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.

A Blog Award!!

Hi! Cinnamon here.

We received a blog award from Bella and Barry the Beagles and Oscar and Ruby the Beagles. Thank you so much!!



This award has the following rules:

1. Thank the blogger that gave you the reward.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award onto 15 bloggers that you have recently discovered and think are fantastic!
4. Contact the bloggers you sent the award to, and let them know about the award.



Here we go!

1. 'Bella and Barry' and 'Oscar and Ruby', thank you so much!!

2. We will list seven common things between us.

* We both were born at a kennel called Kenalis in Te Aroha.

* We both have food names in our pedigree names as well as our pet names. Cinnamon's pedigree name is Kenalis Butterscotch Dream, and Mint's is Kenalis Candyman.

* We share the same grandmother and grandfather, which means we are real cousins.

* We both are a bit mouthie, so we play-bite each other when we do wrestling. Our dad calls us 'The Habu vs. Mongoose.'



Note: The Habu is a poisonous snake living on Okinawa Islands in Japan. For a real fight of them, see here.

* We both eat anything offered, be it meat, vegetables, fruit, yogurt, sweets, or snacks, and we both also eat things that aren't offered to us, e.g. some of our humans' meals (only dropped pieces, so not very often) and fresh grass (also called weeds).

* We both sleep in our own crates in the kitchen at night.

* We both love clicker training. But, to tell the truth, that is because we can get lots and lots of treats!

3. It seems most of our blog friends have already got this award. So, we skip it. But, in fact all our blog friends deserve the award!!

4. We are not giving this award to anyone in particular, so we skip it.

Sweet Friends Award! ... and Beagle friends

Hi, it's Cinnamon!

My blog friends always brighten my day, and one of them has made me even happier by giving me an award called Sweet Friends Award!

The friend who gave me this award is Lexi the Great Dane, who I had met in person and played together at Honey the Great Dane's birthday party last November. Thanks so much, Lexi! I hope we can meet up for a walk or something soon!

The Sweet Friends Award has the following rules:

1. Copy the image and paste it to your blog.
2. List 10 things that make you happy, do one of them today.
3. Select 10 bloggers who brighten your day.

Here is a list of things that make me happy:

1. Hugs, cuddles, and lots of attention
2. Sniffing
3. Hound racing (lure coursing), i.e. running and chasing
4. Practising tricks and dancing
5. Friends, both real-world ones and bloggy ones
6. Balls, both big and small
7. Stuffie friends
8. Anywhere I can hide, e.g. behind a couch or under a bed or table
9. Mum and Dad
10. FOOOOOOOOOD!!!

Ten blog friends are too many to choose, so I have chosen the following three bloggers.

Jackal - He always gives me helpful tips on my training. Thanks!
Pepper - My new friend in New Zealand. She is a really smart puppy!
Chrissy - Her blog does brighten everyone's day!


Speaking of friends, I've been meeting so many Beagle friends lately. Is our popularity skyrocketing?

For example, last Wednesday and Thursday in a row, I met Louie at a nearby park by chance.



On Friday a woman talked to us, when I was walking with my Mum, and said "I have a Beagle! She had a swim for the first time yesterday!" Then, Mum and the woman had a little chat on a footpath, forgetting about me who was waiting beside Mum patiently and nicely.

On Saturday I met this new Beagle called Harvey at another nearby park.



And on Sunday I met Bella & Barry and Rosie at hound racing!



While I had met Rosie at hound racing several times before, I met Bella and Barry for the first time. Their humans found us in an article about our hound racing club in a New Zealand dog magazine "Fetch!"(Honey's human wrote the article!) and searched for information about the club on the Internet. Then, they came across my blog and contacted me by peemail. I was so happy to see new Beagles at racing! Louie who I met during the week had also been to racing before.



Hay, Beagles across Auckland! Come and join us!

I did it!! I won a prize!

Hi, it's Cinnamon!

