Field Trialing | Bluestem Kennels

Dog Days of Summer 2024

July 15, 2024

Charity Upchurch AKC Hunt Tests, AWPGA, Field Trialing, Hunting Forecasts, Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Puppies, Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, NAVHDA, NAVHDA Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons AWPGA 2024 National Specialty, Bird Hunting, Dog Training, Gun Dog, Hunting Dogs, Korthals Griffon, NAVHDA, Nebraska Sandhills, Online Auction AWPGA National Specialty 2024, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

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.

Gracie 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 Sandhills

Left 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 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.:

Here are some field shots of Sally:

Here’s our younger male, Duke:

Duke on the run with Obi in the background

Duke 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 background

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.

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.

Here’s the entry form for the AKC Hunt Test held in conjunction with the 2024 AWPGA National Specialty: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11DdLegFUMG6sM0KMj3olPK9Ao7S2ztGQ/view

Here’s the entry form for the Working Griffon Field Trial held in conjunction with the 2024 AWPGA National Specialty:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SmSCQSlPQ-L6JE5sd0xVX6D1CBbtDYPR/view

Here’s the link to our online auction where you can bid on the donated items. All proceeds go to supporting the 2024 AWPGA National Specialty. https://awpga.betterworld.org/auctions/2024National

Here’s the schedule of events, we’re looking forward to seeing everyone! https://www.awpga.com/2024-natl-specialty-schedule.html

Everyone stay cool in this hot summer weather and we’ll keep everyone posted on the road to the 2024 NAVHDA Invitational in Iowa.

Thanksgiving Quail and Breeding Update

December 8, 2023

Charity Upchurch AKC Hunt Tests, AWPGA, Field Trialing, Hunting Tales, Kennel Update, Sire and Dam Ability, Upland Hunting Trips, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Bird Hunting, East Coast Griffons, East Coast Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, Gun Dog, Hunting Dogs, Korthals Griffon, Puppies, South Carolina Quail, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

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.

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.

“R” Litter Five Weeks and Carolinas Field Trial

February 28, 2022

Charity Upchurch AWPGA, Field Trialing, Hunting Tales, Kennel Update, Puppy Update, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Hunting Dogs, Korthals Griffon, NSTRA, Puppies, South Carolina Quail, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Leave a comment

For the remainder of the puppy time here, I’m going to shift to a Monday morning posting time. With the puppies needing to be fed and exercised twice a day, it makes for one less thing that I have to try and get done Sunday evening (along with dinner and tutoring the boys).

The girls are growing as they should at five weeks old and love to run and play!

They love their twice-a-day feedings of puppy kibble!

Reba at the top, Rosalind at the bottom eating food

They are also learning to swat items with their paws and pick things up with their mouths. Their teeth are starting to come in. They have finally mastered a decent run and don’t fall over when they are trying. All of these are normal developmental stages for Griffon puppies of this age. Looking at these photos reminds me that it is time to put their little puppy collars on!

For the next week we focus on eating and running. I have toys for them to pick up and carry around. They have also started to come when called (I don’t call them by their temporary internet names, I just call them “puppies”). I have seen where other breeders have toy gyms set up with PVC pipe where there are toys on a frame that the puppies can tug on. I choose not to do this intentionally because I don’t want them in the habit of tugging. Bird dogs need to pick up items and release them on command. I am concerned that if they get that satisfaction of tugging early on, that it will be harder to train them to release the bird later in life. So I stick with the old-fashioned “pick up your toy and carry it around” fun, which also taps into that retrieving instinct.

Here are some more action photos from the yard yesterday:

Here is their five week old video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5835uE9Mzg&ab_channel=CharityUpchurch

Carolinas Griffon Field Trial

Charles took Obi and Sally to the Carolinas Griffon Field Trial in Benson, North Carolina on Saturday. Thank you to Kelly Hughes for organizing the event! I wish I could have made it, but I was home with puppies and kids. This event was formerly supported by the AWPGA (American Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Association, the AKC parent club of the breed), but appears to no longer be an official club event, even though it is mostly attended by AWPGA members.

Charles and Bluestem Sally Forth NA II “Sally” at the 2022 Carolinas Field Trial

Obi took second place in Advanced Gun Dog. Charles thinks that there were some handler errors that contributed to losing points towards taking first place. He said it was run in a NSTRA format and we’ve never run dogs in that, so it was all new rules. But hey, second place is great!

