My birthday party!

Posted by: Honey the Great Dane on: November 14, 2009

Last weekend, I had my 6th birthday party!

Of course, my birthday was actually in October but because my human, Paul, was away, we waited until he got back to have the party. And my lovely trainer, Flip, said that I could have my party at his Flip’s Top Dog training centre!

I had invited all my good doggie friends: some old friends that I’ve known for a loooooong time, like George the Bernese Mountain Dog and Lucky Bear the Akita-Rottie-cross…

…some friends that I’ve met through doggie dancing, like Finnegan the Sheltie…

…some friends that I’ve met through Outreach Therapy Pets, like Kira the German Shepherd…

…new friends I’ve met at Agility, like Scarlett the Shepherd… and even friends I’ve made through my blog, like Cinnamon the Beagle and Lexi the Great Dane pup!

I also invited my human friend, Dizzy Mum and her 2 human pups.

They had to leave their own doggies behind when they moved here from Australia and they have been really missing some doggie cuddles -

…so Hsin-Yi said the little Human Girl Pup could pretend I was her dog and handle me in all the party games!

It was very exciting when everyone was arriving…

…getting lots of pats & cuddles…

…and lots of presents!

Then it was time to play party games!

We played some old favourites from Ian Dunbar’s “K9 Games” - such as Musical Sits and Doggie Dash – and my humans also made up some silly ones, like the Egg & Spoon Race and Champagne Agility.

musicalchairs19

First, we played Musical Sits – which is like the human game of “Musical Chairs” – except when the music stops, us doggies must do a Sit Stay outside the big circle around the chairs before our humans can grab a chair. If we get up, our humans have to get off their chairs to put us back. The slowest dog to Sit will have a human who doesn’t have a chair – that human then has 10 seconds to run around the circle and try to make the other doggies get up: they can jump, whoop, wave their arms, make funny noises – do whatever they like EXCEPT call our names. If no dog gets up after 10s, then that human and their dog is out!

Not only is Musical Sits great fun but it is a great way to practise our Loose-leash Walking and Sit Stays. George was the winner!

Next, we played the Egg & Spoon Race: this was a relay race with us doggies divided into 2 teams. Each human had to loop their doggie’s leash onto the same hand that was holding the egg & spoon and then run through an obstacle course as fast as they could. Again, this was good practice for making sure us doggies don’t pull on the leash and follow our humans when walking, otherwise they would drop the egg!

I am ashamed to say, however, that my team lost because I was very naughty and when my little Human Girl Pup dropped the egg, I ate it!!!! Hsin-Yi was horrified but everyone else was laughing.

Next, we played Champagne Agility – this time, the humans had to carry a full glass of pink champagne while running through the obstacle course with us. But we also had to do a Sit Stay at the end of the course, while our humans ran to get a flower lei to put around our necks. This was not a team race – each dog & human pair went alone and we were timed…the pair with the fastest time was the winner. Well, you will never believe it but Kira and Scarlett, the 2 Shepherds, completed the course in exactly the same time: 46 seconds! They had to race each other again – and Scarlett was the winner!

And the last game – the most exciting of all – was Doggie Dash! For this, we doggies race each other in heats of 2 at a time – we have to do a Sit & Wait at one end of the training centre while our humans walk to the other end of the building and then when they call us, we have to RUN as fast we we can! But when we pass the Finish line, it is the dog that SITS the first that is the winner – so this practises a good, fast Recall and a good Sit under a lot of distractions and excitement! The winners of the heats race each other…until there is only 1 winner left! Kira was the winner!

Well! After all that energy and excitement, it was time for some yummies!

The humans had lots of nibbles and drinks but we doggies had our own special cake! Yup, my human, Hsin-Yi, made me my own ‘peanut butter & banana’ doggie birthday cake with yoghurt & cream cheese frosting, Marmite (Vegemite) icing for my name and bone-shaped cookies as decorations!

It smelled divine!! All us doggies got very excited when they brought it out and couldn’t wait to have a piece. The hardest party game of all was getting all us doggies to sit around the cake and pose for a photo without sneaking a lick!

(Well, little Lexi couldn’t quite resist…but then she is only 4 months old! )

After that, Paul became the most popular person there when he cut up the cake and went around giving every doggie a piece…

And everyone was shocked to watch Cinnamon eat her cake: how could such a little dog gobble such a big piece of cake so quickly?! My humans had always heard about Beagles and food but this was the first time they had ever seen it in action!

Anyway, there was enough cake to go around and every doggie had seconds…and Cinnamon went around the floor afterwards and made sure that not one crumb was wasted!!

It was a really wonderful party and I had a fantastic time – and I think all my friends did too. Hsin-Yi said all of us doggies were fantastically well-behaved: although all the dogs knew me, they didn’t all know each other but we were all very sociable and friendly – even when the cake was going round, you can see in the video (below) that we were all sitting politely for a piece. Hsin-Yi was so impressed, especially given how exciting it was with so many dogs together and human pups running around and people shouting and food everywhere…!

Here is a special movie my human, Hsin-Yi, made to show you the highlights of my party – you can see how we played the games and watch Cinnamon’s amazing “Jaws” moment in action! – hope you enjoy it!

Hsin-Yi said she did not put the whole games into the Highlights movie because it might have got too long and boring but if anyone is interested in watching them in full (with original sound), here are the links:

I wish all my friends could have been there but I hope this post lets you feel like you have shared in the fun of my party!