It is not only our human who's been working hard!!

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

I know that my blog posts have been slack again, but it is not only our human who's been busy and working hard!

Last month Mint and I went to two competitions, one agility competition and one rally obedience competition, and on Saturday we went to another agility competition. And, tell you what! We brought back at least one ribbon from all of these competitions!!

On 12th and 13th May we went to NorWest Jumpers Championship. Both Mint and I entered six Jumpers C rounds, and Mint got one clear round each day and I got two clear rounds on Saturday and one clear round on Sunday. In one of the two rounds from which Mint got clear rounds, he even got a 2nd-place ribbon!!



On 27th May we went to Manukau Rally Obedience Championship and entered the Novice A class.

As we hadn't done any rally obedience, Mum was very worried how we would perform. I have to admit that Mum's concern had a reason. In the last rally obedience competition, she was upset by my performance, as I wandered off many times, ignoring her commands. But, this time I enjoyed my round and did much much better than the last time, and I got a 2nd-place ribbon as well as my second qualifying certificate!



Mint also did very well despite the fact that it was the very first rally obedience competition for him. When our rounds finished, Mum actually thought that Mint had done better than me. But, later she realised that she had done something wrong in his round. She had forgot to make him sit before laying down, when she had to do so. So, Mint lost ten points for that mistake. However, he didn't make any fault otherwise, so he managed to get his first qualifying certificate.

Last Saturday we went to Counties Agility Ribbon Trial and both of us entered Jumpers C, Starters, and Elementary A.

In Jumpers C we both did very well but weren't fast enough to get a ribbon. When ribbons were given up to the 3rd place, I got placed the 4th and Mint the 5th.

In Starters Mint did extremely well and WON the class!! Well done Mint!! But, I didn't do so well. I was so excited at the start that I didn't wait until Mum said 'OK', and when I started running, Mum was so upset that she forgot how she had planned to run, resulting in three faults.



In Elementary A we couldn't run as fast as we usually do, as we were already very tired, but it seems that many other dogs in the class were feeling the same way. As a result, Mint got a 2nd place and I got a 3rd place.

Now that Mint has got a win in Starters, he has graduated from Elementary A, which means that he will be entering Starters and Novice in the next competition.

Besides competitions, we demonstrated dog dancing with another doggie at a primary school last week.

This photo was taken at home before we went to the school for our demo

It was great fun!! Over a hundred kids watched it, and they were a wonderful audience. As their teachers had told them to stay calm and quiet so that we dogs didn't get over-excited, they didn't rush toward us to pat us like children often do when they see dogs. Also, unlike other public displays, there was no one eating something and there was no food around us. So, I could concentrate on my performance, although I wandered off a little bit at the beginning of my routine, and I could hear the kids laughing every time I did a trick.

Mint did well too, although Mum didn't look happy with her own improvisation for the last part of Mint's routine. The audience also enjoyed watching a limbo dance by our dancing team mate, Fletcher.

What I thought was wonderful was that between our dance performances a teacher demonstrated clicker training with a couple of volunteers from the young audience. The children really enjoyed it, and later I heard that young children had been doing it for the rest of the day.