28 August 2018

'Balgay Kitang Po' - aka Finlay - one year, one whole year!!

It seems incredible, but we picked up Finlay from Aileen on the 28th August 2017, one year ago today. 

It is always going to be an adventure owning a puppy, any size/any breed, they are all an experience that you'll want to enjoy. But owning a puppy isn't easy. Settling into a new home, house training, chewing, innoculations, tantrums....so many things. But it is all worth it.

Finlay was the easiest puppy to settle in, he slept his first night without crying or complaint and has been like that pretty much every night since. House training felt like it took forever, but in reality it was pretty straight-forward. From the moment we got him he has been such a happy-go-lucky character, happy, smiley, waggy. Whether it is within our local area, my dads care home, the local shops or the dog showing circuit, everyone knows Finlay for the happy outgoing dog that he is. He melts everyone's heart and is a pleasure to own.

Now don't get me wrong, it isn't all roses, but it is all part of owning any dog. He isn't always the most obedient and compliant dog. Partly this is his own individual character and partly this is typical Tibbie. From quite a young age, he has been asserting what he believes are his rights as a developing male dog and it has taken a pretty firm hand to guide along and make sure he knows what is acceptable and what isn't. 

In certain circumstances you can rely on him to be unreliable. He isn't too bad off lead, but on occasions there isn't a treat in the world that is going to persuade him that coming back to us is the right thing to do. So off lead time is strictly limited to the safest of places. Open the front door and he's going to be out of it, I know where he'd go as we live just around the corner from a recreation ground which he loves and our road is relatively quiet. However, it is a circumstance that we just don't allow to happen. Tibbies and road sense, I've never met one that has any!

Dog showing....that was never on the cards when we got him. We asked Aileen if it was ok to show him, on the remote off-chance we ever did, "yes of course" she said. Hahahahahaaaaaa, the remote off-chance, we never saw that one coming. Whether Finlay has taken the dog showing world by storm we'll have to wait and see. Certainly FINLAY believes he has taken the dog showing world by storm - whether he wins or loses, he wags. That is all we'd ever ask of him really. The additional benefit of owning Finlay which we hadn't expected was all the new friends we'd gain as a result of the dog showing, so hello to you all!!

The puppy period, whilst sometimes difficult, is of course a complete joy and you don't ever want it to end. At 14 months old (getting on for 15) he is still very puppy at times and it is gorgeous to see. At some point he will grow up, and it seems to happen quite suddenly. Until then, we shall continue to enjoy puppy Finlay.

Here he is with a suitably regal Tibbie look on his face.

I'm posing dad!

This is a Finlay wagging compilation video. Here he is at various dog shows doing his thing, and he simply cannot do it without a tail wag. I love the last segment of the video which was during the Windsor Breeders Competition where the judge, Liz Cartledge, goes along the line of Tibbies and gets their attention - Finlay is the only one that gets a quick stroke under the chin for his cheekiness. What a star!

Finally, the part we didn't expect, the rosettes and prize cards that Finlay has won during the 8 months or so that we've been showing him. It is quite a collection for just one dog in a short period of time.

For those of you unaware, a red card or rosette is a first place.

12 August 2018

Finlay is 14 months old now, but we still call him a puppy....because he is.

Although he is growing up and in some ways he is showing signs of maturity, he is SO very puppy at times - and I wouldn't change that for the world. When you get a puppy, the time whizzes by, and they are such happy times but before you know where you are that puppy has grown up. My advice, take it all in and savour every moment of it, and in my case take 1,000s of photos and videos to look back on. You'll be glad you did.

Rough and tumble
When you are out and about with your dog, not every other dog you meet is going to be friendly, every experienced dog owner knows that. With the 2nd of our Tibbies, he was attacked by a black lurcher-type dog when he was only about 14 weeks old and despite everything we tried he was always likely to be grumpy with larger black dogs. The experience stayed with him, not helped by Tibbies being able to bear grudges for a lifetime! So we were anxious to avoid something like this happening again, but Finlay did find himself being attacked by a Tibetan Terrier (TT). 

