We usually walk twice a day, and I try to have our second walk before it gets dark. But, on Wednesday it started getting dark earlier than usual, as thick clouds were spreading over us. When I hurried my steps and looked up to see how long it would be before it got really dark, I saw this beautiful red sky.
I've been trying to lure Cookie with a clicker and treats to encourage him to walk more than just going up and down a short street by our house. But, yesterday morning I didn't try it as hard as usual, because I thought it would be a good idea to walk with Cinnamon only and focus on the Heel exercise with her, after having a short walk together with Cookie.
When I walk Cookie and Cinnamon together, my attention inevitably goes to Cookie, because he doesn't want to walk unless I do something that draws his interest. Cinnamon, on the other hand, walks with me willingly wherever I go, though she tends to walk ahead of us with her nose on the ground when my attention is on Cookie.
In the middle of our girl-only walk yesterday, we stopped by a very small off-leash dog exercise area close to our house and practiced Recall with Cinnamon. She did it very well as these photos show.
Finally, Cookie and Cinnamon have been given this award by Lenni and Ressu the Beagles. Thanks, Lenni and Ressu.
This award states "This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships!" and also "These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."
Once again, we cannot name as many as eight blog friends, but we would like to give it to all our blog friends who read this!
Look, Cookie and Cinnamon have got new pillows! Their mum bought them at 75% discount!!!
Cinnamon got the red one and Cookie got the green one
Checking each other's new pillow...
On Saturday we went to St Heliers Bay Beach again and met Dixson and Penny the Beagles.
Cookie and Cinnamon are let off the lead more often these days, as they have become more confident off the lead since we started clicker training. They seem to enjoy staying close to their mum and playing with her more than before. It's a good sign, but I still have to keep a close eye on them when they are off. You never know when they will make a dash once they find something more interesting. They are beagles after all!
And, yesterday we went to Auckland Botanic Gardens, one of our favorite parks. Although dogs must be on the lead in most areas of the park, which spreads over 64 hectares, there is also an off-leash dog exercise area. Every time Cookie is let off in the dog exercise area, he dashes for a pond there, jumps around happily in the shallow water, and gets really dirty and stinky. But, yesterday he was not given a chance to have fun like that, because his mum didn't want to shampoo him on such a cold day.
We have been tagged by Jazz and Dixie, our beagle friends in Japan to share this (Thanks, Jazz and Dixie!):
Here are the rules:
Link the person who tagged you.
Copy the image above, the rules and the questionnaire in this post.
Post this in one or all of your blogs.
Answer the four questions following these Rules.
Recruit at least seven (7) friends on your Blog Roll by sharing this with them.
Come back to BLoGGiSTaiNFoCoRNeR and leave the URL of your Post in order for you/your Blog to be added to the Master List.
On Sunday we went to St Heliers Beach for a morning walk, and I made a collage from photos taken there.
Cinnamon had her agility class in the rain last night. Although my handling hasn't improved at all, Cinnamon's weave has improved a lot.
Kess, our beagle pal in Malaysia, passed this wonderful award to Cookie and Cinnamon. Thanks, Kess!
There are four things you must do to accept this award: 1) post it on your blog and link to the person who gave it to you, 2) list 7 things you love, 3) list 7 blogs you love, and 4) email or comment on those blogs to let them know you've given them an award.
These are seven things that Cookie and Cinnamon love:
1. Cookie loves to watch cars and people passing by at the front gate. 2. Cinnamon loves to lick sofas, couches, and carpets. 3. Cookie and Cinnamon love to cuddle together when they have a nap. 4. Cookie loves the freedom when he walks off leash. 5. Cookie and Cinnamon love grooming and baths. 6. Cookie and Cinnamon love vegetables, especially broccoli, as well as meat. 7. Cookie and Cinnamon love the hound lure racing!!!!!
Cookie at the gate
Walk off leash at St Heliers Beach
Hound Racing!!
Now we would like to pass this award to Jackal and Oscar and Maisie (We couldn't name seven blog friends, as we don't have many blog friends yet). Jackal's blog gives us wonderful tips on dog training. Oscar and Maisie are our newest blog friends. They tried lure racing for the first time recently and also started agility with DIY equipment.
Yesterday morning I opened the curtains of our bedroom and found this rainbow. Then, I quickly went to my study to fetch my camera, went outside, and took this photo, before letting Cookie and Cinnamon out from their crates, which is what I usually do as soon as I get up in the morning.
