Fall 2024 was one of the busiest we’ve ever been with hunting travel, testing and hosting events! We started off in September with Obi’s NAVHDA Invitational pass, hunting the Nebraska Sandhills in October, Charles headed up to hunt North Dakota the second part of October, Charity finishing off her National Specialty Chairperson role at the 2024 AWPGA National Specialty North Carolina in November, which was the same weekend that Charles helped spearhead the Saluda River NAVHDA chapter’s first test in Newberry, South Carolina, then right after we hosted our family Thanksgiving at an AirBnB in Atlanta, Georgia, Charles headed back out to Nebraska for pheasant season! Phew! We’ll be staying home and playing with puppies for most of 2025 and we’re looking forward to it.
You can always reach us at bluestemkennels@gmail.com then we can connect via phone from there.
VC Wyo Plainsman Kenobi NA I, UPT III, UT I x 2 “Obi” and Charles with their NAVHDA Invitational Pass Photo by Ted WentinkObi on point at NAVHDA Invitational. Photo by Terry Ann FernandoObi retrieves a chukar to Charles with an Iowa skyline in the background. Photo by Terry Ann FernandoCharles got a grouse and a duck or two, Caleb got two ducks our first day
The one memorable push from the first day was we circled a pond full of ducks. The boys were on the south side and I was on the north. I had the easier walk, so I could have easily ran in and busted up the ducks off of the pond to get my own shots in. But I’ve had plenty of ducks in my time and Caleb had zero. So since I couldn’t see where the guys were at I held back. By the time the ducks were flying and the boys were shooting, I was way out of range and running in at the last minute.
Although I totally got skunked on this trip to the Nebraska Sandhills, the best part was watching Caleb connect with his first sharptailed grouse on our second day. I couldn’t see who was shooting and all that I could see was the grouse getting totally smacked. It was great shooting by Caleb and I was very proud to be there for his first grouse.
Our fifteen year-old son, Caleb, with Obi and his first sharptailed grouse in the Nebraska SandhillsHe also got a duck later on, so we took a photo of that back at his grandma’sCharles and two grouse from the same day, in my mom’s backyard with the dogs
Caleb really upped his game on the last day with two sharptailed grouse and a duck
Caleb with two grouse and a duck, Charles with two grouse in my mom’s backyard with the dogs
Sorry for the unceremonious photos, most of the time we are just documenting what we can as we are tired and hungry by this point!
While Caleb and I headed back to South Carolina after the third day, Charles stayed on in the Sandhills for a bit longer and then continued on to North Dakota for their pheasant season.
Obi and Duke with the first North Dakota roosterBelle and Obi with a couple of roosters and a grouse in North DakotaBriar retrieving a rooster on day two of North DakotaDuke and a couple of roosters on the last day of North DakotaThe natural beauty of North Dakota never disappoints
Once Charles returned from North Dakota, we were right in the thick of the first NAVHDA test for the Saluda River NAVHDA Chapter, which Charles helped found and Charity was National Specialty Chairperson for the 2024 AWPGA National Specialty North Carolina in Winston-Salem and Pinehurst, North Carolina.
Belle, 19 Griffs Texas Bluebell, earned her NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize II with 102 Points with Caleb as her junior handler. Since Charles was so busy organizing, there is photo of that unfortunately.
Charity with the Best of Breed trophy and other trophies and ribbons at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds. Photo by Ann SummerfeltBriar is now Bluestem’s Carolina Briar Thicket JH after finishing her AKC Junior Hunter title at Nationals. Owner-handled by Charity. Photo by Charles Upchurch.Judge Michelle Clemens, myself with Sally as the bye dog, then Jessica Frazier with Jewels in AKC Junior Hunter at the Sandhills Pointing Breeds Club. Photo by Jim Clemens.Jewels and Sally with a double point with their noses right on a quail. Photo by Jim Clemens
All of the “thank yous” for the specialty are in the Griffonnier, the magazine of the American Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Association, but I’d like to most especially thank my husband Charles for putting up with all of this and helping as the field chair.
Once we wrapped up the specialty and the NAVHDA test, we enjoyed a quick Thanksgiving in Atlanta, Georgia with our East Coast family, then Charles was on the road again to return to Nebraska for pheasant season.
Obi and Belle with the first pheasant of the first day in NebraskaCharles with Obi and Belle and some Nebraska pheasants and quail at the end of the first dayDuke and Sally with a rooster of day three in Nebraska
Charles was pretty worn out in the Nebraska pheasant hunt, so I don’t think that he got good photos of each day.
Nebraska is also about connecting with our folks from home
I really apologize for the four month photo dump and not much writing to go with it, but sometimes it is all I have in me. Especially after all of this activity and organizing, and now we’re going into the last 10 days before Christmas!
I realize that I have photos of hunts from some of our puppies and retired dogs that I have not had a chance to post, but those will have to wait until the new year.
I hope that you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Now that National Specialty is over, I will have more time to communicate with you all.
Hope that you all are staying cool in this hot, hot summer! Our next litter (maybe litters?) won’t be until Spring of 2025, so if you are looking to get on our reservation list or just want to ask questions in general, you can reach us at bluestemkennels@gmail.com. If you’ve sent me an email in the last couple of weeks, we’ve been on the road, but I’ll be sure to answer them in the coming days.
We were podcast by Bill Tomlin of The Whoa Post in Episode 21 on June 24th. It is available on all podcast platforms, or you can try this link: https://pca.st/episode/7bef06bd-9943-4bfb-866e-503ea39063e1 It was really fun and I hope that you give it a listen!
On our way out to Nebraska, we met Ruth’s retirement family in Missouri who also has her mom, Fire (now Bella). Ron and Bonnie used to go back and forth between Arizona and Minnesota, but have sold their home in Minnesota and now are either in their RV or in Arizona.
