Cinnamon's Second Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Cinnamon!! Cinnamon turned two today. Although she still behaves like a puppy, her face and body have now become those of a mature beagle.







We visited Cinnamon's breeder for the first time when Cinnamon was four weeks old. But, at that time we didn't know which puppy would come to our house.

The one on the right is Cinnamon

When the litter was six weeks old, the breeder showed us which one was becoming our family. On the same visit, we told the breeder what we wanted to call our puppy.

I am Cinnamon!!

Cinnamon finally came to our house when she was seven weeks old. At first Cookie looked puzzled but soon started to play together.

We love Cinnamon!!

Even Cookie can be hard sometimes

Cookie and Cinnamon have been tagged by their blog friend, Jasmine the Goat. Thanks, Jasmine!! We are honored.

This game has the following rules:

1) open the folder that has your pet pics in it
2) choose one you haven't posted before
3) tell its story
4) tag 5 friends


Here is the picture we have chosen.



This picture was taken when Cinnamon was two months old. Although Cookie is usually very gentle and quiet, he was disciplining Cinnamon at that time as he was challenged by her.

Now we would like to tag the following friends:

Sapphire
Marge
Rufus and Indie

We chose only three, because our blog roll to choose friends from to tag a game will run out quickly otherwise.

Things that I learned at agility training yesterday

Last night we attended the Competition Class at our dog training club for the first time. Unlike the Non-Competing Class, we could run a whole course in this class.

Yesterday I learned a couple of things. One of them is that I need to keep the position of my hands higher so that Cinnamon's head remains up. Cinnamon watches my movements more closely than I thought she did. So, if my hands are down, her head gets down too. The second thing is that I need to run faster. As Cinnamon hasn't learned to run ahead of me and do things she has to do following my verbal commands, I need to run ahead of her to guide her through and around obstacles. But, yesterday I ran out of breath after only two consecutive runs. My lack of regular exercise was evident.



There is also an issue that I need to deal with. Cinnamon is not enthusiastic about entering tunnels. Especially at a curved tunnel, if I take a course inside the curve, Cinnamon often misses the entry. If I run outside the tunnel, she enters it more reliably. However, in order to shorten the time, I don't want to run a longer distance along the outside of the tunnel. I would appreciate it if anyone would suggest anything to deal with this problem.

Another Agility Trial

Yesterday there was an Agility trial hosted by Akarana Dog Training Club we belong to. When we woke up at 6am, it was raining cats and dogs. Although Cookie and Cinnamon's dad was complaining that in such a condition the trial should be cancelled, we had to go to the competition whatever the weather was like, because as members of the hosting club we were supposed to offer a helping hand.

When we arrived at the venue, it was still pouring down rain, and there were many paddles in the Agility rings. Especially one of the two rings was just like a swamp! But, when the judging started, the rain had stopped.

Our first run, Jumpers C2, was in the ring like a swamp. Because of the bad condition, the bars were lowered a little. I was worried that Cinnamon might not run at all, as she doesn't like getting wet. But, to my relief, she started quite well. However, after going through a tunnel, she missed a jump and started sniffing the ground. I thought 'Oh my gosh, she started it again!' But, after wandering around for a while, she hunched her back and did Poo!! I couldn't believe my eyes!! She had done poo already at home first thing in the morning. So, it was her second poo on the day! Of course we got disqualified for it.

Good start!

Oh my gosh!!

At our second run, Jumpers C1, we did very well. When we finished, I thought 'Yay, we completed the course with only one fault!' But, it turned out to be untrue. I, not Cinnamon, had missed a jump without knowing it!! And again we got disqualified. But, let me excuse about my mistake!! I had missed the course walk (At Agility competitions we are given time to walk the course before the judging starts), as I was busy helping picking up fallen jump bars then.

Silly handler!!

Our third run was Jumpers Pairs Relay C, for which we paired with our classmates, Buffy the Miniature Schnauzer and her human. The result was another disqualification. Never mind...

Then we had the last run, Jumpers C3. This time we finally completed the course, with two faults officially (It must've been the Judge's mistake. There was only one refusal as far as I know!!). I am still happy with the result, considering the condition of the ground.

Honey, thank you for asking about the Pairs Relay in your comment.

In this type of competition, one of the pair runs after the other one finishes its run. And the two dogs run different courses which partially overwrap each other. These are photos of us finishing the first half and our partners just starting.

Also, here you can see how bad the ground condition was!!

Resurgence of Escape Artist!

Whether I should praise it or not, Cinnamon did it again!!

Cookie and Cinnamon always stay in their crates in a small hallway when their humans are out, and usually they are lying down in there quietly when we come home. But, about a week ago, when I entered the house from the backyard as I usually do, I heard a little noise and also Cinnamon's barks. Then, I went over to the hallway and found that Cinnamon was out of her crate.

At that time, I thought that I might have forgot to lock the crate door. But, after similar incidents repeated a couple of times, I came to think that Cinnamon had learned to unlock the door. And yesterday she did it again!!



