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Pupdate: Seven Weeks!

July 26, 2012

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update , , , 2 Comments

Today the puppies were given their final health examinations prior to homegoing and they all received perfect scores from Dr. Kliewer!  We are getting prepared for departures, our first one being this Sunday.  I couldn’t be more pleased with how they have all turned out and quite surprised that we were totally victorious in our battle against this heatwave.  It feels like over the last month we’ve hit highs between 97-107F every day, with the exception of a handful of days.  I’ve been spending hours a day back  in the woods with the puppies, letting them dig themselves wallowing holes in the deep shade midday and soaking them down in cold water afterwards, in addition to their typical morning and evening run/playtime.  Here is a video of the kids and pups in the woods on a morning runabout: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nb3jyStko4

Last Friday we ended up down at a pond that we have access to south of town.  At least two, maybe 3 puppies swam on their own.  You don’t see it in the video, but the rest I carried out a little ways and set them down in the water and let them swim back to shore.  Everyone made it back in on their own steam, so we’re good there.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjDGsJ80rrg

This week we’ve been starting individual crate conditioning and socialization.  It has been too hot to drive them around in the van and run errands with them, so we had to take that part out of the routine (they got plenty of driving in the crate during pair conditioning, coming and going with vet needs and going down to the pond).  So the individual routine has been to pick a pup each day to bring in the house individually, crate the pup for 1.5-2 hours, take it out in the front yard on a leash for 5-10 minutes to potty, then bring it back into the house for the kids to play with for another couple of hours.

Caleb messes with the pup while Cordelia squeaks a toy, with friend Allena waiting her turn to play

Really all there is left to do with the pups at this point is finish up individual crate conditioning and socialization, then do their brief introduction to a live bird.  Aside from that I need to get my office work on and get all of the invoices, guarantees, health documents and transfer forms completed and bundled up.

“Doris”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Dottie”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Derry”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Daisy”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Don”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

“Darryl”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

“David”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

The kids and I have big plans for the last couple of weeks of summer post-puppy and pre-beginning of school.  I have a few griffon “how-to” items up my sleeve for this blog before we get ready to fire up the hunting blog for the season.  Charles and I collaborate on the hunting blog, it has a bit of a different voice and structure than this, the kennel blog.  Check out some of our posts from last year if you like by clicking the “Hunting Blog” button on the top navigation bar of this site.

 

 

 

 

D Litter: Six Weeks!

July 19, 2012

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update , , , , Leave a comment

Wow, the pups are really starting to keep me busy!  They love attention and running around the woods.  In this week’s first video, my favorite part is right at 1:28 when Caleb is running up the hill, the last puppy in the line stops and points his siblings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f7KfMe1ic0

Between Sue and the pups, they are eating two big coffee cans full of food a day.  I’ll find out their exact weights when we go to the veterinarian for first shots a week from today, but they are big and stout.

Charles used some live quail for training on Saturday, so Sunday the puppies had some little bird carcasses to investigate and carry around: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDhvHOCd-LY

“Doris” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Dottie” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Derry” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Daisy” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Don” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

“Darryl” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

“David” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

Here is a shopping list for traveling by car with a puppy:

1) Crate (he/she will probably get held a lot on the way home, but it is good practice)

2) Small food/water dishes

3) Bottled water and a small supply of dry dog food

4) Collar and leash.  Today I just upgraded them to the Medium (5/8 inch wide, 10-16 inch length), but I keep ahold of these collars for future litters.

5) Paper towels and baby wipes, in case of any messes.

6) Plastic bags for waste clean-up if you stop.  I like to recycle my newspaper bags for this.

I know there are some super excited kids and adults out there ready to give these puppies some fabulous homes!   These puppies are getting to be almost more than I can handle on my own, so I know that means that they are ready for their own people.

The puppies will be missed, but looking at my 2012, I’ve been working on something to do with breeding constantly since January, whether it was getting them mated, watching over a pregnant female or whelping and raising puppies.  It is so fun and rewarding, but I’ll be ready for my few weeks off between this litter going home and the opening day of hunting season on Sunday, September 1st.

