Pets Picnic in The Park 2012

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

A week after SPCA Devonport Dog Parade I told you about in my last post, Mint and I did another dog dancing demonstration at Humane Society Pets Picnic in The Park in One Tree Hill Domain.

Actually I did demos in the same event last year and the year before, and the one I did two years ago was my first ever dog dancing demonstration in public!

This time I invited our friends Kurosawa the Retradoodle and Marvi and Milia the Chipoos over to see our dancing for the first time.

Well, this demonstration turned out to be in one of the hardest conditions I had ever experienced. For one, there were a couple of families having a picnic lunch just by the ring. (You know it's so hard for Beagles to ignore food especialy when they are off leash!!) Also, as soon as Mum put my stool in the centre of the ring as a preparation, many kids started coming into the ring to play with the stool. To our relief there were no kids in the ring, when Mum and I were called into the ring for my dance performance, but just when we stood at the starting position near my stool, a toddler wandered into the ring and SAT on my stool with some food in his hand!! He stayed sitting there for a while, so we had to wait until his mum came and took him out of the ring!

After the little human was taken out of the ring, my music finally started. But, my stool smelled so nice that I couldn't concentrate on my performance. I just couldn't help checking the smell of my stool several times during my routine...

Again Mint did a little better than I did. But, again he was so eager to jump that he was jumping when he was not supposed to! Why can't he stay on the ground!?

In our dance demonstration our colleague Fletcher the Border Collie also performed. Because there were only three of us in our team this time, Fletcher did two routines, of which I especially loved his limbo dance routine. It was so unique and cool!

Well, Mum didn't really want to show you videos of our performance this time, because we both made many mistakes in our routines. But, who cares!! I don't mind showing a video of me making mistakes :-)

After our dance demonstration, many competitions took place. Mum didn't plan to enter us to any of these competitions, but, encouraged by Fletcher's human, she entered both of us to the Best Quick Trick Contest, and I won with my handstanding trick and Mint got placed the second with his jumping rope trick!!

Sorry we don't have any videos of us doing our tricks in the competition. But, here you can see how happy we were, having got prizes! (Our prizes were in the red bag Mum is carrying in the photo.)

After the Best Quick Trick Contest, there was the Potato Race, where humans run holding their dog's lead and a spoon with a potato on it with ONE hand, and our friend Kurosawa and his mum won it!! Well done, the Team Kurosawa!!

Mint won a dog dancing video competition!

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Today's post is an update on the last one. The result of the dog dancing video competition that Mint entered has been announced. And...

Mint WON!! It's awesome, isn't it?

For those who haven't seen Mint's entry, here it is:



You can also watch other entries and prize winners here at Choredography Connection's blog.

One New Trick A Month - February - Mint's brand new routine

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Well, we have had a very busy couple of weeks. Firstly Mum was busy with her work. Secondly, Mum's uncle came to stay with us, and also Mum had to take him for some sightseeing, which she says she really enjoyed. Also, Mum had to put together Mint's new routine and film it for the Choredography Connection's first Paws N Music Video Competition. Yes! Mint has got a new routine!

As many of you know, Mint has his own "All Star" routine, which he performed at the NDOA (National Dog Obedience Assembly) last October. But, one of the conditions for entries to the video competition was that it's a brand new routine, which has never been performed in public or published before. However, Mint's "All Star" routine had been performed in public twice, so Mum and Mint had to make a new routine from scratch again.

Actually, when the competition was announced in December, they had two months to prepare for it. But, Mum left it untouched until the last moment, thinking that she didn't have to enter the competition this time. Then, two weeks before the deadline of the entries, Mum suddenly decided to enter it with Mint and finally got started putting together a choreography.

Anyway, because Mum and Mint were busy preparing for this new routine, we couldn't learn any new tricks this month for our New One Trick A Month Challenge. Although there are a couple of tricks that Mum has been trying to teach us, there is none that we have learned fully. So, for February in our One New Trick A Month Challenge, I would like to show you Mint's new routine instead of a new trick.

Here is the final product! What do you think?

Vote for Mint at Mango Minster!!