At the beginning of this post, I said "Cinnamon did it again!!" because it was not the first time she escaped from a place which we thought would be secure enough to keep Cinnamon inside. When she was as little as two months old, she escaped from her puppy pen a few times. How she made it is still a mystery. When she did it, the pen was closed intact. The only possible explanation would be that she climbed the fence or crate and jumped (or fell) outside!

Cinnamon, are you genius or just so determined to do whatever you decide to do?

Well, I showed a video of Cookie and Cinnamon practicing 'Stand' the other day. Now Cinnamon has finally learned to Stand only with a verbal command!

New bed!

There was only one dog bed in our house (I mean a bed that we use outside dog crates where Cookie and Cinnamon sleep), but now Cookie and Cinnamon have two beds between them after I bought a new one on Monday.

The new bed is larger than the old one, so I thought it would become Cookie's who is slightly bigger than Cinnamon. But, as soon as I put the new bed beside the old one and said 'Go to Bed', Cookie took the old one and Cinnamon took the new one. Is that because Cookie was so kind and generous that he let Cinnamon have the new bed?

This new bed is mine!

So comfy...

Where have the sheep gone?

Thank you for your warm messages on my last post. I am learning a lot from you all!

Yesterday we went to Cornwall Park which we hadn't visited for a while. One of the reasons we went there was to see the sheep there. Although New Zealand is known for its large population of sheep, we rarely see and touch them, living in the largest city in the country.

We used to go to the park very often when Cookie was young. But, the traffic along the road that we use to get to the park gradually got more and more congested, and finally we stopped going there.

Yesterday, as soon as we arrived at the park, we headed for the fields where we had always seen sheep when we frequented the park. But, there was no sheep, to my disappointment. So, we walked around looking for sheep and found only a few of them near the top of a small volcanic mountain called One Tree Hill, which is the main feature of Cornwall Park (There used to be a tree on top of the mountain, but there isn't anymore because the tree was cut down after Maori activists damaged the tree as a protest).

No sheep...

Found some sheep near the top of One Tree Hill

There is no picture of Cookie and Cinnamon at Cornwall Park, because I was so busy trying to stop them eating cows' droppings!!

It is Saturday today, which I looked forward to after a very busy week, but unfortunately it's been raining all day. So, we did some exercise on Standing in the house. This is how it went.

I hold some food in my hand when I give Cookie a command, because he is so food-motivated that he doesn't do anything if he doesn't see any food in my hand. After watching this video, I noticed that I had been giving him reward before, or almost at the same time as, clicking, which I think I need to correct.

Although Cinnamon can Stand if I put my hand in front of her nose, she still can't do it if I give her a vocal command only.

Lesson to be learned

I am so disappointed with myself.

Tonight, we participated in the Link, a monthly agility event where participants run the same course for the month at different venues around New Zealand. In order to have your results registered at the Link, you need to become a member of the group. As we were not members yet, we participated in the event just for a try out.

Our performance was deadly awful tonight. After Cinnamon failed to do the Weave correctly and I made her do it again from the beginning, she lost concentration and behaved badly. Although she had to lie down on a table, she refused to do so. And, at a tunnel, she hung around in the tunnel however hard I called. When I looked from one side, she moved to the other side.

It seems I was getting carried away after getting our first Clear Round Certificate. Tonight I was reminded that we are still beginners and we need to practise much harder.

Sob, sob, sob...

Gadget review - Wanpo Kei (Pedometer for Dogs)

Background

This was a present from my friend in Japan. Having stayed with us for a month twice, the friend knew how lazy Cookie was. So, she sent us this doggie pedometer, thinking it would be interesting to know exactly how much Cookie walked everyday.

This pedometer, Wanpo Kei, comes with a chain so that a dog can wear it like a necklace. According to the manufacturer's website at that time (They don't list this product on their website anymore), unlike pedometers for humans which count the number of steps, this doggie pedometer measures the amount of exercise, despite the fact that the name of the product "Wanpo Kei" means "an instrument to count dogs' steps."

As we haven't used it for a long time now, I don't remember what the result was like. So, I looked at a web page at Cookie and Cinnamon's Japanese website. The result for a day in June 2005 was 13,127 Wanpo and the excercise time was 82 minutes. However, a majority of the total excercise time was from a morning walk in the neighbourhood and another walk at Waiatarua Reserve in the afternoon, and the rest was only 7 minutes. However, Cookie would want me to mention that he was not allowed to go out to the backyard that day because builders were working to build a new deck.

This pedometer hardly seemed accurate, but we had lots of fun looking at Cookie wearing this pretty gadget.


Pros

• Looks cute
  
• Gives a lot of fun

Cons

• Not accurate, and we don't know the criteria as to the number of Wanpo
  
• Might be disturbing for the dog when it moves around actively

Verdict

How we spend a night in winter

This is how we spend a long wet night in winter. In this video I don't use a clicker or any food treats. Cinnamon really loves showing off what she can do.