28 January 2018

I'll say this now, up front. I don't know how long we will be showing Finlay or indeed doing dog showing in general. But one thing is for sure, the number one priority is whether Finlay is enjoying the experience and it has to be said from his limited experience so far, he is indeed enjoying it. He loves meeting dogs and people and a dog show gives him the chance to do both. His tail must be worn out from all the wagging it has done today, what a star.

So we drove over to Bognor Regis for the Chichester Canine Society for their open dog show and what fun and even some success we had. As you may have seen on Facebook Finlay did the following today:

- Second in Tibetan Spaniel Junior, 4 in the class (he was the only Minor Puppy)

- Best Tibetan Spaniel Puppy (although he was the only puppy)

- Second out of approx. 12 in Any Variety Minor Puppy

- Fourth out of five in the Puppy Utility Group

All this at the tender age of 7 and a bit months old, which cannot be underestimated. He is a pleasure to watch (but I would say that) as he wags and smiles his way through the whole process. Wags at the other dogs and wags and kisses the judge, or at least he would do the latter given half the chance! OK as the video below will show, he isn't perfect with showing his teeth, but he is SO much better than he was only 3 weeks ago at his last show, where he got Pauline'd (some of you will know this story, and if you'd been Pauline'd, you'd know :-) )

In other news, we've moved Finlay over to a raw food diet. Everyone who owns a dog (any animal, probably) has their own version of diet and do you know what, they are all fine if they work for you and your animal. Finlay wasn't fussy with food exactly, but equally he was never that inspired by it. He'd eat kibble or 'normal' wet food, but he could take or leave it. With the raw diet he's been on, he absolutely gobbles it back first time, every time. Having had a couple of recommendations we've gone with 'Natural Instinct' brand food. I'll admit we're not massively keen on the prospect of raw chicken knocking about (other flavours will become available when he gets older), but with careful hygiene hopefully we'll be fine. Let's face it, our dogs sniff and stick their faces in a far lot worse when they are out on their walks. So far the, errr, output, from Finlay seems to be better for the raw food too. His poo has had a tendency to be a bit squitty, which largely seems to gave gone away. We'll monitor him closely and see how it goes, but so far so good.

This is pretty much Finlay throughout the entire dog show, smiling and wagging - the latter may not be obvious, but see how his tail is out of focus!

Smiling boy

Second in the Any Variety Minor Puppy class, second to a rather magnificent Dobermann

Finlay, winner of the tail wagging Olympics!

17 January 2018

Finlay is now nearly 7.5 months old, or nearly 32 weeks old.

We've been working hard with Finlay on us being the "boss", it seems to be working. We've had very few grumpy growls from him and getting him off of the furniture just requires a firm "off" and he gets off without question. I say without question, certainly without grumbling but often not without play-bowing or some fun gestures, because let's face it, being where you are not supposed to be is great fun. Photo to show that down below!

Something we were also keen to do was try Finlay with some swimming. For health reasons we swam our previous Tibbie Nemo and he got on ok with it, although he was never the biggest fan. But we wanted Finlay to not be scared of swimming or the water, I know a lot of dogs are a natural in water, but still. A friend of ours runs a local dog hydrotherapy pool and she is brilliant and we already know Finlay loves her (well, he loves everyone). So we took him along and although the session was fairly short, he did really well.

He walks in via a ramp which gradually goes into the pool and as soon as he was offered, he swam. What a star, after a few laps around the pool he was out. The next bit he was fine with surprisingly, which was a shower and shampoo. However, the next part was drying with a strong 'air blaster', and that he did object to. We got there in the end, but he wasn't as dry as we would have liked. Then big fuss and treats at the end which he loved. So in summary, it is another thing Finlay has taken in his stride, I wouldn't say the next time he sees water he'll jump in, but at least we know he won't be scared or sink!

