Today I would like to show you my new tricks I have just learned and I am learning at the moment.
Well, Mum was thinking about teaching this trick to Mint so that she could use it in his new routine. But, before starting to work with Mint, Mum tried it with me. First she said "Mark", so I went to the hula hoop on the floor and sat in the hoop. Then, she said "Dig", so I dug under the hoop with my nose. It was so simple!! I did it successfully at my first try!
The next trick was actually not what Mum wanted to teach me. She wanted me to do the pivot with my front feet on Mum's feet. But, as soon as I put my feet on Mum's feet, I felt like jumping. So, I jumped!!
As many of you may know, I have done the handstanding leaning against Mum's leg in some of my dance routines. Because Mum didn't want to cause injuries in my back, she didn't try teaching me to do the handstanding with no support. But, because my physical condition has been so good recently, she started practising the walking handstand recently. This is still a work-in-progress and it may take long for me to master it, as Mum doesn't want to overdo it and cause any injuries. But, this is how I am doing it right now.
Finally, the following video is Mint's, not mine. He has been practising to catch a Frisbee in the air. Partly because of Mum's bad throwing, he has been struggling with it a bit. But, he has finally learned to jump to catch it in the air!!
I just learned a new trick. Although I say "New", it is not actually brand new. This is an advanced version of a trick I learned a long time ago.
More than two years ago, I learned to jump on my mum's feet as I wrote about in my post here. But, at that time, because Mum was so worried about my physical conditions, especially my hip dysplasia, she didn't push me much, and she stopped practising the trick once I had learned to jump on her with my front feet on her shins and my back feet on her feet, as you can see in this video.
But, when we found a low post in a park recently, she asked me to jump on it, and I did it easily.
Also, thanks to physical and balance exercises that I have been doing for the last couple of years, I have had no issues with my hips recently.
So, Mum tried asking me to jump on her with all my feet on her feet. And voila!!
Now it has become one of my favourite tricks!!
I am nine years old and still learning new acrobatic tricks!!
I am sure I could have earned mine more easily than he earned his, but Mum somehow decided to do it with Mint first. I hope I can start earning my own trick dog titles soon.
Well, the news I have today is not about Mint's trick dog titles. Mum has become a certified trick dog instructor of Do More With Your Dog!
In order for a human to become a certified trick dog instructor, the human has to take an examination that consists of a written test and a video submission.
So, Mum asked Mint and me to help with her video submission in which she had to demonstrate five advanced tricks with her own dog(s) and also how to teach a dog to do several different tricks. Of course we helped her willingly, as we knew that we could get a lot of treats if we did! And Mum passed the exam!!
Now that she has become a trick dog instructor, it seems that she wants to help other dog owners learn how to teach their dogs tricks. If you have any particular tricks that you want to learn or teach your dog, let us know. We would love to help!
Woo-hoo! I, Mint, have earned the Trick Dog Champion title!!
I didn't think I could make it so fast. But, it turned out that I had got a pretty good variety of tricks already. All I had to learn for the title was the Shell Game, where I had to find one with food hidden it it from three plant pots that were placed upside down.
This is the video that I submitted to earn my Champion title.
I, Mint, am sorry we didn't post anything for such a long time!! We have been very busy for the last year, but finally we have got time to write a post here.
As you may know if you follow our Facebook page "Cinnamon and Mint the Beagles", we have been working very hard in every sport we do. We have been doing really well especially in Agility this year. We have been working very hard in Canine Freestyle as well, but we haven't had as significant achievements in the sport recently as we did two years ago. Mum has stopped competing in Obedience and Rally-O with Cinnamon, because she gets very nervous in the ring of the sports. Her anxiety in and around the Agility ring has improved a lot and now she rarely reacts to other dogs in Agility venues. Mum thinks that is because Cinnamon loves and enjoys Agility so much. In fact she has had two wins in Agility Championships this year and graduated from Jumpers C and Starters, and now she is competing in Jumpers B, Novice, and Intermediate. I have been doing well in Agility too, but I am not as fast as Cinnamon, so I haven't been able to graduate from Jumpers C yet.
