17 November 2017

Finlay is 23 weeks old (5 months) today and now weighs 5.8kg - so has doubled in weight since we've had him.

He's still going to ringcraft every Tuesday, which he absolutely loves because he gets to meet loads of people and dogs. Performance-wise he is showing glimpses of what he could do, but there is still a long way to go before he strolls around the ring like a pro. He can walk to heel very well when we are out on a normal dog walk so that is promising.

Big event announcement......!! I have talked before about the razor sharp puppy teeth. Well as does happen with puppy teeth, Finlay has lost two of them this week, the boy really is growing up. He actually brought me the 2nd one, I was washing up and he dropped something on my foot and then mouthed it around the floor. I asked him what he had and he picked it up and showed it to me, sure enough there was a tooth. Related I think to the lack of teeth, he does stick his tongue out a lot, it looks a bit comical. Hopefully it isn't something that will continue!

When we are out on a walk, the vast majority of wee's are now leg cocks, in fact every lamp post, telegraph pole and bollard has to be visited. Fin does still 'dip' to go for a wee, but these are getting less and less.

As I said at the start, he has doubled in weight since we've had him and people are telling us he is growing up fast. Here he is asleep in his bed, it isn't obvious here but this is a larger bed than his first one:

Tibetan Spaniels are always able to provide some humour, Finlay is doing so every day. He likes to lay on the hearth and entangle himself with the gas fire.....the fire isn't on I hasten to add. You can see from the picture below that he looks a right sight.

Finally, we went out for a walk one evening around a posh local estate, outside some big gates were a couple of stone dogs, very large. The Great Dane statue was probably 5 foot tall. Finlay initially hadn't spotted them, but suddenly did and froze. He obviously recognised it as a dog but of course it didn't have any smell. So he nervously walked a bit closer and laid down sniffing the air. After a short period he decided the best course of action was to run away, pretty reasonable really. We'll have to take him back there in the daylight where he can see better. It is one of the few times when we've seen him back away from an encouter:

1 December 2017

Well dear reader, Finlay is now 25 weeks old and 6.5kg. He is just one week off his 6 month birthday. Incredible.

This week saw another milestone for the boy. He has begun continually breaking into the other part of the garden, he is now too tall for the defences so he glides over them with disdain. So we have opened the gate and allowed him access to all of 'his' garden. He is investigating every last corner with glee. More to the point, he isn't being destructive or potentially doing himself harm by eating things he shouldn't. So it won't be long and the dividing fence may well come down.

He is a very agile dog, more along the lines of our first Tibbie, Louie. He is able to easily get onto the sofa and chairs in the front room and up the stairs. He is a glory to behold. Of course this agility does come with pitfalls in terms of him growing up to be a right escape artist, but we'll see.

He is finding his feet as a young male dog too, being very assertive at times, so we are having to keep him in check as best we can. It is really difficult because in the one breath he can be SO cute and in the other a little git. He still throws his puppy teeth around with gusto at times, so stern words have been dished out. Those puppy teeth are still falling out and he is growing a fine set of adult teeth too.

He has been on lots of different walks now and he is enjoying exploring his patch. He is not afraid of mud (likes to drink out of the muddiest of puddles) and undergrowth....he is a go anywhere Tibbie!

Having said Finlay is very confident, and he is most of the time, I think he is at that second fear stage of his development. He does woof a bit in the garden at night, which is a cross between defending his territory and woofing at what seems like nothing. We have had foxes in the garden before, but I don't think there is now. Finlay is also reactive to strange sounds on the television and outside. Hopefully just a stage he's going through and he'll grow out of it. He has been trying out his woof for size quite a lot, we don't want a woof-ey dog really, our previous two were pretty quiet dogs. Finlay has a woof for every occasion.....

This is Finlay in the back of the car after a walk, looking suitably cute:

Demonstrating just how easy it is to get up onto the sofa. Trouble is getting down is seen as a great game and stern "off" words don't always cut it. He has been known to growl slightly when gently pushing the bum off the sofa. That kind of behaviour won't be tolerated, don't let the butter wouldn't melt look fool you!

This next one is just a random quick photo, just to show the ear fluff development, he'd been brushed not long before. He's still got that white flash on his chin too....

26 November 2017

Finlay is now 24 weeks old.

The boy continues to grow up and become less puppy to look at, although still very much puppy in his brain and mannerisms. He is still capable of being very very cute but also capable of being quite a handful. He is already showing the stubborn streak that Tibbies are known for. He enjoys going out for a walk, but does not enjoy either having his harness put on or being put in the car, so will go out of his way to be awkward and hide given the chance.

He continues to lose puppy teeth and has lost at least 4 now, the sharp needle like canines still remain and are still able to draw blood however! He went to ringcraft again on Tuesday and it wasn't a very good day. Finlay still goes there to play and not perform, and as such means that by the time he has been there 15 minutes he has worn himself out and then is tired and slow when in the ring. He shows flashes of what could be, but needs more practice yet. He can perform much better when out of that environment, he can sit and stand very well when not distracted and walk to heel.