I did it, I did it!! I was chosen as the winner of Niamh’s Train Your Dog Photo Contest! Can you believe it? I couldn't when I heard about it, as I hadn't got many votes in the readers' voting. But, it is TRUE!! Mum and Dad are SO happy too! See the result here.

This was my entry photo.

The judges thought this photo showed the relationship between Mum and me very well. What do you think? I really love practising tricks with my Mum. I wish I could practise more with her, but Mum says that she hasn't got time for it as she has to do things for her work.

As you know, I also entered the Hound Dogs group at the Mango Minster 2010 Dog Show. Although I couldn't get any prize in the show, I got this official Competitor logo as a proof of my participation! Doesn't it look cool?



I hope everyone has a great weekend!!



P.S.

I am back to my normal self now! Thank you for your concern about my sickness.

“One Lovely Blog Award,” and THE BOOK arrived!!

Our blog friend Chrissy, who has a Beagle called Bernie, has given Cookie and Cinnamon a sweet award! Thanks, Chrissy! I always enjoy reading your blog.

The rules of the “One Lovely Blog Award” are:

• Accept the award
• Post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.
• Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.
• Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

As 15 blogs are too many, we would like to pass this award to the following three friends:

Honey, who's inspired us to take on dancing.
Marge, who's making her agility trial debut soon.
River, who's been doing a wonderful job, helping so many rescued dogs.


This morning 'the book' I had preordered finally arrived!! You may want to ask what book it is. It is a book titled "Why Dogs Are Better Than Cats" (Author: Bradley Trevor Greive, Photographer: Rachael Hale), which our friend Honey the Great Dane is in. I will sneakily show you one of the pages she is on. Every dog in the book is so beautiful, but, Honey, you really stand out!

I think this full-colour book is a great value for the price. I haven't read the stories in the book yet, but I look forward to reading them on the deck in summer.


Note: Although Honey and her friends' photoshooting was done here in Auckland, New Zealand, the book "Why Dogs Are Better Than Cats" was published in the US. So, I ordered it from Amazon.com and had it delivered from the US to New Zealand.

Sugar’s Sweetest Blog Award, and ...

Cookie and Cinnamon was given a great blog award called "Sugar’s Sweetest Blog Award" by a cool doggie blogger, Dennis the Vizsla. Thank you, Dennis!! If 'Sugar' doesn't go with 'Cookie' and 'Cinnamon', what else would!?

A great thing about this award is there is no rule!! So, I am going to take advantage of the privilege and pass the award to all our blog friends who haven't got the award yet and are leaving a comment on this post, as all our blog friends are sweet and deserve it!


However, last night I did something on the far end of the spectrum of 'Sweet.' As some of you already know, Cinnamon is very protective and doesn't let me cut her nails. Although I have been trying to get her used to a nail trimmer by rewarding her with food treats when she touches the trimmer, she still hates it and tries to bite me when I attempt to trim her nails. But, last night she looked so sleepy that I took a chance on trimming her nails. It was then that a bitter event happened! Perhaps you can tell what happened by now. Yes, I cut her nail too deep. It bled a lot! It was so upsetting that I felt like crying, though it must've been more terrifying for Cinnamon.

Cookie has broken his dewclaws, resulting in some bleeding, several times. But, because Cinnamon doesn't have dewclaws, she has never had that kind of problems. Instead, her nails tend to grow longer than Cookie's, so I always keep an eye on her nails.

This morning I took Cinnamon to a veterinary clinic, where a vet treated the damaged toenail with a tool, something like a soldering gun, and gave her an injection. It seems this kind of injury is not as serious as I thought. I thought that Cinnamon may not be allowed to walk outside for a couple of days, but the vet told me she may. Phew...

Cookie, three years old

Cinnamon's treated toenail

I am all right

Girls-only walk

We usually walk twice a day, and I try to have our second walk before it gets dark. But, on Wednesday it started getting dark earlier than usual, as thick clouds were spreading over us. When I hurried my steps and looked up to see how long it would be before it got really dark, I saw this beautiful red sky.



