Growing Up

It's amazing to me how quickly Emily grows. She weighed 32 pounds a week and a half ago so I'm guessing she's between 33 and 34 pounds now. The changes in her size are noticeable from week to week and right now, her back legs are longer than the front so I call her 'Hot Rod'. In fact, she's starting to outgrow the size medium dog crate we have so we purchased an extra-large, the size recommended for labs, which is a huge crate.

Recent adventures

We've been having loads of fun lately, especially hanging out with the Brookses. Magnusson Park has a 9-acre off-leash area and we've gone a few times. Emily is warming up to the water:



while Lucy already loves to swim:

The two dogs get along great (as do the people).

Here's the dogs on the way back from Magnusson:

And they clearly wear each other out...

Jenny and Steve (aka 'The Brookses') are remodeling their kitchen and I've been helping out. Of course, one needs to take a break now and then, too.

A tooth!

Emily and I were hanging out at home last night. At some point, I looked down at an odd looking object on the floor and upon closer inspection, it was a tooth! And not just any tooth, it's an upper canine. So tiny looking now, hard to believe it fit in her mouth properly. Pretty dull too, at least compared to a month or two ago when those things were like little razors.

Why so exciting? Until ~6 months ago I was unaware that dogs lost their puppy teeth just like humans. And, it's another sign that Emily's growing up.

Many of her front teeth are coming in and the new canine is too.

Sleepy girls

Makayla went to her folks a couple of weeks ago and we took Emily to the breeder's (Kris) to be boarded for a few days as I was working during the day. Kris has three adult dogs and also Zoom, one of Emily's littermates. The two kiddies had loads of fun playing and sure tuckered each other out.

Zoom's on the left, Emily on the right.

About time

Been a while so I figured an update is in order. We've been enjoying our time with Emily, going for daily walks, attending puppy kindergarten, and generally hanging out. She's mostly potty trained and now we're starting to teach her to ring some bells when she has to go out. Just started that today so no real news.

Puppy class has been a huge help for us. We've learned about how to limit biting (put her in timeout), show dominance with some holds, and general interaction tips.

Emily has grown so much since we got her. I can see a difference in her size from week to week. Here's a pic from four 1/2 weeks ago next to a pic from today.









There have been a few play dates with dogs and it's fun to watch Emily's confidence grow. The first play date was traumatic for her...she got flipped over a couple of times and then hid out. After about an hour, though, she started warming up to Nika, a yellow lab mix.




And we've had two interactions with Lucy now (see link to "The Brookses" and also picture at right) for more about Lucy and her minions, Steve and Jenny. In fact, the picture above show Emily sleeping as she's exhausted from hanging today with Lucy. Here are more pics of the dogs playing together.





As you can see, the dogs like to chase each other and also eat plants together.





Some of the pictures look vicious...










But really, the dogs are just playing and we hope they become good friends with lots of interactions.

Family Picture

My Mom's birthday was last Saturday and Phil took some pictures, most of which are adorable but one in particular stands out. I'm dubbing it Family Picture.

Emily is home

Went to pick up Emily on the 22nd of December...




Here's her first meal at our home.




Tired puppy.





Christmas Eve with the remote.