For those of you joining us in the heatwave, stay cool until next time!  If you are getting drenched with rain over in Europe, stay dry!

Pupdate: Five weeks!

July 13, 2012

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update , , , 4 Comments

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Kallie holding a 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppy Sunday

Last weekend brought a few kennel visits from some families considering puppies from future litters.  The “D” litter pups had a good time with their visitors!

Rick and his daughter pose with a 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppy last Friday

Most notable is that the puppies have starting exploring the area outside of the kennel, which is the subject of this week’s YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGncSlePLvI (I realized as I was posting this video that I accidentally left last week’s video where the pups are messing with the pigeon carcasses locked as private, so if you would like to go back and watch it, it is now available).  At this point I’m just opening the door and letting them check out the area just surrounding, but later this week I will take them to the back of the property and have them follow me back to the kennel, so that they can start learning the layout of the area.  They also finished their 20 lb. bag of dry puppy kibble, so now they are on “big dog” food with everyone else (Diamond Performance).

This week will also be the beginning of crate conditioning and individual work with the wing.  They have grown and changed so much in the past week, here are their updated photos:

“Doris” 5 week old female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

“Dottie” 5 week old female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

“Derry” 5 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppy

“Daisy” 5 week old female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

“Don” 5 week old male Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

“Darryl” 5 week old male Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

“David” 5 week old male Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

I also received a few photo updates from some of the “C” litter puppies who are now 4 months old:

TracHer in North Dakota playing with toys, 4 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

TracHer in North Dakota attacking the camera, 4 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Belle in Oklahoma checking out a trapped armadillo, 4 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Belle in Oklahoma playing lap dog on her owner, Cliff. 4 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

So now that the temperatures in the triple digits are gone, things are pretty well back to normal around here.  Not having to soak down the kennel every couple of hours and enjoying our time outside.  Three more weeks until the puppies go to their very excited new owners!!

I’d like for you all to check out my latest project called Griffon Gear.  I’ll be adding more to it, like shirts, books, cards, stationary and training supplies, but right now I have some nice home decor items available from some talented American artists across the country (including TracHer’s mom, Susan, who is a potter in North Dakota!).  I’ll let you know as I get more “gear” available, but as of right now I’m just happy to have the site built and fully functional as well as having some great partners in the art world on this!  http://www.wirehairedpointinggriffongear.com  For future reference, the link is also available to access through the “Store” button on the top navigation bar of this site.

Pupdate: Four weeks old!

July 5, 2012

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update , , , , 1 Comment

The puppies are getting quite lively at 4 weeks old, it’s hard to believe that we are half way through our journey before sending them off to their forever families.  The puppy formula/soft canned dog food mush was transitioned to straight soft canned puppy food and they’ve since moved on to dry puppy kibble mixed in with their soft canned puppy food.  They are now wearing collars and are almost ready to start playing in the woods.

“Doris” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Dottie” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Derry” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Daisy” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Don” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

“Darryl” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male in the dog house

“David” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

When they are awake and not eating, they spend most of their time barking at and chewing on each other.  They aren’t quite steady enough on their feet yet to run after each other too much, but they are able to manage the steps in and out of the dog house.

Charles took Sam and BB out for some training with live pigeons over the weekend and brought the carcasses back so that I could show them to the puppies, as you can see in this week’s video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEexjh0p7Hc

Puppies and pigeons

4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppies sniff a dead pigeon

We’ve been battling 100 degree heat over the last week and it doesn’t appear we’ll get a break until Saturday.  I make sure I’m getting out to the kennel every couple of hours to soak the puppies down and cool the stone floor with a few gallons of cold water.  Even though they are in the shade, there’s no way to get around the fact that it is hot!

The puppies’ first outside visitors were my grandparents from California, who had flown into Omaha to attend my grandmother’s 70th high school reunion in Valentine, Nebraska.

Hope (age 86) and Ken (age 91) enjoying 3.5 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppies

The kennel beckons for dog and puppy cool down time, so I’ll catch up with you all next week!  The dog days of summer!!