*Hsin-Yi wants to say thank you so much everybody for all the lovely birthday wishes – and especially for all those ‘Fringe’ links!!!!! That is the BEST birthday present you could have given her! 
She hasn’t had time to check them all out yet – unfortunately some of them don’t work if you’re not in the US – but you have given her hope! 
She is just so touched at all the trouble everyone has gone to, to find the info for her – and some, like Jed & Abby’s human who even offered to record the remaining episodes for her if she can’t get them online- thank you all so much!
******
Welcome back to Dancing with the Doggie Stars! - Week 1
First, I want to say thank you to all those doggies who have said that they will give it a go! I can’t tell you how much that means to me & Hsin-Yi.
See, when we first started doing training stuff – especially the dancing - we got so many negative attitudes and people telling us we could never do it, to just give up, that it’ll be too hard to train me, blah-blah-blah…
…except a few people who supported and encouraged us and told us that there was no shame in giving things a go! That the really great achievement was not in winning or being perfect or amazing or anything…but just in having the courage to give things a try. And to be game to try new things and have fun!
That is what has brought us to where we are today and how I have achieved all the things I have done – because we were willing to just give things a try!
So I really want to encourage all other doggies to do the same. And I am so happy that many of you have already said you will!
Here are some of the fantastic teams who have said they will “give it a go” on Dancing With The Doggie Stars :
(hope you don’t mind but I ‘borrowed’ some photos from your blogs!)
You can read more about our dancing stars here:
* I couldn’t find nice photos for all the doggies who said they would like to take part so – can I ask a big favour? If you’re not on this list, could you please send me a photo of you with your human so I can ‘officially’ add you to our team of dancing stars? Thank you! My email is: bighoneydog(AT)gmail(DOT)com
Of course, one of our biggest dancing stars - even though I don’t have a photo of him with his human yet – is The Mango! Now, I don’t think there is anyone in Blogland who doesn’t know The Relentlessly Huge (Mastiff) - but in case you’re new to doggie blogs, Mango is The Man in Blogland! 
Mango and his Labradork brother, Pee Wee (er, Dexter) have great adventures on their estate in Master Chew Its and if you need a laugh any time, just visit their blog – http://mangosgreatadventures.blogspot.com/
And we’re very honoured that Mango has offered to give us an exclusive ”behind-the-scenes” look at their preparation for DWTDS – so here’s what’s been going on at the Mango Estate this week:
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Finally! It seemed from the comments that many of you didn’t dare take part because you were worrying that you don’t know many tricks or can’t put together a super-fancy routine…and you were thinking you just can’t do doggie dancing unless you can do something ‘amazing’ like those videos I showed you in our original DWTDS post…
…Stop! You mustn’t give up just because you think you can’t be ‘Perfect Super-Doggie’ – I mean, if Hsin-Yi had thought like that, we would NEVER have done dancing!
She would have looked at all those fast, slick Border Collies and other working breeds and thought, “Oh, we could never be like them” – and just given up.
Well, I’m still not like those amazing fast doggies and I never will be but that doesn’t mean I can’t do it in a different way…and still have fun!
For example, when we first started, everyone told us that as a huge Dane (and with such a shortie for a human), I could never do the Leg Weaves, which are a classic move in doggie dancing…but who cares? We put together our first routine, Big Spender, without a single leg weave in it!
There were loads of dance moves I hadn’t learnt or just physically couldn’t do (most of the through-the-legs stuff and a lot of the really fast moves) but we didn’t just give up! It just made us more creative because we had to come up with our own stuff…
…like that “Tug-the-sash” move at the end of Big Spender when I pull the sash from around Hsin-Yi’s waist and spin her out across the dance floor. Hsin-Yi just remembered that I really love to play Tug and so she thought of some way to incorporate my favourite game into the dance routine!
That move brought the house down – and no one had thought of doing it before because they weren’t forced to be ‘creative’, like us.
So don’t worry if you haven’t learnt certain tricks yet or are struggling to train a particular move – hey, not all us doggies like to do the same things! Be your own dog. Do your own stuff. Strut to the beat of your own drums. Or ukelele. Or electric guitar. Whatever.
