Thursday, January 31, 2008

Farset update

Farset is now 16 weeks old and up to 55 pounds (as of Wednesday).  We have puppy class one Wednesday evenings at PetSmart.  We usually take that opportunity to weigh her.  

This class, we were working on Stand Stays.  Pretty challenging.  We need to practice that and just the "Stand" command.  Plus we need to start working on her "Stack" command so that she will know what to do at shows.  I hope that I will be able to make it to the conformation class next Tuesday.  I also need to take Lagan so that he can practice before the March shows.

I shot some video of Farset and Lagan together using my camera (first time I did that).  I am not sure how to handle it yet, but I am going to try to post it somewhere.  Assuming I can find time.  As it is, I still haven't had time to put up some new photos of her (as you probably noticed).

Sick, but the Beat Goes On

I have been really sick over the last week and a half.  There is something going around in this part of the world, and I am just one of many that has fallen prey to it.   Last week it was just no voice and all sinus congestion.  This week, it is mostly a cough and little voice.  I overdid it on Sunday and have been paying for it.  I went to the quarterly canine networking group meeting on Sunday.  About halfway through 
the meeting, the local Beagle rescue group turned up and the place 
became a whole lot noisier.  I didn't have much voice to begin with, 
and by the end, I had none at all.  I brought Farset with me as a
socialization experience.  It is the perfect example of some of the
promotional activities we will be doing in the future.

I realized that Lagan needs more away from home activities.  Since we have had Farset, he has not been getting out much.  Plus there is an upcoming set of dog shows in March at the NC State Fairgrounds in which I want to show him.  Farset won't be old enough.  They need to be at least 6 months old.

There is a hound show in May that I am planning to show both Lagan and Farset (assuming I can get help).  In the first classes, they will be in different groups, but if they win a couple of them, they will be competing against each other, so I will need an extra handler.

Fiber-wise
I have been working on a Nalbinding square (well, actually a tube that I will cut to make it into a square).  I have gotten very excited about doing Nalbinding again.  It creates such a neat fabric.  I have all of these ideas about projects to make with it.  Like I really have time.  I have also gotten excited about all sorts of other projects too.  I just bought the new Cat Bordhi sock book which is very exciting.  I also have been excited about the idea of making wristwarmers using sock patterns.  I just don't have to do the heel part.  I also want to spin and knit a scarf for me.  I bought some more paco-vicuna fiber from Chris Switzer at SOAR this year, and I think it would be wonderful as a scarf.  I am such a "princess and the pea" kind of girl that I find almost every fiber scratchy.  I bought a relatively inexpensive 
cashmere scarf at Target and just love it.  It makes me want to make a scarf 
or two for me.  I really would like to make the DNA scarf.  I also want to make 
a lace shawl.  I love the one from Winter 2007 knitty,the Jeanie one.  I also want 
to make a shawl for my mother.  And I want to make several pairs of wrist warmers/fingerless gloves for me.

I have been walking 3 - 4 dogs a day plus the occasional pet sitting client (Jan & Feb tend to be a little slow pet sitting-wise).  It doesn't leave much time to do anything else, especially since I am behind on documenting my business finances so that I can close out the year.

So much to do, so little time. . .

Thursday, January 17, 2008

More pictures - still not up to date

Here are a few more photos from last month.
Here Farset is playing with Lagan. Photo taken on Dec 3o.


Here Farset is playing on Dec 12th. One of the toys is the shell of a formerly stuffed toy with stuffed legs. She really likes it. Don't ask me why. We have been crating her in our bedroom when we are away.



Photo of Farset on top of my DH taken on Dec 28th. You have to remember that my DH is 6 ft 3 in. She may be on top of him, but she certainly isn't the dominant one.







We often go off roading, so we wanted her to have an experience doing that. Fortunately, there was an outing in the beginning of December at Uwharrie National Forest. We put her in a crate that was almost too small. We put a blanket down for padding and to keep her from moving around too much. We strapped the carrier in the back of the Land Rover Defender 110. It was a lot of fun and she had a good time too. The photo on the left is of my husband looking at the underside of a Land Rover Discovery after we went off-roading.








Saturday, January 12, 2008

Photos of Farset (Finally !)







Here are a few photos of Farset. They were taken on Dec 5 - 7. You can see how much smaller she is compared to her father, Lagan.

BTW: As of January 10, she was 44 pounds.