Carolinas Field Trial Second Place Advanced Gun Dog Ribbon 2022

Obi and Charles with the second place advanced gun dog ribbon 2022 Carolinas Field Trial

Charles is actually out today with Obi and Sally for the last day of quail season in South Carolina, so I’ll be interested to see if they bring anything home. One can hope! And at least quail country doesn’t have any gators!

It is time for me to go feed and run some puppies, but I’ll be sure to check back in this time next week.

Q Litter Homegoings!

April 6, 2021

Charity Upchurch Bird Dog Training, Field Trialing, Kennel Update, NAVHDA, Puppy Update, Uncategorized, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons AKC Hunt Tests, North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Puppies Leave a comment

Feel free to email bluestemkennels@gmail.com if you wish to enquire about our 2022 litter plans. I am hoping to get through the 2022 interest emails by the old tax filing deadline of April 15th.

Over the last couple of weekends the Q Litter has gone to their new homes. They are really a handful at 8 weeks old and I am so glad that they are with their new owners getting into a routine and having plenty of individual attention. We still have Sally here (her litter name was Quarry) and she is very sweet but obviously does normal puppy annoying behavior, like chewing stuff that she is not supposed to and having potty accidents. I am not going to try and sugar-coat housebreaking a Griff. They are really one of the toughest breeds to get through in my experience. Where I can have an English breed fully broken by 12-16 weeks, I’m honest with myself in knowing that I’m still going to be struggling at that point and not to expect to be accident-free until 20 weeks with a Griff.

The only thing that I can think of to account for the longer period of time is that they have so much to learn as a versatile breed that it just takes them longer to get everything down. And they are just a slower maturing breed anyway; Obi is 17 months-old and still has some very puppy behavior.

Let’s do photos first, then I’ll talk about what we’re working on with Sally. I’m just going in the order of pickup for simplicity’s sake.

Joe and family, with Qbert going to Iowa

We are excited to have Joe and Qbert (he will be called something else, but I always forget to write down their new call names and so I’ll just refer to their litter names, sorry) just across the river in Iowa and hope we get to train with them soon.

Ricardo and Quartz are off to Colorado

Ricardo has an older Griff who will be showing Quartz the way on pheasants in Colorado. They have a population of white ptarmigan out there that I hope that we get to chase someday, so maybe we’ll meet again.

Cliff’s family and Queen on their way to Oklahoma

Cliff also has Belle from our “C” Litter between Sam and Mae, so this is their second Bluestem puppy. They had just come up from taking their granddaughters to show their pigs. Belle and the pup are still figuring out their relationship but it is going well so far.

Greg and his wife with Quince going to North Dakota

Greg also has Epsilon from our J Litter between Sam and BB, so yet another two Bluestem puppy family. He will be getting spoiled since both Greg and his wife work independently and someone always has the dogs with them. And of course North Dakota is one of our favorite places to visit during hunting season, hopefully the bird population up there bounces back in the next few years.

Jim and his family with Qiana

Jim and his family lives out on an acreage in central Nebraska. This is their first Griff, so they are in for an adventure. But Jim has had hunting dogs his whole life and his dad was a trainer of Labarador Retrievers so they’re ready for action.

Aaron and his wife heading back to Ohio with Quest

Aaron has a Bluestem pup that goes by Pepper from our D Litter between our original breeding pair Sue and Sam. He says that Quest and Pepper are getting along splendidly and she is really fitting in with the family. Aaron also wins the “traveled farthest” award for coming almost 800 miles one way to pick up his puppy.

Quentin going to Michigan with Paul and Deb

Second in the “traveled farthest” award is Paul and Deb, flying out from Michigan to rent a car and drive back home with Quentin. They also own a pup by the name of Fielding from our O Litter between Fire and Chief with their daughter Galen and her fiancee. Galen works in IT for a major Detroit auto manufacturer and her fiancee is a police officer, so all four of them take turns raising the dogs with schedules all over the place.

Travis and family with Quetzal going to Kansas

Travis and I have been in contact about getting his family a puppy for a long time, but being active duty in the Army with consistent deployment and his wife home with three kids, there was no way she was going to let him get a puppy until he retired! So happy military retirement, Travis and thank you for your service! Bird numbers in Kansas have been good lately, so I’m sure you’ll get a chance to chase some of them around.

I suppose I should set up a tripod and take a family picture of us with Sally, but it has not happened yet, so here are just a few candids from around the house.

Charity Upchurch Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Puppies

Sally and I taking a selfie

Sally on top of her big sister Ruth, who is almost exactly four years older

On Good Friday, Charles took Caleb and mama Fire out for some preserve hunting. Caleb shot a rooster and a few of the chukar, with Charles harvesting the rest. The most important to me was that Caleb and Fire had a good time.