Getting to view his teeth, such as they are, is still a big challenge. He wriggles and bites when you try and get to the teeth, despite lots of practice. He gives every indication that right now the mouth is just too sore to be messed with. Certainly with him loosing teeth and wanting to chew a lot, this must be the case. We had a small piece of house damage down to chewing, some skirting board in the kitchen bit the dust yesterday, the little monkey.

We are looking for a few dog shows to book him in to early in the new year. It will be interesting/fun/scary to see how that one goes!!

As usual some photos. I've posted pictures before of Finlay and the fire, the fire is switched off or a guard is put in front of it. But Fin is obsessed with laying on the edge of the fire hearth and wrapping himself around the fire. It looks so uncomfortable, but he loves to do it. It is interesting to note just how much harder it is for him now as he is growing bigger. As a small puppy he fitted here easily....

Then another waving video. Finlay goes into waving mode very easily. My wife had picked him up and he immediately starting waving his front paws at me and it isn't difficult to get him to continue. I think he would do it for hours - it is SO cute!

Here's another video of him out on a walk. He is quite reliable off the lead so far, although there are only very specific places that we allow him off lead. He isn't fazed by getting filthy dirty either, the muddier the better!

10 November 2017

Finlay is 22 weeks old today.

Still no sign of that puppy growing up mentally, even if he is growing physically. He is still so mad keen to meet other dogs, standing up wagging, licking their muzzles, play bowing, zoomies. It is lovely to watch and both so cute and a bit exasperating at times. Cute for obvious reasons but exasperating because he is such a full time job to keep on the straight and narrow.

Training is going well, he will walk to heel and stand - the latter is very much still a work in progress because he naturally plonks his bum on the ground so we are working on treating the "stand" as quickly as we can before it goes wrong. Recall is pretty good too. Ringcraft was probably similar to the previous week in that there are so many distractions and Finlay can't ignore them just yet. His tail doesn't stop wagging for 90 minutes, wagging at every person and dog :-)

He is also throwing his weight around a little bit, which we are having to keep in check. His age and development mean that testosterone is beginning to course around his veins and he is beginning to find his feet and getting ideas above his station. So some occasional firm handling and commands are necessary to make sure he realises that my wife is the leader of the pack....as for me, well not sure I outrank Finlay.....but I'm trying!

Here are a few recent pictures of the boy.

Got some food for me?

I'm watching you from my house!

Finlay loves to lay on the hearth, I guess it is cool. He used to fit not that long ago, but he doesn't now. But that doesn't stop him. We're wondering whether we'll have to have the fire taken out to give him room - only silly dog-people would even consider such madness!

I Don't fit!

5 November 2017

Fireworks night.....or indeed Fireworks weekend!

I hate Fireworks, I've said it before and I'll say it again every single year. They are unnecessary and the focus has completely gone away from the "celebration" and it is all about who can make the most noise. So many of the things just make massively loud bangs, that is it. No visual spectacle at all.

We are so lucky that Finlay has paid them little attention, save for a few woofs at the loudest ones. The thing is that the most laid back animal can been spooked, and just because Finlay is fine now does not mean that he will always be. This was how it was with Louie, fine for the first 2 years of his life, then spooked by fireworks in May totally out of season and totally unexpected, he was frightened so much on that night, he then had 11 years of hell and if you've had a dog scared of fireworks you'll know it is absolute hell to watch.

We actually had more fireworks here on the 4th November than we did on the 5th November, which is frankly ridiculous. But enough of all that, it just makes me angry, the main thing is we got through this year and gave Finlay the best chance we could of him not being scared of them. We sprayed his bedding with DAP spray and also some product we bought from Pets At Home that I saw recommended on the Tibetan Spaniel Facebook page, some Beaphar Calming Spot On. I honestly don't know whether any of it was necessary and in fact Finlay would have ignored them anyway, but that doesn't matter. All he will remember is sleeping through most of them and not being scared.

Here are a couple of more pictures from a few I took after he had been groomed. Deb grooms him on the table partly because it is much easier, but also because it is a good moment to practice some show tactics, getting him to stand....which he does quite well.

Pretty relaxed....

Stickin' me nose in the air

Mum has been fluffin' me ears up!

3 November 2017

Finlay is 21 weeks old today!

Well this week Finlay has been getting a taste of the show world. On Tuesday he went to ringcraft again and on Wednesday he went to a local dog show held by the Romsey & District Canine Society.

Ringcraft.....well he did a lot better. This is his third visit and he still sees it as a massive opportunity to play and socialise, not necessarily to work. But when you are that young, who can blame him. He really enjoys it there, which is of course the most important thing. He gets loads of fuss and attention, lots of treats and gets to walk around a ring and get handled by a couple of lovely people on the table. So what's not to like. On the table he is still a bit too keen to kiss the judge, his tail never stops wagging. Walking around the ring he did pretty well, by far the best he's done. He had his distractions, but we were very pleased with how he went around. Deb is doing lots of practice when out on our walks and he is starting to do "heel" quite well, and "watch me" and "stand" are coming on nicely. He really does pick stuff up very quickly, although being a Tibbie he obviously picks and chooses when he will pull these tricks out of the hat!

