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!

23 October 2017

The boy is growing up.

We've noticed Finlay gradually changing over the last couple of weeks. He is more affectionate, he has sat on both of our laps and today even had a 20 minute snooze on my wifes lap. We wouldn't expect a Tibbie to be a lap dog necessarily, if he turns out to be then so be it. More than likely it is a phase, but it is nice he is settling into being a bit more laid back with us. He is also cocking his leg now, a sure sign of growing up and his 'boy' hormones starting to kick in.

Part of his problem I think is still teething. He is getting better with throwing his teeth around and he is being more gentle with us now. But clearly on some days he is desperate to chomp his chew toys and this will no doubt continue for a little while to come. He also is quite itchy and we aren't sure what is causing this. He is moulting out puppy fluff at quite a rate of knots right now, but it could possibly be because of his food. I know a lot of people recommend a 'grain free' diet to help with itching. So we have slowly introduced him to some different wet food and kibble to see how he does.

Some photos from the last few days:

Finlay still knows how to attract our attention, by "threatening" the items on the telephone table

He has also discovered the stream near us. He doesn't want to splash through the stream just yet, which I'm pleased about, but he is intrigued about it. So it is an area to be explored.

This next video made me chuckle. We have found a couple of places that are safe to let him off lead. I know Tibbies are notoriously unreliable off lead, but I believe that you have to try them when they are young, walk with a handful of tasty treats and make yourself someone who is going to be an attractive proposition to recall to. So far this is working. It is nice to see a dog off lead and free, but it has to be in the right place. Right now, I can outrun Finlay if he strays, but I won't be able to for much longer as he gets older/faster so let's get the training in whilst I can still catch the devil - I know the theory is you are supposed to run in the opposite direction if they leg it....but still! This video shows him almost doing that obedience, however this was a new place for him and he has discovered rabbit poo. I guess it does look a bit like kibble and it must taste better than what we had!!

22 October 2017

Another busy week for Finlay, particularly Friday. We had set up a puppy play-date with another Tibbie called Jinpa who is a little older than Finlay at 8.5 months old - so still a puppy in his own right.

Whenever you meet up with another dog you never entirely know what to expect, will they get on, will they just ignore one another. That said, we've never met a dog Finlay hasn't wanted to say hello to and to play with. We knew from Jinpa's owner Morrigan that he was pretty full on too. So it was time for our dogs to live up to their reputations. And boy oh boy did they live up to their expectations!!

You would expect some play then perhaps some rest, then perhaps things to settle down as they relax into each others company. Then by the end of the walk, they were calmly walking along together like old buddies. That's not quite how it went....

We decided to meet at Itchen Valley Country Park near Eastleigh, which is a large open space with lots of space to run. So a pretty safe place to let your dog off....an ordinary dog anyway. Tibbies of course are not 'ordinary' dogs and are never entirely predictable when let off the lead. Currently I can run faster than Finlay, although of course that won't soon be the case. It has to be said though, for such a young dog to be let off the lead, Finlay was really good and did have a good level of recall (ahem, better than someone else I could mention!).

So going back to the puppy play-time. These two dogs duked it out for over 2 hours, they played and played and played. When I say "play", things did look quite serious, albeit hilarious. I don't think I have laughed so much on a dog walk, ever. I think I can say that for all 3 of us humans. Jinpa was quite excited and decided to hump Finlay, which you may have thought may have thrown a 4.5 month old pup off his stride. But no.....Finlay having been taught the move by Jinpa decided he could do it too. So they swapped humping moves for most of those 2 hours.

So in-between the playing and frolicking, there was a lot of humping. Lots and lots of humping. I'd love to share some of the pictures with you, but they don't look the best. The main thing was the boys had fun. We had a cuppa in the cafe afterwards, and the boys did have a bit of a rest too. It is a shame that we don't live closer and couldn't meet more often, not because I want to see more humping, but hopefully they would eventually settle into one anothers company. Plus Jinpa is a gorgeous boy, so it would be good to see him again (and Morrigan as well of course....)

I had a such a good afternoon, and it was fantastic to see Finlay meet another Tibbie and have fun. Let's hope we can do it again one day in the not too distant future.