I've been trying to lure Cookie with a clicker and treats to encourage him to walk more than just going up and down a short street by our house. But, yesterday morning I didn't try it as hard as usual, because I thought it would be a good idea to walk with Cinnamon only and focus on the Heel exercise with her, after having a short walk together with Cookie.

When I walk Cookie and Cinnamon together, my attention inevitably goes to Cookie, because he doesn't want to walk unless I do something that draws his interest. Cinnamon, on the other hand, walks with me willingly wherever I go, though she tends to walk ahead of us with her nose on the ground when my attention is on Cookie.

In the middle of our girl-only walk yesterday, we stopped by a very small off-leash dog exercise area close to our house and practiced Recall with Cinnamon. She did it very well as these photos show.




Finally, Cookie and Cinnamon have been given this award by Lenni and Ressu the Beagles. Thanks, Lenni and Ressu.



This award states "This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships!" and also "These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

Once again, we cannot name as many as eight blog friends, but we would like to give it to all our blog friends who read this!

Happy walks on the weekend

Look, Cookie and Cinnamon have got new pillows! Their mum bought them at 75% discount!!!

Cinnamon got the red one and Cookie got the green one

Checking each other's new pillow...

On Saturday we went to St Heliers Bay Beach again and met Dixson and Penny the Beagles.




Cookie and Cinnamon are let off the lead more often these days, as they have become more confident off the lead since we started clicker training. They seem to enjoy staying close to their mum and playing with her more than before. It's a good sign, but I still have to keep a close eye on them when they are off. You never know when they will make a dash once they find something more interesting. They are beagles after all!

And, yesterday we went to Auckland Botanic Gardens, one of our favorite parks. Although dogs must be on the lead in most areas of the park, which spreads over 64 hectares, there is also an off-leash dog exercise area. Every time Cookie is let off in the dog exercise area, he dashes for a pond there, jumps around happily in the shallow water, and gets really dirty and stinky. But, yesterday he was not given a chance to have fun like that, because his mum didn't want to shampoo him on such a cold day.




We have been tagged by Jazz and Dixie, our beagle friends in Japan to share this (Thanks, Jazz and Dixie!):



Here are the rules:

1. Link the person who tagged you.
   
2. Copy the image above, the rules and the questionnaire in this post.
   
3. Post this in one or all of your blogs.
   
4. Answer the four questions following these Rules.
   
5. Recruit at least seven (7) friends on your Blog Roll by sharing this with them.
   
6. Come back to BLoGGiSTaiNFoCoRNeR and leave the URL of your Post in order for you/your Blog to be added to the Master List.
   
7. Have Fun!

Here are questions & our answers:

1. The person who tagged you: Jazz and Dixie
   
2. His/her site's title and url: JAZZ and DIXIE
   
3. Date when you were tagged: Saturday, May 23, 2009
   
4. Persons you tagged: Sapphire the Beagle and Lenni and Ressu the Beagles (Couldn't name seven...)
   

Seven things Cookie and Cinnamon love

On Sunday we went to St Heliers Beach for a morning walk, and I made a collage from photos taken there.



Cinnamon had her agility class in the rain last night. Although my handling hasn't improved at all, Cinnamon's weave has improved a lot.

Kess, our beagle pal in Malaysia, passed this wonderful award to Cookie and Cinnamon. Thanks, Kess!



There are four things you must do to accept this award: 1) post it on your blog and link to the person who gave it to you, 2) list 7 things you love, 3) list 7 blogs you love, and 4) email or comment on those blogs to let them know you've given them an award.

These are seven things that Cookie and Cinnamon love:

1. Cookie loves to watch cars and people passing by at the front gate.
2. Cinnamon loves to lick sofas, couches, and carpets.
3. Cookie and Cinnamon love to cuddle together when they have a nap.
4. Cookie loves the freedom when he walks off leash.
5. Cookie and Cinnamon love grooming and baths.
6. Cookie and Cinnamon love vegetables, especially broccoli, as well as meat.
7. Cookie and Cinnamon love the hound lure racing!!!!!

Cookie at the gate

Walk off leash at St Heliers Beach

Hound Racing!!