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Do you remember that Mint did a couple of posts on this blog in late January. One of them was about his entry to the Bad Sports category of Mango Minster, a prestigious annual online dog show hosted my our great blog friend Mango.

Now the voting is open for the Bad Sports category at Mango Minster until approximately 5PM EST on February 15th.

Just in case that you missed Mint's post about it, you can check it out here. For those who just want to watch it without reading the post, here is his entry.

If you think Mint's entry deserves a vote, please leave a comment on this post at Mango Minster to let them know that you want to vote for Mint for the Bad Sports category!

Mango Minster 2012 - Mint's Introductory Wrestling Tutorial

Sneak, sneak... Is there anyone here? Ok, apparently my sis Cinnamon has gone to bed already. Hee hee, now is the chance to take over the blog!

I think most of you already know about Mango Minster, an annual prestigious doggie competition, run by our great blog friend Mango. Cinnamon has entered it before, but I haven't. So, I have decided to enter this year. It was hard to choose a category to enter, in deed. But, I realised that there is only one category that actually suits me - Bad Sports!!

Do you think why Bad Sports? That's because I am an athlete man, but there is a secret that I haven't told anyone. I was secretly training to be a professional doggie wrestler. I didn't tell my family about it, because I knew that they would worry about me. But, now I have become a highly skilled wrestler, so I took this opportunity to make a tutorial video to share some of my skills.

The one I am showing here is the part one of a series of "Mint the Beagle's Introductory Wrestling Tutorial". In fact, this video is my entry to the Bad Sports category of Mango Minster 2012. Enjoy!

Just in case, here is a link to the video on YouTube.


Note: Pepper who appears in the video is a girl, but I called her 'him' in the video, because 'her' didn't sound right in this context.

My love appeal to Mango!!

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Did you know that my star in the blog world, Mango the Mastiff, is looking for a girl to date with? If you didn't, visit here.

I think I deserve a dream date with him, because I have finally learned to do the Shy trick just recently! Mum tried to teach me this trick for the first time over a year and a half ago, but I couldn't do it without anything around or on my muzzle...until a few days ago.



Yes, that's right! I learned this trick to show it to Mango!! What do you think? Do you think that I deserve a dream date with him?

Honey's 'Dancing with the Doggie Stars’ contest!!!

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Tell you what! I am going to JUDGE a doggy dancing contest!! Can you believe it? Do you think I am just kidding? No! You are WRONG! I am actually going to be one of three judges of 'Dancing with the Doggie Stars', a doggy dancing contest hosted by my greatest friend Honey the Great Dane.



As some of you know, Honey is the very doggy who introduced me to the world of dog dancing two years ago. It was at a One-Minute Busking competition in August 2009 that I had the first taste of dog dancing. For those who are not familiar with One-Minute Busking competitions, they are events where doggies with no experience in dancing can try it out using music provided by the event organiser. They don't need to do any preparation like creating their own routine in advance. All they need to do is DANCE to the music! I entered one of those competitions after Honey told me about it only two days before the competition. Because I didn't know anything about dancing, I visited Honey's home with my Mum to practise a little bit the day before the competition. Then, in the competition I actually did some tricks but that was nothing you could call dancing.

Despite the failed attempt in the busking competition, Mum somehow thought that it would be nice if I could learn to dance like Honey. So, I attended a tricks class for novice dog dancers at Manukau Dog Training Club and, after graduating from the class, Mum made the first routine for me. Since then, I have demonstrated the routine in several events and I even competed in a real dancing competition at National Dog Training Assembly last October. Although I wasn't placed in the competition, many humans told me that I had done very well, which made both Mum and me very happy!

Going back to talk about Honey's competition, when she invited me to get involved in the competition, I was not sure if I was the right doggy to do such an important job, because I had never won a prize or anything in dog dancing competitions. But, on the other hand, I thought that it would be a good opportunity to promote our breed, the Beagles! As you may know, we Beagles are typically thought to be one of the most difficult breeds to train. But, in fact, there are some fantastic Beagles who have shown what we can do if their humans put real effort into it.

