Alaska we are home!

[Gina Heitz <brier@oregonsbest.com>]

Hi!

Liberty and I are home!  Some pictures at: 
http://www.briergoldens.com/liberty.htm  You have to see Liberty's Big Ice 
Cube...

We got to see Sam, who lives in AK with Katherina and Kevin he's from the 
"One" litter and looks just like his mom.  I see a glimmer of SeaJay, but 
he is his mothers son through and through.  Have pictures but need to scan 
them in so give me a day or so on that.

Also, I want to note to everyone, I groomed Sam's ears while I was 
there.  Right after grooming Katherina and Sam headed off for a river 
camping trip.  By Sunday Sam had one heck of a hot spot that went from ear 
to ear and around the back of his neck requiring serious vet 
treatment.  This was in part due to grooming, Sam had some small matts 
behind his ears which I removed and obviously Sam has sensitive skin, also 
not use to having his ears groomed.  The combo of the extreme hot weather 
(unusually hot for AK while I was there) grooming, swimming and air drying 
created a perfect environment for an infection.

So a grooming tip: It's very important to keep your dogs ear hair (hair 
behind the ears) groomed to avoid matting which hold in heat and to be sure 
to rinse behind the ears after swimming in fresh and or, brackish or salt 
water and dry them completely.  Air drying in hot weather can breed 
bacteria and to add for poor Sam his first ear groom on top of it all did 
not help. :-(  I am so sorry Sam!

All in all the trip was nice, it was great to spend time with friends in 
AK, see all the dogs at the dog show and to see the sights.  I could have 
done without the high temps into the 90's with the sun almost never 
setting...  I never saw the sun set, though I am told it did set in the 
early AM but was back up before I was...  Went to bed between 10 and 11 
PM's and up by 5 AM in full sun!  Was really glad to see the sun set last 
night, you don't appreciate our beautiful sun sets in OR till you don't get 
to see them. :-)

Liberty showed well, was in 12 to 18 class (only entry in class) so she did 
take the class but did not get a look in for best of breed at all.  She was 
the darkest dog there and had way less coat than any of the others...  But 
she had a great time and so did I.  I handed her off on Sunday so I could 
watch her show and I was very pleased with her...

Well back to real life...

Gina