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!