Paws N Music National Camp 2010

Hi, it's Cinnamon!

I am back home from a special place where I was hiding. Nop, perhaps 'hiding' may not be the right word. On the weekend I was at 'Paws N Music National Camp 2010', the first event of its kind ever held in New Zealand.

As many of you know, I finished a beginner Paws N Music (tricks) course last December, and I am currently working on my very first routine with my Mum. But, choreography is not as easy as it sounds. Although I can do many tricks, putting them together into a routine is really hard. So, Mum was hoping to get some tips and ideas for making a dance routine at this summer camp.

The summer camp was held at Turangi Cabins & Holiday Park in Turangi, a small town located on the southern side of Lake Taupo in the middle between Auckland and Wellington, from Friday the 12th to Sunday the 14th. Nearly thirty dogs, mainly from Auckland and Wellington, attended the camp.

I had a really good time meeting so many new friends!! But, it seems my Mum is not as happy as I am. She says she is disappointed with me. Before we went to the camp, she thought she could show other attendees how good I was at dancing as well as tricks. But, she couldn't, because I was busy checking everything out there, doing my job as a Beagle, the scent hound.

At the end of the camp we did busking competitions in two groups, the beginners and the advanced. Each dog in the beginner group danced a one-minute routine that his handler had created in thirty minutes using music of her own choice with help from an advanced handler, and advanced dogs did real busking, where each dog performed a one-minute improvised dance after listening to music chosen by someone else for ten seconds.

In the beginner group, nine dogs performed, including me, and my turn was the sixth.

Before my turn came, my Mum took me to the kitchen of the facility (A BIG MISTAKE!!) to do some warm-up. I could see how nervous she was, as I could hear her heart beat. So, a while after my music started, I started putting my nose to the floor to ease Mum's tension. But, unfortunately it didn't work well. So, after doing some more tricks, I again showed her how to relax by sniffing the floor. After my turn, many people commented that my routine had been cute, so it must have been a success. But, my Mum looked really sad. Don't you think she is strange?

Now that the camp has finished and Mum must have learned a lot from other advanced handlers, we are supposed to focus on creating our first routine again. But, it seems Mum's latest plan is slightly different. She says that she is determined to stop my floor-sniffing (I don't understand why such a thing can be an objective!), so she might delay creating my long-waited routine...

Here are some more photos from the camp:

















From Cinnamon's Mum:
I would like to send many thanks to those who organised and helped for the camp. It was a great and special experience for me, as I had never attended a camp of any kind in New Zealand. It was so much pleasure to talk and spend a lot of time with others who share the same interest in dog sports, especially Paws N Music!!