Ron, Ruth and BonnieRon with Fire, Bonnie with RuthGracie the GSP, Ruth and Fire on the campsite. Photo by Ron Funk.
I know that Ruth and Fire have a great home in Arizona and it sounds as if Charles may go out that way to hunt with them in January or February.
It was great to have a cool down while we were out visiting in Nebraska, the heat of the day was only 75 or 80, so when we would get out in the morning it would be in the 60s.
Here are some pictures from one day when we were roading the dogs out in the Sandhills. It is tough to get good shots of running dogs from a moving vehicle, especially when my telephoto lens is on its last legs (I’ll be getting a new one for my birthday/Christmas). This isn’t something that we just do out of nowhere with the dogs, we start with fast, long foot walks and build up to this. We might be going 10 mph when we’re driving the truck. We live right next to a busy road and they are around the truck in the farm yard, so they know to stay out from under tires. But it is a situation where I have to say, “we are professionals, don’t try this at home!” because of the risk if you haven’t been doing this for a long time.
From left: Duke, Sally, Briar, Obi and Belle in a swampy green valley in the SandhillsLeft to right: Briar, Sally, Duke, Belle and Obi running out in the open.Left to right: Duke, Briar, Belle, Obi and Sally heading into a windmill.
I got a few extra pictures of the “little girls” as we call them: almost two-year-old Briar and five-month-old Belle. Here’s Belle:
Belle on the runBriar and Belle checking something out.Belle retrieving a stick in the water
Belle using the string on the Dokken to retrieve since she’s used to smaller ones
Now here’s Briar’s batch of photos. You can see that she has more brown in her coat than most of my other dogs, similar to a Stichelhaar. This coat style goes all the way back to my foundation pair of Sue and Sam. I have not seen it since then. She is DNA tested 100% Griffon, but this harkens back to when all of these European rough-haired breeds were all one.:
Briar standing in the prairieBriar checking something outBriar on the move through the grassBriar on the water retrieve
Here are some field shots of Sally:
Sally taking a stroll on the prairieSally with a look of joy on her face
Here’s our younger male, Duke:
Duke on the run with Obi in the backgroundDuke was also having a grand time on the prairie
Last but not least, our patriarch Obi, who is getting ready for NAVHDA Invitational:
Obi mid-stride with the sand dunes in the backgroundDuke and Obi going all-out in the field
Multiple times during our excursion we saw prairie chickens in the field, at one time it was a large group of six or eight, so it should be a good year for bird hunting. Once again, taking photos of moving animals in a moving vehicle is very difficult, so I didn’t get as cool of picture as I wanted.
Prairie chicken in flight!
Here’s one more photo of everyone swimming for Dokkens in a pond:
Obi, Duke, Sally, Belle and Briar in the pond
Like I’ve said before, the weather was just perfect for running dogs out in Nebraska, but now we’re back in the South Carolina heat. Griffons love to have fun and so making the training fun makes it easier for everyone.
Charles has already been back out with the local NAVHDA chapters doing the serious training while I get everything ready for Caleb to start his sophomore year of high school (I can’t believe the first day is August 1st!). He has also acquired his learner’s permit, so we’re practicing driving.
The clock is ticking on the 2024 AWPGA National Specialty events in November, so I continue to plug away at that.
The puppies of the “U” Litter have all gone to their new homes. Due to a last minute business trip for one of the new owners, the last one flew away to Texas as a carry-on item yesterday. I will be working through my list that I have for Spring 2025 over the coming weeks to see if folks want to stay on or have made other decisions. Also, if you have emailed with new interest in the last few days, I see you and will get back to you before Friday.
A quick aside and a shameless promotion of the 2024 American Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Association National Specialty, I present you with this infographic covering our schedule at a glance. You can find the detailed version on the club website at: https://www.awpga.com/2024-natl-specialty-schedule.html
The only event that is AWPGA members-only is the Morning Annual Meeting, all other events are open to non-members. The AKC Hunt Tests on Monday are Wirehaired Pointing Griffon only. I am not doing this alone, there are many members behind the scenes helping to prepare, but covering that and thanking them are not within the scope of this post. If you are looking to see Griffons and network with the community, plan on taking this great opportunity to do so. I will post ticketing information as it becomes available.
Back to puppies! The eight plus weeks that go into raising a litter involve a lot of interrupted sleep and manual labor. By the time puppy pickups happen, I’m pretty drained from the process and mourning that separation process a little. I am bad about catching all of the family members’ names and the new names of the puppies. But I do know that they all went to fantastic families where they will be loved and cared for.
Wes and Caroline will work on waterfowl with Ulysses in AlabamaUnity will have three young boys to play with in North Carolina (the other two were in school).Gaines and his daughter will work with Ursula also in AlabamaRyan and his family will be doing NAVHDA in Pennsylvania with Uschi and his father-in-law, who also has a Bluestem pup.Colin with be hanging with Unique down on the South Carolina coast.This is John and BJ’s second Bluestem pup, taking Uriah with them back to Tennessee.Zach will be training Upman with NAVHDA in Kentucky.Uma flew with Saxon yesterday to Texas.
So that’s a wrap on the “U” Litter! Charles is busy getting Obi ready for Invitational this fall. I need to finish Briar’s AKC Junior Hunter (I have commitments on the weekends for the rest of the month, then testing shuts down until September). Ruth has her spay appointment on Thursday, then I nurse her back so that she can join her mom, Fire, traveling between Minnesota and Arizona with our friend, Ron. I’ll be sure to keep everyone up-to-date on our adventures over the summer, although it won’t be as frequent as hunting season or when we have puppies. You know where I am in the meantime, shoot me an email at bluestemkennels@gmail.com if you need to talk Griffons (I do talk on the phone, I just use my email as my robocaller screening tool).