The weather has been so unstable in Auckland that it is hard to pick a break in the rain, which is long enough for a decent walk. We still managed to drive down to Kohimarama Beach to have a walk yesterday. Dogs are allowed off leash on the beach after 4pm. So, when we arrived around 4:40pm, there were so many dogs on the beach. When we left the beach, it was already getting dark, and as soon as we got in our car, it started raining again.
Some of you may be wondering how our clicker training is going, as I haven't written anything about it since I reported that we'd started clicker training.
After Cookie and Cinnamon became good at touching my hand (so called 'nose touch'), I tried it using a target stick instead of a hand. But, after a while, we noticed that the ball-shaped target was too small for Cookie. Especially at night, it seemed difficult for him to see it. So, I covered it with a yellow ball.
Also, I found a new way of using clicker training. Cookie is not an enthusiastic walker, as some of you already know. He often turns around to head home after only a short walk in the neighbourhood. But, now he can walk a longer distance with help of a clicker.
Cookie loves clicker training, because he knows he can get treat when clicked. So, I started using it during walks. When he looks unwilling to walk, I say 'Touch'. Then, he happily walks forward to touch my hand. Once he realises that I have a clicker in my hand and treats in my treat pouch, he walks willingly with his attention on me, not on food, because he knows he can't get treat until he looks at my face. As such, clicker training has changed my life easier, at least with regard to walking Cookie!
Clicker training has been working for Cinnamon, too. Her heeling has improved significantly with the nose touch technique.
Cookie and Cinnamon have been tagged by their dear blog friend, Honey the Great Dane, to play a game to show where they sleep. Thanks, Honey!
Well, because Cookie and Cinnamon are very busy right now, sleeping, I will show you where they sleep. Actually they have so many places to sleep during the day. Or, more correctly, they can sleep anywhere around the house and garden, except for the bathroom. For example, at a bay window, in the hallway, in a couch, on the deck, on their daddy's tummy, and and so on...
(Thanks Dughallmor Beagles for telling us how to make a collage. This is the first collage we have ever made!)
But, this game is about where they sleep at night, right? But, before showing you where they sleep now, I will show you where they have slept in the past.
This is where Cookie slept when he was a puppy.
Cookie's first house
As his humans had never had their own dogs before Cookie, they did a lot of research and found information that a crate is good as a training tool as well as a place to sleep in. Their daddy also found someone recommending on the web that a slatted wooden mat is good for hygienic reasons, so he made one with materials that he bought from a home improvement center.
After about four years, Cookie was finally allowed to sleep in his humans' bed :-) But there is no photo of it.
This is where Cinnamon slept when she was very little.
Cinna House
Her humans called this place 'Cinna House'. There were some improvements from Cookie's first house. She had an area to wander around, although the crate was smaller than Cookie's. When Cookie was a puppy, his mum used this small crate when she had to take him to the vet by car without her husband's help.
After Cinnamon escaped from the puppy pen several times, her humans anchored the pen with weights for dumbbells, by putting old unused thin plastic cutting boards around the bottom frame of the pen and placing the weights on them. But it couldn't stop her from escaping. Her humans thought that she probably had managed to escape by climbing up her crate. So, they bought a larger crate as big as Cookie's, which should be more difficult for little Cinnamon to climb up. That's how 'Cinna House Version 2' was born. But Cinnamon still managed to escape from her puppy pen in the middle of night a couple of times (Neither her humans or Cookie knows how she made it!).
Cinna House Version 2
Later the puppy pen was removed and Cinnamon was given many toys instead.
Cinnamon in her house with toys
When Cinnamon became nearly four months old, Cookie had an operation for a slipped disk in the neck, and, for a couple of months after the operation, he had to stay quiet in his crate all the time, except when he had to go outside for toilet and rehabilitation. So, during that time, Cookie and Cinnamon slept in their crates side by side.
Cookie goes back to his crate after an operation
When Cookie recovered enough to walk around on his own. He went back to his humans' bed, this time along with Cinnamon. But again there is no photo of it.
In late January this year, Cinnamon suddenly became ill and was hospitalised for a week. At that time, her humans were told by a vet to restrict her exercise for a month by keeping her in a crate. However, because she is a barker, her humans didn't think she would stay quiet in her crate. So, here comes Cookie to help. As Cookie doesn't mind sleeping in his crate as long as he can't see his humans around (If he can see his humans around, he keeps whining all night, wanting to sleep with them in their bed), his crate was placed by Cinnamon's and he slept in it so that Cinnamon wouldn't feel lonely.
