She just keeps getting bigger

Hi,

Sorry to have been so tardy in getting another entry out. Farset keeps us busy, especially with Christmas almost here. I have been taking pictures, but I haven't had a chance to download them onto the computer.

Farset continues to grow. She was up to 26 pounds on Monday and is about 18 inches tall. I imagine that she is heavier now. I bought her a harness to wear instead of a collar. She has moved up from the Small to the Medium. You can almost see her grow. When I pick her up, I can definately tell that she is heavier.

We went to the vet for the first time last week to get more puppy shots. We go back in another 2 - 3 weeks. I bought Vet Insurance for her. Irish Wolfhounds have very expensive vet bills.

I continue to try to socialize her to a lot more things. She continues to be very friendly. She seems to especially like men. She seems to do well with other dogs. She has been meeting cats and children. We took her out 4-wheeling off road a couple of weeks ago. She wasn't thrilled by the experience, but coped with it really well. I still need to take her to more places and introduce her to more things.

We started a puppy class at PetSmart this week since they allow puppies as young as 10 weeks to start the classes. I primarily signed up so that she would have a chance to socialize with other puppies. It is a little difficult to find other puppies for her to play with. Unfortunately, in this class, they don't have socialization time. The instructor is good, so I think that we will still get something out of it, just not what I had intended.

The housebreaking is going well. The mouthiness is an ongoing issue. We have dog toys scattered around the house so that there is something we can put in her mouth instead of whatever it is she is trying to eat. She likes to bite people, furniture, cardboard, the carpet, paper, and worst of all, Lagan's tail. (Lagan, her daddy, has broken his tail once and had a serious tail tip injury and really doesn't need to have her biting his tail)

She has very sharp puppy teeth. Like people, they have baby teeth that will eventually fall out to be replaced by adult teeth. She gnashes her teeth together and makes a clacking sound. I call her "shark" on occasion because of her snapping. I also tell her that she has "bitey, bitey teeth".

We opted to not have a Christmas tree this year since we figured that she would probably eat it or tip it over. We also decided not to get poinsettias since they are poisonous and she enjoys eating leaves.

Got to go. She needs to go pee and she doesn't understand "wait".

Her name is Farset

We finally decided on Farset as a name for our new puppy. Things have been going well so far. We are making progress on the potty training front. She is still waking me up during the night to take her out to go pee. She had been waking me up every 2 hours, but last night, she only woke me up once. Usually at sometime during the night, she had peed in her crate at some point (it is a large crate and we put down puppy pads in the back of the crate).

She is definitely a smart & brave puppy. I weighed her this morning. She is currently 16.5 pounds at 8 weeks (Dec 2).

Lagan is not sure about her. He still finds her a little scary, although he does try to play with her on occasion. He may be a little protective about her. I put her and Lagan in my SUV and took them down our driveway to the street. I unloaded them and we went for a short walk. I am trying to get her to like riding in a car. So, a little while into our walk, one of my neighbors let their dog out. It is a small terrier that barks a lot, but stays in his yard. Lagan usually marks around their driveway, but otherwise typically leaves that dog alone. This time, he ran into that neighbors' yard. I clapped my hands and called him and he came on back. I'm not sure if he was doing it just to have a little fun, or if he did it because he is being protective of the puppy. I really hope that it isn't the latter.

I took Farset back home, and then Lagan and I went out to run our errands. I needed to return some items at PetSmart, drop by the library, and took Lagan to the Cary Dog Park. He enjoyed having some fun time alone with me.

Little Puppy Girl

We still haven't decided on a name quite yet. Since our other Wolfhound was named after an Irish river, we ideally wanted to name the puppy after another Irish river (or geographical landmark or something in Gaelic). The first try was "Dargle," which sounds a little too much like gargle to me. Plus it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. Our current trial is "Farset" (Feirste in Gaelic). According to Wikipedia, it flows into the Lagan (our other dog's name).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Farset

I have been working hard trying to expose her to items on my list of things to socialize her to. We brought her home on Thanksgiving. So she got to come with us to Thanksgiving dinner at my sister's stables. Yes, it is kind of an untraditional location, but there were about 20 people all together, and none of us have room in our homes for that many people. She was exposed to lots of people, several other dogs, children including my 1 year old nephew, and a fearful chihuahua. We still haven't introduced her to horses yet, but that may be on tomorrow's agenda.

Tomorrow we are going to help my mom move from her rental house to a house next to my sister's home. That will expose her to a lot chaos. She will be around trucks, boxes, several different houses and yards, and so much more. I will have her crate in my truck, so if she starts showing signs of overload, I'll just put her in the truck for a nap. If it gets too bad, I can always just drop her off at my home which is about 10 - 15 minutes away. If she is doing well, we can expose her to horses too (obviously, we will not let her get into a situation where she might be hurt).