Well, have you seen the title of this post? Yes, it's about how clever I, Mint, am!! Do you remember that we worked on "One New Trick A Month Challenge" three years ago? Wow, three years ago!? It's been a long time since! After that, we continued to learn new tricks but not as many as we did in 2012. Also, Mum has always said "Cinnamon is very clever and quick to learn new tricks, while Mint is very clumsy although he does them diligently once he has learned them". I thought that it was an insulting comment on such a clever boy like me. So, I decided to start performing my clever tricks to earn "Trick Dog" titles.
Do you know a world's famous dog trick instructor, Kyra Sundance? Her books about how to teach dogs tricks are very popular around the world. Recently we found out that her programme "Do More With Your Dog!" offers "Trick Dog" titles, and Mum decided to try them with me. When Mum told me about it, I was very excited because she chose me over Cinnamon!! Yes, she knew that I was a clever dog as well!! Yay!
Under the "Do More With Your Dog!" programme, there are five trick dog titles, "Novice", "Intermediate", "Advanced", "Expert", and "Champion." So far I have earned from "Novice" to "Expert". So, my next challenge is "Champion"!!
This is a video of tricks I performed to earn my Expert Trick Dog title.
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!!
Do you remember that we took on the One New Trick A Month Challenge in 2012? It was a lot of fun to learn new tricks throughout the year. Last year we were so busy that we couldn't repeat the challenge, but this year we are going to learn more new tricks!
This is the first one we learned this year! (Well, it took me more than two years to learn it though (^_^;) )
Hope you enjoyed watching this new video of our new trick. Stay tuned for more new tricks!!!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Well, ours was not as exciting as I had hoped, because our humans were so busy with their work that we couldn't enjoy anything like a party, a picnic, or a BBQ. But, Mint managed to learn a new trick in the last few days :-)
Yes, this is the last post for our One New Trick A Month Challenge 2012!
This month Mint learned to 'roll up in a beach towel'. This is a very useful trick. You can do it with a blanket in winter to keep yourself warm.
On Sunday of our busy weekend, we went to Ardmore New Zealand Kennel Club Exhibition Centre to attend two events at the same time!
The coursing of the Hound Racing Club was scheduled to start at 10am. But, when we arrived at 9:30am, the course had already been set up. It seemed everyone had looked forward to the coursing so much!
As the other even we were attending was to start at 10:30am, Mum asked the club president if Mint and I could run in the first race. I got so excited that it was really hard not to bark!!!
After having one race, we quickly moved to the inside of a building where we were going to do a demonstration of dog dancing for the Labrador Club.
As you may know, I am a little reactive to other dogs. So, Mum was very worried that I might bark at the audience of the demo. But, as I always say, she always worries too much!
Five dogs, including Mint and me, performed their dance routines in front of many Labrador Retrievers and their owners.
Everyone did very well and were well received by the audience. In the audience there were dogs and their owners who trained in a CGC preparation class with me two and a half years ago. As they knew how naughty and reactive I had used to be, they were very impressed with my improvement.
After the dog dancing demonstration, we went back to the Hound Racing Club and had another two races.
It was a really busy weekend, but we had so much fun!!
Hi! It's Cinnamon. I hope you enjoyed Mint's posts while I was having a little break from blogging.
Well, I learned another new trick recently, so today I am doing a post for our One New Trick a Month Challenge.
This month I leaned to 'Say my prayers.' I learned this trick because I wanted to pray for my friends who were having health/physical issues so that they would recover quickly and stay healthy.
Here I am praying for good health and happiness of all of my friends!
This month I am doing the post for our One New Trick A Month Challenge.
