The puppy that we kept out of the “G” litter, “Fire” from Sam and BB is doing well. She is 3 months old right now and weighs about 17 pounds. We took her out with 3 of our captive quail on Friday, unfortunately 2 of them got away from us before she could get on to them, but we did have one good point and flush. My video camera was out of battery, so I only took a couple of stills from the day.
Three-month old Fire getting used to working out in front.
Fire pointing the planted quail.
Fire is doing okay on housebreaking, we still have an accident every few days. Instead of putting her in the ex-pen in the front yard for bathroom breaks, we’re working her on the puppy-gauge checkcord which is good practice for when we start to train with the adult-sized checkcord. Probably the biggest difficulty we’ve had with her the past week is with her stomach. She is obsessed with my hair ties and has stolen from the night stand and eaten about 5 of them. They’ve either passed back up or through, but I don’t want her getting a blockage from them, so they are hanging high from here on out. Also, she must have gotten into some wormy deer or rabbit poop out back, as we had to fight off a bad case of roundworm. Luckily, two days of dosing her with the over-the-counter liquid puppy de-wormer seemed to do the trick. So hopefully the stomach concerns are over for now.
The big dogs are all fine, just ready for their spring grooming. And of course my last litter of puppies for 2014, they start going home a week from tomorrow. They are all just wonderful pups and their owners should be very excited; they’re pretty feisty and are ready for some more individual time. In addition to our own de-sensitizing with the cap gun, one of our neighbors has been getting a new roof, so there has been plenty of popping going on. We had a 100 degree day on Wednesday, so I was outside with the dogs most of the day keeping them cool in the pool. They love to pick up random objects and carry them around. Plus they are super friendly! I have one of my frozen dead quail thawing out and we’ll play with that this week, then Friday is their vet appointment for microchips and shots. Here are their individual pictures:
Girl: Hope
Girl: Harriet
Boy: Hez
Boy: Harold
Boy: Herbert
This week’s YouTube is pretty funny, as it features my five-year old son, Caleb, absconding into the woods with two of the puppies and me trying to get them all to come back. You can see how active they are now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rnFdgULxIU&feature=youtu.be
Charles and our ten-year old son, Conrad, went out on Saturday to give a hand at the Heartland Chapter NAVHDA Spring test. They got to meet one of the Switchgrass griffons out of Oklahoma and were pleased with the dog’s performance. Plus it was just good for them both to get out with the dog people.
We weathered last night’s storm just fine, it was really no more than an average thunderstorm here, but I know that there are folks west of us who lost homes, barns, and animals, so our prayers go out to them and we’re thankful to all be safe here. I hope that both dog and human mothers had a blessed Mother’s Day yesterday. I’ll be sure to catch up with you again this weekend before the pups start going home.
Bluestem Kennels 
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