Bluestem Kennels

FCM Bluestem Freyja

I received an e-mail from Charbel in Mexico City that six month-old  Bluestem Freyja, sister to our pup Fire out of Sam and BB, is now officially the only registered Wirehaired Pointing Griffon in Mexico!  Viva Griffon!  I find the name that they use quite interesting, as it literally translates into “Pointer Griffon of Hard Hair”.  Here is the official pedigree from FCM, and thank you so much to Charbel for sending me a copy!

Federacion Canofila Mexicana Pedigree of Pointer Griffon de Pelo Duro, Bluestem Freyja

It is pretty cool that in 3 generations it goes from France (Cyr, the sire of BB), Canada (BB was born), US (where Freyja was born), and now to Mexico.  I know that she has a good life down there, and I can’t wait to get some pics of her chasing some of their crazy quail.

Fire Training Day Epic Fail

Our poor raggedy chukar have been sitting in the holding pen for too long.  It isn’t a flight pen and most of them are big males and have pecked one another over quite a bit.  But we decided that Fire absolutely had to get out.  So yesterday morning, off we went to the dog training wildlife management area south of town with three chukars.

It has been raining so much that the grass was wet, and the birds were wet.  But Charles planted them anyway.  At that point, we hadn’t had Fire out working birds or even for a multi-hour walk for about a month.  The first thing that she did was take off like a bat out of hell right down the scent of Charles’s boots, with no care in the world for the whistle.  We finally found her about 150 yards away, up and over the hill with the last bird that he had planted in her mouth.

On the second bird, we got a point out of her that Charles was able to walk in on, but it barely flew and was almost an Arky shot (looks like I need to add Arky Shot to Urban Dictionary.  It is when a person shoots a bird on the ground or in a tree, which is extremely unsportsmanlike when not totally illegal).  But he wanted to make sure that he fired the shotgun and the bird was dead when she got ahold of it.  I think that the shotgun blast scared me more than it did the dog, so it looks like we’ve got the pup’s shotgun conditioning finalized.

Charles walking in on Fire’s point

Fire showing off her prey drive on the flush

Charles going for the near-Arky

She retrieved that bird, but I was still too stunned from the blast to get a photo of it.  We got a decent point on the last bird, but it didn’t fly but about 6 inches off of the ground, right into Fire’s mouth.  Aw hell.  Although it makes for a funny story, and everyone who trains dogs has these days, it was still a big thumbs down.

Everybody Run

Remember that awesome song from Sesame Street in the 1970s?  Well, here it is:

Yet I digress.  This morning, we finally got everyone out for a run.  And it was fun.

Sam, Fire, BB, and Charles.

Fire in the flowers

Go Sam go

BB on the move

Three dogs in the grass: Sam, Fire, BB

Here comes BB

Happy Sam

The people

Upcoming trialing and hunting

This weekend, we will be running Fire in the Amateur Walking Derby and the Walking Puppy Stakes at the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Nebraska’s Fall Trial at Branched Oak Lake Trial Grounds.  I’ll be sure to get something up about that at the end of next weekend before I get on the plane for Maine.  I’m hoping that the stakes prior to the Derby are large, because if it falls on Friday, I will have to handle.  It would be my first time.  I thought we’d be running again the following weekend, but once I went to fill out the premium for the Lincoln club, I realized that there are no walking stakes.  So we’ll have the first weekend of September off from dog activities and just plan on sitting for some doves on Monday the 1st.

P

Pointing Dog Journal: Nebraska Sandhills Prairie Chicken Mention

This month’s PDJ Pass Along E-mail Blast was about the Greater Prairie Chicken and my very own Nebraska Sandhills.  The following is the full text from the e-mail and I hope that I am re-printing it with permission.  Full credit goes to Pointing Dog Journal and the author listed below:

Prairie Chickens
in the Nebraska Sandhills
by Greg Septon, STCP

Founded in 1961 to save the greater prairie-chicken (GPC) in Wisconsin, the Society of Tympanuchus Cupido Pinnatus, Ltd. (STCP) is working today to better understand the dynamics that maintain the nation’s largest viable population of GPC in the Nebraska Sandhills – the last best place to study the species in their natural grassland environment.

The goal in the Sandhills is to document productivity, habitat use, and movements of GPC and provide an understanding of how this is interwoven with human activities in the region. If GPC are to prosper as a species we need to better understand their needs and work to determine a scenario where compatible land uses will provide a secure future for them as well as humans so that both may coexist.

Our proactive approach at studying the dynamics of this large population now means that we can likely prevent the GPC from following in the wake of the lesser prairie-chicken – which is now listed as threatened, and the greater sage grouse, which may also be listed next year. If similar proactive research had been undertaken 20 years ago with these species, they might not be facing the uncertain futures they face today.

Gaining a thorough understanding of the life history of Nebraska’s large GPC population will also help provide a future for the isolated, remnant GPC populations in Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa. For it is from the large populations that these states will need to translocate birds from to restore genetic health and increase numbers to maintain their “museum” or “zoo” populations as they are often referred to. Without a stable source population where birds can be drawn from for periodic translocations, these small, isolated populations will eventually fade away one by one.

For a more comprehensive history of STCP and an account of our research efforts including work with the endangered Attwater’s prairie-chicken, please visit our website at: www.prairiegrouse.org.

Until next weekend

I need to go and get the kids ready for school tomorrow.  It is very much unlike me to do a Sunday night post, but I desperately need to save my writing time in the morning for my paid writing gig.  Oh, I also wanted to give a special shout out to the late night internet lurkers on my blog.  I am also one of those people who gets up almost every night for 15 minutes or so between midnight and 4 AM and gets online.  I know it is neurotic and a bad habit, but I always check my stats and see there are folks out there reading my blog at that time.  I also see that there are people reading my archived posts from several years back.  How embarrassing, it is a real cesspool in places.  But that is just part of keeping an online diary.  I’m glad that you enjoy it.