Caleb trying to pose with Fire

Caleb showing off his rooster and his smile

As fas as what we are working on with Sally, I focus on the housebreaking and crate training. If someone isn’t watching her to catch accidents, she is in a crate near the rest of us so that she can still interact and hear what we are doing. Charles is working on whoa and heel using treats in the morning.

When we started out working with dogs twenty years ago, we didn’t do much other than housebreaking the first year and letting them on to wild birds. This was sort of the old field trialer dog training mentality. But as we’ve matured as dog owners, we’ve found that the sooner we work with them the better. Not overtraining or hacking on the pup, but just fun basic command learning and general obedience.

Especially with Griffons, if they are not exposed to a little pressure to behave right away, because they are so sensitive it is extremely difficult to impossible to break bad habits since their feelings get hurt so easily. It’s better to get them used to being trained early so that when you get to the more advanced steps they are not as difficult to handle.

Speaking of advanced steps, Charles is taking Obi and Ruth down to Lincoln for AKC Senior Hunter runs this weekend, so we’ll see how those go. I had forgotten about the tests and am scheduled to lifeguard, so I am a little bummed that I won’t get to do some field photography. We’ve also got them signed up to do the Utility Preparatory Test for NAVHDA in May, so I need to make sure to keep my calendar open that weekend to get some good photos.

Good luck to everyone with their Bluestem puppies, we are all in this challenging and joyous situation together so don’t hesitate to shoot me an email with questions. And of course don’t be afraid to turn to your local NAVHDA chapter members for help and advice.

Q Litter Seven Weeks

March 24, 2021

Charity Upchurch AWPGA, Field Trialing, Puppy Update, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons AKC Field Trials, AWPGA, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Puppies Leave a comment

This litter is all microchipped with their new owners’ information and they start to go home on their eight week birthday on Sunday. Our next litter will be in Spring of 2022 between Wyo Plainsman Kenobi, NA I “Obi” and Bluestem Peaches En Regalia, NA I “Ruth”. We keep going back and forth on a final repeat breeding of Fire and Chief next year and have not yet made a final decision. Once these puppies are all in their homes I will start responding to my backlog of new interest emails. If you want to join the queue, shoot me an email at bluestemkennels@gmail.com.

I’ve made sure that the puppies all been over by the pigeon coop and have had a bird fly up near them so they get used to that wing flapping sound and are not startled by it. We’ve all had a couple of turns on the leash. They’ve spent time in the crate. They run around the yard like wild animals and run out into the woods so far that I’m afraid a coyote will eat them. They have their shots, microchips and vet checks. The papers from the AKC and NAVHDA are here. They are ready for their own people.

Queen (female) is going to Oklahoma as the family’s second Bluestem pup

Quartz (male) is going to Colorado

Quentin (male) is going to Michigan as the family’s second Bluestem pup

Qbert (male) is going to Iowa

Quince (male) is going to North Dakota as the family’s second Bluestem pup

Quest (female) is going to Ohio as the family’s second Bluestem pup

Quetzal (male) is going to Kansas

Qiana (female) is going to Central Nebraska

Quarry (female) is going to become AKC/NAVHDA Bluestem Sally Forth “Sally” and stay with us.

Here is the video that I took this week: Q Litter Seven Weeks Old

I really need to run and do puppy chores, but for now I’m just going to post the photo of Charles and Wyo Plainsman Kenobi, NA I “Obi” and their sweep of the Walking Derby at the inaugural AWPGA AKC Walking Field Trial, winning first in both the Amateur and Open Divisions! We are so proud and thankful that the club was able to pull off such an event. Biggest thanks to Tom and Kristen Mathis for their work. Also thank you to our Griffon friends for showing up, I really wish that I could have been there and thank you for all of the messages of being missed.

Charles and Wyo Plainsman Kenobi, NA I “Obi” First Place ribbons in both the Amateur and Open Divisions of the AWPGA AKC Walking Field Trial

Q Litter at Five Weeks

March 9, 2021

Charity Upchurch Field Trialing, Kennel Update, Puppy Update, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons AWPGA, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Puppies Leave a comment

Five week old puppies keep you moving! This litter is spoken for, but feel free to email bluestemkennels@gmail.com regarding our Spring 2022 planned litters. My responses are slow right now with everything going on and I keep being hopeful that I can get around to responding to emails, but right now my focus is on raising these puppies and caring for my family. If email responses have to wait until April then so be it.