Another milestone this week was wearing his dog coat. We aren't one for dressing our dogs up, but they have always worn a dog coat when it is bucketing down with rain, as it did this week. Finlay has resolutely refused to walk anywhere in a coat up until now, and it has been a source of growling. But this week, he not only wore it without swearing, he actually walked in it absolutely no problem. Perhaps the boy is growing up and starting to be a bit more confident.

Here is Finlay on the furniture, he isn't allowed up there and he knows it. Because he is still young it isn't so much the getting up as the getting down, we didn't want him jumping down from high places and jarring young bones. Getting up is ridiculously easy for him and has been since he was about 4 months old. Don't you just love the cheeky face though....

Clever or what dad!!

Here is a video of him at swimming, the eyes are a bit wide but he is a really strong swimmer for one so young.

7 January 2018

The 6th January 2018 was going to be a big day in Finlay's history, it was to be his first dog show, in Taunton. Something he has been preparing for, for a couple of months. It was also his first night away at a hotel (Travelodge).

We really wanted to test out how he would be at a hotel, because we want to be able to go away with him without issue. He was a star, he did woof the place down at 1am (sorry other hotel guests!) but to be fair that wasn't his fault, some people stomped loudly down the corridor and any self-respecting Tibbie would woof at that. So other than that, he slept like a baby all night. So he passed THAT test with flying colours.....so onto the dog showing, would he pass that test also?

As well as worrying about how Finlay would perform, my wife was stressing about how she would get on with showing. The overall feeling from the day was one of success, in terms of our learning and Finlay's experience, even if not in terms of a prize haul! Finlay was entered into two classes because we wanted him to get the most from the day, so he went in Tibbie Junior and Any Variety Utility Minor Puppy. In the Junior class he showed ok on the table but as usual we struggled with showing his teeth, on the floor his walking was not brilliant, a bit distracted. In the AV Minor Puppy he walked a LOT better because by then he was a bit exhausted and had calmed down, plus Pauline had been working on him, but more on that in a minute.

Then a success, he won best Tibbie puppy. It seems the seasoned exhibitors would just ignore that he was in fact the ONLY Tibbie puppy entry, I.e. he came first in a class of one. The fact is, he won best puppy on his first outing, which we are very happy with.

But in addition to the dog showing, we got to meet some of the Tibbie showing crowd, who were fantastic. We learned more in the few hours in Taunton than we had at many hours in ringcraft. The main star was Pauline Bevis supported by Sarah and Pam. It turns out that we both got our wrists slapped for not being tough enough with Finlay and as a result he has been taking liberties, getting too big for his boots. A few minutes with Pauline had him walking better (I didn't see this, but apparently Finlay was a bit 'unruly') and in a separate session had him showing his teeth nicely following some firm handling. It was a joy to see Finlay working and how quick he learns (of course he quickly learns the bad things as well!). 

If you've ever watched a dog training programme on the TV, where a dog trainer has taken the errant dog and within seconds seemingly cured them of whatever problem they had. I've seen this and thought "yeah right that was staged for the telly". Well I've witnessed it first hand now, and it looks like a miracle when you see it 'before your very eyes'. In fact it isn't a miracle it is just someone very experienced working with your dog, and Pauline used all the tips she's learned to show us how it is done. It's just us she's got to train now.....

The biggest worry now is that if Finlay isn't performing perfectly to "teeth" next time Pauline sees him, we are going to be in SO MUCH trouble!! (us, not Finlay this time!!)

So after 5 hours or so at the show, the 3 of us came away exhausted but elated and talked about nothing else on the drive home. We have 3 more shows planned, with the hope that by the South West Tibetan Spaniel show in March, we will have a dog that is ready to not come last in his class - we don't care where he does come, just not last!

The other key take away from the day and by far the most important, was that Finlay enjoyed himself. He wagged all day, smiled at and kissed loads of humans and dogs. It would be pointless dragging him along if he hated it.....bless him, he isn't a shy dog!!!!

If you are interested in my photo/video album from the day, visit https://photos.app.goo.gl/RPnZLEbNkMfhCJ9Q2 for more photos, otherwise here is a selection....

