Go for it! Becoming a dancing Beagle!

Cinnamon has joined the beginner Heel Work To Music class at Manukau Dog Training Club.

She had been doing agility until she was diagnosed as having Hip Dysplasia (HD) about a month ago. Although she has had a series of injections to heal and repair the joints, her gait hasn't got better at all. But, for Cinnamon, who loves to perform, normal dog life like simply eating well, having regular walks, and enjoying lots of naps during the day would be so boring that I reckoned that training her for dog dancing would be a good idea. In dancing we can choose moves that won't hurt her hips.

The class we go to is held at the same venue on the same day as the famous great canine dancer Honey the Great Dane practices her routines. But, our beginner class starts an hour earlier than her advanced class. In the beginner class there are five dogs, Ricky, Inka, Mozzy, Coco, and Cinnamon. I am going to introduce our classmates in a future post.

In the first session yesterday we learned the basics such as how to use a clicker, how to recall the dog and then make the dog stand in front of you immediately, and how to make the dog follow your hand.

Using a clicker was nothing new to us, as we had been doing clicker training for about six months already, but what I found difficult was to make Cinnamon stand in front of me as soon as she came to me. I have always taught her to sit when she comes to me, so she always sat as soon as she came back to me yesterday. If I said 'Stand', she stood, but only after sitting. Or, if I held some food in front of her face when I called her, she stood right away without requiring me to say 'Stand'. We are going to practice this one for the next two weeks so that hopefully by the next class we will have mastered it (There is no class next week, because our instructor, Jan, will be away).

Practicing to stand in front


Practicing to follow a hand


Cinnamon was a model dog in the class