New Tricks 2014 - Jumping on Mum's feet

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

It's time to show another new trick I have learnt recently.

My new trick is "Jumping on Mum's feet"! What do you think I do in this trick? How could I jump on Mum's feet? Do you think it is something similar to so-called "Cop Cop" trick? No, this is something different.

I will give you a hint. Look at this picture. This is how I finish my new trick.

Now do you know what I do in this new trick? See if you guessed it right!

We are going to learn more new tricks, so stay tuned!!

Mint has got a girlfriend!!

Hi! It's Cinnamon!!

Yes, you got it right. It's true that Mint has got a girlfriend for the first time in his life!

Well, if you have been following our blog, you may already know the girl. In my first post of the year I wrote about her. Do you remember that Mint performed with a twelve-year-old girl in a Paws n Music (dog dancing) competition last October. Her name is Amy. Last month Amy and Mint set out for a new adventure together! They made a debut as a handler/dog pair at an agility trial!! Amy had never attended any agility classes, so it was a big challenge for her!

After the dog dancing competition last October, Mum asked Amy if she was interested in doing agility with Mint too, and her answer was yes. So, at our dog training club Mum asked an agility instructor if she could let Amy have a run on a course with Mint just for a try, and it went really well, so Mum entered Mint with Amy in an agility competition in January.

However, because there was a long summer break, they didn't have a chance to practise agility at the dog training club before their first competition. So, instead, Mum invited Amy to do some practise in our backyard. They had two short practise sessions in our small backyard. When she came, we also had some fun doing silly things like this!

Their first agility competition took place over the last weekend of January. Amy and Mint had two runs, all in the Jumpers C class, each day. On Saturday their first run went really well! It didn't went clear only because Mint knocked off one rail. Their second run didn't go as well as the first one, because Mint started sniffing. On Sunday in their first run Mint started moving before Amy gave him a cue to start, so she missed a chance to give him a command for the first couple of jumps. However, they did really well for the rest of the course. In their second run of the day Mint got naughty again and took off to check out something outside the ring not once but twice!

Although they didn't get a clear round in their first competition, I think Amy did really well!!!! As I said, she had never been to any agility classes. Nevertheless, she handled Mint really nicely as you can see in this video of their first run on Sunday. Well done Amy!!

Last week Amy and Mint attended an agility class together for the first time, where they did really well. I look forward to seeing them running together in their next competition, which is going to be a ribbon trial in early March.