Our first ever camping! And Mint's win in dog dancing!

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

On the weekend we went to our first competitions this year and we camped in Mum's car for the first time ever!

On Friday evening there was the Paws'n'Music (dog dancing) competition in Mangawhai, about 130 km from our house, and on Saturday and Sunday there were Obedience and Rally-O competitions at the same venue.

At first Mum was thinking about participating in the Obedience and Rally-O competitions on Saturday only, but at the last minute she decided to enter the Paws'n'Music competition too. However, the venue was far from where we lived, so Mum decided to stay in her car with us overnight so that she wouldn't have to make two round trips.

We arrived at the venue just before 4pm and the Paws'n'Music competition commenced at 5pm. After the competition, we had a walk around the small town of Mangawhai and then had dinner outside by Mum's car.

We also enjoyed chilling out on the grass and walking around the ground before it got dark.

Chilling after dinner

We went to bed at 9:30pm.

Our bunk bed in the car

I slept upstairs for the first time ever, except at hospitals!! However, it was a little annoying when Mint barked and disturbed my rest when Mum was out at the clubhouse to wash her face and brush her teeth. He is a mother's boy and he often barks if he can't see her for a long time. I wonder when he will grow out of it!

Because we were tired from the drive from home and also performing in the competition, we all had a very good sleep, although at first Mint was trying to get Mum's attention for a while by scratching the floor of his crate, which Mum ignored :-P

We woke up at 6:30 in the morning. As soon as we got out of the car, we enjoyed a good sniff at the wet grass.

So many interesting smells!

I think our breakfast was lighter than usual, as I still felt hungry after eating it.

By the way Mint won Elementary Freestyle in the Paws'n'Music competition on Friday evening! Although I didn't do well, I was very happy for him!

Well done Mint!

A long weekend full of Agility

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

We went to NZDAC (NZ Dog Agility Championship) over the Labour Weekend, 23-26 October. Every year the biggest annual Agility event in NZ is held in a different location, hosted by one of the five regions in turn. This year it was held in Tokoroa, about two and a half hour from our house, hosted by the region 2, the Central North Island.

Because Tokoroa is a small rural town, there aren't many accommodations. So, we stayed in Rotorua, forty minutes from Tokoroa.

As the event started midday on Friday, we left home in the morning on the day and arrived at the venue, Tokoroa Memorial Sports Ground around 9:30am. More than anything, we were overwhelmed by the size of the whole venue! We had never seen such big sports grounds. In addition to the space for 8 Agility rings, camping sites, day tent sites, and huge day car park areas, there were multiple spacious dog exercise areas (each was bigger than most parks in our neighbourhood!).

Over the four days from Friday to Monday, there were three Jumpers events and three Agility events. We had entered all of them, but on the last day we decided to scratch our entries for the last Agility event and came home early to avoid a heavy traffic of people coming home from their holidays.

In total Mint and I had eight runs each, and Mint got five clear rounds (CRs) while I got four CRs. We didn't get any ribbons, but I think that we did pretty well, considering that we hadn't done Agility much for the last six months as we had a winter break from Agility. We are especially happy that all our Jumpers runs went CLEAR! Now Mint needs one more CR in Jumpers C to get the JD (Jumpers Dog) title.

Overall Mint got three CRs in Jumpers C and two CRs in Novice.

I, Cinnamon, got three CRs in Jumpers B and one CR in Novice.

Apart from Agility, we also had lots of fun with other dogs every day!!

Our next Agility show will be at our club's grounds this month. I hope we will do even better!!

Our first big agility championship event - Day 4

On the last day of our first big agility event, Mint and I entered three classes each; Jumpers C1, Jumpers C2, and Jumpers C3. Jumpers C1 and Jumpers C2 were held in the morning and Jumpers C3 in the afternoon.

We got up a little earlier than the previous two days, as we had to pack up all our belongings before departing the motel and arrive at the agility venue early enough to get ready for our first runs in the morning.

Fortunately it was not raining and the ground was not too wet when we arrived. After we had a morning walk in the exercise area, Mum went to walk the first two courses. It seems that Mum wanted to choose only one of the two for me to run, thinking that three runs in one day would be too much for me. But, each course had something I was not good at, so she decided to do both courses with me.

The first one, Jumpers C2, had three tunnels in parallel. As Mum knew that I don't like tunnels, she was a bit worried about them.