Before you reach out about puppies, just know that I have a long list awaiting this news. My email is bluestemkennels@gmail.com if you want to inquire. It may be 2025 before I have any puppies available, as whoever does not get a pup this year rolls over into next year in the order that their deposit was received. Normally, I can get to emails within 24 hours, but I am trying to get the basic pieces nailed down to the 2024 AWPGA National Specialty dog shows, meetings and field events so it is taking me a few days to respond to kennel emails right now. I appreciate your patience.
If you are on my list and have not yet heard from me yet, you will be hearing from me in the next week. The list did shift up several spots, so you’ll be pleasantly surprised. I was also awaiting these ultrasound results to find out if both females are pregnant before I started saying, “Well there may be a chance…” and having it be unreasonable.
As confirmed by York Veterinary Services in York, South Carolina, both litters of Bluestem Peaches En Regalia NA I, UPT II, UT III “Ruth” x Cedar and Spruce’s Apollo NA III “Duke”, as well as Bluestem Sally Forth SH, NA II x Wyo Plainsman Kenobi NA I, UPT III, UT I (2023 and 2024 NAVHDA Invitational Qualifier) are going to be whelped towards the end of February and the beginning of March. Ruth appears to be farther along. We are keeping a male from the Ruth and Duke cross. The vet is saying that Ruth’s litter will be smaller than Sally’s and probably come a week or so sooner.
We are excited for puppies, but this is always a nervous time. I’ve had friends who have dealt with last minute spontaneous abortions. Females in the breed have died in emergency c-sections and the puppies have had to be bottle fed and raised by hand. Every time someone breeds a litter they are risking the life of their female. Not everything you see in an ultrasound comes out as a puppy that will live a full healthy life. So be happy and hopeful with me, but realize that this is a nervous and stressful time too.
Ruth’s ultrasound at York VetSally’s ultrasound at York Vet
AKC Junior Hunter
On January 20th and 21st, Bluestem’s Carolina Briar Thicket “Briar” (Obi x Ruth) and I went to do some fun runs towards the AKC Junior Hunter title at the double-double AKC Hunting Tests hosted by the Sandhills Pointing Breeds Club in Jackson Springs, North Carolina. Jackson Springs is just a wide spot in the road with a couple of buildings, but it is just a ten minute drive to the Pinehurst golf resort community which is really nice.
It was absolutely freezing that weekend with high winds on Saturday, so there were more entries who scratched than usual. It was also funny to see the menagerie of attire as most folks down here don’t have cold weather hunting gear and just threw on their ski clothes with a hunting vest on top. Our first run was with a nice Bracco Italiano bred by one of my friends who also breeds Griffs, so it was fun to have that connection and we both passed (even though I biffed it in the backfield, I had some bad boots on that were too heavy for the terrain).
Scorecard and ribbon for our first JH run
The second run was with a huge male Weimaraner who had bullied his last bracemate so badly that she scratched at the starting line and didn’t come back the rest of the weekend. I got mad at the dog and gave him a “heeyaah” as he came over to mess with her for like the third time. I ended up scaring my own dog in the backfield but she recovered. We got into the bird field and there was this giant berm on the edge of it, right next to the woods where all of the previous runs’ birds were hiding. She was locked on point up there, so I climbed the berm to kick it up. There was nothing there, I think she was doing a long nose point into the woods. I wiped out again, managing to roll down the berm on my side. It is a good thing that I have a little extra cushion on my body because it was like a rugby hit, my legs just totally went out from under me and I went on my side and rolled down the hill. We did not pass that run.
I made the mistake of not getting a hotel room in Pinehurst and I’m not doing that again. So there I was all banged up after two falls (the second one being pretty hard) and half frozen driving two hours home, then getting up early the next day to drive two hours back. I knew that I had to be there on time because even though we were down the list a little ways on braces, lots of folks scratched due to it being 15 degrees out. Sure enough we ended up as second brace with all of the folks who scratched. My bracemate was pulling up to park as the first brace was coming back in from the bird field (which I was so happy for, otherwise we would have been stuck with the giant dorky Weim again). Instead it was a nice little GSP whose owner had lived out in Sioux City, Iowa for a time. It was an uneventful run for Briar and I, for only being with me for four months she really listens well. I didn’t even start whistle training her (with a Fox40 whistle, she’s used to my mouth whistle) until the week of the test. Even though the GSP took the bird field from the breakaway instead of going into the backfield like he should have, we both passed. I appreciated the judge’s feedback that I was over handling in the bird field and giving too many commands around the birds instead of letting Briar do her own thing. It came in handy in the last run and it made it fun instead of nerve-wracking.
The ribbon from our second run and scorecard.
Our third run was with the hunt test chair and his English Setter. We had an interesting scenario come up in the backfield where I was standing in a spot and all of a sudden both of the dogs are circling and pointing at me. This is at the end of a weekend where probably a hundred birds had been planted at that point. I look down at my feet and there are two quail running away from me. I see that both dogs are on point, so I decided to make it a find for them and kicked up the quail to fly and fired my starter pistol. Not a minute later, the other handler finds where the bird bag with birds in it had fallen off of the ATV not two feet from where I had kicked up the quail. It was just a funny scenario that I had never experienced before. Both dogs and handlers got a pass on that run.
Last ribbon on the day and score card.The parting shot: Briar and I with our ribbons on the weekend.
We’ll be back at it in a couple of weeks to try to finish out our last run for the title.
Hunting season is over for Charles and Caleb. They did not find any woodcock this year in South Carolina. Our old training dummy dog and South Carolina rescue pointer Dolly is having a grand life in Nebraska with our buddy Aaron and Chewy the Griff.
