My first obedience class ... and some report

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Well, as you know, I have been training hard with Mum recently and I often go out without Mint. He says he gets bored, as he has so much time without me. On Sunday Dad took pictures of Mint to show us how he was doing when Mum and I were not home.





Last night Mum and I went out without Mint again. I attended my first obedience class. Ah, well, that is not really true. I thought I was attending a class, but it turned out that the course had finished a week before, and yesterday they were doing a practice Elementary obedience test, or a mock trial, instead.

Of course we entered the trial and my running order was the third, as my Mum registered our entry very early without knowing how many people and dogs were coming. If she had known that so many were entering, she would have let some other people register their entries before us so that she had time to prepare herself for the trial. I could sense Mum's extreme nervousness from her voice and breathing.

When we were called in the ring, I tried hard to calm her down by ignoring her a little bit. Then, I was given a tug on the lead as soon as we started walking, because I was still trying to calm Mum down by sniffing the floor. But, I realised that that was not what Mum expected of me doing, so I brought my head up quickly. Then, somewhere in the middle of the heel exercise, I picked up some nice smell and was tempted to go to find where it came from. But, seeing my nose starting to move away from her leg, Mum said "Leave it!" firmly, so I brought my attention back on her. I think the source of the smell was treat that someone had dropped while practising before the trial. The rest of the heel work was not too bad, I think, although Mum didn't look entirely happy.

The next exercise was the recall. When Mum left me, I waited without moving an inch. But, when she said "Cinnamon, come!!", I suddenly remembered about the smell I had picked up earlier. So, instead of going straight to Mum, I went over to the spot the smell came from before going to sit nicely in front of her. Later she told me that at that point she had thought about going home without doing the stays. But she decided to stay and I did the stays without problem in the end.

When we were waiting for the result, we were called into the ring to do the recall again in the runoff. This time I did it nicely without detouring.

And ... to my surprise I was placed the second and got a certificate and a toy as a prize!!



Although Mum's face was clearly saying that she couldn't believe it, I was just so happy and proud!! Mum, you always worry too much!


Before I go, I have something to report today. Now I can stay in my crate calmly without barking or digging my bed when my humans are out!! How do you think it happened? A trick is my brother Mint. My humans have decided to move my crate to beside Mint's so that I don't feel lonely. Look at this photo. We stay in our crates happily even after Mum opens the latches of the crate doors when she comes home. :-)