My wife met this dog whilst out walking Finlay, the owner wasn't bothered but his dog was on a lead as was Finlay. Fin went up to this dog cautiously, rolled over on to his back.....so clearly sensed that the dog was dominant, so he did the right thing. A quick growl from the TT and he was attacking Finlay, he made contact and broke the skin on his ribcage. Finlay legged it and was very upset. "Is he an entire male" asked the owner, he is, "oh he can be a bit funny with entire male dogs". Well thanks very much. Following this, Finlay has been a bit cautious with other dogs and lost his confidence a bit. Nothing to worry about I think, he got a good telling off by a Tibbie recently, but he took it in his stride. He knows the difference between being put in his place (even very firmly) and plain aggression. It turns out that this TT is known in the area for being very unpredictable, shame we didn't know it sooner.....

It just goes to show that you always need to be on your guard. All we need to do now is avoid reinforcing any of Finlays anxieties, so far so good, but it isn't an easy task.

Feeding
Despite having times when he would eat and eat and eat, he can be a fussy little devil. He has been on a raw diet for around 5 months now and it really seems to suit him. He is putting on muscle and his coat is in great condition. We are on Natural Instinct complete raw food, which includes veg as well as the meat. He can be on a particular flavour, which seems like it is his favourite ever, then bam.....he stops eating it. Change flavour and he is off again. We have this cycle continually. The important thing is, he is doing well on it. 

(sorry about the next bit, but dog owners will understand) The nice thing for us about feeding raw, is what comes out of the other end. There is a) much less of it, b) it is much firmer than kibble-poo and finally c) it smells much less. 

He also enjoys raw beef bones, it keeps him occupied for ages licking out the marrow-bone. He doesn't have them very often, but they are a right treat for him. Spoiled dog, possibly!!

Rosettes
After all of the 17 dog shows we've been to this year, Finlay and Deb have amassed a rather impressive collection of Rosettes and prize cards. I put all the rosettes in a holder specially designed for the purpose and seem to have filled it completely up already. This is with just one dog in just 8 months, I hate to think how many some of our dog-showing friends have got laying around!!

As always a couple of photo's and video to finish. Fin does love a little paddle, not too deep but enough to wet his paws. He doesn't go full on swimming, yet.

Messin' around in the river....

This next one is yet another one of him waving, I already have several of this behaviour. He loves to wave, and in this case it was waving for a belly and chest rub. Well seriously, who could ignore this, I know I can't.....

6 August 2018

On Sunday 5th August, we (surprise surprise) went to another dog show and had more success winning Best Special Beginner at the SWTSC Open show. This lead me to thinking, what is it about Special Beginners?

This is how the kennel club classifies it:
https://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/activities/dog-showing/already-involved-in-dog-showing/special-beginners-competition/

This is the key criteria:
"For owner, handler or exhibit not having won a Challenge Certificate or Reserve Challenge Certificate, or for those breeds not allocated Championship Status, Best of Sex or Reserve Best of Sex at a Championship Show"

What this means is that new exhibitors and their dogs get a chance to compete on a more even level with other people at a similar stage of their dog showing 'career'. Many of the people showing their Tibbies have been doing so for many years and have so much experience, it can be difficult going up against them. It is a competition after all! But where Special Beginners classes are offered, Deb and Finlay know they have a fair chance of competing and that encourages us to both go to shows (both Open and Championship) and take extra classes which also means more experience showing. Actually, some of the people we meet at SB classes (the AV ones generally) have actually been showing quite a while, so they or their dogs aren't necessarily inexperienced, they just haven't won a CC or RCC yet.

Although we're new to this showing lark, I think Special Beginners (SB) is a fantastic initiative by the Kennel Club, and for us it is working. Of course we will blow this if we ever go and win a CC or RCC with Finlay, which at the moment seems a long way off :-)

We've entered into two main types of SB classes, either breed specific or Any Variety SB Stakes, where we meet loads of different breeds. We've had very good success with the breed SB classes, in fact Deb/Finlay have yet to be beaten in a breed SB class, which is pretty amazing. The AV SB Stakes are much harder. Sometimes these are AV or AV Utility, but either way, they are often pretty large classes, a dozen or so at least. So to get a placing at one of these classes is very satisfying but isn't easy, Deb/Finlay have managed it on a couple of occasions, but they haven't won one yet. 

