One of the things that made Emma so easy to raise was her exceptional ability to settle down and just chill out when that was what we wanted from her. At home or on outings she was always quick to relax and just enjoy the downtime while we concentrated on other things.

One very memorable day with Emma was at East Canyon State Park. I waded out into the water and encouraged Emma to follow me. She did at first and then decided that running along the shore was so much more fun. There was a little creek flowing into the reservoir and she took great joy in running back and forth and leaping over the creek. It was spring and the ground was soft and muddy so she was quite the mess but It was such a joy to watch her playful exuberance along the shore.

Emma’s biggest flaw was her occasional destructive chewing. Mostly this was just when she was a young puppy. But the few weeks before she went into season this weakness came out again. (It isn’t unusually for dogs in heat to do this.) In retrospect the funniest incident was with an ink pen. Bill lost a pen out of his pocket. Emma and Sandler (who We were puppy sitting) found the pen and starting playing with it. We were downstairs and when we discovered them, Sandler was the one who looked guilty. He was covered in blue ink along with the carpet but Emma was the one who pooped blue for the next couple of days.

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.