We were very privileged recently to go to Crufts at the NEC Birmingham. Privileged because we were invited by Finlay's breeder, Aileen McDonald, to come and help out on the Tibetan Spaniel Discover Dogs stand.
We had an early start on Saturday 11 March 2018 to travel up to Birmingham. Luckily Finlay is fine travelling in the car and slept all the way there and all the way back - except for a break to 'stretch his legs'. As I have detailed on this blog before, Finlay is not really a shy dog and takes everything in his stride, that said we were a bit nervous as to how Finlay would take Crufts. It is always busy there but particularly at the weekend. But guess what, Finlay loved every minute of it. We arrived at Crufts just before 10am and left at nearly 6pm and I don't think his tail stopped wagging the whole time.
We were constantly stopped by people wondering what breed of dog he was, making a fuss of him and that was before we even got to the Discover Dogs stand. Finlay wagged, smiled and kissed everyone who he met. Perhaps not quite meeting the "aloof" part of his breed standard just yet. But very much meeting the excitable loving puppy part.....
We met Taggart and Paris who are Finlay's litter brother and sister, we met Spencer his dad and we met Parker who is his Uncle. It has to be said, the two that struck up an immediate friendship were Finlay and Parker, they got on like a house on fire and they look SO similar even we got confused which was which. We also met the "Grannies from the West", and predictably Finlay loved them too, one of them got many-many kisses and he even went for a quick walk with Granny too. Finlay also of course met Aileen, and he did seem to go extra 'gaga', so I think he remembered her with extra kisses and wags....
He met so many people on the stand, they stroked him and fussed him and he just stood there and wagged and smiled. A couple of girls in particular went home begging their mums, not for a Tibetan Spaniel, but for a "Finlay". The following day he really should have been totally worn out, but he wasn't, he was still raring to go.
It was a really special day and a day to remember. None of it would make sense if we were dragging a dog along to something he didn't like doing -- but he absolutely loves it. Maybe during the next few months we will be able to qualify Finlay and next year he will attend Crufts again, but this time to take part. We will see.
I didn't take many pictures on the day as we were too busy herding Finlay around the halls of the NEC. But I really love this picture of Finlay kissing his Uncle......Parker is a gorgeous boy too!
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| Finlay on the left, Uncle Parker on the right |
The two boys again, how similar are they!
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| Finlay on the right, Parker on the left |
This was about as close to his brother as Finlay got, bottom to bottom!
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| Taggart on the left, Finlay in the middle, Parker on the right |
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