What I like about the big SB stakes classes is getting a Tibbie 'seen' at this level. There are certain breeds that are there every single time we are in a stakes class, but not often are Tibbies seen. So I think we are given an opportunity that would be a shame to miss, so often you go to these stakes classes and quite a few entries do not turn up, often because they are still stuck in breed classes or couldn't, for whatever reason, stay for the class. That is a shame. We've had two cracks at the SB Utility Group, one of which we came Group 4, which I gather was quite a coup. These groups are always right at the end of the show, and at 4pm after a long day with a 2 hour+ drive home, it would be easy to give up and go home, but we've been good so far!

I don't think I'd have a different view on Special Beginners if Deb/Finlay hadn't been so successful in this area! But then you always sing when you're winning..... ;-)

30 July 2018

There's no business like (dog) showing business!

How many?
Those fateful words were uttered late in 2017, when we decided we'd try a few dog shows to see how we got on with it and crucially how Finlay would enjoy it. So far in 2018 we've now done 16 dog shows! Not at all the plan, but we have had a lot of fun and learned loads in the process. I've no idea how long we will keep up with this level of showing, we've certainly got several more shows already entered and an upcoming 'diary' of potential shows. 

Learning
My wife soon learned that Finlay was not going to be an easy dog to show. He was around 7 months old when she first showed him and despite going to half a dozen ringcraft sessions, he was somewhat 'wild'. Therefore the thing you learn quite quickly is that you need an obedient dog, regardless of the dog showing. No matter whether your dog is a splendid example of the breed or not, the dog needs to show the judge what it is made of, and leaping and skipping his way around the ring, ain't going to cut it! So working with Finlay over the next few months was not only a good foundation for dog showing, but generally in a dogs life, you want the dog to do what you say. In truth he was quite good at doing what we said OUTSIDE of the show ring, but not so good in the ring. Practice, practice, practice!

Finlay turned out to be a very wilful dog, who liked to get his own way. The cheeky puppy in him allowed him to get away with murder, which is fine up to a point. You never want that cheeky puppy to go away, but equally you need some level of control. The most recent show we went to at Dorset County Canine Society was where a lot of that training suddenly came together. Finlay knew what he was doing, when to turn, to not wag too much at the judge.

The jargon
I think you dog showing people forget just how much there is to learn in the dog showing world and all the seemingly weird things that happen. But we're grateful for all the advice we've received (you know who you are) and the guidance on which ring to be in, what winning this class means. 

"Are you going to enter into Puppy, or Junior or Limit"?. What?

The first time we won a Special Beginners class, "now you're not going home early, you need to stay for the group" - the what?

"Now you've won best Tibbie puppy, you've got to stay for the puppy group" - the what?

"That dog gets to come into the ring because the dog that won the CC was the only one that has beaten it" - what?

"Are you counting the points for your Junior Warrant" - the Junior what?

That is just a sample of all the things we've learned in 2018.

The future
We've got a gorgeous, cheeky, full of character, loving Tibbie - we'll always have that no matter whether we show him or not. I think you will all be nodding your head at this point. So we'll show Finlay, he'll have good days and bad days, WE will have good days and bad days, but there is the social side as well. Swapping Tibbie stories, weather stories, terrible traffic on the way home stories, is all part of the day. We've got the bug right now, that's for sure.

Here are some videos of Finlay's journey. The video below was taken at Taunton Open show in early January 2018. This was Finlay when he was really not happy on the table, with some stranger wanting to look at his teeth. It is funny looking back on it now, it probably wasn't that funny for Deb at the time :-)

Next up is another Taunton video, this time of Finlay 'walking' around the ring. Whoa up there my boy, where are you off to. Thankfully he does a bit better than this now. Someone said to us recently just how much work we'd done with Finlay to bring him into line, you don't tend to notice on a show by show basis.....but it is part of the reason why I take so many pictures and videos, it gives you good evidence of what is now and what was then.

To compare, let's look at a video from last Sunday's show at Dorset County. A dog who, although still wags at the judge, is able to stay settled on the table and walk around the ring doing exactly as he is told. No mean feat, because as anyone who shows dogs knows these equestrian centres (well, anywhere really) always have really interesting smells on the floor which are far more interesting than bumbling around a show ring.