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.