Chewy, Dolly and Aaron
Ruth and Sally’s mom Fire (now Bella) had a grand time this year out in Arizona chasing quail too.
Two GSPs to each side of Fire (Bella) in the middleFire (Bella) with the Mearns Quail in Arizona
I better wrap it up here and get to dog farm chores, but we’re about a month away from pups on the ground so you’ll hear from me then if not before (maybe Briar will get the JH title soon). The AWPGA National Specialty 2024 is slowly coming together for November 7-12 in North Carolina, here is our tentative schedule of events: https://www.awpga.com/2024-natl-specialty-schedule.html . You don’t have to be a member to participate in the specialty, you just can’t attend the annual meeting if you are not a member. I’ll get the sign up page posted once we have it all put together later this year. It takes a lot of people to run a breed and I hope that all of the Griffon breeders out there with litters planned or on the ground this spring have good whelping and healthy puppies.
According to the calendar, Sally should already be starting her heat cycle, but nothing with dogs ever follows the calendar. The one thing about having two males is that I never have to worry about missing it! Since Ruth is the alpha of the two, I don’t wonder if Sally’s waiting for hers to start. I’ve had two litters at once before and it is super busy, but doable. I do have quite a list of reservations, but since my deposits are refundable there’s no guarantee that each of those people will take a pup. So feel free to email me at bluestemkennels@gmail.com if you’d like to discuss, but realize that there might not be availability until Spring 2025. We don’t know until they get here! I’ll keep everyone posted once things start happening with the heat cycles, I check the girls every day. Hopefully, I won’t be waiting until Valentine’s Day, but it could happen.
The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Charles headed to central South Carolina to look for some quail. One thing that he has learned about hunting down here is that you really have to read your regulations. Some fields are only open for hunting for certain days per year. The place that he went was one of those quail management units, which is not how it is out west, so it was something new for him to check out. There was one other hunter there without dogs, so they just worked away from each other. He had our pointer Dolly out first with our older male, Obi, and she is just a bird finding machine. I really did not want a pointer, but it is nice to have a hot-footer out in front sometimes really zooming around looking for birds. They pushed up a covey and another single before they connected here. On this one Dolly stayed on point, Obi honored, Charles got the shot, then Obi retrieved.
Obi and Dolly with their quail
The second half of the hunt was a Sally and Duke run. I’m not sure who ended up with the retrieve, but Sally is a long nose. She points birds from really far away and is steady.
Duke and Sally with a single South Carolina quail
While Charles was hunting, I was down in Atlanta visiting family and picked up the seasonal crud. This is just a funny picture of what it is like when you’re sick with Griffs around.
Sally and Briar making sure that mom knows that she is loved.
I’ve also been busy working on the AWPGA 2024 National Specialty for Winston-Salem, North Carolina for November 7-12, 2024. For those of you who don’t know, a national specialty has our national breed dog show (the winner of Best of Breed automatically qualifies for Westminster), then it also has field events such as AKC Hunt Tests and/or working standard field trial, possibly an obedience trial, some educational seminars, plus we have social events like receptions and an awards banquet. I don’t want to steal the club website’s thunder, so I’ll wait and link to that for the tentative calendar of events once it drops. If you would like to join the AWPGA, the AKC breed parent club for the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, please visit our website: https://www.awpga.com/2024-member-application-form.html
I was the editor for the quarterly club magazine the Griffonnier for four years, I went inactive for awhile, now I’m back serving on the Board of Directors as Secretary while also being the Chairperson of the National Specialty. It is fun and challenging. We went with a futuristic logo with a Griff’s head with the NC state shape inside. Our club is passionate about the breed and welcome new members and attendees to the national specialty. I will keep you all posted as more news of the event drops.
Please email bluestemkennels@gmail.com for inquiries relating to our upcoming or future litters.
I am checking Sally everyday for sign of coming into season, as the boys are starting to act like things are going on and there are some subtle changes occurring. I’m going to be conservative and say that she’ll be bred by Christmas, but once proestrus bleeding starts I’ll know more exactly. That would put puppies being whelped in January or February and going home in March or April. I am not keeping a puppy from this litter with Sally being young enough for me to do that, so that will move folks up the reservation list one slot. It is always tough to tell where everything will shake out owner-wise between a list and a litter. With my deposits being refundable until a puppy whelped is three weeks old and the possibility that some people will want to wait for Ruth’s litter, or have life situations arise where they will wait for the following year, even having a long list doesn’t guarantee folks showing interest now won’t get a puppy. We are all placing bets on a natural process and just pray that it all works out.
The breeding that is coming up soon is AKC/NAVHDA Bluestem Sally Forth SH, NA II “Sally” and Wyo Plainsman Kenobi NA I, UPT III, UT I “Obi”. Obi qualified for NAVHDA Invitational in 2023 and recently re-qualified for 2024. Sally went 5 passes in 5 runs for her AKC Senior Hunter. Her NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize II was with our son Caleb as a junior handler. We’ve tested her in both Utility Preparatory Test and Utility Test and she does all of the skills except picking up the live duck at the end of the duck search. She had a bad run in with a mean duck pecking her in the face and we’re working back into being aggressive on the live duck. I’m hoping to re-test her in the Fall of 2024, she is still young and we have plenty of time. There are so many things that a dog has to do right in the Utility Test and just missing one is not the end of the world. She is phenomenal in the field and is a pretty looking and healthy dog.