First Mint got a clear round, and about ten dogs after him it was my turn. I made a good start, waiting patiently until Mum said 'Ok, come!' But, just before the second tunnel I was distracted by something and started sniffing the ground. I knew Mum was calling me, but I didn't want to go that way, as the next obstacle was a tunnel!! Because Mum kept calling me, I gave in and started walking toward Mum, but at the next moment I got confused and went through a tunnel in a wrong way, for which I got disqualified...

In the second one, Jumpers C1, one tunnel was placed far out in a corner. If I had been good at tunnels, Mum would have been able to send me away to let me go through the tunnel. But, I don't like tunnels, Mum had to run with me up close to the tunnel to ensure that I would enter it without going around it.

This time my running order was before Mint's. My run started very nicely until at one point Mum said "Come!" But, it was too late to follow her command, so I jumped over a hurdle that I saw in front of me. What do you think Mum said then? She said "You did the right thing!!" Yes, it was Mum who got the course wrong, and what I did was correct!! After that, I kept running without any mistakes and finally made a clear round!! Well done, me!!

Mint? Yes, he got another clear round (^^)

Yay! I finally managed a clear round!

After these runs in two classes in the morning, we had a looooong wait. So, Mum took me to a mobile Bowen therapy clinic at the site for a short session of treatment. It was so comfortable and relaxing!!

I like her massage. She must be a very good therapist.

In our finals runs, while Mint got another clear round, I got a big time fault although I didn't make any mistakes in terms of jumps and tunnels, because I just couldn't help checking some smells I found in the middle of the course. What would you expect Beagles to do when they are free in the field after all? I think that Mint is an unusual Beagle and I am just a typical one!!

Mint flaying high.

Mint making a nice and sharp turn.

After Mum collected our clear round certificates and gave cheers for our friend Bella the Beagle getting a 2nd place ribbon at the prizegiving, we left the venue and headed home.

We were flat-out when we arrived home, but it was a wonderful experience!!

Mint tired after a big trip.

Our first big agility championship event - Day 3

On the third day of our trip it kept raining all day. At times the wind got so strong that jumps with wings were being blown to fall over.

No one was using it...

On the day we had only one run each; Starters 3. This time again my running order was before Mint's.

Before the judging started at 7.30am, Mum took me out of my crate and we went to the practise area. In the practise area we did a few jumps to warm up. What impressed me was that Mum gave treats extremely generously. Because Mum gave me treats one after another, I couldn't move my eyes away from her so that I wouldn't miss any bits! When I realised, I was already in the waiting area, and someone told us that it was our turn next.

I was a good girl, waiting on the start line without moving until Mum said "OK, come!". I ran very well but again missed didn't enter the weaves correctly, resulting in one fault.

On the other hand, Mint did really well making no mistakes ... and managed a clear round! Well done Mint!!

After our runs we had a chance to exercise off leash in the dog exercise area when no other dogs were using it.

We love running off leash!

Mum usually doesn't let us off leash when other dogs are around unless we know the dogs.

Mum doesn't let us off when there are other dogs around...

The majority of the dogs in the event were of course Border Collies!!

Later Mum went to the office building to get Mint's certificate. What do you think she found there? Mint had been placed the THIRD!!!

Well done, Mint!!!

That is a wonderful achievement! I am super proud of Mint who got a ribbon in his first big agility event!!!

After the prizegiving (in heavy rain!!) we went back to our motel and had a short walk in the neighbourhood. I thought we would spend the rest of the day in the motel room, but Mum told us to get in the car after Mint and I had dinner. About ten minutes later we arrived at a house in a residential area. When we got off the car, we saw a couple smiling at us on a porch of the house. I recognised their faces - the people who came to see us at the agility venue the day before!!

We had a wonderful time with them in their house! They encouraged Mum to let us free in the house. They didn't even mind us jumping on their couches!! But, it was so hard not to jump up while dinner for humans was being prepared!

Sitting patiently in the kitchen

But, it was worth being patient. They gave us a little share of their meal after the humans finished dinner. It was so yummy!!!

Back in our motel, we had a good sleep, dreaming about the delicious meat that we had had the night. zzzzz

Our first big agility championship event - Day 2

On the second day of our trip, we got up 5am in the morning and left our motel in Hamilton around 6am to head for our championship venue in Cambridge. We thought there would be lots of cars in the parking area, but there were only a few when we arrived at 6.30am. However, there were many dogs walking in the dog exercise area, many of whom had perhaps camped on the camping ground on the site.

This photo was taken the day before

Mint and I had two runs each; Starters 1 and Starters 2.

