17 January 2018

Finlay is now nearly 7.5 months old, or nearly 32 weeks old.

We've been working hard with Finlay on us being the "boss", it seems to be working. We've had very few grumpy growls from him and getting him off of the furniture just requires a firm "off" and he gets off without question. I say without question, certainly without grumbling but often not without play-bowing or some fun gestures, because let's face it, being where you are not supposed to be is great fun. Photo to show that down below!

Something we were also keen to do was try Finlay with some swimming. For health reasons we swam our previous Tibbie Nemo and he got on ok with it, although he was never the biggest fan. But we wanted Finlay to not be scared of swimming or the water, I know a lot of dogs are a natural in water, but still. A friend of ours runs a local dog hydrotherapy pool and she is brilliant and we already know Finlay loves her (well, he loves everyone). So we took him along and although the session was fairly short, he did really well.

He walks in via a ramp which gradually goes into the pool and as soon as he was offered, he swam. What a star, after a few laps around the pool he was out. The next bit he was fine with surprisingly, which was a shower and shampoo. However, the next part was drying with a strong 'air blaster', and that he did object to. We got there in the end, but he wasn't as dry as we would have liked. Then big fuss and treats at the end which he loved. So in summary, it is another thing Finlay has taken in his stride, I wouldn't say the next time he sees water he'll jump in, but at least we know he won't be scared or sink!

Another milestone this week was wearing his dog coat. We aren't one for dressing our dogs up, but they have always worn a dog coat when it is bucketing down with rain, as it did this week. Finlay has resolutely refused to walk anywhere in a coat up until now, and it has been a source of growling. But this week, he not only wore it without swearing, he actually walked in it absolutely no problem. Perhaps the boy is growing up and starting to be a bit more confident.

Here is Finlay on the furniture, he isn't allowed up there and he knows it. Because he is still young it isn't so much the getting up as the getting down, we didn't want him jumping down from high places and jarring young bones. Getting up is ridiculously easy for him and has been since he was about 4 months old. Don't you just love the cheeky face though....

Clever or what dad!!

Here is a video of him at swimming, the eyes are a bit wide but he is a really strong swimmer for one so young.

7 January 2018

The 6th January 2018 was going to be a big day in Finlay's history, it was to be his first dog show, in Taunton. Something he has been preparing for, for a couple of months. It was also his first night away at a hotel (Travelodge).

We really wanted to test out how he would be at a hotel, because we want to be able to go away with him without issue. He was a star, he did woof the place down at 1am (sorry other hotel guests!) but to be fair that wasn't his fault, some people stomped loudly down the corridor and any self-respecting Tibbie would woof at that. So other than that, he slept like a baby all night. So he passed THAT test with flying colours.....so onto the dog showing, would he pass that test also?

As well as worrying about how Finlay would perform, my wife was stressing about how she would get on with showing. The overall feeling from the day was one of success, in terms of our learning and Finlay's experience, even if not in terms of a prize haul! Finlay was entered into two classes because we wanted him to get the most from the day, so he went in Tibbie Junior and Any Variety Utility Minor Puppy. In the Junior class he showed ok on the table but as usual we struggled with showing his teeth, on the floor his walking was not brilliant, a bit distracted. In the AV Minor Puppy he walked a LOT better because by then he was a bit exhausted and had calmed down, plus Pauline had been working on him, but more on that in a minute.

Then a success, he won best Tibbie puppy. It seems the seasoned exhibitors would just ignore that he was in fact the ONLY Tibbie puppy entry, I.e. he came first in a class of one. The fact is, he won best puppy on his first outing, which we are very happy with.

But in addition to the dog showing, we got to meet some of the Tibbie showing crowd, who were fantastic. We learned more in the few hours in Taunton than we had at many hours in ringcraft. The main star was Pauline Bevis supported by Sarah and Pam. It turns out that we both got our wrists slapped for not being tough enough with Finlay and as a result he has been taking liberties, getting too big for his boots. A few minutes with Pauline had him walking better (I didn't see this, but apparently Finlay was a bit 'unruly') and in a separate session had him showing his teeth nicely following some firm handling. It was a joy to see Finlay working and how quick he learns (of course he quickly learns the bad things as well!). 

If you've ever watched a dog training programme on the TV, where a dog trainer has taken the errant dog and within seconds seemingly cured them of whatever problem they had. I've seen this and thought "yeah right that was staged for the telly". Well I've witnessed it first hand now, and it looks like a miracle when you see it 'before your very eyes'. In fact it isn't a miracle it is just someone very experienced working with your dog, and Pauline used all the tips she's learned to show us how it is done. It's just us she's got to train now.....