I am trying to take pictures every day since they grow so fast. I still haven't gotten around to weighing her. It means weighing me, and I am not real keen on that part. I think that my sister and mom will be surprised with how much larger she has become in only a week. She is definately heavier. I swear she is significantly heavier than she was only this morning. Granted, she has recently eaten.

I'll try to get some pictures of her up sometime soon. I keep taking pictures, but I haven't had a chance to download any of them from my camera.

And the winner is

Here is the new girl puppy (name yet to be determined)

Puppy size comparison (Pictures of Brigid and the pups)

Here is Brigid and the puppies on day 8, 10, 18, & 32.
It shows you the increase in the size of the puppies in a very dramatic way. It also shows how their coats are more obviously brindled.

Here are pictures of the puppies suckling from their mother, Brigid.

Puppies at 26 days

I went to visit the puppies on Friday last week. It was amazing how much bigger they were. They are also a lot more active. The puppies were still confined, but in a larger pen than last week. They have gotten big enough to begin to climb over the edge of the pen.

The breeder is starting them on puppy food this week. I had a chance to watch them eat the puppy mush. They are fed in pairs to make sure that they all ate. Since they are fed just outside the pen, the ones not eating have been trying to get over the edge of the pen to the food.

They are still sleeping a lot. After eating, they all napped for a little while. Then back up to play some more.





I made sure to pick each of them up to separate them from the rest of the litter. I then turned them belly up until they stopped squirming. Then I held them up so that their legs dangled and waited until they stopped moving and then put them back with the rest of the litter. I am trying to expose them to some novel experiences to improve their ability to deal with change and uncertainty.

Update of current activities

I am happiest when I balance my pet/animal activities with my artisitc/fiber activities.  Lately I haven't had much time to do any of the artistic activities.

I knit quite slowly and so I tend to not get very far, very fast. And then considering how infrequently I get time to knit, I really don't get much accomplished.

Long car trips with my husband are the best time for me to knit. My DH prefers to drive when go somewhere, so I get to knit. Unfortunately that doesn't happen very often any more.  I tend to work most weekends nowadays.

I've also been spending a lot of time working on my blog (such as it is). I am trying to go visit the puppies once a week and then  post pictures of them.  Plus I am spending quite a bit of time on Ravelry.

I've also been trying to clear up some of the chaos at home prior to the arrival of the puppy. So far that isn't going very well.

I had a booth at the Canine Carnival last Saturday. I had a lot of work required prior to the event and then the event itself was time consuming.  I am mostly booked up for the Thanksgiving holiday plus I will be getting a puppy on the Friday.  I am already getting a lot of requests for service from potential clients.

And after having gone to SOAR, I would rather spin if I have a choice. I am still knitting up some of the sample skeins that I made in Janel's Painted Rovings class.

One of these days I will try to find the pictures of finished objects. Right now, I would be happy to put up my projects in process. I think it would help me use my time more efficiently.  When I get a little bored with the project(s) I am currently working on, I can look over my list of incomplete projects and make a little progress on it instead of just starting another new project.

My dog's pedigree (Lagan - Gulliagh Miraz)

As requested, here is the pedigree of my dog. If you feel like having a Ch in the pedigree, here they are.


Sire side:
Rossalare's Sandor (USA CH)(BOS-IWCA 2001)
Ballyhara Rumor (USA Ch) X Rosslare's Quinella (USA Ch)
Lilliput Fitzarran Khronos (US Ch)(BOS-IWCC-1997) X Ballyhara Scarlett (US Ch) / Ballyhara Shane (US Ch) X Rosslare's First Addition (US Ch)

Lilliput Fitzarran Khronos (US Ch)(BOS-IWCC-1997) was the offspring of
Nellwyns Barnabus (US Ch) X Fitzarran Nyke of Lilliput (US CH)

Ballyhara Scarlett (US Ch) was the offspring of
Fitzarran Shadowfax (CDN US Ch)(BOS-IWCC-1985) X Cashel Siobha of Culach (CND Ch)

Ballyhara Shane (US Ch) was the offspring of
Fitzarran Shadowfax (CDN US Ch) (BOS-IWCC-1985) X Cashel Siobhan of Culach (CDN Ch)

Rosslare's First Addition (US Ch) was the offspring of
Sharbo Gunther (US Ch) (BOB-IWCA-1986) X Boolteens Lady Miagh (CDN Ch)


Dam side:
Gulliagh Narnia
Maximillian Fionnmae (US Ch) (World W Jr-2000) X Gulliagh Serendipity (GB IRL Ch)
Curoi Jazz (Int NL D L DK Ch) X Unity Fionnmae (NL D Ch) /
Shadow of Kilmara (GB Ch) X Gulliagh Nadia (IRL Ch)

