Taking the leap....

[MyBestFriendIsADog]

Back into dog ownership! (or should that be back into the state of bliss known as "puppy love", LOL?).

As of 10 days ago I now have a dog back into my world, although instead of a Chessie I now own/ am owned by a lovely little female Irish Terrier! Her name is Cassie (full registered name Cassan Grania - gaelic for "red-haired one who inspires terror"), and she quite lives up to her name. She has earned the nickname of "Irish Terrorist" and often is just referred to as the smallest canine member of the Sinn Fein, LOL! She is a holy terror when it comes to shoes, fabrics, and any other chewables you can name. Lock up your chewables, here she comes!

Already I see some personality differences from our Chessie (I thought he was stubborn but apparently I had no idea what stubborn was, LOL!), but I love her to pieces - and all my fears of feeling guilty for loving a new dog have dissolved completely!

Will post photos if I ever get that figured out but for now I just wanted to post to say thanks to all who assured me that there is room in your heart for another dog after losing one that was so loved - you were right. She will never replace my Chessie, but I think she has made my heart just grow enough to fit her in it....

 

[Barb04]

Congrats on Cassie! I know she is going to be a special doggie in your life now.

 

[Manchesters]

Just remember........out of sight=DESTROYING SOMETHING. There is a reason Irish Terriers are not popular pets. They are more a breeders breed. You have your work cut out for you. They are one of the "more hard" terrier breeds.

 

[avenlee]

Lock up you liquor cabinet! JUST KIDDING! Good luck with your new pup. Like Manchester said, Irish Terriors can be quite the handful. Enjoy her!

 

[yuckaduck]

Congradulations, hope you enjoy your puppy.

 

[Tail_Chaser]

Good for you taking the leap! Seems you landed well Hope to hear more of you and Cassie.

 

[MyBestFriendIsADog]

Thanks to all of you for helping me to welcome Cassie!

Manchester I kinda hope you read this as I have some questions as you obviously know your terriers! We did a lot of research on the IT and spoke extensively to the breeder before purchasing our pup. We also spoke to some other IT owners (the breeder gave us their names) and we are aware of some of the challenges we face such as house training, digging, and chewing. Are there any other things we may encounter about the IT that we should be ready for? There is no doubt she is an active and willful puppy, but both my husband and I have experience with dogs (he has always owned dogs, and I managed a vet clinics for over a decade as well as being the primary caregiver and trainer for our Chessie) so I think we are ready to meet this challenge. I am also a stay-at-home parent and our only child has just entered Grade One so I have oodles of time to train the new arrival - so I think we're in a good place to deal with this pup!

I guess one of the reasons we chose an IT was because they aren't very popular. I found that as a breed's popularity rose so did the incidence of health issues, and after the demise of our last dog (who died at the age of 6 from cancer, but also had bad hips and hypothyroidism) we wanted to find a breed with fewer health issues, ya know? I recognize no dog is free from potential health problems, but this was a factor in our decision.

So, Manchesters, do you have any suggestions as to what we should focus on initially in terms of training and/or socialization? Right now of course the focus is on house training and stopping the nipping (eek, holy sharp teeth batman!), but are there are other things we should be doing at this point (10 weeks) to minimize problems later on? And thank you for your comments - we do know we are facing some challenges, but I think we are up to it!