The biggest worry now is that if Finlay isn't performing perfectly to "teeth" next time Pauline sees him, we are going to be in SO MUCH trouble!! (us, not Finlay this time!!)

So after 5 hours or so at the show, the 3 of us came away exhausted but elated and talked about nothing else on the drive home. We have 3 more shows planned, with the hope that by the South West Tibetan Spaniel show in March, we will have a dog that is ready to not come last in his class - we don't care where he does come, just not last!

The other key take away from the day and by far the most important, was that Finlay enjoyed himself. He wagged all day, smiled at and kissed loads of humans and dogs. It would be pointless dragging him along if he hated it.....bless him, he isn't a shy dog!!!!

If you are interested in my photo/video album from the day, visit https://photos.app.goo.gl/RPnZLEbNkMfhCJ9Q2 for more photos, otherwise here is a selection....

The 'medal' haul from Taunton

I'm doing my best show stand!

What are they up to?

Here is Finlays better run, towards the end of the day. Had some practice now!

Here he is on the table, bit of a handful!!

3 January 2018

The first blog of 2018 and the first one in a while.

Finlay is still doing splendidly well and is approaching 7 months old and 7kg in weight. As it was his first Christmas there were lots of new things for him to see and do. His first encounter with a Christmas tree went surprisingly well, it was a small 5ft fibre optic tree and he actually wasn't that keen on it - I don't think he liked the fibre strands sticking in him, so he steered well clear. He had some presents to open on Christmas day and he even needed some guidance as to what to do, unlike our previous Tibbies who loved ripping open paper parcels (especially the one's they weren't supposed to).

He is now going for slightly longer walks and loves the wettest muddiest fields and woods, he might look clean and fluffy at the beginning, but he often doesn't look that way by the end of the walk! He also loves the skate ramp at our local park, he particularly loves getting some 'air' and often breaks into a puppy zoomie going up and down and 'round and 'round the ramps.

Jumping.....he loves to. Our previous Tibbies, one in particular (Louie), was as agile as Finlay but did not have the drive and desire to jump up or over things. Finlay sees everything as a challenge - I don't need to jump up there, but I'm going to bloomin well try. His nose will touch my elbow when I'm preparing Finlays dinner and he can get his head and shoulders above the height of a stairgate. It is only a matter of time before he tries the stairgate jump. He broke through the stairs stairgate to come and join me in the bathroom this morning and jumped straight into the bath without hesitation. Bit of a strange move Finlay and you may come to regret that one day!

Woofing.....he loves to. I have commented on the woofing before and it has continued. He is very noise sensitive right now and hopefully he will grow out of this a bit. Wind making the house make funny noises, other dogs barking, odd sounds on the TV, many new sounds such as me clattering around in the garage - they all need woofing at. The TV in particular can be a right pain as he runs up to the TV and jumps up at it, which I'm not overly impressed with.

He also has woofed when we've left him at night, but this is a different woofing. Since we've had him, he has slept down in the kitchen, without issue. However, a few times over the last few weeks when we've left him he woofs. Sometimes briefly, on a couple of occasions for 60 minutes or more. This is a woof that says "I've decided I don't want to sleep down here on my own, I want to sleep upstairs with you". Well....we have done that with previous dogs, but we'd rather not with Finlay if it can be avoided. So far he seems to have accepted we won't come down to his woofing, and it seems to have stopped now....we'll see!

Growling....he's trying it out for size. As he is over 6 months old now, he is trying out his authority as the amount of testosterone in him increases. We need to nip this in the bud, so down a peg or two he needs to come....

Visiting my dad in his care home. We hoped Finlay would take to this and he has, he loves meeting people and he knows his way around the care home now. I think if we let him off the lead, he'd go from the lobby to the lift and then straight to dads room. In all seriousness I wonder whether he would make a good pat dog, the care home encourage dogs to come in and although Finlay has been a bit boisterous he is beginning to show signs of calming down and will sit on dads lap and let him stroke him. He is still a bit liable to jump up and lick dads face, which he isn't keen on, but dad loves to see him and Finlay loves to be there. All the staff do too!

Here is a recent picture of Finlay, looking slightly superior, as Tibbies like to

Finlay loves balls. We've had this treat ball for a few years, but Finlay had never seen it. So this is a video of the first time he played with it, it just has kibble in it. Finlay has had many great sessions bouncing it off all of our furniture, doesn't stop until it is empty

Talking of balls, this one squeaks. And squeaks, and squeaks, and squeaks......

