Good thread! I especially support the advice to not get too hung up on the second octave too early, certainly not until you've gotten over your overblowing/hole-sealing hump. The intuitive things for beginners to do on high notes are to overblow(-squeeze), and to strangle the chanter, out of the stress and horror that come from missed high notes.
Overblowing and strangling/clenching are bad habits that are difficult to get rid of once established. Many of us, I think, struggle with the Death Grip; the sooner you figure out how to relax your hands, the better. And some day you'll have an otherwise-terrific reed on which certain notes (e.g. back D, C#) only play in tune given much lighter pressure than the rest of the scale wants, so I guarantee that nuanced bag control will also always be important.
P.S. ...and yes, you definitely want some lessons, even if only via Skype, but better still in person so that, as Bob suggests, you can get a sanity-check on your hardware. If, for example, your reed needs adjusting, you're much better off being taught how to do that safely, than experimenting on your own.
It's much easier to screw reeds up than to fix them, and if there's one thing I'm an expert at, it's screwing up reeds.
Good luck!
Mick
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