Now we would like to pass this award to Jackal and Oscar and Maisie (We couldn't name seven blog friends, as we don't have many blog friends yet). Jackal's blog gives us wonderful tips on dog training. Oscar and Maisie are our newest blog friends. They tried lure racing for the first time recently and also started agility with DIY equipment.

Cookie and Cinnamon's secrets

We went to two different beaches for walks with friends yesterday and today. Yesterday we went to Mission Bay, which is about ten-minute drive from Cookie and Cinnamon's house, with Anko & Kurosawa and today we visited Mellons Bay, which is about twenty-five-minute drive away, with Scoobie.

At Mission Bay, we met two Beagles, which doesn't happen often, and greeted each of them and their humans. It seems Beagle owners have some sympathy among themselves, so they just cannot help talking to the owner whenever they find another Beagle.





We had never been to Mellons Bay before. It is not only a beautiful beach but also a great beach to walk dogs. Accoding to Scoobie's mum, there are about 50 dogs on the beach in the evening!




Honey the Great Dane has given Cookie and Cinnamon the Honest Scrap Blog award. Thanks, Honey! They are honored to be given such a wonderful award.

However, there is one problem. When accepting this award, you have to tell 10 honest things about yourself and choose at least seven blogs which you think deserve this award. However, being beginner bloggers, Cookie and Cinnamon don't have many blog friends, so they cannot choose seven blogs. Would it be rude to turn down the honer of this award?

Nevertheless, we think it is a good idea to list honest things about yourself. So, we will tell you 10 honest things about Cookie and Cinnamon.

1. Cookie bit his mum when he was two months old.
   
   
   At that time, he didn't mean it. He just jumped toward his mum's face and accidentally his teeth scratched his mum's lip. However, he later developed a bad habit of biting his mum (See 'Obedience training').
2. Cookie lost a tooth when he was three years old.
   
   
   Some blood was still visible when his mum, who was trying to brush his teeth, found a tooth missing. We don't know how the tooth broke.
3. Cookie doesn't mind wearing clothes. Actually he loves it!
   
   
   This coat was made by his mum.
4. Cookie loves having a bath.
   
   
   He stays in his bathtub happily until his mum tells him to get out.
5. Cinnamon cried like an avian dinosaur when she was very little.
   
   
6. Cinnamon escaped from her puppy pen more than once. No one knows how she made it!
   
   
7. Cinnamon ate a whole tube of dog toothpaste, leaving only the screw part of the tube, when she was about eight months old.
   
   Sorry. No photo.
8. Cookie lost his ambulation completely once, due to a slipped disk in the neck.
   
   
   This photo was taken at ICU of a pet hospital after an operation.
9. Cinnamon has many stuffed toys which she loves destroying.
   
   
   This gorilla has lost the upper half of his face, having gone through numerous operations.
10. Cookie doesn't like walking in the neighbourhood unless he has his friend with him.
    
    
    With his girlfriend, Bertie, he enjoys walking (See 'Laziness or sickness?').

Honey, thanks again for giving us a chance to make such a memorable list.

Is Cookie playing in a dream?

Usually Cookie is very quiet and doesn't bark much. But, he does often bark when he is sleeping. Is he playing with Cinnamon in a dream?

Well, Cookie and Cinnamon have been tagged by Gabbi with the Life is Grand Award. Thanks, Gabbi.


Let's see how they will tackle a task to list five things which make life grand.


Here are their answers!!

1. Vegetables in Mum's vege garden make life grand, because we can eat them any time we want unless Mum is looking!


2. Sunny spots on our deck make life grand, because having a nap there is so pleasant!


3. Dad's tummy makes life grand, because it's so comfortable to lie on it!


4. Tricks Mum teaches us make life grand, because it's fun to learn them and also we will be able to show them off in front of our friends!


5. New friends we have made through blogs make life grand, because they are all nice and kind, and we can learn a lot from them!

Hey, Cookie and Cinnamon! Haven't you forgotten something? You haven't tagged anyone yet...