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!

What arrived in mail today

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

Today this certificate arrived along with some ribbons from a recent video event of RFE (Rally Freestyle Elements)!

This is a certificate for my new Freestyle (dancing) title called Vet MF/X (Veteran Musical Freestyle Excellent). I used to enter regular classes without the "Veteran" prefix, but last year Mum decided to switch me from regular classes to Veteran classes (for dogs who are eight years old or older) because she was not sure how long I would be able to continue to dance decent routines. At that time she was trying to stop my barking when I was dancing, but I couldn't stop barking because I was very aroused when dancing. I still bark sometimes but I managed to keep my mouth shut when we videoed my routine for the video event.

In a routine videoed for a previous video event Mum incorporated the "chin rest' in the routine in an attempt to calm me down so that I wouldn't start barking. This time she changed the part and replaced the chin rest with a simple move where Mum ran backwards while I ran forward keeping the position in front of her. With this performance I got my second qualifying score in the Veteran Intermediate class and as a result I got the Vet MF/X title.

I hope I can keep my mouth shut again when we video a routine next time!!

In the same video event Mint entered the Intermediate class. Mum was not sure if Mint's routine included enough advanced moves to qualify, but he did qualify as well. As it was his first qualifying score in the class, he will need two more Qs to get his Excellent title.

However, I am very impressed that he performed in such a difficult environment for the video. He did it in a park where we had found many chicken bones on the ground a few days before the videoing!! Mum was shocked when she saw many chicken bones on the ground, because she was planning to video Mint's routine there a few days later. Then, she let us find bones (As far as I remember, we found more than ten bones!) and picked them up before we got them, in order to clean the ground.

Here is Mint's performance in the park. In fact the judge commented "Nice work in an outside environment!"

Happy New Year 2017!

Happy New Year!!

We wish you all a wonderful memorable year filled with lots of fun!!

We celebrated the start of the New Year in Japanese kimono ;-)

In the evening on the New Year's Day we had a great walk in our favourite park, the Auckland Botanic Gardens!

As you can see in our smiles, we prefer walkies to modelling in tight clothes.
We hope to have many many more nice walks like this this year!

Kamal Fernandez's Obedience Seminar

Hi everyone! I am Mint!

Last weekend I attended a two-day seminar by one of the world's best dog trainers, Kamal Fernandez!!

Do you know Kamal? He is a professional dog trainer based in England. He had been to New Zealand a few times to do seminars before. But, Mum didn't attend them because she thought that we were not up to that level. However, this time she didn't only sign up for the seminar as soon as it was announced but also she even secured a working spot for me!

Do you want to know how we knew him? Well, we learned how to heel nicely through his online courses at Fenzi Dog Sports Academy (FDSA), and that's where we came to know him.

Of course, we had learned how to heel from several instructors before that, such as several instructors at our dog training club as well as a few other instructors who taught us privately. We also learned it through a couple of other courses at FDSA. But, nothing worked better than methods that Kamal taught us. So, Mum and I really looked forward to the seminar!!

In the seminar we learned a lot of foundation skills rather than specific skills for each obedience exercise including heelwork.

Before our first work session, Mum asked Kamal to ask others to make sure to close their food containers so that I wouldn't go to hunt for other dogs' treats. But, Kamal said that her request was unrealistic and instead he showed Mum how to teach me to ignore others' food. It seems I should expect Mum to do that exercise with me a lot :-P 

However, I think it was an unnecessary concern. As long as the training is fun, I won't go anywhere but near Mum! If fact, I had no trouble staying focused on her during the seminar. Mum just needs to remember to prepare larger pieces of treats so that I can find them more easily!! Look! Kamal was saying the same thing!

During the two days the most difficult exercise we did was "Simon says"!! We dogs had to sit wherever our handlers put their hands on. I had no problem when Mum put her hands on her head, shoulders, or hips. But, I sometimes made a mistake and lied down when she put her hands on her knees. When she put her hands on her toes, it was really confusing!!! 

Anyway it was so much fun overall!! Mum, thank you for attending the seminar with me!!

Yes, I can stay!!!! Even with Mum facing away!!

Hello everyone. Mint here.

On Sunday I went to the North Shore Dog Training Club Obedience Championship and competed in the Novice class for the first time! This time I entered the Novice class because I graduated from the Special Beginners class, the lowest obedience class in NZ, two and a half months ago.

One of the reasons I couldn't graduate from the Special Beginners for several years  until recently was that I couldn't stay sitting or lying in the competition environment where there were other strange dogs around me. I practised stays with Mum and Cinnamon countless times on our daily walks, but I couldn't resist my temptation to stand up and walk to Mum in real competitions.

However, I suddenly felt confident and succeeded in my stays in a competition in late May, where I won the class, and in another competition in early July, where I won the class again, and those two wins graduated me from the class.

It seems that Mum had considered the North Shore show on Sunday as a practice run, because in the Novice class I had to do stays with Mum facing away from me, and Mum didn't think that it was possible for me.

Anyhow this was my on and off lead heelwork, recall, and dumbbell retrieve.

Hee hee I missed a left turn because it was right after I had a yawn :-P  Don't say I shouldn't have yawned! You know you can't stop those natural physical reactions!

After this, we did the stays. Mum looked very worried, but in fact I was very lucky that I was at the far end of the ring from the corridor and I had no other dogs on one side, because I was the last dog in the running order of the class. And, I stayed!!

There was a long wait until the results were announced. And, before the prize giving started, Mum and I were called for a run off. At that time, we didn't know what place the run off was for. It might have been the fifth place, in which case I wouldn't get any placing if I lost.

At the prize giving it turned out that I had won the run off and got a 2nd place!

Mum says that it must have been beginners luck. But, whatever it was, I was very happy because Mum looked very happy!!