The trick I learned this month may not be so difficult for some dogs. For example, I often see toy or miniature poodles doing this naturally. But, for me, it was not that easy. But, partly thanks to some muscle strengthening exercise I was doing using balance cushions, I have finally learned to do it comfortably.
This month I learned to 'Walk on two legs.' Ah, ooops! Don't expect me to walk on two front legs like handstanding. That's something I want to to learn in the future, but it is likely to take a long time unfortunately.
This month Mum was extremely busy again, so she didn't have time to teach us a completely new trick. Instead, Mint and I learned how to cooperate to do one trick together. In the 'Sideways Jumps over Mint' trick that I learned last month, all Mint had to do was stay laying down. This month he contributed a little more.
The trick I learned this month is "Go under Mint", where I literally go under Mint while he stays standing.
It may look very easy, but it is easier said than done. If Mint were a little bigger, he wouldn't have minded me going under him. But, he is only a little bigger than me, so it was hard for him to stay standing while I went under him. So, I want to give Mint an applause!!
Wow, another month has passed and it is time to post another new trick we have learned!!
This month Mum was so busy that she didn't teach us any new tricks... So, instead of learning from Mum, I invented my own new trick!! Well, with help from Mint (^^)
I will explain how I came up with the idea. Every night, after dinner, we have a short tricks session. But, sometimes our Mum forgets about it if she is too busy watching TV or something.
There was a night like that a while ago. Mum didn't begin our tricks session however long we waited patiently.
At first we were waiting like this...
and this...
Then, I tried to invite Mum to start a tricks session by sitting pretty like this.
My attempt was still ignored, so I tried jumping over Mint like this.
Then, finally Mum took notice of what I was doing and praised me!
So, this is the final product of my effort!! My new trick - Sideways Jumps over Mint!!!
I am doing a post for our One New Trick A Month Challenge again!
This month I learned to catch a toy with my front legs.
I am very good at sitting pretty. Whenever I want treats, I appeal by sitting pretty to show how adorable I am! So, this trick was not very hard for me to learn.
I hope you enjoy watching the video of my new trick "Catch a toy" :-)
Yes, this is another post for our One New Trick A Month Challenge 2012.
This month I learned a trick that we had seen Ashleigh and Pudsey, the winner of Britain's Got Talent 2012, doing and really liked. The trick is 'Weave through arms.'
When I saw Ashleigh and Pudsey doing it, I thought it should be easy to learn, because I was very good at weaving through legs. But, I have to say it was not that easy. I could learn to walk under Mum's upper body very easily, but then I didn't know where to go next. So, I tried all sorts of things, such as turning back, walking backwards, and even kissing Mum! But, finally I figured out what I had to do.
I am sorry our posts have been slack, as Mum has been extremely busy.
However, we still managed to make a short video for the One New Trick A Month Challenge for this month.
I learned this trick a long time ago, but I couldn't do it without Mum's guidance with her hand until last week. But now I can do it only with a verbal command.
I am sorry I have been away from blogging so long!! Mum has been super busy lately, so she couldn't help me post on the blog for the last three weeks. But, she has agreed to help me today because we hadn't done a post for our One New Trick A Month Challenge 2012 this month yet.
Well, this month it's Mint again. It seems that Mint has been learning many new tricks. Although I have been learning some new tricks too, we just didn't have a chance to film it! Actually the video I am going to show you today was filmed two weeks ago. Our original plan was to practise it a little more and film it again later. But, we didn't have a chance to do that either.
The new trick Mint learned this month is Jumping Rope!! As some of you may know, he loves jumping, so he has lots of jumping moves in his dance routines. However, when Mum first tried to practise jumping rope with Mint, he was so scared of the rope flying over him that he couldn't get close to it. But, once he overcame the fear after practising jumping through a hula-hoop, he started jumping with Mum easily.
Here is a video of Mint's new Jumping Rope trick for March in the One New Trick A Month Challenge!
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.
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