The second breeding probably won’t happen until between Christmas and Valentine’s Day, that will be between our older female Bluestem Peaches En Regalia NA I, UPT II, UT III “Ruth” and our young male, Cedar and Spruce’s Apollo NA III “Duke”. Ruth is beautiful and one of our best bird-finders, just off-the-charts prey drive. Duke is our young male who was also handled in NAVHDA Natural Ability by our son as a junior handler. This is Ruth’s last litter and we really want a pup between her and Duke so we are going ahead with the pairing before he even utility tests. His hips are phenomenal, his prelim elbows were good, his eyes are normal and we’re waiting for his two year birthday in a couple of weeks to do his final elbows and thyroid test.
All of the dogs pedigrees and health clearances are on the “About Our Dogs” page. They are not only hunting dogs and breeding stock, but also our family pets. Everyone is crate trained, housebroken, good with kids and other dogs (free range chickens and cats are a no). You can train a Griffon to be friendly with a cat, like when we go to the vet there are loose cats and they don’t eat them, but my dogs want to torment cats. We have a barn cat that gets chased up trees. You have to have chickens or any birds in a coop.
Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffons
Speaking of birds, after Caleb and I returned to South Carolina last month, Charles continued his adventures with the dogs, leaving my mom’s house in Nebraska and headed up to our usual old haunts in North Dakota. He did bring home German kuchen and sausages like I always ask for. It looks like the young dogs Sally and Duke got in on most of the action. He got excited and took the first picture in the morning before he had finished his harvest.
Sally and Duke with a couple of morning roostersThey ended day one with a limit of roosters and two sharptailed grouseOn the camp chain gang, from left to right: Duke, Sally, Ruth and Obi
On the second day, Ruth and Obi harvested three ducks and a pheasant, but there was no photo.
Day three Duke and Sally were back on duty and took two ducks and a pheasant.
Duke and Sally with two ducks and a pheasantObi, Sally, Ruth and Duke with the North Dakota harvest
North Dakota produces but does so with great effort. A person has to root pheasants out of little cattail patches in harvested fields, walk the rolling hills for sharptails and check scattered ponds for ducks. But it is always a fun hunt and we love checking in on the people that we’ve now seen almost annually for about 10 years.
Charles stopped back in the Nebraska Sandhills to work remotely for a few days and was able to get in a couple of more days of hunting. The first day was photographed with Duke getting in on a few ducks.
Duke with three Nebraska Sandhills ducks
We’re not sure what the rest of the hunting season holds for us, Charles may sneak in one more trip out west, there’s talk of looking for some North Carolina ruffed grouse, around the New Year there should be some woodcock moving through down here, we’ll just take it all as it comes. As much as we love the mild winters down here, we really have our sights set on Charles working remotely out of Nebraska once Caleb graduates high school in 2027. The hunting out west just cannot be beat.
I have a new friend who I would like to introduce you to. I bought back one of my “S” Litter pups since we won’t be repeating the Obi x Ruth cross again. She is just over a year old and I have her ready to NAVHDA Natural Ability test, but there are no test openings before she turns 16 months old. So my current plan is to use the AKC Junior Hunter as her puppy test this spring. What is really crazy is how much she looks like our foundation female, Sue. So here is little Briar getting a treat from Charles last night:
AKC/NAVHDA Bluestem’s Carolina Briar Thicket
Here is our foundation female Sue:
Sweetgrass Sandhill Sioux “Sue” our first female Griffon
Looking at Ruth and Obi, you never would have imagined that they would produce a pup with that coat, but it happened. Genetics are an interesting thing. Sue is Briar’s Great-Great Grandmother.
It is time to get on with the day, I will be sure to keep you posted with the breeding developments and any new hunting adventures that come about. Happy hunting to everyone out there in the fields!
The last week with the puppies is always fun and bittersweet. I love to see them start to show off their natural abilities and fun personalities.
Little brother bringing me a leaf down the stairs.
They did really well with my new cap gun, I upgraded from the Walmart plastic model to the Cabela’s metal version and it so so much louder. But after being exposed to loud noises their entire puppyhood it was no big deal.
I used to also take them swimming at this age, which they can do, but I’ve stopped doing that for fear of exposure to toxic algae or nasty wildlife diseases. I figure that the new owners have plenty of time for that once the pups are fully vaccinated and have built up their adult immune systems. So I’ve substituted that with the kiddie pool.
Puppies in the kiddie pool
Putting them on a leash for the first time is always a rodeo, they really like to thrash around and fight it for the first five minutes or so and then just settle down into the fact that now they have to follow the person around.
Bird exposure is my absolute favorite, seeing them get excited about the live bird, then pick up the dead bird is what it is all about. All of these actions are just first exposures to set the new owner for successful gun dog training, they are by no means training at all.
So the sequence that I do here is: take the pup out of the kennel and put it on the leash. Let it fight out the leash then walk 15 yards to the live bird in the wire crate. Once the pup acknowledges the bird and gets to check it out awhile as I say “good puppy” in my cute baby-talk voice, we walk on the leash to the ex-pen with the dead quail on a string. Take the pup off the leash and place in the ex-pen. I pull the string on the dead quail to get the pup’s attention. I’ll let the pup chew and play with it a little bit. I do not ever yank the bird out of the pup’s mouth, only pulling the string once the pup has put the bird down. I’m really wanting to get the pup to pick that bird up, then once again give positive verbal feedback once the bird is picked up.
Here’s Tabitha with the birds:
Tabitha showing interest in the chukarTabitha picking up the dead quail
Now here is Tobin with the same sequence:
Tobin inspecting the chukarTobin picking up the dead quail
Caleb was about 15 months old when we had our first litter in 2010 and has become an important helper at 14. Here he is with our first litter and now:
We also went to the vet for our final health inspections, first shots and microchips in the last week. Everyone came out with a clean bill of health: no umbilical hernias, no heart murmurs, no base narrow canines, the boy has both testicles. Everything perfect.