(Oh, and by the way, I did end up learning Leg Weaves in the end…ha! ha!…don’t ever tell Hsin-Yi “You can’t…” – she will always rise to the challenge! But we still do them differently to everyone else.)
That’s the great thing about doggie dancing – it’s not like Obedience or Agility where there are set moves & commands you must learn…in dancing, anything goes! You can put anything you like – any behaviour you do – into your routine. If you only know Sit and you like to Jump up & down – and you follow your human around when she has food in her hand…well,you’ve got yourself a dance routine! You really don’t have to do complicated, fancy routines. Short & sweet is good!
So here’s an example of a really simple, short routine (45 secs) which is still great – and loads of fun!
The moves in this routine were:
- Run to human
- Leg weaves
- Spin
- Skip in big circle with human, around room
- Bow (the doggie missed this! )
- Jump up, paws on human
- (music: 45 secs)
.
And this is a slightly more complicated routine (people say Huskies are “impossible to train” – well, take a look at this Husky!)
The moves in this routine were:
- Paw face (“shy”)
- Run to human
- Walk next to human
- Jump over human’s leg
- Walk next to human – Circle around human (4 times, around the room)
- Sit
- Run & Fetch the stick
- ‘Marching Paws’ facing human
- Jump up & ‘High Five’ with both paws
- Walk on hind legs, with paws on human’s back
- Sit
- Run & Jump over human’s arms
- Leg weaves
- (music: 1min, 40s)
So come on, doggies! Show us how you strut your stuff!
Remember, routines just have to be at least 1min long (longer if you like!) and you have to be moving to ‘real’ music (ie. in the room with you – not dubbed onto your video afterwards!) & costumes are encouraged! Deadline: Jun 15th.
Here is the original DWTDS contest announcement with all the contest rules.
Tune in for our next episode of DWTDS next week when I’ll show you how to make up a simple routine and run through some basic dance moves – oh! plus we might have a special guest performance!
Well, those were inspiring, but we know our limits. We can’t even do a whole doga routine without getting excited and knocking the muzzer over. So we are still just gonna watch. We think we are very good at that, and we enjoy it.
But thank you and the Mango Mama and the rest for your most inspiring excamples.
gussie and Teka
This post has given my mom some hope. She reckons that we might learn a few steps at least with all the wonderful videos in this post. Our aim is to just participate to support Honey and Hsin-Yi. So if we make progress, we might just submit a late entry. Today I began to learn to move in circles with mom. Even if we don’t learn a dance routine, I will have at least learn a few new tricks.
Honey — you and Hsin-yi were my and my human’s inspiration and mentors when we started Freestyle. I’m a big dog, too, almost as big as you, and my human is teeny, and we thought we’d never do leg-weaves, and so we could never do a “real” freestyle dance (that was before we learned that the key word is “free”). We searched video after video looking for someone ANYone who didn’t do traditional leg weaves, typing the names of the breeds of every huge dog we could think of into the subject lines — but ALL of them did weaves, even the Deerhound we found, from Germany, who was a short girl with a tall owner. We despaired, until we typed “Dancing Great Dane” and there you and Hsin-yi were, doing Big Spender! I said, “Oh wow — no WAY those two will weave.” But you did, only differently. My human said, “Well, I can do that!” And we’ve been doing it ever since. At our “dance camp” last fall, the whole group dubbed those “Badger Weaves.” My human corrected them: she told them “Those are Honey Weaves.” We have had to be really creative, too, because I don’t go fast (Honey is way faster than me, sad to say), and I can’t get the hang of side-passing (my front end is so far from my back end that it seems silly to bother to take the back-end with when I go anywhere), so we do a lot of “theatre” to cover up my shortcomings. But we never would have tried it at all without you, Honey. You even taught us we could do a “pop thru” if I crouched down a little. Everybody always applauds when I do that! I’m so glad to see you inspiring other dog/person dance teams, all around the globe! Have fun with the contest!
Hehe -- awsome !
We haven’t started the training yet -- my human Laura finishes Uni by the end of the week -- and then she has 2 weeks to revise before her big exams. But that’s OK I’m sure she’ll find some time because we should start to get started !!