Lagan Turns Four Years Old

Lagan turned four years old on January 11. I am so proud of my boy. He is still my hearthound, even with the new puppy. Hopefully he will be with us for many more years.

We are hoping to show him in upcoming AKC dog shows. He did very well in the last shows that he attended. I would love to "finish" him (earn his Championship). I think he is a beautiful dog and he moves so well. He has a more mature attitude which shows in the ring.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Time for the Giant Crate

Well, Farset is definitely too long for the large crate now.  I looked into borrowing one from someone in the local fiber arts guild, but they were either too small or of the wire variety.  I like using the plastic airline crate type because it decreases visual stimulation in addition to keeping her safe.  So, it is time to bring the Giant crate upstairs.  It means disassembling it first, bringing it up from the garage to our bedroom and then hoping that it will fit the space.   I need to 
move the large crate out of our bedroom first.  Plus I desparately need clean clothes, so I need 
to do that too.

Farset has been eating a ton of bark, paper, sticks, leaves, etc.  I have been unable to keep her away from it.  I woke up to sounds of her retching last night.  I took her outside, and surprise, surprise, it was primarily bark, paper, sticks, and leaves.  She threw up two more times this morning.  She has been having problems with diarrhea over the past week.  I have been feeding her rice and ground meat for the last 4 days.  She seems to be doing fine on it.  No more diarrhea.  She does seems to get fevers too.  I took her temperature the other day, and it was 103 (normal is around 101.5).  We have an appointment to go see the vet on Thursday.  I'll let you know what he says.  Her energy level seems unaffected.  She remains a happy & energetic puppy.  She is really enjoying playing with Lagan.   She is finally tall enough to play well with him.  She just needs to fill out a little.  Their playtime is always supervised.  On occasion, he will step on a foot or something like that and she will yelp.

Friday, January 4, 2008

And she continues to grow

Hi,

I weighed her on January 2nd at PetSmart.  She is now up to 37 pounds.  She almost reaches Lagan's chest.  

She has almost outgrown her current crate.  She isn't too tall for the Large crate that we are using now, but she is so long that we will need to get something a little bigger soon.  We have a Giant crate, but it is almost overkill.  An extra-large would be ideal, but I really don't want to spend money on one since she will outgrow it in a couple of months.

I'll let you know how things go.

______________________________________________

And for the crafty part of this blog:

I am almost done knitting the second sleeve of a baby sweater for my nephew (4 more rows to go).  It is a size 12 mo, and he is now just past 13 months, but he tends to be a little on the small size for his age (or so I continue to hope).  I've been working on it off and on since Oct 2006.  He was born at the end of Nov 2006.  I have already woven in the ends for the body and the first sleeve.   I just haven't had much time to do crafty things since November hit.  Between working the holidays, normal work, and Farset, I just can't seem to find the time.  If I am in front of the computer, it is primarily either email or work related (or both).  The only tv I watch is either while I am eating dinner or working on the computer.

I did actually start knitting on a lace scarf that I started I don't know when.  It is in commercial sportsweight black baby alpaca yarn.  The pattern is an arrowhead lace from the cover of Spin Off a while back.  The one on the cover is in white merino.  I'll try to post pictures of both soon.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Just watch her grow

As of Dec 26th, she is 31 pounds and 11 weeks old. I'm beginning to weigh her on Wednesday nights when we go to PetSmart for class.

Puppy Class Update:
Well, Farset and I have been learning a lot. The instructor uses positive reinforcement, but she comes at the training differently than I learned with Teamworks. I was disappointed at first because there was only one other puppy in the class (a cocker spaniel), and there wouldn't be any puppy playtime. I am glad I signed up for it. I think that it is good for me and Farset to experience a new method of training.

She continues to be a very brave puppy. The instructor set up a covered narrow platform suspended by two bricks with cones on the sides. She was planning to use it as a fun learning activity after we worked on the stay commands. When Farset and I came in, she went right to the end of the platform and walked all the way down it without any hesitation. The instructor had come over right as she was doing it. She was really impressed.

We went over to our neighbor's New Years Party last night. They had live bands and lots of people, noise, and smoking. We brought her right in. She was a little reluctant at first, but soon settled down and started checking things out. She was fine with the band, the crowd, and everything. Before long, she was tired out and curled up in a little ball in the kitchen (where most of the people were hanging out) and started to take a nap. It is hard to beat that. My DH brought her home to sleep and then came back to the party. When I got home after midnight, I let her out to see and hear the fireworks. She was unconcerned.