Council Cup’s EmmieLou (WS04815802)

 

Emmie with Kathy Kalos at the Cape Cod show 2005

Winner's Bitch and Best of Opposite

Emmie was born on 3/13/03 in Pennsylvania at Council Cup’s kennels. We awaited her arrival with great excitement! In late May, we drove for six hours in one of the worst rain storms of the season last spring to pick her up. Maggie came along with us to provide a ‘friendly face’ for Emmie’s long drive home. 

Our first view of Emmie was comical – she was wet and muddy and clearly loving it! (She is, after all, a Newf!) Before the ride home, her breeder, Patti McDowell, gave her a bath, towel dried her off and sat her on Cheryl’s lap. Emmie pretty much stayed there for the entire six hour drive home.

As a puppy, Emmie had what we can only call ‘big hair’…a huge, pouffy ‘do’ that made her look so very cute!  Shortly after she came to live with us, Cheryl took Emmie to the college at which she teaches.  The college has a pre-school on campus; Cheryl’s office is in the same building as the pre-school so Emmie passed right by the children in the play yard.  Emmie REALLY wanted to go into their ‘kennel’ (which is how she must have thought of it) to play with them. And the children clearly wanted her to come in. As a compromise, the student teacher let each child take turns coming to the fence to pet Emmie. One little girl, with the most serious face imaginable, asked Cheryl ‘Are you her mommie?’ When Cheryl said ‘yes’, she said ‘Oh….she looks just like you.' 

This is Emmie shortly after we brought her home from Pennsylvania

She is taking a walk in our orchard

 

Emmie is very smart! Bob has been training her in obedience. At six months old, she was tested for her CGC at the Newfoundland Spring Fling!

She is enthusiastic, loveable and VERY affectionate! She loves to jump up on people, put her big paws on your shoulder and give great big sloppy kisses. The photo to the right shows her giving Cheryl one of those sloppy, wet kisses!  (All right – it’s not the best manners but it was cute until she hit 100 lbs). 

 

 

 

Emmie’s father, Am. Eu. Ch. Three Pond Council Cup Bogart (Bogey), a landseer, is shown in the three show photos directly to the right and the one just below.  He often travels internationally as part of his show career.  He recently won Best of Breed at the famous Crufts 2005 dog show in the United Kingdon and went 'Best of Show over 10,000 dogs in the 2004 European Dog Show in Barcelona. Photos of Bogey and Emmie’s half siblings are to the right but can also be seen at Bogie's website: www.thickishnewfs.com/web/indexin.htm 

Emmie's personality is very much like her father's.  Bogey's ‘mother’ writes

“Bogey is like a puppy full of happiness, with a very sweet temperament; he is just a little bit crazy because he always jumps on me to give me kisses (I'm a small woman, so you can immagine...); he is a big dog with very nice head, fantastic movement and very white coat.”

 

The photo below shows Bogey winning Best of Show at the 2004 European Dog show over 10,000 dogs

In 2005, Bogey won Best of Breed at the famous Cruft's dog show in the United Kingdon.  (See http://crufts.homepage.net/breed.asp) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

True to her breeding, Emmie's favorite thing is to jump up, put her big paws on your shoulders and lick your face to give kisses...and we're not talking about one quick lick....but an entire 'wash and wax'!  She is a natural clown...full of life and energy with always a smile on her cute little face.  Emmie makes me laugh more than any other dog that has ever lived with us!  Don't ask me why, but she was funny even after she ate an entire dozen hard boiled eggs (shell and all) cooling in a pot of cold water waiting to be decorated for Easter.  And, surprisingly, she was funny even after she ran gaily through the house with my BRAND NEW, silk Harve Bernard dress (which went in the trash shortly after the gay parade as there were too many tooth marks in the delicate fabric)

Some show photos of Emmie

Like her sire, Emmie loves being in the ring and is a natural ‘ham’. She is being shown by Kathy Kalos.  Her first grown-up show was the March 13 2004 Connecticut River Working Dog show….a pretty big show for her introduction but the timing and location were right and we decided to do it just for experience.  Surprisingly, despite her high energy and naughty behavior in the ring, she pinned!  We were quire proud of her - but mostly of Kathy for being able to turn such a naughty girl into a winner. Emmie has since gone on to prove herself further in the show ring.  

 

 

When relaxing at home, Emmie's enjoys picking blue berries, black berries, and other fruit from the bushes and trees in our orchard. Like Maggie, Emmiee absolutely loves pears and periodically sniffs our pear tree to see if the pears will be ready to fall soon. 

Em also loves to take walks in our woods and swim in the pool.   She loves to retrieve things from the water and one of her favorite toys is big red ball near the ramp - although you can't see it in the photo, the ball has a handle on one end which allows her to carry it easily in her mouth.  She is shown directly below swimming with Bob. Below and to the right you will see a video of Bob and Emmie swimming...notice that Emmie is doing a modified breast stroke rather than the typical canine 'dog paddle'.

If you watch Emmie, you'll notice that  she's using a modified 'breast stroke' like Bob rather than the typical canine 'dog paddle'.   This is an excellent example of vicarious learning which was first described by noted social psychologist, Dr. Alfred Bandura.   Vicarious learning - also known as behavior modeling' - is learning that occurs through the process of imitation.  Bandura's seminal research in the 1950's demonstrated the powerful impact of behavior modeling on children's behavior.  While his initial research showed human pre-schoolers learning violent behavior from televised cartoons, it has long been established that animals also learn vicariously.  For example, young horses are often 'ponied' with a mounted, calm, older horse to teach them about being ridden.