The show.....again, lots of attention, the chance to meet some other Tibbies and loads of other dogs. Finlay loved it. The venue wasn't the best because it is done in a horse riding school arena and the floor is covered in a kind of wool mixed with horse poo and goodness knows what. Finlay was very keen on eating it, and showing your dog there must be a nightmare. But despite that Finlay wasn't fazed by the venue and just left wanting more.

He is definitely growing now and we took some pictures today and he is looking decidedly leggy. He met lots of dogs down the park today including a massive (in terms of physical bulk) Frenchie x Old English Bulldog who was 10 months old. Initially he looked a bit scary to us (not to Finlay) doing high speed fly-pasts....but once they met properly they had the most gentle play-time, the Frenchie cross laid down and they really had fun. It was lovely to see.

So a few random photos of Finlay. This first one was from earlier today after Deb had groomed him, it is possibly one of the best shots I've ever taken of him. Though I say this myself....isn't he adoreable!!

This one gives you an idea of how he is standing now, clever boy!

The paws, he is very animated with his paws when he wants something....

Look at me!

29 October 2017

On Friday, Finlay was 20 weeks old - 4.5 months old and growing up fast. When we meet people locally they keep saying "hasn't he grown".

I've been a bit remiss this last week with no blog updates, but it has been a busy week with the puppy. He went to another ringcraft session on Tuesday. His first session was just an introduction so the second visit was a chance to see how he would settle. I think he is fine on the table with the judge looking him over. He is very waggy and just wants to make a big fuss of the judge, which although endearing, is something he will have to rein in a bit. His journey around the ring needs a lot of work though. Right now there is just so much distraction from other people and dogs. Fin just wants to stop and say hello to everyone - there were a couple of good moments where Deb got his attention and he moved nicely.

Deb has been doing some practice with various commands whilst out on our walks, he has done lots of "heel" "watch me" and "stand". In isolation he can do all 3 when he is on top form. All he has to do is do this whilst at ringcraft, it seems like a big ask right now, but he will get there. Bearing in mind he is one of the younger puppies at ringcraft, a lot of 'puppies' seem to be around 12 months old.

We have also been working with him off lead some more and this is certainly very promising. With a trailing lead, he has had many romps with dogs of all shapes and sizes and he is loving every minute. People are so taken aback that the cutest fluffball ever can get stuck in and play with their much larger dog without fear. They clearly don't know Tibbies!! Finlay can be recalled pretty successfully now, not perfect, but work in progress. I took him out on Friday, he romped around the park and got absolutely soaked and filthy, needless to say I had to dry him out and brush him before my wife got home!! #HideTheEvidence

I've had an instance where we've been out and Fin was called a "Chug" which I had to Google (a crossbreed between Chihuahua and a Pug), I was also asked what he was a cross between. To be fair most people just ask what breed he is and most haven't heard of a Tibbie, which is quite nice.

It is also that time of year which I dread, Fireworks. We've had two Tibbies previously and one ignored fireworks completely (Nemo) and the other was crazy scared of them (Louie). I won't go on about it too much because I have blogged about it before in THIS BLOG. The summary of the story with Louie is that he was fine with fireworks for a couple of years, but got scared out of the blue by them, not even in fireworks 'season'. So my fear isn't so much that Fin will get scared now, but at any point in his life. But right now he seems fine with them. We had loads on Saturday night which he largely ignored save a few woofs at the really loud ones. We had quite a few tonight too and he totally ignored these, although we had purposely given him his pizzle stick and we know that nothing gets between Finlay and his pizzle stick :-)

Finlay also hit one of his personal targets this week, being able to get up onto the sofa unaided, which I must admit I hadn't expected quite yet. Someone on Facebook did say Balgay puppies were renowned jumpers, well Finlay is certainly that. Deb was in the kitchen when she heard a resounding 'thump' from the living room, only to go in and find Fin proudly sitting on her chair, the thump was probably him hitting the back cushion at some speed!! Way to go Finlay.....

As always, let's finish with a few photos from the week....

As part of the fireworks preparations we bought Finlay a nice den to snuggle up into just in case. Regardless of whether he uses it to escape fireworks, he loves it anyway. He went straight into it and has spent a fair bit of time in there. Here he is showing it off:

As he settles in with us, we've both had a couple snuggly cuddles with him on the sofa. This is him in my arms, he decided to put himself on his back.....but having got there decided he wasn't so keen on the idea, hence the big wide eye:

Finally, Finlay and some broccoli. Finlay likes to try all sorts of food, so as we eat quite a lot of broccoli, we wondered what he would make of a big thick stalk. Well, he mouthed it and chomped it a bit, it kept him occupied for 10 minutes. I don't think he actually ate any, but he seemed to enjoy sucking it!