Look at my friend in Japan, Purin the Super Beagle, for example.



She is a five-year-old female Beagle. She has been demonstrating her great tricks on YouTube, on TV, and in dog events, and recently she has even appeared in a TV commercial! Oh, I should suggest that she enter Honey's contest too!!

If we Beagles can do it, anyone can! Actually different breeds may do things differently. So, I can't wait to see entries from various breeds!!

In Honey's 'Dancing with the Doggie Stars’ contest, you can use any motivators such as food or toys unlike real-world competitions, and your performance will be judged by its originality and creativity, not by the level of perfection. So, you can enter it without feeling pressured. Also, I heard that there are great prizes. The deadline for entries is June the 15th. For more details of the contest, visit Honey's blog. I look forward to seeing your wonderful performance!!

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.

Photo Tag Game :-)

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

My great friend and mentor, Honey the Great Dane, has tagged me to play the Photo Tag Game. Thank you, Honey!!

The game's rules are:

1. Open your first photo folder
2. Scroll down to the tenth photo
3. Post the photo and tell the story behind it
4. Tag 5 more people

On Mum's computer only photos taken with her compact digital camera are stored. The oldest photos in the Pictures folder are those taken in Japan right after Mum bought the camera two years ago. Here is the tenth photo in the folder.



A photo of Mum's niece and Mum's mum's dog, Cocoa the Toy Poodle, who I sometimes meet over Skype. Mum's niece and Cocoa are very good friends as you can see in the photo. When Mum's mum is away on a trip or something, the girl comes to feed and play with Cocoa.

Well, next I will have to tag five friends. But, I am going to tag only one, as her human is a fantastic photographer worth more than tagging five! The friend is:

Sapphire the Beagle !!

I look forward to seeing the tenth photo in her photo folder!

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.

Voting is now open at Mango Minster!!

Hi, it's Cinnamon!

Voting for the Hound Dogs Group which I have entered is now open at Mango Minster. It's closing at 5PM EST on February 1st. My photo entry is shown in the sidebar of this page.

You can vote here!!

My entries to two more photo contests ... and good news!

Hi, it's Cinnamon!

Today's post is about Mango Minster 2010 again! In my last post I showed you my entries to the Mango Minster Dog Show and Biggy's Dog Pile Competition. After that, I also entered Niamh’s Train Your Dog Photo Contest and Tucker's Sit Stay Competition.

This is my entry to the Train Your Dog Photo Contest.



As you know, I started dance training last October and finished a beginner dog dancing course in December. Now I am working on my very FIRST routine. My entry to the Train Your Dog Photo Contest is a shot taken in Roberta Reserve in Glendowie. At that time I was practising to raise my paws in accordance with the movement of my Mum's feet. Although I can do marching legs (a similar trick, but in the position face to face with my Mum who raises her knees instead of putting her feet diagonally forward) very well, I sometimes get confused when I am doing this new trick shown in the photo.

As you can see in the photo, we use a clicker and treats when we practise tricks and dancing. I love practising new tricks. The harder the trick, the more exciting the practice!!


This is my entry to the Sit Stay Competition.



As some of you know, I am not a great sit-stayer. I find staying still very very hard. I would rather just keep moving and get going! But, I like sitting on my biggest stuffie friend, Ben. He's always been with me along with Cookie since I was a puppy. He never complains about whatever I do to him. Because he is so big and I am so small, my attacks on him seem nothing more than light patting for him.


Well, today I have GOOD NEWS!! My dad's new camera came back from Japan! The camera was sent to Japan after a SD card got stuck in it and was unable to be taken out. When the problem happened, Mum took the camera to a camera shop, but the staff there couldn't take it out either. Because the camera was bought in Japan last September, it was still under its warranty in Japan, but not in New Zealand. So, Mum sent it back to the manufacturer's service centre in Japan.

We were so impressed by services of the service centre. They were so quick and efficient! As a result of a check done at the camera's service centre, it turned out be the SDHC card, not the camera, that had broken! Nevertheless, the service centre's staff did a thorough checkup for free and confirmed that everything in the camera was working correctly.

