Emma has many endearing qualities but one of our favorites is how she loves to snuggle. She just kind of melts into you. Bill spends time with each pup in the morning and again when he gets home from work, snuggling and giving them focused attention. Emma has a very trusting heart and is ever so easy to love.

One of the things we notice right away about Emma was how exemplary she was with not mouthing. Most puppies do at least a little playful mouthing, but Emma was amazing. I wondered if they had some new technique in the puppy kennel for teaching this.
But I think it was just an Emma thing, because our next puppy in training, Fable, was the worst at mouthing and nipping of all our puppies. We never had to worry about Emma with kids. She was always very gentle and calm as she interacted with them.

Like all of GDB’s puppies in training, Emma has a long line of elite dogs in her pedigree. It is interesting to note that her maternal grandmother is from the Pacific Assistance Dogs Society based in British Columbia, Canada. The rest of her lines go back several generations into GDB stock. Within just the five generation show here, Emma is related to all our previous pups. In fact Zodiac and Emma are first cousins through their grandpa Dylan. Other common ancestors to our other pups are Tiburon, Baker, Thompson, Tex, Kraft, and Sprig. It is certainly a family tree that Emma can be proud of.

We noticed right away that Emma’s right eye was droopy. I worried about it wondering if she needed to get treatment for it. When our club leader checked on it we found out that when she was tiny her eye lid curled inward irritating her eye. So they did what is called entropion surgery which pulls down the eyelid so it no longer rubs. Seems they might have over done it a little. We thought she might grow out of it but that didn’t happen. Some times it looked better than others but that eye drooped more than the other.

What to say about our 5th black lab puppy? (We have only had three yellow labs.) Her arrival on that beautiful September day was much anticipated. It was Bill’s turn to be the one to greet her as she got off the puppy truck. The only trepidation as we waited was about her name. GDB’s tradition is to keep the name a secret until the moment before the new pups is placed in the raiser’s arms. So it was with great relief that we learned Emma’s name and finally met our new puppy, a sweet cuddly little ebony black girl. There is nothing quiet like a young puppy snuggling in your arms.

Emma Book: front cover

I finally finished Emma’s puppyhood book. It has only been six months since she left. We are going to the San Francisco area the end of the month and have made arrangements to see Emma and meet Dennis, the man who adopted her. The trip motivated me to get focused and get it done. I’m so excited for this trip. (We also get to see Waffle and her owner Carole.) So over the next few weeks I’ll post a spread from Emma’s book here. I’ve ordered a copy of the book from Blurb.com to give to Dennis. After the trip I’ll add a page about Emma and Dennis. Hope you enjoy the little snippets of Emma’s growing up year.

I based it on the same template as all the other books I’ve done for the puppies we have raised for Guide Dogs for the Blind. This really helps the book come together quickly because so many of the design decisions have already been made. I pick a new font for the large letters and use the same one for the words. The font along with two accent colors that show the dog’s personality give the books a uniform look but with individuality too.

Emma Book: title page

Emma is the eighth puppy we have raised for Guide Dogs for the Blind. Here is a little of the history behind her. Our first two pups, Apex and Banta got me wanting to continue the alphabet so we requested a “C” for our next pup. Puppy #4 jumped us to the end of the alphabet with Waffle, followed by Yakira and Zodiac. We got back on track with Dune, so I was very excited when the trend continued with our “E” puppy, Emma.