But I’m here writing to you all now and that’s what counts. Just to make sure that I got pictures of every single puppy, I pulled them out individually yesterday and played with them on the front lawn. I am really going to take my time on making picks with this litter, they are really all fantastic and I want to make sure that I talk to all of the new owners again and get it all right. They get their microchips on Monday, March 22nd so final decisions all have to be made by then.

Here is what I ask that the new owners have in mind when we talk next week: 1) have your pickup plans pretty firm so that I have it on my calendar 2) think of the personality of the pup that you are looking for: do you want an alpha dog or somewhere in the middle? Coat length? Size for your purpose? All of them are really lovely and we’re having just a terrible time even figuring out which female we want to keep. Regardless of which puppy you get, you will be happy!

Okay here are the pics. They are simply in the order that they were photographed the first time at the age of three weeks, no reason for the order other than the random selection that I did on that day.

Males

Quartz

Quentin

Quince

Quetzal

Qbert

Females

Queen

Quest

Qiana

Quarry

Wow, those are some cute photos! They were pretty nervous. They would run around for a couple of minutes, then come up to me for a cuddle and pets, then I’d put them back down and let them run around for a few more minutes. When you see where they are sniffing and searching around, they are looking for their litter or their mom. They are still very focused on wanting that security of being together.

Here is the video that we took in the backyard yesterday afternoon, pretty unscripted and random: Q Litter at Five Weeks Video

It is really getting to be nice weather here and I’m looking forward to when the puppies start to let themselves out which will be any day now. Right now when I open the gate, they still pretty much want to stay in their kennel but that will change soon. I did put collars on them a few days ago, those will stay with me when they go home. Some of those camo collars on the boys are 10 years old! Those are the small puppy collars, they will be ready for their new owners to bring medium puppy collars when they go home in three weeks.

We are trying to transition from soft canned food to puppy hard kibble, but they still really like canned food so they get it once or twice a day. They have access to kibble at all times. Mom generally goes out to see them once or twice a day and spends the night with them. With the limited nursing, they do drink from the water bowl. I will start our deworming regimen over the weekend, then next week is when I’ll defrost a dead quail to let them have a go at picking that up and also letting them inspect our live pigeon loft. I’ve been doing noise exposure daily when they eat and they know to expect that and are not reacting. We’ll mess around with a leash next week and practice being in a crate a little. With it being spring break I’ll be able to have my helper Caleb assist me with all of this.

Of course right now sanitation is a continuous job and it will just get to be more so. I’m able to get away with a once per day cleanup now but soon it will be twice a day and will continue that way until they go home.

Charles is preparing for the Griffon field trial in Illinois in a week and a half. I am excited to see who shows up and how it all goes.

Time to sign off, enjoy the spring weather and good luck to everyone who is training, trialing, testing their big dogs or raising puppies right now.

1st Griffon-Only AKC Field Trial To Be Held

March 4, 2021

Charity Upchurch AWPGA, Field Trialing AKC Field Trials, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

Come and be a part of history! The first Griffon-only AKC Field Trial will be held March 20-21 at Moraine View State Recreation Area near LeRoy, Illinois, sponsored by the American Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Association. All stakes are walking only, no dogs will be handled on horseback (although the judges generally are). Entry cutoff is March 17th at 6 PM Central. Your dog needs to be registered with the AKC to participate, but you do NOT need to be a member of the AWPGA.

There will be six stakes: Amateur Puppy, Open Puppy, Amateur Derby, Open Derby, Amateur Gun Dog and Open Gun Dog. Puppy stakes are up to 15 months old and are mainly judged on desire and running style. Derby stakes are up to 24 months old and are judged on desire, running and point style. Gun Dog stakes are for finished dogs who are judged on desire, running style range, steadiness, backing/honoring, point intensity and retrieving. Amateur is only available to non-professional handlers, whereas Open is available to professional handlers.

This Griffon-only AKC walking field trial has been a huge event for the field committee (thank you especially to Tom and Kristen Mathis) to organize and we are excited to participate!

Yes, it is a competition. You are braced with another dog/handler pair and you are competing against them head-to-head on field performance. Then your performance is evaluated based on the entire entry of dogs and handlers for placement. Full rules can be found by Googling for the PDF document “AKC Field Trial Rules and Standard Procedure for Pointing Breeds”.

Our dogs have been running in AKC German Shorthaired Pointer Club walking field trials for nine years, about the same time that we’ve been members of the AWPGA. It has been a fun experience and we’ve brought home some ribbons on derby dogs.

