Life with Emma though calm in many ways it was never boring. She loved to play and would find new ways to entertain us. One day I put the tug ring she was playing with and flipped it up over her head. It was just the right size  and Emma even cooperated in letting me gets some pictures of her.

Another one of Emma’s unique traits was her habit of dropping her toys into her empty food dish. Not sure what message she was trying to send but it was lots of fun to walk into the kitchen and see what toy she had deposited there that day. While her toys were certainly meant to be chewed we didn’t want her to actually eat them.

Emma’s easy going nature made her super easy to raise. While she wasn’t perfect she was close. She meshed into the routine of our household quickly and became good friends with both Dune and our cat Gandolf. While she didn’t love baths she tolerated them and was no problem to handle. She earned her sleeping out of the kennel privileges quickly and most nights she and Dune snuggled together on the dog bed at the foot of our bed.

When it came to playing Emma was equal to any pup. Our older puppy in training, Dune, was an energetic spitfire of a puppy and she is more than 7 months older than Emma. But Emma learned to hold her own with Dune and any other puppy in training that came to our house. It didn’t mater the size or age. One of her favorite things to do when playing was to body slam into the other dog. With her compact build it was a very effective technique. She also loves to share a toy with another dog by both of them holding on and running side by side.

From the moment she got off the puppy truck Emma has always been eager to learn and do new things. She was very willing to do what ever we asked of her. And was quick to learn the rules of living in our household. She was super fun to raise and teach because she always had a great attitude about life.

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.