Where Cookie and Cinnamon sleep now
Since then, Cookie and Cinnamon have been sleeping side by side in their crates. Both of them willingly get in their crates at night, when their mum says 'House'.
Some people might think that keeping a dog in a crate for long hours is cruel. But, they seem happy sleeping in their crates, as long as they are let go out for toilet late at night before getting in their crates and they are let out of the crates early in the morning. It seems they feel safe in their own exclusive space. Also, I want to emphasize that they can wander around the house and garden freely during the day, as their humans work from home.
Ideally, I would like them to sleep in their own beds, not crates, beside their humans' bed. But, it seems almost impossible, because both of them want to get in their humans' bed if they can move around freely. I wonder if it is possible to train them to sleep in their own beds at night... Please let us know if you have any good idea!
When I was looking through old photos to find ones to use in this post, I found this lovely video of Cinnamon.
Now we would like to tag our beagle friends to play this game. The friends we are tagging are Jazz and Dixie and Kess. Hope they will have fun!
Yesterday, a network hard disk, which we use to store backup of photos as well as files from our work, broke. When I was browsing some photos of Cookie and Cinnamon stored in the hard disk by directly accessing them from my computer, the hard disk started making strange noise. Then, after a few tries, an error indicator began flushing and the access was lost!
Fortunately, most of the files stored in the hard disk had original copies in our computers, so we didn't lose much which didn't have any other copies elsewhere. Especially, when it comes to photos, we usually store another set of copied files in a computer we use as a storage server, so virtually no photo was lost. It is literally "Be prepared and have no regrets", though we will have to buy a replacement, which is a damage to us in deed!
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Cookie and Cinnamon have entered for the Show Us Some Tongue Contest by Daphne and Pruett. Every entry is great and unique, so check out their website and enter your pic if you haven't!
The season has come yet again!! What season? The season of the fall of the leaf!
Our street is lined with huge London Plane trees. They provide nice shade in summer, but in autumn they give us a lot of work. Although the city council's contractors come to sweep leaves on the road along the gutter using a road sweeper truck from time to time, they rarely send their staff to sweep the footpath as well. So, the task of sweeping the footpath falls on us, residents.
Sweeping itself is not a big issue. A problem is what to do with the collected leaves. Because the trees are huge, so is the amount of their fallen leaves. Most households have a wheelie bin for garden waste, but the bins are already full with waste from their gardens at this time of year.
The best solution to deal with this problem is sweeping the leaves on the footpath out to the road when a road sweeper truck comes. We cannot, or are reluctant to, sweep leaves out onto the road when a road sweeper truck is not working in the street, because the leaves may block gutters and drains.
Luckily, our house is located on the right side of the corner of the street with a cul-de-sac, so our turn is the last in the street. So, I can go out and sweep the leaves when I hear a sweeping truck coming into our street, he he...
Dear our blog friends, thank you for your birthday wishes for Cookie! I hope Cookie enjoyed his birthday despite being unable to go out for a long walk because his humans were so busy with their work. His mum still managed to have some play time with him, give him a bone twice the size of those he usually gets, and make a special birthday meal for him.
Got a big bone!
Special meat rice balls with vegetable topping
Yum-yum...surely a good day
Beagle Walk was scheduled for yesterday, which we had looked forward to, but we had a heavy rain, so we couldn't go.
This morning the sky cleared up and we had a beautiful sunny autumn day. Today we went to the Hound Racing Club coursing and Cookie and Cinnamon had a lot of running.
Having our own dog was one of our dreams when we moved to Auckland in 2000. Our first home in Auckland was in an apartment building, where we were not allowed to bring in animals. After five months, we moved into a rented semi-detached house. Because most rented houses had a no-dog policy, we thought the house we rented also had a policy like that. But, one day, the owners of the house said 'You can have a dog' when we were talking with them about our dream of having a dog. At first we couldn't believe what they had said, but we quickly brought it into action. We went to see many different breeds of dogs at Pet Expo, checked breed guide books, decided to get a Beagle, and contacted a couple of Beagle breeders in Auckland. It was the beginning of our life centered around Beagles!
