home and tired

[Gina Heitz <brier@oregonsbest.com>]

To my Special Loved Ones,

We are home but officially not really...  Have got to run all over Oregon 
tomorrow picking up the rest of the crew.  Sprite, Scarlette, Meg, Gidget, 
Seiko are all at camp Renee Ivy in Dallas OR.  reports from Renee are that 
when she wins the lotto she is only going to board my dogs ever!  The girls 
were and I quote: Angels.  Renee' husband Archie was so taken with our 
girls he asked Renee what is it that we do with our dogs that they are so 
good?  He doesn't know our dogs are not "kennel" dogs. :-)  He assumes they 
are since he knows we have 12 dogs.  Haus is with Judy and is learning to 
not jump on those who are only 5 foot 2...

The trip was great, the weather was very accommodating.  It only rained at 
night two of the 5 nights was warm sunny and just all around a 
pleasure.  Deb McFail was looking for shorts!

The high light of the trip was meeting Deb and having some (not enough 
though) time with her hearing about Boomer, Rosie and Sophie and oh yes 
POB.  Got to see a video of  Deb's home and her kids and of course like all 
Alaskans she showed me Moose shots.  IIene NO we did not look at your 
tape.  The darned thing was to big to fit into Deb's cam 
corder!  Drats!   How ever I did leave a copy with the Canadian Comedy Channel.

   Deb also introduced us to Deb Roth also from Alaska who also showed me 
pictures of Moose btw.  Deb Roth is an obedience trainer in Anchorage ex 
AKC licensed Obedience Judge.  Deb Roth will be joining the BP list in a 
couple of weeks after she gets caught back up from her trip and will be 
available to lend more support for those ill tempered dogs you all have 
from us. <smile>  Deb is very much into positive reenforcement and up 
positive training.  She worked with Twister for a few minutes and was wowed 
by her ability.  Twister and George start class on Wed. btw but not in 
Anchorage too many Moose up there.

TRiX had a good time, which was the goal.  She did get sick (travel stress) 
it's a lot for a puppy to go away for 6 days and be in a upstairs motel 
room and a loud crowded show grounds, relegated to a crate more than 
normal.  Bathed, groomed, blowed, puffed up, run around on a string in a 
circle, clapped for, handled by lots of passers by, all the surfing at all 
the vendor tables.  It's really hard on them.  We usually only do local 
stuff with pup's and ya know now I know why.  She was a trooper though and 
never acted a bit off though her rear end told us she was not feeling up to 
par.  We showed her on Thursday in the Sporting Dog Specialty and she got a 
third in her class.  On Friday we didn't make the ribbons there were 7 
puppies in her class including the puppy who went RWB at the 
National.  This was the day she started to get sick.  By show time on 
Saturday I just could not ask her to preform.  She had a blow out in her 
crate with out warning and I just wanted to rest her.  It's important with 
puppies to not ask more of them than you know they are capable of.  It 
takes balance to build a show dog any dog for that matter.  So instead of a 
run around the ring we packed it in early and took her back tot he room let 
her play ball in the yard at the motel and just babied her.

SeaJay met with huge competition!  Flashier dogs than he will ever be.  But 
he held his own in the ribbons each day.  Large classes, and many finished 
Champions (dogs we call Specials).  His day was Saturday going Winners for 
3 points under an American Judge Marian Hoddison from Tucson AZ.  Marian 
judges in the PNW a lot so we will be showing him to her in the US too. 
:-)  We had a picture taken and I will get it up when we get it in about 3 
weeks.  We are sitting on 7 points needing 3 more to finish in Canada.  So 
next spring watch out Canada. :-)   We started out on Thursday with a third 
at the Specialty, Friday a second, and Saturday our day in the sun and 
Sunday we plummeted down the mountain to forth.    So we bring home a 
ribbon of each color. <LOL>

To have a piece of this week of shows was an honor and we are very happy 
with the performance.  More of an honor was the Guide Dog's of BC's 
interest in SeaJay and the possibility of him siring working guides.  Will 
keep you all posted there as well.  We were also approached by several 
Canadians looking for puppies who adored all of our 4 we had along.

Kaycee truly enjoyed her trip.  She was the golden ambassador of age and 
gave Deb a grooming lesson in ears ever so patiently.  Kaycee will be 11 in 
just a few days.  We are so happy she enjoyed this trip and look forward to 
many more with her in tow.  She loves to travel and is just the best 
traveler!   She knew it was a dog show and she didn't forget for one minute 
what that meant.  Kaycee truly enjoys being a show dog even if it's now 
from the side lines.  Older, spayed but still very much the show gal!  Did 
her hat trick for anyone who would watch greeted the young and the old both 
with respect and allowed many to fondle her and of course feed her!

The down side to the trip was that George didn't get to see SeaJay win. 
:-(  As we were ready to start goldens an announcement came over the PA 
that there were Animal Rights Activists in the building letting dogs out of 
crates.  George ran to the set up to guard the dogs left in the set 
up.  It's such a sad sad thing that there are those radicals out 
there...  PETA is the largest and if your accidentally making donations to 
them thinking that they are an animal welfare organization please do some 
research into their agenda.  They are not for the ethical treatment of 
animals.  They are militant rebels that believe that there should be no 
pure bred dogs and that all dogs should be set free to forge and run a muck.

Well on that note I will put my keyboard to bed.

Gina :-)