Then on Saturday and Sunday they went to their new homes:
Tabitha going with Lisa, David and boys to CharlotteAndy with his second Bluestem pup going all the way to Minnesota
Andy’s 8 1/2 year old boy Foley is from our “I” Litter in 2015 between Ben and Velma. That would make Foley the brother of Ruth’s (the dam of the puppies) sire Chief. So that would make Foley his new puppy’s great-uncle. Here are some photos of Foley that Andy shared with me:
Speaking of our puppies, our “S” Litter puppy Chase ran his Natural Ability Test this weekend at the Foothills NAVHDA Chapter up in Harmony, North Carolina. He received a Prize II with 102 points. You can follow him on Instagram @griffins.griffon. Great job Ian and Chase!
Ian and “S” Litter puppy Chase with a NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize II
And this is totally random, but I was so proud of myself for getting the crate room really clean that I took a picture of it. Everyone has their different style of housing their dogs: some have a kennel building where their dogs live all of the time, some have all of them as full time housepets, some are like us and do a combination. We have outdoor kennels to keep the dogs out from underfoot during the day, rotate them for socialization one at a time in the house (I have really cool black walnut floors that the original owner of this house custom hewn and installed that I don’t want torn up), then they stay the night in their very own crate room. I don’t have mine decorated all cool like some folks do, it gets really dusty in there so I’d rather not have to mess with that cleaning.
Indoor crate room for night
I will be back on the blog at some point to give the full run down on NAVHDA Invitational once the professional photos come back. I’ll also have some hunting posts upcoming. It probably won’t be every week like it has been with the puppies here. As always, if you are interested in future litters or want to talk dogs, shoot me an email at bluestemkennels@gmail.com and we’ll set up a time to talk.
One last bit of news, it has been ratified by the AWPGA board that 2024 National Specialty will be in North Carolina. The shows, annual meeting and banquet will be November 8-10 with the Furniture City Kennel Club show in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The AKC Hunt Tests will be November 11-12 in Jackson Springs, North Carolina at the Sandhills Pointing Dog Club land. We’ll be lodging and dining in Pinehurst, North Carolina for the hunt test. Please get in touch with me if you would like to be involved with the planning and execution of this fun and important event for our breed.
Pending AKC approval, Sally is now Bluestem Sally Forth SH, NA II! She and I got our last AKC Senior Hunter pass at the Rappahannock Brittany Club AKC Pointing Dog Hunt Test in Dillwyn, Virginia on Saturday, April 29th. Since we did not title her in Junior Hunter, it took five passing runs for the title. The first four we received at the AWPGA Eastern Regional Specialty in March. We went five passing runs in a row, which was very exciting.
I appreciate all of the judges assistance in guiding me through my first hunt test title. I’ve been in the gallery for 10 years now and it was finally time to step up to the plate. I have to give the most credit to Charles for training her; all I did was go in and drive a truck that he built. This is not going to be a common event for me until I get my last child out of the house in four years. Even then, I expect it to be infrequent since I enjoy wild bird hunting more.
This photo was taken right after we jumped out of the truck at our AirBnB at the end of the day, so my jaeger lead is not on correctly. Also, I am in sneakers instead of my boots. Of course it bothers me now looking at the picture, but I was too excited and tired at the time to care.
Charity and Sally with their last SH pass ribbon in Virginia
Our second new title comes is one that has been a long time in the making! Plus it was the same weekend that Sally finished Senior Hunter. At eleven years-old Bluestem TracHer became an AKC Master Hunter at the North Dakota Pointing Dog Club/Montana Brittany Club joint AKC Pointing Dog Hunt Test. TracHer is from our “C” Litter between Sam and Mae (both of whom have crossed the rainbow bridge). Congratulations Susan on a job well done and staying with the dream for so long!
Bluestem TracHer MH with owner-handler Susan and Wirehaired Vizsla, Condi, and her first Senior Hunter ribbonBluestem TracHer MH, the spitting image of her dam Little Lady Aspen, NA I “Mae”
Also at the Rappahannock Brittany Club test, Charles and Obi got their first AKC Master Hunter pass. AKC Master Hunter takes six passing runs for the title, so we’ve got some miles to travel before that is done.
Charles and I both had some fashion faux pas in our photos. He’s already changed out of his hunt test hat and boots in the photo. Do not try to handle dogs in Crocs:)
Obi and Charles with the first AKC Master Hunter pass ribbon.
Before we worry about finishing Obi’s AKC Master Hunter, we have to get through NAVHDA Invitational in September. Charles traveled with some dog training buddies out to Moberly, Missouri this past weekend for some in-depth training.
Obi with Charles backing Tracy Johnson’s Vizsla way off in the distance at Missouri Valley OutfittersA liver German Shorthaired Pointer backing Obi’s point
The perspective of the following photo is interesting since it was taken by the person who planted the duck for blind retrieve practice on the bank of the pond opposite Charles as the handler. So Obi was sent from the far side of the pond to swim across and retrieve the duck on the bank that is in the foreground of the picture.
Obi retrieving a duck to Charles, in orange on the far bank.
I wish that I could give credit to the folks who took the photos out in Missouri, but Charles didn’t give me any names. He seemed very pleased with the results of the weekend training in Missouri after being a little disappointed in not getting more passing runs in Virginia the weekend prior.
Duke is a year and a half old and is currently zero for eight runs in AKC Senior Hunter. He is a young, stubborn pup with a lot of prey drive. He does not want to hold still when that bird is getting kicked up, even with commands. We have a long road ahead and he is doing many things right, it only takes one mistake to get pulled from an AKC test. Here he is looking cute at the vet office for his rabies shot.
