Bluestem Kennels

Merry Christmas from Bluestem Kennels! I figured that Charles spending seven days hunting in Nebraska would butt right up to breeding season and I was correct! He got home just in time to get everyone full of energy and nutrition for puppy making. When I emailed out my prospective puppy owners a few days ago, it looked like Sally was going to be the first to breed. But with Ruth being the alpha and older, I knew that a silent heat could be possible and that she could be bred first. Sure enough, yesterday Duke was just barking his head off when Ruth was around and she was starting to stand and be receptive. We had a tie between Ruth and Duke yesterday and this morning. Sally just stopped her proestrus bleeding and should be a week or so away from breeding (but you never know, you can also have split heats where they bleed, are infertile/unreceptive for awhile, then out of nowhere are ready to breed). There is a lot of observing behavior at this point since I don’t run to the vet for daily hormone testing and I’ve always done it naturally.

I do have a longer list going of reservations, so I’d say anyone inquiring at this point should understand that I might not have availability until Spring 2025. Feel free to contact me at bluestemkennels@gmail.com and we can exchange phone numbers from there. My deposits are fully refundable, therefore there could be folks who drop off of the list or want to wait until the following year due to life circumstances. I’ll be reaching out to those who are on the list after the holidays to make sure that they are in a place to take a puppy in May. At this point I’ll assume that the breeding will take place in January, with puppies whelped in March and going home in May.

Seven Day Hunt in Nebraska

Charles took a new hunter in his twenties from Virginia, Evan, out to Nebraska with his German Shorthaired Pointer, Ridge. They were able to visit and hunt with our old friend and co-breeder, Aaron, who still has old Velma who was the mother of a few of our litters. Aaron was just down to one dog, his Griff Chewie, so we all decided that Dolly the English Pointer should go and live with him. She has already harvested six or seven wild roosters with Aaron and he says that she’s even starting to retrieve now that she doesn’t have a bunch of Griffs to do it for her.

There were no birds harvested on the first day, but it was a chance for everyone to get acclimated to being out west. Luckily the weather wasn’t super cold and there weren’t any blizzards, but it was definitely dry.

As they worked their was across South Central Nebraska, they finally got into birds on day two. It is never a blowout for pheasant in Nebraska anymore, so Charles, Obi and Sally scratched out a couple of roosters the second day. Sally was queen of the bird finding and Obi came up with the retrieves.

It was finally on day three that everyone got on to the board. Having four Griffons with him, Charles was bracing Obi and Sally together, then swapping them out for Duke and Ruth midday generally. Here is a shot of Sally retrieving the first rooster of day three.

Day four was an all-Charles show again. The experience of the dogs plus the hunter in these scenarios is a pretty unfair advantage. You’ll also see that Charles now wears shooting glasses. When we were out in the Sandhills, I noticed that he was missing shots that he should have been hitting. He had Lasik surgery about 20 years ago and I was betting that some of the focus was starting to wear off with age. So I made him an appointment at the eye doctor and sure enough enough he needed some corrective lenses. He says that they are making all the difference (thank God, the yelling about the bad misses was getting tiresome!).

(Just FYI, I don’t have a lot of control over the size of these photos and I keep messing them up trying to change them, so it just is what it is right now.)

Day five was a total bust on public land, but day six was on some nice private ground that Charles made contact with through folks at his old job in Nebraska. Thank you to the hosts for having Charles, Evan and the dogs on your property. Here are all of the photos from that day, the bird total was: 3 quail and a rooster for the hosts, 6 quail for Evan and Ridge, then five quail and a rooster for Charles and the four Griffons. Duke is pictured for the Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, but Obi, Sally and Ruth also contributed.

Of course on day seven, you not only end up with tired dogs, but also tired photographers. Here’s the bumper bird total with Evan and one of the hosts. The breakdown on the day was two roosters for the host, two quail for Charles and one rooster for Evan.

I’m not even going to go back and do a bird total on that trip, an epic adventure for sure! The most important thing is that there was good dog work and everyone came out of it uninjured. There was some fur worn off of the tops of noses and a few burrs in beards that I had to pull out when they got home. They were sore and hungry for a few days afterward.

Now they’ve bounced back for puppy making, what a whirlwind! Keep us in your thoughts and prayers for successful breedings. Merry Christmas everyone and if I don’t have any other news prior, I’ll throw in a Happy New Year just for good measure. I appreciate all of our puppy families past, present and future: may God bless us all, everyone.