We hope to have an excellent turnout for this event and look forward to some great sportsmanlike competition and camaraderie!

20210304_085020

Our most recent success at an AKC Field Trial was with Charles handling Wyo Plainsman Kenobi, NA I “Obi” to a 4th place finish in the Amateur Walking Derby at the Heart of America German Shorthaired Pointer Club’s trial just last weekend.

Charles and Obi with their 4th place Amateur Walking Derby ribbon

Charles and Ruth at the line. Photo courtesy of HOAGSPC

Q Litter at 4 Weeks

March 1, 2021

Charity Upchurch AWPGA, Field Trialing, Kennel Update, Puppy Update Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Puppies Leave a comment

This litter is spoken for and my next litters will be in spring of 2022. I appreciate the overwhelming desire to get a pup from us, I really do. I am receiving your emails and will be sure to reach out once I get our taxes prepared. If you want to be added to my list of contacts, you can email bluestemkennels@gmail.com and I will get you on there and shoot you an email here in the next few weeks.

Why doesn’t she have any time? Blogging takes time. Not only do I have to take a couple of hours to write this post, but I have to set aside the time to do the photography beforehand. Of course, there is taking care of the puppies which now includes daily feeding them and play time. The big dogs need to be walked several times a day. I am swimming two miles a week. We are big foodies, so all of our food is homemade. Like, I felt guilty for using store bought breadcrumbs in my meatloaf yesterday kind of homemade. I don’t have a housekeeper and my kids don’t have tutors. I probably spend six hours a week on tutoring my two boys. And I try to squeeze in some professional time substitute teaching middle school and lifeguarding. This is how I have always lived my life, bouncing from one completely unrelated thing to another. Someday the kids will graduate from high school and I might retire from my out-of-the-house jobs to work on dogs full time. But I’ve got to “make hay while the sun is shining” as we say out in the Sandhills. Not time to be an old dog lady just yet.

The puppies are doing great. Fielding a lot of questions from the new owners about how their personalities are developing and whether they show any curiosity or independence at this point. The short answer is still “no”. This is currently how they spend the majority of their life.

The Q Litter at Four Weeks

They are most comfortable with their litter. They have brief moments of being up and around and trying to explore with their limited mobility. But it is not a lot yet. The photos that I took on Saturday in the yard, they are really only separated from each other and exploring for like five minutes at the most. Then they were ambling back to me to all curl up together on the beach towel.

Another thing about the photos, is that you can’t really see much of their total personalities in them. I not only pick photos for the action, but also the general photo quality. Like here’s a perfect example, I got this blurry shot of Quentin with the grouse wing but the one that turned out is the one where he is howling for mom.

You would not see this pic normally because it is out of focus

But no, the crybaby pic of Quentin is the one that turned out

It’s also tough to balance the number and quality of action photos on the puppies at this point. I’m just shooting and I get what I get sometimes.

L to R: Qbert, Quince, Quartz and Quetzal

Quest and Qiana

Quentin, Quarry, Queen

Quartz, Quince, Quetzal

Quest

Quarry

Quetzal

Quarry

Quartz

I just posted all of those in the order that I took them. Like I said, that was over a period of just a few minutes before they wandered back to me and the beach towel. Several of them didn’t get closeups. There will be more action photos as they get up and move around more during the day.

Here is the video that I took of them last night as I was cleaning out the chips in their box: Q Litter Four Weeks Old

I do have more to write this week about Obi’s 4th place finish in the AKC Amateur Walking Derby at the Heart of America German Shorthaired Pointer Club Field Trial last weekend and an invitation to our own American Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Association’s breed-only AKC Walking Field Trial in LeRoy, IL. But it will have to wait until Wednesday.

Think Spring!

Welcome Q Litter!

February 5, 2021

Charity Upchurch AWPGA, Field Trialing, Kennel Update, Puppy Update AWPGA, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Puppies Leave a comment

Q Litter at 5 days old

I’m sorry that it has taken so long to post the official announcement of the arrival of the “Q” Litter! At this time, I have all of the puppies confirmed reserved with a plan for the new owners to pick up. I have one reservation backing them up in the event that someone can’t take a pup, otherwise they will carry over to next year’s litters. I apologize if I have not responded to your email inquiry regarding puppies over the last week and a half, it has been crazy. I have set aside time next week to get caught up. At this point, it would be a very rare instance that I would have more than one person back out. I am maintaining a list in the event of that situation, but most likely this litter is on the books and any new interest should be for next year’s litters. If you have emailed recently and just haven’t gotten a response, hang tight. My email address is the best way to contact me: bluestemkennels@gmail.com.

