One New Trick A Month - January - Crawl

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Today I declare that Mint and I are going to take on a challenge called 'One New Trick A Month Challenge 2012'. We are going to learn at least one new trick a month. We decided to do it, after seeing some of our blog friends had started doing something similar, such as Jackal at Living Farmer's Life and Maisy at Reactive Champion. I have to admit though that we are kind of cheating, comparing to what Jackal and Maisy are doing, because, under our rule at Beagle Diary, either, not both, of us, Mint and Cinnamon, is going to learn at least one new trick every month.

In January, the first month of the challenge, Mint learned 'Crawl'. Here is the finished product!

If you can't watch the video here in this page, try this one on YouTube.

In fact he learned it very quickly. A problem is that he tries to crawl when he is doing the Down Stay in obedience!!

Mint is two years old!

Yay, yay!! It's Mint again! Because today is a specially day for me, my sister Cinnamon let me write a post again. Thank you, Cinnamon!

First of all, I want to declare that I am not a little boy anymore, now that I turned two years old today. So, don't dare call me 'Puppy' anymore!

As you may know, I started competing in agility last November. In New Zealand, in order to compete in agility, all dogs need to have their height measured by two recognised measurers so that they can be allocated into the right height class. But, until they become two years old, they can only be issued a preliminary height certificate, instead of a permanent one, because they might still continue to grow, and once they become two years old, they cannot compete without a permanent certificate.

Actually my Mum was very worried about my second measuring, because my height at the time of the preliminary measuring was very close to the upper limit of the Mini dogs, 430mm. If my height had exceeded the upper limit, I would have had to compete as a Midi dog. The hurdles for Midi dogs are more than 20cm higher than those for Mini dogs. So, my humans even thought about giving up doing agility with me if I was classified as a Midi dog, because they thought that jumping the Midi height would give too much stress on my body. But, fortunately, at a recent measuring I was confirmed to be a Mini dog, at 417mm!

Well, today my humans were both smiling all day. At first I didn't know what was happening, but as soon as Mum brought out a blue tee shirt from our doggie clothing basket and put it on me, I knew what they were up to. Yes, another photoshooting! I am not a big fan of cameras, but I don't mind posing for them either, because I can get lots of treat if I pose well.

Sitting...

Lying down...

From the back...

Here Cinnamon joins me...

Without those silly hats...

Don't you think I did very well? What do you think I got for posing so well? Noooothing!! No presents or cakes! The toys around me in the photos are not my birthday presents. In fact, most of them are toys that Cinnamon or I got in trials or competitions. But, that's OK, because I am not a wee little boy anymore! I am a big independent boy now!!

Mango Minster 2012 - Mint's Introductory Wrestling Tutorial

Sneak, sneak... Is there anyone here? Ok, apparently my sis Cinnamon has gone to bed already. Hee hee, now is the chance to take over the blog!

I think most of you already know about Mango Minster, an annual prestigious doggie competition, run by our great blog friend Mango. Cinnamon has entered it before, but I haven't. So, I have decided to enter this year. It was hard to choose a category to enter, in deed. But, I realised that there is only one category that actually suits me - Bad Sports!!

Do you think why Bad Sports? That's because I am an athlete man, but there is a secret that I haven't told anyone. I was secretly training to be a professional doggie wrestler. I didn't tell my family about it, because I knew that they would worry about me. But, now I have become a highly skilled wrestler, so I took this opportunity to make a tutorial video to share some of my skills.

The one I am showing here is the part one of a series of "Mint the Beagle's Introductory Wrestling Tutorial". In fact, this video is my entry to the Bad Sports category of Mango Minster 2012. Enjoy!

Just in case, here is a link to the video on YouTube.


Note: Pepper who appears in the video is a girl, but I called her 'him' in the video, because 'her' didn't sound right in this context.

Playdate with Lexi and Jasper the Great Danes

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Today we are enjoying summery weather, but until yesterday one question everyone in New Zealand had in mind was "Where has summer gone?"