Now my dad is so happy! And, so am I!!

My entries to Mango Minster and Dog Pile Competition

Hi, it's Cinnamon!!

As you all know, Mango is holding a wonderful dog event called "Mango Minster 2010" right now and the entry is due to close on Wednesday, the 27th January. Although I wanted to ask my dad to take a special photo for my entry, his new camera had been sent to Japan for repair, so I looked through photos stored in mum's computer and chose one that would be a perfect entry to the Hound Dogs group I am entering. Yes, I am hunting a rabbit (not real one though) in the photo!!

For those who can't figure out what I am doing in this photo, here is a video of my fantastic run at Hound Racing.

I have also entered Biggie's "Dog Pile Competition," one of competitions being held at Mango Minster. The one who has piled up the biggest number of items on himself will win the competition. But, unfortunately I am not a big doggy, so I went for showing my nice stuffie friends. I managed to pile up as many as six friends on me with Mum's help. They are Red, Horse, Green, Doggy 1, Doggy 2, and Cow from bottom to top. Although you might think that some of them seem like leaning against the wall behind me, they actually are NOT touching the wall.

In fact, the original photo I first thought about entering was this one.

But, as you can see the legs of my biggest stuffie mate, Ben, are touching the floor, which might be a violation of the competition's rules. So, I had to ask him to stand back and supervise the photoshooting. I think he did a great job for me!

Six little things that make Cookie happy

Mr Darcy, our blog friend in Australia, has tagged Cookie to play a game called 6 Little things that make me happy game. Thanks, Mr Darcy!


Now let's play!


Although Cookie loves food more than anything, that is not a little thing for him. So, we have excluded food from the list.

1. Marking over Cinnamon's pee

2. Having a nap with Cinnamon

3. Marking treasure he has found (In this photo, that's a stingray!)

4. Walking off-leash

5. Friends!! Especially calm mellow ones like Honey the Great Dane

6. Massage~~~

* Photos 3 and 5 are courtesy of Honey the Great Dane


Cookie has been more willing to walk for the last couple of days than before. Since he got what seemed like a damage to his intervertebral disk/disks two months ago, he had never wanted to walk more than going up and down a short (approximately 350m) street that our house is on. But, since two days ago, he has been walking a longer distance to a little reserve about 700m away from our house voluntarily, although his walking is still wobbly. I hope Cookie's current good condition will last or hopefully improve further.

On the other hand, Cinnamon has still been skipping occasionally, which is a symptom of her arthritis. Although she hasn't stretched her hind leg backward like she did over a week ago, the frequency of her skipping hasn't changed since she started taking medication a week ago. I hope the medication will be starting to work soon.

Another couple of days...

Many thanks to everyone who has kindly sent Cookie get well wishes! I am glad to tell you that he's doing much better now. Although his walking is still a bit wobbly, which might have now become a permanent condition, he looks much more lively. Being bored staying in his crate most of the day, he has been saying 'Grrrr' and scratching the net screen from time to time.



He has even found a way to open a zipper of his crate to get out!!



Cookie, stay there for another couple of days, and you can begin to have short walks again!!


Well, as many of you already know, our great blog friend Honey the Great Dane is having the Spectacular Slobber Contest. The entries have now been closed and the voting has begun! If you haven't voted yet, visit her blog and vote!! The voting will close on Sunday 30th August.

Tauranga Jumpers Championship

We took part in our first championship on Sunday. As the venue, Morland Fox Park in Tauranga, is over 200km away from Auckland, we went to Tauranga on Saturday and stayed in a motel that allows dogs in the units.



Do you want to know the results? We entered three competitions, Jumpers C1, C2, and C3, and got a run with two faults, a Clear Round, and a DQ. After we did our first run in Jumpers C1, I felt a significant improvement in Cinnamon's concentration. At our second run in Jumpers C2, we finally got our first Clear Round in a championship!



After the first two runs, we had to wait for four hours and a half before our final run in Jumpers C3.