Duke is cute at a year and a half and 62 pounds
Ruth has become my dedicated canicross dog. Canicross is a sport that is more popular in Scandinavia and Canada, where the handler wears a hip harness with a bungeed dog lead attached to it and you go hiking. Right now we are exploring the trails of Kings Mountain National Military Park, where the American Revolutionary War Battle of Kings Mountain took place. It is a good way for two old moms to get out, plus I take our fourteen year old son Caleb too.
Ruth on the canicross harness back at the beginning of April, it is much greener here now.
One of our “P” Litter puppies from our surprise litter between Ruth and Stonyridge Zoro got out preserve hunting with her girl in Kansas at the end of March. Great job Madilynn and Rose!
Rose and Madilynn excited about their first rooster together!
I don’t have whole lot to say about the Westminster Kennel Club dog show this year since I was teaching swimming lessons and busy around the dog farm here. One thing that stood out to a lot of us long time followers is that the stands were completely empty. I hope that in the future the club is able to move it back into Manhattan at Madison Square Garden in February for the experience that we all miss. The last MSG show was in 2019 before COVID. I just feel blessed that our daughter Cordelia and I were able to go in 2018 since there is a chance that it may never happen again in Manhattan. The Piers where the benched show and breed judging happened are completely falling apart into the Hudson River, so we all may be stuck going to the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Queens in the future.
Empty stands at WKC 2023, I stole this screenshot out of someone’s Facebook video.
Charles will keep plugging along here with training for Invitational and I’ll be prepping for breeding season here in a couple of months. I’m expecting Ruth to come into season late July with pups whelped in September and going home around Thanksgiving.
I currently have thirteen reservations with deposit for our Fall 2023 litter. As my deposits are fully refundable until the puppy is three weeks old, this list often shakes up at the last minute with folks having life events that lead them to hold off until the following year. If anyone is reaching out at this point looking for a pup, they need to be comfortable with the fact that it could be Spring 2024 before I have any puppies available. But it is all up to the good Lord and Mother Nature, so we’ll see what is provided to us. Email bluestemkennels@gmail.com for inquiries.
The American Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Association hosted an Eastern Regional Specialty in York and Wellsville, Pennsylvania from March 17-19. Friday we held three dog shows at the York Expo Center: Sweepstakes, Supported Entry, then Regional Specialty. I was the trophy chairperson and having three shows back-to-back made for lots of organizing. I did not show any dogs, but messed with the trophies and took some photos. I was not able to log all of the placements, but do know that GCH Bear Hug Sing Second JH “Enzo” owned by my South Carolina griffon neighbors just down the road, Lonnie and Marsha Carroll, took Best of Breed in the Eastern Regional Specialty Show.
The hostess with the mostess was Marcia Hoff, this whole event was her brainchild and it was fun to be a part of. Many of the folks in attendance I had not seen since the 2014 National Specialty in Maine.
I’m in the orange with Amy Caswell-O’Clair and her husband Matt O’Clair seated with Rosie.The trophies for the shows that I hauled to PennsylvaniaBluestem puppy owner Clint showed up with his family and my puppy Rosie from the “R” LitterBest of Regional Specialty line up, Enzo with Zach #15Enzo and Zach following their Eastern Regional Specialty Best of Breed win
I don’t want to post too many of the show photos because I want to save most of them to be printed in the Griffonnier, the magazine of the American Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Association.
On Saturday and Sunday, the club hosted AKC Hunt Tests at the York Pointer and Setter Club in Wellsville. So many thanks to our hosts there and to the judging panel, especially Jerri Stanley and Loren Rogers who gave me lots of tips. Sally went four passes in four runs in AKC Senior Hunter, thank you so much to Charles for working so hard to train her. Duke did a lot of things right, but enough wrong on each of the four runs to not get any passes.
My new friend Gwen and Duke and I. Photo by Marcia Hoff.Sally and I will the four AKC Senior Hunter ribbons. Photo by Marcia Hoff.Our best scorecard with all 9’s.
It was a great but exhausting weekend with lots of effort put forth by many people. Sally and I will attempt to get our last SH pass in a few weeks, with Charles trying his hand at AKC Master Hunter with Obi and more attempts at AKC Senior Hunter with Duke.
My reservation list for Fall 2023 pups is starting to fill up, should you decide that you would like to get on our list, it would more than likely be for a Spring 2024 pup. Email bluestemkennels@gmail.com with inquiries.
Good luck to everyone who is training and testing this fall, best wishes to all those with pups on the ground!
I apologize for my absence from the blog and social media in general. Organizing the trophies for the Eastern Regional Specialty Dog Show in York, Pennsylvania has taken up so much time. Not only did I have to figure out all of the placements for three shows, but then I had to figure out the budget for each placement and order a prize. I think that I’m getting closer to the end of the process. The trophies are all hunting dog items, so where I’ve written for hunting dog catalogs and have just been a bird dog junk junkie for 15 years it was actually fun to shop for the items. I was able to give business to all of the major players: Cabela’s, Orvis, Filson, Gun Dog Supply, Lion Country Supply and Ugly Dog Hunting. Those are all unpaid shout outs and they all had something unique to contribute to the cause.
So here is the basic schedule: Thursday is the Field Day at York Pointer and Setter Club, Friday is ALL DAY of dog shows: Sweeps, Supported Entry and Regional Specialty. For those of you new to dog shows, what will happen is that the classes of the first show run, then we go through best of breed for that show. Then we go to the second show where the same thing happens, you go through the classes, the best of each class is awarded, then it goes to best of breed. We do it a third time for the Regional Specialty. It will be a very exciting day to see many old friends, but also stressful and chaotic with so much going on. I have never helped with that many shows all in one day, they are usually spread out over multiple days. This whole schedule is intense, since we are doing double/double AKC hunt tests Saturday and Sunday.
