How we have been doing in competitions recently

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

I just realised that I hadn't posted about how we have been doing in competitions this year. Sorry this post may be boring for many of you, but I wanted to post it as a record.

As you may know, we compete in Agility, Obedience, Rally Obedience, and Paws n Music. As for Paws n Music, last year there was no competition in or near Auckland, except for a video competition which Mint won (I didn't enter it), and this year there is no competition until National Dog Obedience Assembly (NDOA) in October. So, the last competition we went to is NDOA in 2011, where I got first and Mint second in Elementary Freestyle.

Early this year we had to withdraw from quite a few competitions because of Mint's frequent seizures. So, we haven't been to many competitions this year. We have been to three Agility competitions, three Obedience competitions, and one Rally Obedience competition. We haven't done any agility since mid-March after Mint had multiple seizures on the day after our last agility competition. Although we don't know what caused those seizures, we haven't done agility at all since the day just in case.

In the last Agility competition we went to, I won Novice. As I was doing really well in agility at that time, Mum wanted to continue to compete with me in Agility but decided to have a break because it was getting cold towards winter anyway.

Mint has competed in three Obedience competitions this year (I haven't competed in Obedience this year). In the first one Mint did really well in heelwork but broke his stay. In the second one, his heelwork was not as good as it usually is but he managed to get a 4th place because he didn't break his stays. And, in the third one last weekend, although his heelwork was better than the previous time, he broke his stays again.

In the only Rally Obedience competition we have been to this year, Mum made a lot of mistakes because she hadn't practised Rally-O for a long time. Because of her mistakes, I couldn't qualify in one of two rounds that I had. But, I got a 3rd place in the other round in Novice B. Mint qualified in both of two rounds he had, but he didn't get placed. Now that Mint has got three or more than Novice qualifying certificate, he is eligible for a RN (Rally Novice) title, which lazy Mum hasn't applied for.

Currently we train in Obedience and Paws n Music once a week on the same day. In Obedience Mint's biggest challenge is stays and mine is the dumbbell. (I can't sit close enough to Mum with my dumbbell in my mouth.) In Paws n Music both of us are just staring to work on our new routines.

Mint the therapy dog

Hello. Mint here!

Last Saturday I went out with Mum while Cinnamon stayed home with Dad. When Mum told Cinnamon to go home, meaning "enter her crate", and took me to the garage, I didn't know what I was in for.



I was in carpark of SPCA Auckland's Education Centre when I got out of the car, and when we were approaching the building, I saw another beagle who I knew from Auckland Beagle Club's beagle walks!



A while later, we were all called into a theatre-like room, and a couple of women spoke in turn there. It was so boring that I wanted to run around the room, but Mum gave me a stern look and told me to enter my crate and stay there. You know, it was so hard!! In a totally new environment I couldn't do what I would usually do at that time of day - a nap, and I was not allowed to explore the place either...

After those boring speeches, finally came my turn! I was told to sit, lie down, stand, wait, and come, which I did with no problem of course. When everyone was standing on the entrance porch of the building, someone dropped a baking tin, making a big noise. Why was she carrying an empty baking tin in the first place!? Also, inside the building, people using clutches, a walker, and a wheelchair passed by. A woman with clutches dropped them in front of me, another woman with a walker was using her walker so clumsily that she was making big noises. A woman on a wheelchair told me to come close to her. I wondered what on earth they were doing. A group of clumsy women!! In the end, another clumsy person seemed to have dropped a slice of cheese on the floor. As Mum told me to leave it, I walked ignoring the cheese.

All of this was a strange experience. But, later someone came to Mum to tell her that I had passed an assessment to become a therapy dog! My friend Ruby the Beagle also passed!!



I don't know what therapy dogs do, but I have a feeling that it is a fun thing. So, I look forward to doing my first job as a therapy dog!

Dog dancing demo at a local school

Hi! It's Cinnamon!

Last Friday we visited a local school to perform dog dancing in front of the children there, and we thoroughly enjoyed it!!

A couple weeks back, when Mum was helping the instructor of a tricks class as an assistent, she happened to hear that one of the students of the class was a teacher of a local school. So, Mum, who was looking for a place where we could practise our dance routines in front of an audience, asked her if we could visit the school to perform dog dancing. And the answer was 'YES'!

On Friday morning we arrived at the school half an hour before our show, and a while later our friend, Sofie the Blue Heeler, and her mum arrived as well.

When we were preparing our props for the first show, young children started coming into the hall (We did two shows). They were all well-behaved. Once the audience were ready sitting on the floor. Mum and I went up on the stage and performed my new routine. Every time I did a trick, I heard cheerful laughs. All in all, the young audience seemed to enjoy our show. After me was Sofie and then Mint.

Once the first group of children went out of the hall, older kids started coming in. Then, we found a familiar face in them!! Our next-door neighbour was there!! We were very surprised and excited at the same time!! A few moments later, we spotted another familiar face. A younger sister of the next-door neighbour who we had found earlier! The sisters are very good friends of ours but they had never seen us dancing before. So, we were very excited to be able to show them our dance.

All our performances went really well. Although we had some trouble on the slippery stage surface in the first show, we could perform more comfortably in the second show after Mum put a piece of carpet that she had brought just in case. We did make a few mistakes in our routines, but who cares!! Everyone looked enjoying our performances.

After the shows, we went to say hello to our next-door neighbours, then their friends all gathered around us, trying to pat us. Surrounded by so many children, we found ourselves in the darkness in the centre of an excited crowd!! But, I really enjoyed all the attention. You can rarely get that level of attention!! I felt like I was a super star!!!

I hope we can do something like this again soon!!

Wordless (well, except for Mum's commands) Wednesday

We are back!! (A little bit about Mint's health)

Hi! It's Cinnamon!!

Wow, who thought I would have such a long break from blogging!!! I didn't blog for six months!!

Well, one of the reasons was that Mum was too busy to help me write posts. Yes, we were still posting on Facebook. But, blog posts require a lot more time than Facebook posts.

Another, maybe the biggest, reason was that Mint was not very well. Well, he was usually very healthy and happy, but sometimes he had very scary conditions called seizures.

Mint had his first seizure in April last year. But, at that time it looked like a one-off, and he was seizure-free for the next five months until he had another one in September. At that time he had blood tests and all the results came out normal, so he was diagnosed to have idiopathic epilepsy.

But, Mum didn't put him on medication right away, because she had heard of bad side effects of the medicine which our vet was going to prescribe. Mum was hoping that Mint's seizures didn't become as frequent as once a month, as it was suggested in many resources that you start medication if your dog starts to have seizures more than once a month.

After that, Mint had seizures in mid-October and on the New Year's Eve, but they didn't become more frequent than once a month until late January this year. Then, he started to have multiple seizures in one day roughly fortnightly.

However, Mum still didn't want to start medication. What she decided to do instead was change his diet. Until then, we had dry dog food (Orijen) but Mum changed it to a raw diet. After Mint was on a new diet as well as some homeopathic remedies, Mint's seizures started to become less frequent at one point, but they became frequent again after a while, and finally Mum decided to put Mint on medication (Phenobarbital).

Now he takes 15mg of Pheno twice a day, and he has't had any seizures since he started to take the drug on May 15th.

When he was having seizures frequently, he always looked a little anxious. But, now he is back to his normal happy self! I hope he stays this way much longer!!