After having a nap in the car, I started warming up well before our turn by doing obedience exercises and tricks, in order to concentrate again. But, it seems it was a shallow idea. When our turn came around, both Cinnamon and I were already exhausted. Look at this. Everything went in a bad way. No focus!!



However, it was a fruitful experience and I am satisfied with our results.


****

Update on Cookie's condition: His walking still looks unsteady, but he doesn't shiver from pain any more. It seems he knows he should avoid jumping.

****

Finally I would like to show you Cookie's entry to Honey's Spectacular Slobber Contest.



If you click the pic to enlarge it, you can see how his slobber is bent halfway :-)

Even Cookie can be hard sometimes

Cookie and Cinnamon have been tagged by their blog friend, Jasmine the Goat. Thanks, Jasmine!! We are honored.

This game has the following rules:

1) open the folder that has your pet pics in it
2) choose one you haven't posted before
3) tell its story
4) tag 5 friends


Here is the picture we have chosen.



This picture was taken when Cinnamon was two months old. Although Cookie is usually very gentle and quiet, he was disciplining Cinnamon at that time as he was challenged by her.

Now we would like to tag the following friends:

Sapphire
Marge
Rufus and Indie

We chose only three, because our blog roll to choose friends from to tag a game will run out quickly otherwise.

Our turn to 'Paw It Forward'!!

Yesterday was Queens Birthday, a public holiday, which means there was supposed to be no delivery of mail. But, when we went out to the front garden to do some maintenance work to our house, I found a large envelope sitting in our mailbox. As both my hands were occupied, I asked my husband to get it. Then, picking up the parcel, he said "It's from Honey the Great Dane!!"

What a nice surprise! Yes, we DID tell her that we wanted to play 'Paw It Forward'. But, it was really exciting to receive a gift from our blog friend. Thank you very much Honey!!!



At first, I let Cookie and Cinnamon examine the envelope, hoping to see them tearing it open. But, they didn't do anything further than just sniffing, so I opened it for them. Ta-dah!!



There was a note from Honey saying "Great for training! You can break it up really small and ...", so I cut a couple of strips into small pieces. Are they too small??



There was even a present for humans, Manuka Honey Hand and Nail Cream! It's winter here, so I really appreciate this present!

Checking the parcel

Trying new treats

Well, it's our turn to 'Paw It Forward.' Join us to play it if you like! The rules are:

"The exchange focuses on doing an act of kindness without expecting anything in return other than that the recipient will, in their turn, pass the kindness along and ‘paw it forward’ in their own way. This is how it works…we are going to agree to send something fun, inspiring or uplifting to the first 3 blog owners who post a comment on this entry. In turn you will then post about this on your blog, link to us, then send something to the first three people who sign up to play along through your blog. There are no cost restraints, BUT don’t go crazy! The little something you send can be something you made, bought, were given or found. No biggie, just a gift that will make the person smile. Maybe something unique from where you live? And, remember that kindness doesn’t have to involve money; there are untold ways to help others every single day, everywhere you go – just look around."

So, if you would like to play this game too, please add a comment to this post and let us know clearly that you would like to take part in the game. When you do so, please remember to send your postal address to our email address which you can find in our profile page. We will 'Paw It Forward' to the first 3 humans/dogs to say so. So be quick!

"Be prepared and have no regrets"

Yesterday, a network hard disk, which we use to store backup of photos as well as files from our work, broke. When I was browsing some photos of Cookie and Cinnamon stored in the hard disk by directly accessing them from my computer, the hard disk started making strange noise. Then, after a few tries, an error indicator began flushing and the access was lost!

Fortunately, most of the files stored in the hard disk had original copies in our computers, so we didn't lose much which didn't have any other copies elsewhere. Especially, when it comes to photos, we usually store another set of copied files in a computer we use as a storage server, so virtually no photo was lost. It is literally "Be prepared and have no regrets", though we will have to buy a replacement, which is a damage to us in deed!

~~~~~~~~~

Cookie and Cinnamon have entered for the Show Us Some Tongue Contest by Daphne and Pruett. Every entry is great and unique, so check out their website and enter your pic if you haven't!



Cookie's tongue...


Cinnamon's tongue...