We hope that you all had a Merry Christmas and many blessings for the New Year! As many of you know, life with dogs is never dull. Keeping a breed going takes the work of many and there’s always something to do: whether it is training a young dog or keeping the adult dogs healthy and entertained. As of now, we’re still saying that we’re taking a break from litters, but all of these puppies on the ground with our breeder friends makes us miss our littles.
Yet soon enough we’ll have something to keep us occupied with bringing home a new male puppy at the end of the month. Our VC Obi is the stud and the female is a Firebirds/Aux Lake cross. For those of you who don’t know, Gary Engebretson of Firebirds in Wisconsin and Larry Woodward of Aux Lake in Kansas are both well-tested NAVHDA breeders. We’re hoping to compliment what we already have going in our breeding program with that blood.
I tend to get lost in hunting updates and haven’t been good about posting “pupdates”, so here we go with my effort to catch up! I only pull from my texts and email, there is no way for me to keep up with everyone’s socials at this time. When I have time to check Instagram and the Griffon Facebook groups, I do appreciate everyone sharing the photos of their pups, I guess I need to just do a better job of downloading and managing them as I see them (but I don’t).
Pupdates
Back in May of 2025 (keep in mind that we had three litters go home in 2025, so I am way behind) BJ from Tennessee took his male pup Blair from the 2024 “U” Litter between Obi and Sally to the Missouri Southern Chapter of NAVHDA for his Natural Ability Test at one year, two months old. Here is what BJ had to say about the experience:
Wanted to let you know Blair passed the NA test with a prize 2! A feat made more remarkable by the fact I only got him over birds three times last year and his handler has no idea what he’s doing.
His only subtractions were in search and desire. In talking with the judges after, they said it was a close call but he wasn’t going out and searching where the birds “should be”. They said it seemed like a lack of experience in the field and was confirmed when I told them about his limited exposure.
Thanks for the advice on the tracking portion. I did as instructed and it really panned out. The dog tracking before Blair caught its pheasant and ran all over the field with the bird. Since that field was ruined we had to go to an unprepared field the judges hadn’t planned to use. The bird shot away from the judges like a rocket. It went about five yards and hooked a 90 degree left turn. I was panicking. When I approached the judges they were also panicking. They said we’d give it a shot but that they might need to retest that portion because everything was stacked against Blair.
Blair put his little nose to the ground and followed right along for the first 15 yards. I was thrilled. Then he stopped. Then he turned 90 degrees in the wrong direction and made a 20 yard loop. My heart sank. But he circled back behind us, made contact with the scent, and trailed the pheasant all the way to a point. I almost teared up. It was that beautiful.
The judge said afterward that the dog completely bailed them out on that track. He said Blair was notably calm and focused and patient during that exercise.
My first NAVHDA event – much less test – was a great success. My fellow handlers were delightful and the judges were gracious with their time and the way they handled the event. I hope you’re as pleased as I am with the result. Thanks for your work with the breed. Blair truly did that on his natural abilities.
Blair ended up with a NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize II with 103 points. A great job for a new dog and handler to the sport! Sorry BJ that it took me so long to get you a shout out!
Our next puppy NAVHDA test news was from Tate in Indiana with Willow. She’s from the early 2025 “V” Litter between Duke and Briar. At seven months and in her first heat cycle, she scored 110 points for a Prize I Natural Ability at the White Creek NAVHDA Chapter in Indiana back in August. Awesome work Tate and Willow!
In other news from the “V” Litter from early 2025, Bazooka is maturing nicely with Eva down in Arkansas.
Next we have Millie (2025 X Litter Obi x Sally) who is with Dara and Pericle in Upstate New York. She’s been looking super cute in the snow.
Millie’s sister Luna in Mississippi is having lots of adventures with her airman owner Alec, both in and out of the field.
Last but not least, we have Gary with Marcus who is right here on Lake Wylie, South Carolina. He’s also handsome! Gary is out of the 2025 W Litter between Duke and Briar.
Look at all of those cute dogs! I’ll keep telling myself that we’re taking time off from having puppies for now. I will be sure to keep you all posted as to when we start making plans otherwise.
Nebraska Pheasant and Quail 2025
Charles had a good trip out to south central Nebraska for pheasants and quail in December.
East Coast Woodcock
The weekend after Christmas, Charles and Caleb headed out for woodcock here back on the East Coast and each took a limit.
We’re all thankful for our successes in the whelping box and the field for 2025 and are looking forward to new adventures in 2026! I’m sure I’ll get inspired to get my camera out and brag on our new puppy, so keep an eye out in another month or so and I’ll be back. Let’s stay warm and push through to spring.
Bluestem Kennels 