A man’s (and woman’s) best friend

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Off season is family time. Being at home, getting some peace, cuddling with the ones you don’t see that often when FIVB World Tour is on the run. That’s what players love to do at the moment – but it’s not only the players.

Snoozers... 📸: @myrtheramond #cuddle #time #monsterandme #vloginthenameoflove

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There are also some four-legged friends who are very happy to have their masters and mistresses back at home. Marketa Slukova and Simon Nausch love dogs. They have seven-year-old Amy, and now, there is also Oza, the little baby dog. “She is our honeymoon-project,” Marketa says. She and Simon waived their honeymoon traveling and are using the off-season to rear Oza. During the summer the parents of Marketa and the mother of Simon look after the dogs. “We arranged that, before we had the dogs,” Simon explains. “Marketa’s parents have a house with a big garden, a cat and a dog, and my mother has a dog as well – they love to have our dogs with them.”

Po hodině na kole došlo i na cvičení se závažím, krásných 8,7kg💪🏻 one hour on bike followed by little workout with this Gremlin. If I can get rid of her, I use her😅 *** #bridge #zadekhore #devetkilo #Oza #adidascz #workout #homemade #offseason #workit #workoutbuddy

See this Instagram photo by @marketa_slukova * 574 likes

Katrin Holtwick always wanted to have a dog. But she decided to have it after her career as a player. “I was really looking forward to this,” Katrin says. “It is also nice for the transition to the life without beach volleyball.”

Now she is really loving her new life as a Dog-Mummy. She doesn’t have go back to the World Tour in summer. Having a dog and muse from time to time, if you really spent enough time with it, is a problem for beach volleyball players, who indeed travel a lot around during the summer. Everyone in every job, the author of this text included, has the same thoughts: coming home in the lunch break, taking the dog along to work or finding some back-up people to look after their pet. “Every dog owner should have two or three back-up people, otherwise it’s barely possible,” Simon says.

Katrin Holtwick with her dog. Photocredit: Katrin Holtwick Instagram.

Hannes Jagerhofer knows that. Since 2010, the boss of Swatch Major Series, has Winnie. “He is my very best friend,” Hannes says. For the Golden Retriever, it’s the same. He is always welcoming his master enthusiastically, when he his coming home from the different stops of the World Tour.

Winnie - Hannes Jagerhofer's Golden Retriever. Photocredit: Hannes Jagerhofer.