Our first runs were Starters 1. Mint had a slow start but gradually picked up the speed. Then, he entered the weaves, the third obstacle from the last, from the wrong side! So, Mum had to quickly bring him back to the entry to the weaves, then Mint did the weaves beautifully without missing a pole. But, because of the first failed attempt at the weaves, his run didn't go clear.

Mint

Well, as for my first run in Starters 1 ... I must admit that I ran out of the ring after two obstacles. I did it, because I wanted to go to toilet!! Mum was so nervous before the run that she forgot to let me do it. At the last moment before my run, she noticed what I wanted to do and quickly took me out of the waiting area, but it was too late! We had to go back to the start line before I did it!

After our first runs, we had a long wait. In Starters 2, our second runs on the day, my running order was before Mint's.

This time I didn't run out of the ring, as I didn't need to go to toilet this time. I think I did pretty well, but at the weaves, the second obstacle from the last, I missed the last pole!! About ten dogs after me, Mint had his run and he made the same mistake, missing the last pole!!

After our runs, a cheerful woman came to introduce herself to us. It turned out that she was one of fans of our Facebook page. It was wonderful to meet someone who knew us only in the cyberspace in person! I was so happy that I kissed her and her husband many times!

After all, we couldn't get any clear rounds on our first day at our first big agility championship event, so we left the venue early around 4.30pm, as we didn't have to stay at the venue to get any clear round certificates or prizes.

I thought we were going back to our motel directly, but we didn't. Mum stopped by a pet shop and bought a new soft crate for me! Yes, for me, not for Mint! On the day before, Mint and I slept in one crate together as you saw in the previous post (We had used to have two soft crates, but we had only one at that time, as the other one had broken). Mum bought a new one, because she knew that it had not been very comfortable for us to sleep together in one crate.

After a short rest in our motel room, we went out for a walk and found a beautiful walk way along Waikato River!!

Back in our room, we had dinner and went to bed... (Of course, in my new crate I had a much better sleep than I had the previous night!)

Our first big agility championship event - Day 1

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Over the weekend we were at NZ Dog Agility Championship (NZDAC), a big annual agility show where dogs and people across New Zealand get together. Last year we went to National Dog Obedience Assembly (NDOA), our first dog event, but at that time we entered only one event, Heelwork To Music. This time Mint and I entered six agility events each, three Starters and three Jumpers C's over the Labour Weekend from Saturday to Monday. (The NZDAC was held from Friday to Monday, but we didn't enter events on Friday.)

Every year this big event is held in a different place. This year it was in Cambridge, about 120 km away from our house. Because the judging started at 7:30am every day, we stayed in a motel in Hamilton, about a half-hour drive from Cambridge, over the weekend. (If we had driven to Cambridge from home every morning, we would have had to depart before 5am every day, which would have been very hard!!)

We arrived at our motel in late afternoon on Friday. After checking in, we went to the venue of the big event, Leamington Rugby Grounds in Cambridge, to check out what it was like. This is one of photos Mum took at that time.

Don't you think that it looks wonderful? The right side of the ground on the far end is where agility competitions were held. To the left was the camping area. The ground in front was the practise area. It almost looked like the whole venue was designed for the agility event!!

Back in our motel room, Mint and I had a sleep together in a crate after having dinner.

Our Year 2011

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Can you believe that another year has passed already? What was the year like for you? The year has brought us a lot of changes and surprises.

January 2011

In mid January Mint was hospitalized. It seemed that Mint had eaten something toxic, which paralysed his nerve system, but the vet couldn't figure out what Mint had eaten. It took a few weeks before he got back to his normal self.

In the following week after Mint came back home, we moved from our previous house to a rental house where we lived for two months until our humans found, bought, and moved to our new house. When we were living in the rental house, we had a chance to go on a trip to Rotorua.

In late February there was a big earthquake in Christchurch and many humans and doggies lost their houses, which was really sad. And less than three weeks later there were even bigger earthquakes in Japan. Watching roads and buildings being pushed away and flattened by big waves caused by Tsunami was really saddening. Many lives were lost. Now, more than nine months later, there are still areas no one is allowed to enter because of radiation contamination. All I can now is believe in people's strength to overcome challenges.

Four days after the earthquakes and tsunami in Japan, we moved from the rental house to our new house. Our previous house was close to the city centre, only fifteen minutes by bus from a bus stop in front of the house to the city centre. Our new house is far away from downtown, but for giving up the proximity to the city centre, we got a great living environment for both humans and dogs.

