We had a wonderful weekend!

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We had a wonderful weekend! It was really refreshing after a week with lots of rain.

On Saturday afternoon we went to St Heliers Beach, and Mint and I walked together on a double lead for the first time.


By the way, can you tell which is Mint? Mint has grown so much!!


The answer is that Mint is the one walking closer to Mum. Who said Mint is walking more nicely than me? I tell you that he is just so much food oriented! He never leaves his eyes off Mum's hand when she has yummy treats!


On Sunday afternoon we went to Cornwall Park to meet up with our blog friend Pepper, who had moved from Wellington to Auckland recently. Originally we meant to meet a week earlier, but we had to cancel it at the last moment because it started raining heavily just when we were about to get ready for the outing. So, we made another try yesterday. This time, the weather was kind to us, as if it had tried to make up for the bad weather the week before. Blue sky with no cloud!

As you know, I am a bit reactive to other dogs. So, my mum was worried about how I would react to Pepper when I first saw her. But, to her relief, I accepted Pepper with no problem, although I don't know why I could do that myself. Strangely I didn't feel nervous at all when Pepper and her human walked to us. She was very well-behaved, and she greeted children, who came to pat her, very nicely. So, I followed her and behaved well in front of the kids myself.

Mint walked with us for the first half of the walk, but then he waited in the car with my dad, while we continued our walk, as Mint is not old enough to have a long walk.

Sorry I have got a couple of blurred photos only, as silly Mum forgot to bring Dad's good camera.




It was a fabulous walk! Before we said good-bye to each other, we promised to meet again soon, with Lexi and Jasper too!

Photo of The Month at The Bone Zone

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

My photo has been nominated for the Photo of the Month at The Bone Zone!

Do you remember this photo that I posted a while ago in this post?



Our friend Mango nominated this photo for the contest. Thank you very much, Mango!!

The voting is open to members of The Bone Zone until Saturday May 29th.

My first (unexpected) obedience trials!

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Tell you what! I entered my very first obedience trials on the weekend!

As you may know, I have done hound racing, agility, and dancing, but I have never attended an obedience course to prepare for competitions. I did attend a five week obedience course when I was a puppy, and more recently I have been doing some social obedience training at Manukau Dog Training Club that I belong to for dancing. But, that's it! So, when a trainer at the training club told my mum on Thursday that we should enter the trials on the weekend, she looked a little confused.

As Mum didn't know what to expect in the trials, she asked Bodie's human by email if it was something even those with no experience like us could enter (Bodie the Border Terrier is an experienced obedience competitor, and also his human always gives us helpful advice on dancing). In her reply, Bodie's human assured us that there would be no problem with us and explained what kinds of exercises we would have to do. Thanks, Bodie's human!! Then, on Friday, the day before the trials, Mum finally decided to enter them.

There were two trials in one day, one hosted by All Breed Dog Training Club in the morning and the other hosted by Counties Dog Training Club in the afternoon.

The first trial started at 9am in the morning. Our turn was the third in the Elementary class. It started with heel work, which I did excellently. The next was recall, where Mum made a mistake by telling me to move a little closer to her to adjust my sitting position after I sat in front of her, without knowing it was subject to a penalty. Brody's human, who had been watching by the ring, gave us advice on the mistake. Thanks, Brody's human! After all the competitors completed the heel work and recall exercises, we all did sit and down stays together. Then again Mum made a mistake and used hand signals while I was staying. She thought extra commands were allowed in the Elementary class, but she was wrong! After our trial finished, several kind humans reminded my mum of her mistakes, but it was too late. Actually it turned out that we would have been placed if Mum had known those rules and there hadn't been reductions for them!! I was a time for the sixth place, when up to the fifth were given ribbons.

Despite her own mistakes, Mum is not only pleased with the result but also thrilled with my performance, especially my heel work which got only one point deducted from the full points (20)!

Here is a video of my heel work and recall.



In the afternoon there was another trial. When the second trial started, I was already very tired, as I hadn't had a decent rest since early in the morning. Do you still want to know the result? Well, this time I made mistakes. In the recall exercise, I couldn't wait while Mum was walking away from me, because I had found a piece of food on a corner of the ring when I was entering it, and I just couldn't resist going there to pick it up. Also, in the down stay exercise, I couldn't resist the urge to lick my bottom and I forgot that I had to stay laying down. But, Mum didn't blame me because I had done wonderfully in the morning.

Mint got his own new collar at last

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Since Mint came became our family two months ago, he has used four different collars, which all used to be either Cookie's or mine. But finally he got his own brand-new collar!



He looks handsome wearing this new collar, doesn't he?



This collar was handmade using fabric my humans chose from a large selection available here (Japanese). Actually this fabric is called "candy blue". It is perfect for Mint whose pedigree name is Kenalis Candyman!



This collar I am wearing (my favorite collar!) was bought from the same shop last year.

Both Mint and I are learning

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Yesterday Mint had his first tricks lesson with my dance instructor who had taught me in my beginners dancing class late last year.

The instructor had been so busy with her work that for a few of months she hadn't been able to come to Ardmore New Zealand Kennel Club Exhibition Centre where I practice dancing every Thursday. Yesterday I met her for the first time since the national dog dancing camp in February. When my Mum told her at the summer camp that we were going to get a new Beagle puppy, she said that we should start training the puppy as soon as possible once we got him. But, she didn't have a chance to show us what to do until yesterday.

