Bailey is 9 months old today!

Bring a Lab puppy home and your world will never be the same again!

I have owned Labs, okay the truth is Labs have owned me, for over 30 years.  There is something about a Lab that will grab your heart and never let go.

Each one has their own personality and quirks.  Bailey is no exception.

I am a fanatic about choosing the right breeder.  In searching for my next puppy, I had decided on a breeder in Cobbleskill, NY.  But the dog from which she had chosen for me to get a puppy, never went into heat on my schedule.  I didn't want to bring a new puppy home in the middle of a New York winter.

I began networking.  I knew of a breeder in the Cincinnati area but she wasn't going to have puppies for another year.  She put me in touch with a breeder near Cleveland.  That breeder had just had her first litter of puppies.  That was a red flag to me.  First time breeder?  Not sure I wanted to go that route.

Another "Lab person" friend of mine assured me, "If Alicia says she is reputable, she's reputable."

So I arranged to go meet this new breeder, who lives near Akron, Ohio, out from Cleveland.  I drove down on a weekend.  I wanted to know what kind of people this couple were, how were the dogs being raised.  It didn't take long talking with them to know they knew what they were doing.

I was their first customer and it wasn't easy for them to let go of this puppy!  That told me they were not in the business to make money.  They genuinely cared that their puppies went to a good home.  They gave me an old towel, with the scent from the litter,  when I brought Bailey home.  This went a long way in helping her adjust to her new home.  That first night, she only cried when she woke up and needed to go out.

Bailey is definitely one of a kind.  The first week I had her, I turned my back on her for just a second, to pour a cup of coffee.  In the blink of an eye, she grabbed the end of a roll of toilet paper on the bathroom wall and ran through the house at the speed of sound.  Morgan, my other Lab, looked at me as if she were thinking, "Geez, I never thought of that!"

Bailey is my first counter surfer. . . a trait I am trying diligently to break.

She never meets a stranger, a common trait of Labs.  As rambunctious as she is, she has learned if she sits quietly while I am eating and looks at me with those eyes, she will probably get a last bite of my food!

To my way of thinking, if you don't have a Lab in your life, your life just isn't complete.