In early June, I had the honor to be a member of the judge panel for my friend Honey the Great Dane's "Dancing with the Doggie Stars" contest. It was rewarding to see so many doggies and their humans with no experience in dancing working so hard on their routines while enjoying the time spent together. A few days later Mint got placed the first for the first time in an Obedience trial!!

In mid July my dearest boy friend Mango the Mastiff took me to a Dream Date full of adventures!!

In late July I turned four years old and on my birthday I enjoyed my birthday cake that Mum had made for me.

In late October we went to Porirua, Wellington, 600km away from our house, to compete in a national dog dancing competition, and, as many of you know, I won and Mint got the second place in the Elementary Freestyle class!

In November Mint made a debut in an agility trial, and in December I won the Elementary B class and Mint got his first clear round in another agility trial!

December 2011

Well, that's our year 2011.

We wish you all the best for the year 2012!!!

Our trip to Wellington

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Firstly, thank you very much for your lovely comments on my previous posts about a recent Paws N Music competition (this and this). I still can't believe that I won in the competition. But, reading your comments, I really felt that I had won indeed :-)

Well, today I am going to tell you about our trip to Porirua, Wellington, where the competition was held. Or more precisely, I will tell you about places where we stayed on the trip.

View Larger Map

Actually a year ago we didn't think that we were going to make the trip, as Wellington is far, far away from Takanini, Auckland, where we live, which means that it doesn't only take a long time to get there but also cost a lot. A year ago my humans thought who would spend so much money and time just for a dog dancing competition. Especially for my humans, who are freelancers, being away from home means no income for the period. However, after contemplating about it over and over, they decided to give it a go, because it was the only competition we were able to enter in the year after the last competition I entered a year ago.

The first thing we had to do was to find accommodation that allows dogs in the unit. Some of so-called dog friendly motels don't allow dogs in the unit. You may think that such motels shouldn't advertise themselves as "dog friendly," but as long as they allow dogs in their property no matter where they have to stay, such as in the car, they seems to be considered "dog friendly". So, my humans had to send email to every "dog friendly" accommodation that they have found in online accommodation directories, to ask if they allowed dogs in the unit. Because we made bookings well in advance, it was not as difficult to find places where we were able to stay inside as we thought it would. We booked three motels, one for the first night in Taumarunui, a small town near National Park halfway from Auckland to Wellington, one for the second and third nights in Wellington, and another for the last night of our trip in Taupo, a resort town by New Zealand's largest lake called the Lake Taupo.


On Friday, two days before the competition, we set out for the trip. Taumarunui, where we stayed on the first day of the trip, is a small town surrounded by mountains. Although dogs are banned in the town centre, there are many off-leash dog parks (See here for local dog exercise areas). One that a manager at the motel recommended was Cherry Cove, where dogs can enjoy walking and running along a river. We wanted to walk on the river bank, but Mum didn't let us, because she was not sure how we would react to other dogs running off leash there. Mum always worry about my reactivity too much!!

Another dog exercise area recommended by the same motel manager was a very little reserve at the end of Byars Avenue. It is very small, but you can enjoy a wonderful view of the whole township and surrounding mountains. One thing I found very strange about the reserve, though, is that there was a sign, something like "This is Electric fence," on the fence between the reserve and an adjacent paddock. Actually I had to ask Mum what the sign was for, as I can't read. I don't think there are many dogs who can read. An electric fence on the border of a very small dog exercise area. It's very dangerous, isn't it? Some dogs might touch the fence without knowing the fence is electric!

The next day we arrived in Porirua. Our motel in Porirua was very conveniently located for dogs and their owners. There were sport grounds nearby and you can even enjoy walking along an inlet with a marina.

After staying in Porirua for two nights (Our competition was on the second night, which coincided with the Rugby World Cup final!!), we headed for Taupo. In Taupo we stayed in a motel by the Lake Taupo, so we had pleasant walks at the beach.

But, look at this!

Mint was such a coward that he cringed every time gentle waves came in. Because he was so frightened of the waves, I couldn't enjoy sniffing interesting smells that I found at the water edge! Mint, you are a boy. You must become braver!

Well, that's the end of our trip. We had a great time visiting new places and sniffing new smells!

A surprise trip to Rotorua

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Yay, we went on a trip to Rotorua on the weekend!! It was kind of a surprise present for us actually. None of us didn't know we were going to Rotorua until Tuesday.