I have to start learning the weave thing -- that’s gonna be quite funny !
ps : Check out my blog there’s a nice surprise for you, hehe !
That was a great ‘Behind The Scenes’ video by Mango, PeeWee & the Momma! Those guys really know how to do some cool tricks. When Mango did the weaving, it looked like he was gonna drag his Momma on top of him! It was so funny!! I really can’t wait to see everypups’ entries!
Pee/S: I will try getting the demos + Megan’s entry done soon!
OMG I almost died of laughter from Mango momma’s video. When Mango tried to go under her leg. HAHAHAHAHA. That group is so hilarious! I hope they do an entry of all 3 of them dancing together. Maybe the Master will join them!
Im not one to be in front of the camera much (especially a video camera) but I may try and teach Darwin some tricks for the fun of it.
I can’t wait to see more!
Well, can you believe it…we are actually “doing some tricks” with music?! It’s the same music and we are doing the same stuff over and over again! What does that sound like?
She said we just couldn’t fit everything into JUST A MINUTE if we don’t co-operate!!
We are very happy to sit back and watch all the upcoming dancing stars. We give a lot of credit to all the pups willing to try. One of these days maybe Mom will take Ciara to a dancing class and see how she does. Mango’s video was very impressive:)
Woos ~ Phantom, Thunder, and Ciara
Oh Honey! Your mum is so encouraging! She doesn’t really take “no” for an answer does she?! We loved Mango and Pea’s video -- especially when Mango Momma said, “and we’re very excited about this…” and Mango flopped down on the floor! But they looked really good! This is going to be fun (to watch from the sidelines
)
-Gizmo, Bart and Ruby
We loved Mango’s video -- I don’ think we have ever visited his blog, we are on way there straight after this to tell him what a great video!
Laura has the next 3 days off and a new video camera so she will be starting our training
Licks and lots of slobber,
Lexi and Jasper the Danes
oooo cant wait to see the dances
Kari
http://dogisgodinreverse.com
I’m planning on it with Lance!
Honey! This is so exciting. I sure hope that lots of doggies and their humans will be brave and try it. What’s the worst that can happen? Momma says I am not a precise dancer but I think she just needs to make HER moves bigger, right?
Slobbers,
Mango
I’m sure that Mom would love to try but I’m not so sure that I am so willing. Perhaps we will enter with a gag kitty dancing video, we will let you know!
whoohoo -- actually I think Bender would do great at that ribbon trick.
Oh boys ‘dis looks like fun! Momma and me’s watched me pal Mango and him Momma’s moves- dey did great job- me’s gonna have to work on some tings- hu hu’s
Me’s can fall over on command :0
Laters,
Anakin Man
LOL I love the Mango video!
I’m glad you posted some of the easy videos. It’s encouraging because the choreography is the part I’m worried about. I have my music and theme picked out. Just have to build some props, work on choreography and learn a couple of tricks that will be cute! I hope we can do it in time!
Honey, you are always so inspiring! From this post and comments on it, I can feel the excitement building up around the contest! I enjoyed Mango’s video too. Especially the part Mango was doing weaves through his Momma’s legs was hilarious! I hadn’t imagined he could do that without knocking over her
I can’t wait to see who get the crown .The videos are awesome too.Just simple moves but take a lot of time trainning.Only true dog lover can do it .I love dog but I don’t have patient enough to keep them under discipline
Oh my BOL! Mango Momma, Pea and Mango are too much! This is such a fun contest already and it’s just begun! Good one Hsin-Yi
Waggin at ya,
Roo
So exciting, it has began
We are very proud of all the participants and wish them the best of luck and lots of fun.
I would so much like to participate, and will sure try and teach my dog new tricks, but unfortunately he has a hurt paw and still limps quite a lot
… Above all, nine years on his shoulder 
… If we decide to participate, you’ll be the first one to know, Honey, so no worries.
Happy belated birthday to Hsin-Yi! It sounds like you have a fantastic time.
