Tonight's entertainment

Tonight I gave Finn a new toy. It looked like this:

20 minutes later it looked like this:














Wolfhounds are tough on toys. But we had a lot of fun in those 20 minutes.



Later that night, he looked like this:

















When you play hard, you sleep hard.

Just photos of wolfy faces!

Finn gets a bath

Finn had a bath today, and after the trauma of that, had lots of energy to run and play.

Finn, the mighty hunter

When you read the literature about Irish Wolfhounds, they warn they are a hunter breed. They can consider any smaller animals as prey, including smaller dogs and cats. It's part of their heritage, and what they were bred for.

Finn never seemed to have gotten any of those instincts. He hasn't chased a squirrel, rabbit, anything in our back yard except for once a deer, and us. He will run up and down the fence a bit with his next door neighbor, the greyhound. The greyhound's instincts are intact, he goes after anything that comes in his yard, usually chasing them into ours.

Since I have vegetables planted, as well as a mature strawberry bed, I want those critters kept out! Squirrels especially have done damage, eating bulbs and digging up new plants. This past winter deer ate an entire bush, so we have been hoping Finn would start keeping all these animals out of the yard.

Yeah, not so much. Until tonight though. Tonight we walked out in the back yard, and there was a groundhog munching away. Finn spotted it, and froze into a point. When he took a step, I encouraged him by saying 'Get it Finn, Get it!' and running with him. Finn took off, and chased the groundhog, but didn't get close. He had a blast though, and spent some time sniffing and searching exactly where it had gone.

We came out about an hour later, and now there were TWO groundhogs, in the same place as before. I shouted "Get it Finn!" and he was off! He can really move when he wants to. He had one groundhog in about 10 seconds, and it stood up to fight back. Finn paused (I don't think he expected to actually catch it!) and the groundhog took off again and got away under the fence.

Finn was pumped and did laps around the yard for a while. The rest of the evening he kept checking the back yard, hoping they had come back, but they finally got sensible and went off to eat in safer yards.

Now, if he would only go after the squirrels!

Kitchen space

Ok, here is a photo of my husband fixing dinner.

Notice something interesting?

Notice where Finn is.

Notice he has chosen to lie down about 5 inches from my husband.

Notice how much space he takes up.

Notice how it is impossible to get to any part of the kitchen without stepping over him.

This happens every day, every meal.

Unless we tell him we are cooking, and he has to leave.

Then he looks like this:



Exile is cruel, so cruel.

Happy Fourth of July!

It was a busy day of yard work, picnics and fire works.

Finn had a long day.




Hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday!

Dog couture

Holiday today (July 3) and while shopping I decided the pick up some holiday attire for Finn. That's not why he looks so sad in these photos. Taking photos of Finn is challenging. He is determined to be withing 3 inches of us at all times, and that makes getting a shot of him problematic. To get the photo, we worked on our Sit - Stay...

and our Down - Stay. Finn is not happy about this.

This is his usual position while we work in the front yard. lying down watching the world as we work away.

Today's project, a new retaining wall in the front garden.

Finn supervises. He is a good supervisor. Lets you do the job, only occasionally getting in your way as he checks your work.

He now has a wardrobe of three bandannas.