Since the New Year's day, I hadn't seen the sun much. Having lots of rain every day didn't seem like such a bad thing for my Mum, as she didn't have to water her tomato plants and the grass didn't turn brown like it usually does in summer. But, that was a big problem for us! Lots of rain means shorter than usual walks for us. Nevertheless, we were lucky, because many of my friends sometimes couldn't go out for walks at all, as chances for walks were limited for their humans who don't work from home like our humans do.

However, fortunately it was not raining when Mint and I met up with our big friends Lexi and Jasper the Great Danes at one of our favorite parks, Auckland Botanic Gardens, last week. This park is a wonderful place for doggies and their owners. Although dogs have to be on leash in most areas of the park, there is one off-leash dog exercise area. In on-leash areas humans can enjoy browsing a huge variety of plants and trees in well-designed landscapes, while doggies can enjoy many different smells, including familiar smells, exotic smells, and intriguing smells. When we had a walk with Lexi and Jasper, we had a great time finding new smells as usual.

By the way, do you wonder how we play with such big buddies like Great Danes? No worries! I have had a wonderful Dane friend, Honey, since I was a puppy. So, I am used to Great Danes at least. As for Mint, he seems to have some difficulty in understanding the size difference. He has never been hesitant in front of big friends. So, look at this! He was trying to hump this big guy who we met on the walk, as well as our big friends Lexi and Jasper!

This big black dog looks puzzled, but Mint doesn't take any notice of it. *

Hey, Jasper, what are you doing? Have you found anything interesting? *

Let's see what Jasper has found (Jasper has already lost interest and walked away)

We never fail to do our job, sniffing!!

Mint fetches a ball only because ... *

... he can get some treat every time. *

Mint, behave yourself, at least in front of our friends! *

I am a big sister, so I need to watch what Mint is doing. *

We posed together for the camera after a great walk :-)  *

*) Courtesy of Lexi and Jasper's human

After the walk, our humans wanted to have a cup of coffee in the outdoor area of a cafe in the Visitor Centre (Dogs are not allowed in all areas under the roof), but all tables in the outdoor area had been taken by visitors with dogs. So, instead, they sat on a bench in a different area to have a chat before going home.

We had a wonderful time with Lexi and Jasper! I hope we can meet up with them again soon!!

Liebster Award

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Yay, we got given an award by our blog friends Digby and Delta in Australia! Thanks so much, Digby and Delta!!

The award is called Liebster Award ('Liebster' is a German word which means 'dearest' in English, according to Google Translate) and has some rules.

(1) Thank the blogger that gave you the award and then add a link to their blog.
(2) Reveal your top five picks (with less than 200 readers) and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
(3) Copy and Paste the Award to Your Blog.
(4) Hope that the people you’ve sent the award to forward it to their five favorite up-and-coming bloggers, and keep it going!

Shall we take on the task to pick our top five blogs? But, hmmmm, it's so hard...because we love all of our friends' blogs. But, we need to pick five, right? Ok, these are the five blogs we have picked:

Monty the Beagle: Monty has just moved from Auckland to Queensland, Australia. I love his marking, especially his white pants!

Agility Beagles (Lenni and Ressu the Beagles): Lenni and Ressu live in a far away place called Finland. We owe them so much, because their human always give our mum helpful advice for agility.

Sapphire the Beagle: Sapphire lives in Malaysia. She is a beautiful Beagle, and her human takes beautiful photos of her.

Le Paws Voyage (Le Le the Beagle): Le Le lives in Singapore. She is a clever young Beagle, who has started competing in Agility recently.

Galleria d'arte di Kimiyo: The last but not the least is my Mum's human friend who does most beautiful water colour paintings.


Well, now I will have to let them all know that they've got an award! So, bye for now.

Hello 2012

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is having or has had Christmas and New Year holidays.

This year we had a very quiet but relaxing New Year's Day, partly because we couldn't go out as it was raining. But, yesterday we did a New Year photoshooting at home where both Mint and I wore a new collar that our Mum had just made for us. This is one of some hundred photos that our Dad took yesterday.

We had a really busy and exciting year last year. I wonder what is in for us this year.