To start with they did 'Nose Touch' using a clicker. In 'Nose Touch', the handler lures the dog with some treat in one hand and does click-and-treat as soon as the dog touches the hand with his nose. Mint did it very well, so they proceeded to the next step, 'In Front', where the dog gets click-and-treat as soon as he comes and stands in front of the handler. In this exercise, the most difficult part for many dogs is that he has to stay standing instead of sitting in front of the handler, which is what dogs are usually taught to do.

Usually, in 'In Front' exercise, the handler throws a treat to make the dog go there to get the treat before coming back to the 'In Front' position. But, my Mum told the instructor that she didn't want to throw treats, because she didn't want Mint to learn picking up food from the ground. It is said that dogs recognise the difference between picking up food from the ground after a click and doing the same thing without any cue, but Mum believes that Beagles don't think that way. She thinks you should never allow a Beagle to pick up food from the ground. So, she is always very careful not to drop a treat when practising dancing or tricks with me, although in every training session she still drops one or two pieces of food, which I happily pick up and eat.

Yesterday the instructor came up with a really good solution. She suggested teaching Mint targeting first and making Mint go to the target and come back. In yesterday's lesson they used a little frisbee as a target, and it worked pretty well although he may need some more practice to figure out what he is expected to do.



At Ardmore I did some social obedience training in addition to dancing. I practised heeling on a slack lead, meeting another dog without barking, staying, recalls, and some other exercises. I think I did very well, but my Mum was not completely happy because I tried to jump up several times when I shouldn't. She thinks I need a lot more practise. Phew...



While I was doing obedience training, Mint was playing with a cute girl. He looked so happy!

Play date with Jasper the Great Dane

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Yesterday I finally got to meet our local blog friend Jasper the Great Dane! His sister Lexi the Great Dane, who I have met twice before (at Honey the Great Dane's birthday party last November and my first public dancing display last month), couldn't come with him because she had just become a mature woman at ten months old. My little brother Mint went with me.



Lexi and Jasper's human and our mum had been talking about meeting up for a long time, but it didn't happen until yesterday, partly because our mum's work schedule is often unpredictable and Mum didn't want to cancel a meet up at the last moment. But this weekend mum was sure that she didn't have to worry about it, and also Lexi and Jasper's human had offered to help us practise some obedience training. So, on Friday our humans arranged a play date in a park and in the next morning we finally met!



Jasper is a seven-month-old blue Great Dane puppy. I couldn't imagine what a blue colour dog would look like until I met him. He was really beautiful and his coat looked almost like shining velvet!

When I first saw him standing with his human in the car park from the car, I barked at him. I know that it was not an appropriate behaviour, but I just couldn't help doing it! Though, when I got out of the car and came in front of him, I did my best to hold barking and got some praise from my mum. Jasper is a giant puppy, weighing 40kg, but my brother Mint didn't look intimidated by the difference of the size at all and happily greeted Jasper.

After having a little chat, we set out for a walk and then after a short walk Jasper and I were let off leash and had a great time running around at full throttle. I think Jasper was impressed with how fast I could run. Despite the size difference, I never let him catch me! As soon as he almost caught up with me, I geared up and stretched my lead. :-)




I also enjoyed exploring in the trees and bush. A year ago, my mum would have never allowed me to do that, but now she sometimes lets me do it, as she now trusts me pretty much, if not 100%. Today in the park there were so many interesting new smells that I didn't really want to go back to my mum when she called me, but I somehow forced myself to listen to her, because I knew I had to show Mint how to be a good Beagle.

Mint was also let off leash, for the first time in a park. As he had been very good at coming in his puppy class, my mum wanted to test it to see how reliable his recalls were. He was really good in deed. Even if Jasper cut into Mint's way, Mint went around Jasper to get back to Mum! Of course, Mum looked very proud of him.




Later I found a tasty pine cone attached to a short branch and enjoyed the taste of autumn. When any person or dog came close to me when I was eating it, I growled at them to keep them away. Actually, when I was enjoying it, Jasper tried to pester me! So, I taught him that that was the last thing to do to a Beagle when she is eating something!! But, my mum was mean. The moment I looked at a treat she showed me with a full smile, she took the pine cone away!!




In the end we took a photo of us together. Over all it was a fantastic play date! I hope we will do it again soon, next time with Lexi and also another blog friend Pepper, who has moved to Auckland recently!!

Is Mint really a Beagle?

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Look at this video of Mint practising Recalls on a long lead in his puppy class this week. He doesn't look like a Beagle at all! He keeps following Mum around and doesn't let her call him from a distance. Actually there were five other puppies around although you can't see them in the video. If it had been me, I wouldn't have been able to ignore them!



* If you can't view the video here, try this.


From Cinnamon and Mint's Mum:

Honey, thank you very much for your advice on Mint's Recall training in your comment to this post. In fact I didn't think about the importance of keeping the Not-break-a-command rule when I was trying to make Mint sit and wait. All I was trying to do was to give some distance between Mint and me, because we couldn't practise recalls otherwise. But, after this video was filmed, our cameraman came in to help and called Mint to him so that I could call him back, which went successfully!

But, again, as Honey reminded me, I must keep it in mind not to let Mint break a command as much as possible, when we are doing any kind of training.

Mint became a boy

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Mint has started lifting his hind leg at his toilet. That means he has now become a boy, doesn't it?



But, come to think of it, I also lift my hind leg to pee sometimes although I am a girl... (See this video.)

Had a great time with other doggies!

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

My humans didn't take me to a large off-leash dog park to let me run around with other dogs for a long time because they were busy taking care of my little brother Mint. But, finally yesterday Mum took me to one of my favorite parks, Waiatarua Reserve, and I had a great time playing with two other dogs. It was great fun! Although I enjoy playing with Mint every day, playing with adult doggies was fantastic in deed!!