Because I am decades behind on my blog reading, this is the first I have heard of the dancing contest and I just have to say, I think it is such an awesome idea! Too much fun! Shiva and I have never done freestyle before, never even thought of trying, because I lakc all coordination. Seriously. I can’t even do the most basic aerobic moves without falling over. Shiva of course would be a natural. It’s just too bad her handler sucks! However, maybe I should still give it a shot. Anything goes, right? Maybe I’ll even be able to add falling on my butt into our routine!
I am so excited now. It’s goint to be a blast! Thanks so much for putting all this together!
Hsin-Yi, I am so glad you’ve thought of this contest. I’ve been rather depressed since Penny had the cruciate operation, and it sometimes seems that we can’t do anything fun. (Of course, my blog shows how wrong I am, because we’ve just had to adjust to a new type of fun.)
I spent hours and hours turning our house upside down to find our old “tricks and dancing journal”, and I’ve found it! Now to spend hours on iTunes looking for music…
You have given Penny and me such a boost. Thanks!
LOVED the video of Mango and family preparing!
This post gave me hope, that we don’t have to do too much complicated stuff haha
as Bailey is still a puppy, she gets distracted so easily!
I’ll send you a picture of us soon, and we’ll begin working on this routine! As soon as Bailey um… wakes up and get off me-.- haha
xxx
We’ve had a lot of chaos in our house recently (Dad’s been sick, our bottom floor flooded, etc., etc.), so I have a feeling that a dance routine is not going to be in the cards. However, we are enjoying the antics of our friends who are up for the challenge! (Mom did actually buy the book you are giving away as a prize, and has been looking at it, marking some pages for things to try out on us…. We’ll keep you posted.) Sorry we can’t join in, but again, we can’t wait to see what are friends are up to!
*kissey face*
-Fiona and Abby the Hippobottomus
Uh oh! SOme teams have already STARTED! we’re in trouble. Haven’t even picked out a song yet…..OK, maybe I’ll go search my itunes now.
Honey your mom has such a great attitude. That post was very refreshing.
Thank you !
SOS: Hsin-yi and Honey you must help me! I think Kirsten has gone a bit bonkers… She is listening to music non-stop and doing different twists and turns around the house….I think a screw is loose in that head of hers…. And then earlier today, she came to me and says, “I’ve got it Zepplein?! I found our song.”
Whatever that means…So she had me get off my “lazy bum” (her words not mine) and practice some of the different tricks we have learned in the past. Apparently were putting together a dance. She is really excited about it and I’m am getting into it too
It is not something we have ever done before, but we always loved watching the videos of you and Hsin-yi doing your great routines 
Love and Slobbers,
Zeppelin and Kirsten
And the excitement builds! This is going to be HOOGE! Thank you for posting Mango’s planning video. He is, as always, Relentlessly Impressive. And you and Hsin-Yi offer such wonderful encouragement. We can’t wait to see all the dances. Oh, and we’re still looking for a doggie mirror ball trophy to add to the swag you’re giving away as prizes.
Jed & Abby
P.S. Don’t know whether you’ll be able to play it in your DVD machine, but mama is taping the last episodes of the Fringe season for Hsin-Yi. She’ll have to fast forward past the boring American commercials, though; mama’s willing to tape it, but she was watching something else. There may only be 3 new episodes left, but mama will tape 4 just to be on the safe side, as she can’t tell whether an episode is new or a repeat.
Hi Honey and Hsin-Yi,
We didn’t do any dance moves for ages so I had to think it over
for a while. But I think this is a great motivation to start to practise again,
so you can count us in!
Annemieke and Ximbo
I hope everyone’s having fun! I’m cheering for my fellow Mastiff!
Drools,
Thor
oh…. grrrrr. well maybe. but nothing for sure.
I think we are gonna give it a go!!
Licks,
Ruthie
ooh how exciting! I will talk to the human pup, and see if she wants to join up with our loan doggie, who loves a dance!
Just discovered your wonderful blog through the Meet & Greet Pawty! Love it! Looking forward to following you.
Power to the Pets from The Pet Book Lady! (aka Lisa Taron)
Hey, this is very tempting! I guess we will have to think about ita bit and maybe try it out. The coreography is hard to do for me but I guess it won’t hurt to give a go, right
Go Mango, Go, we can’t wait to see what you come up with. What’s the music, just whisper, we won’t tell anyone.