash in and cool off. And the weather that day was fabulous.

Our agility results were a little less than fabulous. Lyra had 15 faults on the first run--ten for making mistakes twice on the slalom and five for missing a contact zone on the bridge. This put us far down in the rankings for the first run and pretty much eliminated any chance of making the top three, even if we'd been able to pull off a fast clean performance in the second run. In fact we were disqualified in the second run (as were nine other dogs, of 22 competitors total). The tunnel was set up in a U-shape, and the dog had to go in the correct entrance, which Lyra didn't. Nevertheless, I was well satisfied with her second run, since she was perfect on everything else. And just being in a beautiful setting on a pretty day, watching and doing agility, walking and playing with my dog--life doesn't get much better than that.

It was a great experience for Olivia, too (aka the Australian Shepherd from Hell). Lots of socialization as well as exercise and play. She and Monika went on frequent walks throughout the day, sometimes with me and Lyra, more often with Petra and border collie Veni, their classmates from puppy kindergarten. Poor Veni! Olivia regularly terrorized her when they were sitting on the sidelines watching, even though she played nicely with her when they were out on walks. Veni tried to hide from her persecutor by climbing into Petra's lap.

We left a little early (one advantage of not getting a cup! You don't have to hang around till the end of the day to collect it. But damn those cups were nice-looking...AND they gave out bags of dog food to the winners...sigh). Instead of going back by way of Ljubljana and the motorway, we took the scenic route, continuing through the Selška Sora Valley to Podbrdo, and from there through the Bača River Valley, with the Julian Alps to our right. At Most na Soči we turned south, along the lower Soča Valley, and followed the road home. Great day.