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.