The 'medal' haul from Taunton

I'm doing my best show stand!

What are they up to?

Here is Finlays better run, towards the end of the day. Had some practice now!

Here he is on the table, bit of a handful!!

3 January 2018

The first blog of 2018 and the first one in a while.

Finlay is still doing splendidly well and is approaching 7 months old and 7kg in weight. As it was his first Christmas there were lots of new things for him to see and do. His first encounter with a Christmas tree went surprisingly well, it was a small 5ft fibre optic tree and he actually wasn't that keen on it - I don't think he liked the fibre strands sticking in him, so he steered well clear. He had some presents to open on Christmas day and he even needed some guidance as to what to do, unlike our previous Tibbies who loved ripping open paper parcels (especially the one's they weren't supposed to).

He is now going for slightly longer walks and loves the wettest muddiest fields and woods, he might look clean and fluffy at the beginning, but he often doesn't look that way by the end of the walk! He also loves the skate ramp at our local park, he particularly loves getting some 'air' and often breaks into a puppy zoomie going up and down and 'round and 'round the ramps.

Jumping.....he loves to. Our previous Tibbies, one in particular (Louie), was as agile as Finlay but did not have the drive and desire to jump up or over things. Finlay sees everything as a challenge - I don't need to jump up there, but I'm going to bloomin well try. His nose will touch my elbow when I'm preparing Finlays dinner and he can get his head and shoulders above the height of a stairgate. It is only a matter of time before he tries the stairgate jump. He broke through the stairs stairgate to come and join me in the bathroom this morning and jumped straight into the bath without hesitation. Bit of a strange move Finlay and you may come to regret that one day!

Woofing.....he loves to. I have commented on the woofing before and it has continued. He is very noise sensitive right now and hopefully he will grow out of this a bit. Wind making the house make funny noises, other dogs barking, odd sounds on the TV, many new sounds such as me clattering around in the garage - they all need woofing at. The TV in particular can be a right pain as he runs up to the TV and jumps up at it, which I'm not overly impressed with.

He also has woofed when we've left him at night, but this is a different woofing. Since we've had him, he has slept down in the kitchen, without issue. However, a few times over the last few weeks when we've left him he woofs. Sometimes briefly, on a couple of occasions for 60 minutes or more. This is a woof that says "I've decided I don't want to sleep down here on my own, I want to sleep upstairs with you". Well....we have done that with previous dogs, but we'd rather not with Finlay if it can be avoided. So far he seems to have accepted we won't come down to his woofing, and it seems to have stopped now....we'll see!

Growling....he's trying it out for size. As he is over 6 months old now, he is trying out his authority as the amount of testosterone in him increases. We need to nip this in the bud, so down a peg or two he needs to come....

Visiting my dad in his care home. We hoped Finlay would take to this and he has, he loves meeting people and he knows his way around the care home now. I think if we let him off the lead, he'd go from the lobby to the lift and then straight to dads room. In all seriousness I wonder whether he would make a good pat dog, the care home encourage dogs to come in and although Finlay has been a bit boisterous he is beginning to show signs of calming down and will sit on dads lap and let him stroke him. He is still a bit liable to jump up and lick dads face, which he isn't keen on, but dad loves to see him and Finlay loves to be there. All the staff do too!

Here is a recent picture of Finlay, looking slightly superior, as Tibbies like to

Finlay loves balls. We've had this treat ball for a few years, but Finlay had never seen it. So this is a video of the first time he played with it, it just has kibble in it. Finlay has had many great sessions bouncing it off all of our furniture, doesn't stop until it is empty

Talking of balls, this one squeaks. And squeaks, and squeaks, and squeaks......

Tibetan Spaniel puppy play date. Finlay met his friend Jinpa again recently. He met him a couple of months ago and we wondered whether he might remember him. Haha! Remember him, he positively fell in love with him, they both played and played and kissed. Even trying to separate them briefly for a breather results in sqinneying and crying from both of them.

Me and my mate

Loves ya!