Tibetan Spaniel puppy play date. Finlay met his friend Jinpa again recently. He met him a couple of months ago and we wondered whether he might remember him. Haha! Remember him, he positively fell in love with him, they both played and played and kissed. Even trying to separate them briefly for a breather results in sqinneying and crying from both of them.

Me and my mate

Loves ya!

15 December 2017

Finlay is 27 weeks old today, now into his 2nd 6 months!

He went for his 6 month checkup today with the vet who gave him a clean bill of health. She said he is teething quite badly at the moment and she had a right battle to look around his mouth, it is the one area Finlay is really unhappy about right now. He has lost 3 of his 4 razor sharp front canine puppy teeth, thank goodness! Those are the ones he would catch you with when playing. He has a lot of adult teeth coming through now.

Finlay was weighed at the vets as 6.7kg, so he is growing up fast and it is getting really noticeable now. No chucking him comfortably under your arm any more and he is feeling heavy. There is a picture below which highlights just two months growth in the boy.....

A big thing happened on Tuesday night, it was the Ringcraft Christmas dog show. It was a fun night where you go along, bring some food and raffle prizes and the club lays on a judge and you enter your dog in a class and do some proper dog showing, it's what Ringcraft is all about after all. We entered Finlay into puppy and 'non-sporting'. The judge was Mary Small and she seemed to really like Finlay, indeed he really liked her - he gave her lots of kisses on the table and a big hug. Way to go Fin, that's the way to endear yourself to a judge....not sure how that goes in a 'proper' show though. To be honest I don't really care, it is so cute because he is such a friendly dog with everyone he meets. It is who he is and I hope that is who he stays.

Well.....he came 2nd in his puppy class, we were chuffed to bits. He had some good competition from all sorts of breeds and on the night although he was pretty good on the table, he didn't walk very well. At the moment he has three speeds, too slow when he waddles/wriggles along, generally distracted. Too fast when he gallops along, generally soon after being too slow. In the middle of those two speeds is "just right" and we see it a lot when we're out walking Fin, but not that much when in the show ring. He is still too distracted most of the time, the tastiest of treats does not lure him away, liver, chicken, sausage, frankfurter.....we've tried them all and he's ignored them all. Only practice will cure it I think! He also came 2nd in non-sporting, but there were only two entries! So he has his first rosettes - lets see if he can win any more at his first show in Taunton early in 2018.

Here is Finlay on his favourite box. For some unknown reason he is obsessed with getting up on this box, has been ever since he was a puppy. You can see how much he has grown in just 2 months.

Same dog, same box, 2 months apart

Here is the boy with his first rosette, the first of many who knows!!

Check me out with my rosette!

Just to prove Finlay is a "go anywhere" dog, here he is last weekend. It was horrid weather, a lot of the UK was having a white out with snow, but here on the south coast it poured with rain. But Finlay was undeterred, out we went in the pouring rain through our local woods, Finlay got filthy, but then why not. Our previous Tibbies loved getting in amongst the undergrowth, Finlay would soon tell us if he wasn't enjoying his walk.

9 December 2017

Today is the day - Finlay is 6 months old!! Many happy returns to the 9th June 2017 Balgay/Jazpiper litter!

I'm going to try and tell Finlay's life story so far in GIFs, let's see how this goes:

Finlay arrived with some toys from Perth, this one was a firm favourite.

This toy is 'avin some!

Something Fin has just about grown out of thank goodness, playing tug of war with my trousers!

Grr, dad's trouser legs

What he most certainly hasn't grown out of, are puppy zoomies, which is good really because they are fun to watch.

Woooohooooooooo!

The first time he was presented with a Pizzle stick chew, this is one of my favourite videos. He will still play bow and toss 'unknown' items around for a bit.

Grr, Pizzle stick!

Bless him, he really loves his brushes now - "are you going for a brush" will have him running for the grooming table

I'll give you a brush mum, grrrrr

Just shows how much he's grown, you can barely see him here, and this pot isn't very big!

I've got this.....

He's got "the wave", I can't tell you how much I love the wave (as does everyone he does it to)

Cooooeeeeeee!

Another item to attack, a butternut squash this time

Don't know what it is, attack!!

Yes, it is the "he's got that camera in my face" look!

What you lookin' at?

That is just a small selection of Finlay GIFs for you. He is a gorgeous pup, who is starting to look like a small Tibetan Spaniel now, rather than a puppy. He is without doubt a challenge sometimes as is any puppy, but how can you not fall in love with this boy. Thanks Aileen McDonald for letting us have Finlay and to Spencer for your genes :-)

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....