Due to the intensity of the schedule for the performance events and the fact that it is St. Patrick’s Day that Friday night, there is no banquet scheduled. Those of us who are running dogs Saturday morning in the hunt tests have to be at the field ready to go by 7:30 AM, so we’ll need to start moving in the morning around 5:30 AM. We’ll probably get some dinner groups together at the show for Friday night just by word-of-mouth and those of us who have to be up early the following day will be done by 9 PM.
I am running our young dogs Duke and Sally in AKC Senior Hunter at the York Pointer and Setter Club. Since it is a double/double, I’ll be doing four runs a day (two runs a day with two dogs) for a total of eight runs. There will be lunch available to purchase at the hunt tests both Saturday and Sunday. Once again, there are no formal dinner plans and we’ll just bunch up and figure things out during the day.
My hunt test style from 2020A more recent photo in travel mode
In the event that you are looking for me at the shows or the hunt tests, here are some pictures of me. I am usually behind the camera instead of in front of it. I have a blaze orange knee length dress that I am planning on wearing to the shows, so I should be easy to spot.
Breeding Update
As of right now, I have eleven reservations with deposit for my Fall 2023 litter between Obi and Ruth. As my deposits are fully refundable until the pups are three weeks old, these numbers can change rapidly depending on peoples’ life situations. I have frequently had four or five folks defer to the following year in those first three weeks. Obi and Ruth will be having their last litter before Ruth’s retirement in the Spring of 2024, so should there not be enough pups in the Fall of 2023 the reservations can roll over. We’ll also be breeding Sally and Duke in Spring 2024. Feel free to email bluestemkennels@gmail.com to express interest in the litters. I know that I have a few emails sitting in my inbox needing responses, so if one of those is yours from the last few days, I will be getting to them this afternoon (I also had to get my tax information to my accountant this week, so I’m sort of on brain fry mode, sorry).
As far as the specific breeding schedule for the fall, Ruth had her winter heat cycle at the end of January. So that means if my experience from the past is correct, her summer cycle will be at the end of July. Pups would then be born at the end of September and go home around Thanksgiving. That is all guesstimation from past experience and Mother Nature is in control.
Social Media Info
I am not going to be on TikTok. I downloaded the app and started looking at videos one day and the very next day the financial information stored in my phone was compromised. I caught it before my bank did since I was looking for it. So no TikTok for me.
Instagram is a lot of ads. Also, the AI censors hunting photos from hashtags. So if I have dead birds and a gun in my pictures, it gets wiped from the hashtag almost instantly. I am going to use it sparingly. Once I start backing up old hunting photos again this summer, I will get those posted. I will try to be more active on it, but like I say, I am a bit salty about the censorship. The two pups from the “R” Litter are very active on there under the accounts @griffons.griffon and @thelifeandtimesofbeatricebriar. The first one follows Chase Wiley with his family here in the Charlotte suburbs, the second follows Beatrice Briar as a Kentucky ultramarathon trail dog with her veterinarian dog dad.
Even though this blog/website is thirteen years old and my photo galleries are pretty sketchy with their organization (I will fix it this summer), this is my primary tool. I have to use my English degree skills somewhere. I am not good at little tidbits of information spread out through days and weeks. I have to sit down and write you an essay. I also like Facebook since it is full of Boomers and Gen X, those are my people. My page there is old and has a lot of followers, so I’ll just keep riding that until we are all in the nursing home I guess. I do not have anyone else with login access to this blog. I do not have a “last post” written and in storage anywhere. The thought of doing estate planning on this website does not appeal to me and I’m just not there yet. So hopefully the construction dumptrucks of the Carolinas continue to avoid hitting me.
YouTube is what I use to make videos of puppies anymore. I would love to do grooming and training videos someday, but I need to figure out the whole Patreon racket so that I get paid for views. And although I have the hardware to do video content, I also need to invest in Adobe Creative Cloud software, specifically the Premier Pro video editor, to do my art the way that I want it to look. And then I need to train myself on it. So hopefully more YouTube content will be rolling in the next year or so (weekly low budget puppy videos will continue as normal without change for now).
South Carolina Woodcock
Charles and Obi wrapped up the woodcock season at the end of January with one in the bag. I have to be honest, as much as I love the Carolinas, Charles is dying to get back to Nebraska at some point. The hunting here is not what he wants. I’m in love with the Carolinas and am determined to stay here. Although we have a piece of raw land way out in Western Nebraska, we’re talking about having a second home close to our kids in Omaha so that he can go out and hunt, he can work remotely and access the airport if needed. Both of us moving back and forth as needed. We are at least a year away from that possibility with two kids in college right now, but that is in our minds pretty seriously. Send us good intentions for the manifestation of that dream.
Oh, but the woodcock with Obi! Here it is:
The trusty SKB 12 gauge, Obi and the woodcock from the end of January. Photo by Charles.
Fire in Retirement
I loved seeing this picture of Fire (now “Bella”) on the right, enjoying her retirement life moving between Arizona and Minnesota with one of our old pals from Pheasants Forever in Nebraska. Out getting in on some wild quail action in Arizona with her GSP buddy. Thank you Ron for giving her a great retirement home. She is the mother of our current females, Ruth and Sally.
Fire/Bella on right enjoying her retirement with some Arizona quail.
Well the day is getting on and it is time to wrap up the blogging. I have a gobzillion dog hunting items to unbox sitting in my entryway! Spring is really springing here and I hope it makes it out to the frozen wasteland in North Central Nebraska and South Central South Dakota. They are in a top 10 snowiest year on record and folks are pretty miserable about it. Keep our beef cattle ranchers in your prayers as they are having a tough start to calving season.
Good luck to everyone with spring pups and doing training/testing. Talk at you again soon with the update from Pennsylvania.
Bluestem Kennels 