Although I didn't write about it in my previous posts, Mum's mummy, auntie, and uncle stayed with us for several days from late January. Because Mum was too busy to take them out of Auckland for sightseeing, our guests rented a car and went on a trip to Rotorua and Napier by themselves while Mum stayed home working as usual. But, just before they went back home, Mum's auntie realised that she had left something behind at a hotel in Rotorua. Mum immedietely rang the hotel and confirmed that they had the thing. Mum also asked a hotel receptionist to courier it to the aunty's home in Japan. However, on Monday Mum got a phone call from the auntie. She said that someone from the hotel had rung her to let her know that they couldn't courier the thing left behind by the auntie because it contained something valuable. The only way to retrieve the thing was someone went to the hotel in person to collect it. That is how my Mum and Dad decided to go to Rotorua on the weekend.

Mum and Dad searched the Internet to find several motels that allowed dogs. Mum chose one of them, Gibson Court Motel, and booked it because some of its units had private mineral pool.

Then on Thursday Mum got a phone call from her friend. She was looking for a place where her dog could stay for the weekend. So, Mum and Dad decided to take him to Rotorua with us. But, there was one concern. They were not sure how well we, Mint and I, and the dog got along. On Thursday Mum's friend came with the dog called Kurosawa, or Kuro, to see how well we got along. Of course we welcomed Kuro, as both of us, Mint and I, had met and played with him before.

On Saturday morning we went to Kuro's house to pick him up before heading for Rotorua. On the way to our destination, we stopped twice for short breaks. All of us travelled well.





In Rotorua, after collecting Mum's auntie's thing from the hotel and checked in our motel, we got in the car again and went to the Redwoods Whakarewarewa Forest, which we had heard about from our friend Honey the Great Dane. Actually our motel was very close to the forest, only a few minutes' drive away. Mum first visited the information centre to confirm that dogs are allowed on tracks in the forest as long as they are kept on the lead, then we set out for a walk. Despite the high temperature and humidity that day, we thoroughly enjoyed the walk, as the track we walked on was sheltered under huge trees all the way from the start to the end.




Back at the motel Mum and Dad enjoyed soaking in the mineral pool while we doggies had a nap. Our travel mate, Kuro, was so well-behaved (He never tried to jump on a couch or bed!) that he was allowed to be free in the motel unit throughout our stay in the motel, while we were put in our crate when neither Mum nor Dad could keep an eye on us.



The next morning we went to the Redwoods Forest again and on the way back to Auckland we dropped by Cambridge where agility show was being held because Mum wanted to say hello to someone who she knows. There were a huge number of people there, but she did manage to find the person and had a chat with her before hitting the road again to come back home.




It was a fantastic weekend!! I hope Kuro can come to stay with us again soon.

Tongariro National Park

Hi, it's Cinnamon!

Today I will take you to a beautiful place called Tongariro National Park. It is the oldest national park in New Zealand, and it is one of the locations where The Lord of the Rings film trilogy was filmed.

The first day of our trip to Turangi was cloudy, so Dad, my cameraman, couldn't take as many good photos as he wanted. But, Sunday, the last day of the dog dancing summer camp, turned out to be a gorgeous day with blue sky, depsite a weather forecast of some showers.

After the dancing camp closed in mid-afternoon, we set out for a drive to Tongariro National Park.

My humans had been there before as tourists from overseas, and at that time, over fifteen years ago, they stayed at a famous hotel called "Chateau Tongariro." My mum had looked forward to their stay there, but unfortunately the hotel was under renovation then and the inside of the building was dim because the outside was covered with scaffolding. They were so disappointed that they shortened their stay from three nights to just one and checked out the next day. So, this time they wanted to see the hotel as it should look normally.

Shortly after we left Turangi and entered an uphill road to the national park, we found a sign of a scenic view point. From there, we could overlook the Lake Taupo.




We got back into the car and continued our drive, and then Dad found the hotel we were heading for in a long, long distance.



The hotel looked like a drop of white paint at the bottom of the mountains. When we came to the turning to the road to get to our destination, Mum found a "No Dogs Allowed" sign. But, we decided it should be OK if I stayed in the car, and we kept going.

Here it is. The hotel Chateau Tongariro!! It looked so beautiful sitting at the end of a golf course.



We wanted to go a little closer to the hotel, but we stopped there and turned around because there was another "No Dogs Allowed" sign. No dogs are allowed in the national park because the famous New Zealand native bird, Kiwis, live there and are protected.



The next day we came back to Auckland. Although Dad wanted to take photos of the beautiful Lake Taupo, he couldn't because of a heavy rain...