10 March 2019

Where to begin! 

Everyone has heard of Crufts, surely?! Either you are not into dogs but you've heard of Crufts, or you are into dogs and dog showing and maybe dream about one day showing your dog at Crufts. This became a reality for us in April 2018 when we won our class at the WELKS Championship dog show and someone said "that's it, you've qualified Finlay for Crufts now", it really hadn't occurred to us until that point. We booked our hotel room almost straight away, there was no chance we were going to miss our first opportunity to show our dog at Crufts. 

Thousands of dogs and their owners head to Crufts each year, and realistically your chances of winning Best In Show are minuscule. You'll know from your results during the year whether you've got a chance of winning your class, and probably you already know the top winning dogs from the year are likely to be your competition if you get any further than winning your class, so unless you are one of those top winning dogs, then it is down to how it goes on the day. Then even if you do win Best of Breed, you're into the group and you've got another 20-30 dogs to beat....all of whom are going to be very special dogs. So we went along dizzy with excitement at just being there with Finlay, a chance for him to show off to the world and have a fun day. Finlay treated it just like any other show, a place to meet people and dogs and say hello. Even though Deb and Finlay have only been showing for a year, they found themselves in the spotlight, so to speak. Through Finlay we have met so many lovely people, and no matter what you think of dog showing, if you like dogs you are in a building with thousands of other dogs and dog loving people, it is a win-win really.

It is hard to imagine that only one year before we came to Crufts to take part on the Discover Dogs stand. As for the actual dog showing, I'm not sure how much Deb took in because she was quite nervous, but on the day they both did incredibly well.

Deb had decided to put Finlay into the Post Graduate class and there were 9 dogs present from an entry of 10. Right from the start a placing was going to be tough. Finlay did his usual performance and proved to be the happiest Tibetan Spaniel, wagging his way through the whole affair. Our judge Liz Scoates decided that Finlay was worthy of a third place in our class, which was amazing. To get a placing at Crufts at the first time of asking, an achievement we couldn't have imagined. It makes me wonder, I've said many times that we didn't intend to show Finlay, but fell into it and got hooked. How many other 'pet' Tibetan Spaniels are out there that could do well at shows? An entry for Crufts of 160-odd dogs is fantastic, but how many more would it be if we could persuade more people into the showing life which really isn't so bad after all. All of this took place on the last Sunday of Crufts, but Finlay was there on Friday as well, for a different competition.....

The Breeders Competition. I've seen this on the TV before in previous years, it never occurred to me that Deb and Finlay would ever be taking part. But Aileen asked Deb and Finlay during 2018 to be part of the Balgay team and she also asked them to take part in the final, amazing! 40 teams of 3 or 4 dogs reach the Crufts final and all (potentially) 160 dogs are in the ring at the same time. When I say ring, I mean the Best In Show main arena, it is quite a spectacle. The team along with Deb and Finlay made their way around the ring looking like they had done it 100 times before, Finlay wasn't in the least bit intimidated by the big ring (none of the dogs were). I know Aileen really wanted to get shortlisted like they did last year, and they did. But to then get Group 4 was just brilliant. It was a fantastic day, it was a long day, and it was a very special day. I really love my chosen breed, and every opportunity to get the Tibetan Spaniel noticed a little bit more is a good thing in my book.

The photo's begin with what you'd expect, the lovely rosettes!

Breeders Competition rosettes

Third at Crufts, can't be bad

I leave you with the 'effervescent' Finlay (thank you Maureen for coining this phrase), not actually taken at Crufts but taken at the South West Tibetan Spaniel Club show the week before Crufts. All the time Finlay is doing this at a dog show, we know all is well. He is always so eager to please.

The wagger

4 March 2019

Finlay is nearly 21 months old now.....

Crufts - there is a really big deal coming up for team Finlay, the biggest dog show we've ever been to, the biggest dog show in the world. Deb and I have been going to Crufts since the mid-1990's as spectators and last year we went with Finlay to the Discover Dogs stand. But this year Finlay will be in the ring, qualified for Crufts and his first time in the Crufts ring (and for Deb). We cannot wait. I think probably for many exhibitors of Tibetan Spaniels it is something fairly routine, something they've done many times before....can you remember your first time? 

This year it isn't like we're only doing Crufts once, we're going twice. We are in the Team Balgay Tibetan Spaniel Breeders competition. I know Deb is really proud to represent Finlay's breeder Aileen in this special event. We are going on Friday for the judging, and all 40 teams that qualified will get their moment in the main arena, how special is that. No pressure whatsoever.....

Day to day life - although at dog shows mostly people will just see the happiest Tibbie with the biggest wag, inevitably when you are with a dog 24/7 you get to see their whole character. Finlay is a young adolescent dog, and he is also pretty headstrong and likes to be in charge. Although most dogs he meets with he is instantly friends with, he is a bit stand-offish with larger dogs who stare at him and at the moment young puppies seem to need to be brought in line with a stiff talking to. He forgets that it wasn't that long ago he was the mad puppy in everyone's faces. He is very different at a Tibbie show though, much more tolerant.....I know other Tibbie owners have said this, but they really DO know their own kind.

Finlay also gets a bit freaked out by the silliest things, he doesn't like his walking harness despite being trained on it from a young puppy. He makes a right fuss about getting it put on and then once it is on he couldn't care less about it, the same with his dog raincoat. It is almost a fear reaction, but we're working on it. 

Also he is a noisy little devil. He does like to woof a lot in the garden, particularly at night. Sometimes it is woofing because another dog is woofing, but other times it just seems to be because he enjoys woofing. I don't think there is anything he is trying to warn us about. We haven't had any neighbours knocking at our door yet, so it can't be too bad.

Weave! I published a video a while back showing Finlay doing some weaving between Deb's legs, he can still do this and he has progressed to weaving as Deb walks forwards. If we could be bothered I'm convinced that he could learn a lot more. Our other 2 Tibbies were both very intelligent (one intelligent and up for the challenge, the other intelligent but far too lazy) but neither were as clever as Finlay.....we're yet to figure out if this is entirely a good thing!! He learns new things VERY quickly, sometimes even before we realise we've taught him something. We will do more with him, next on the list is the Good Citizen dog scheme I think.

Kennels. He has had a single night trials in some local-ish kennels and he did ok. The plan was he was going to be in a 'social kennel' because he is a generally social dog. However, he was a bit to 'social' and ended up trying to hump every dog he met. So the kennel decided that it was best if Finlay was in a kennel on his own. Oh well. So he is booked for a 2 night stay later this month and then maybe a full week so we can go away somewhere abroad on holiday. I'm sure he will be fine, he didn't seem at all distressed by his first night away. We'll see how it works out.

A few photo's as usual

How many Tibbie owners get this view, quite a few I'd wager. This is Finlay's relaxed position, sometimes referred to as a "sploot"

What a view.....

Something I know applies to many Tibetan Spaniels, a love of climbing. Why walk around a pile of logs when you can climb to the top of them. Finlay does get a lot of long walks and walks around lots of interesting places. One of the many things I love about him is his agility, he just bounces up obstacles and back down so easily. It will get him into trouble one day!

Gotta climb to the top

One of Finlay's favourite places in the garden is the 'rocking-bench'. It swings back and forth, and Finlay loves to lay there....it is so much better than the cold damp grass don't you know!

My chair now....