Curoi Jazz (Int NL D L DK Ch) was the offspring of
Quincy of Kilmara (Int B L NL Ch) (WorldW-94 & 95) X Geasa's Kaeliy

Unity Fionnmae (NL D Ch) was the offspring of
Magnificent Troy Fionnmae (Int FIN D NL VDH S Ch) (NordicV-95)
X Oda-Mae Fionnmae

Shadow of Kilmara (Gb Ch) was the offspring of
Nasch from the Good Heath (Int NL L Ch) X Miss-Marple from the Good Heath (Int B NL L Ch)

Gulliagh Nadia (IRL Ch) was the offspring of
Culvercroft Benjamin of Gulliagh (IRL GB Ch) X Gulliagh Isolde (IRL Ch)

Photos of Puppies at 18 days

Here are some photos of the puppies at 18 days.

They have grown a lot.

In this photo, Brigid is feeding the pups. As you can tell, they take up a lot more space than they did last week.

The puppies have their eyes open now.

They are beginning to move around better. They have begun to play with each other and toys.

They still spend a lot of their time sleeping.

Puppies at 18 days

I had a chance to visit the puppies today. They are now 18 days old and are walking around with their eyes open. They seem to only have two states, on and off. Either they are running around playing with each other, playing with some of the toys, and feeding from mom; or they are sleeping. I took pictures that I will post soon.

I had the opportunity to pick them all up and give them a little time on their backs and suspended in the air holding their body with my hand with their legs dangling. I am trying to give them some new body sensations to improve their reactions to novel situations later in life. I waited for them to settle down before I would let put them down. I wanted them to learn that only by being calm, they would be able to get back to the other puppies.

I also helped cut their toenails. Next time I do that, I'm planning to give them something wonderful to taste while I do it. I want them to have a positive association with getting their nails trimmed. I am also going to touch their feet and mouth so that they are used to that kind of handling. I waited for them to calm down after I trimmed their nails before returning them to the pen and other puppies.

It looks like we will be able to take her home on Friday, Nov 23. I can't wait (although there are so many things I need to do before she comes here).

Of the four females, one is one of the smaller dogs of the litter. It looks like she will be a lighter brindle. She seems comfortable sleeping away from the other puppies. She is not as food focused as most of the other puppies. One of the females is very curious and confident. She is already playfully attacking her litter mates. The other two females seem kind of middle of the road, not too reserved or friendly, not dominant or submissive, not big or small. I'll have to wait and see how they develop.

The answer to the question "How much will she weigh when you adopt her?" is 20 - 25 pounds.

SOAR photos (evenings)

I am finally getting a chance to post a few pictures from SOAR this year. I was at all three "Stupid Yarn Tricks" events. Abby and Denny were great fun, even without the cheap swill. I hope they will be there next year.

Fibergal and fiberguy were the life of the party and not just because they provided the large amounts of cheap swill. Fibergal was in the same 3 day workshop that I was in, but we didn't get that many chances to talk. Maybe next year.

SOAR is such a great opportunity to get to know some of the most gifted people in the field of spinning and fiber arts.

In the evenings I hung out with people like Janel from Chameleon Colorworks, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Fibergal, Fiberguy, MamaOKnits from Craftlit, Abby from Abby's Yarns, Denny, and more.

SOAR photos

Hi,

I have finally gotten some pictures of SOAR up on my Flickr account.

Just a little about me

I love Irish Wolfhounds and fiber arts, especially hand spinning.

I am the proud owner of Lagan, a 3 1/2 year old male Irish Wolfhound and two cats. We bred our Wolfhound to a sweet Wolfhound girl that lives nearby. She was pregant with 14 puppies, and gave birth to 10 live babies on October 7th.

I would have loved to be there when the puppies were being born, but I was on my way to SOAR (Spin-Off Autumn Retreat) in Michigan. The litter consists of 4 girls and 6 boys. We get the pick of the litter. I would like to have a girl puppy this time. We have only had male Wolfhounds, so this will be a change.

I am a spinner primarily and a knitter secondly. I attended SOAR (Spin-Off Autumn Retreat) in 2006 and 2007.

I learned to spin in Belfast (Northern Ireland) at the Ulster Heritage Museum. It was a great experience with a wonderful instructor. I have been spinning for about 4 years. I was taught to knit shortly afterward to have something to do with my handspun yarn. I was instructed by an English woman who learned to knit from her left-handed German nanny. So I carry in my left hand.

I have also been known to quilt (a lot) , bead (a lot), felt (a little), crosstitch (in the past), needle punch (a little), and some embroidery (not so much).