The story of the puppies arrival is this. I went to lifeguard rescue practice on Saturday afternoon thinking that the puppies would arrive on Sunday. So when I got home, I decided to take Fire out for a hike to get everything moving. We walked over to the nature preserve that borders our house and the Missouri River. It was a nice mile roundtrip hike in deep snow.

Fire looking down on the Missouri River

I thought it was going to happen that night with all of the panting and whining going on. But it hadn’t happened by the end of Dr. Who on Iowa PBS (which gets over around 1 AM), so it was time for bed. I got up and prepared the whelping area in the garage. We took walks in the yard about once an hour all morning. There was definite sign right around noon (I’ll spare the gross details), so I put her out in the area, made lunch and called my mom. When I went out there next two puppies had arrived already. They came in twos for the next six hours. One of the round of two were two stillborns, which even after ten years of doing this is sad and unsettling. But it happens with almost every litter, so you brush yourself off and keep going. We ended up with a very nice litter of nine puppies: five males and four females.

Fire and the newborns in the whelping box

I think that the most important thing that I do during whelping is keeping the female walking outside every two hours. Even if I have to pick her up and put a leash on her to get her moving, it is really important to keep the labor moving to avoid c-sections. The puppies are fine to be left for a few minutes as newborns. Now that we are a handful of days into their lives, mom likes her breaks out of the puppy box.

Fire is doing a good job of keeping hydrated and fed, which is an important part of all of this. Her mom BB was always skin and bones at this phase of the process, but Fire eats and drinks good so that she doesn’t look emaciated. The nice thing about nine puppies is that it is just the right amount to feed all-natural with no bottle feeding. Anything more than that is too much and needs to be supplemented. I am very lucky that my females have always been good milk producers and so the puppies are pooping like they should be.

So right now my main thing is taking care of mom and looking in the box when there are big squeakers. They are starting to have a little primitive bark and it is getting louder, so I know when something is amiss (usually just on the wrong end of the box). They are right in the kitchen where I am most of the time anyway, so not too far away at this point.

Fire and the newborns in the kitchen

The Q Litter as newborns

We got their tails docked and dew claws removed at Heartland Pet Hospital in Bellevue with no issues and all of the puppies were inspected by the new lady veterinarian (she has a Dutch last name that I’ve already forgotten!). She said that they looked great and did well. Many breeders do their own tails and claws, but I just like having the vet do it and it gives the newborn puppies that first inspection.

Q pups at the vet

I did get a video yesterday. The SD card from my camcorder got misplaced and I need a new card, so it is just a phone video. I don’t know on my phone how to do all of the titles and credits like I normally do, so it is pretty basic. Click the link to go over to YouTube and watch it: Q Litter 5 Days Old Video

Here is a montage of a few more pictures that I’ve taken here over the last couple of days:

The boy in the pictures is our soon to be twelve-year-old son (our youngest) Caleb. He does not know life before puppies. We’ve always had puppies since he was a baby and he just loves them. (Yeah, about that shirt. I had it in the laundry slated for the donations bag, but it is his favorite and he pulled it out to wear it again even though it is too small. Boys.)

In other news: Charles wrapped up the hunting season a week early and he didn’t get any photos from his last hunt. The weather was rough and the roads were terrible. There were gobs of hunters out where he was at. A six hour round trip for one rooster, but hey, they had fun.

AWPGA Griffon-Only AKC Walking Field Trial

This is the next item of excitement on our list. The AWPGA will finally be sponsoring a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon ONLY AKC Walking Field Trial on March 20-21 at the Moraine View State Recreation Area north of LeRoy, Illinois. Charles, Obi and Ruth will be there along with some of our other AWPGA friends and their dogs from our area. This has been years in the making and I thank Thomas and Kristen Mathis for finally getting it off of the ground. I will post the premium once we get ours turned in! For all of the rules, Google “AKC Field Trial Rules and Standard Procedure for Pointing Breeds”, it is a weird PDF link that doesn’t transpose well.

Signing off for now, but will be back next week for another update. Stay warm and don’t hurt yourself in this snow and ice.

Field Trial Placement and on to Maine

August 24, 2014

Charity Upchurch Field Trialing, Puppy Update Branched Oak Field Trial Grounds, Delmar Smith, German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Nebraska, Korthals Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

AKC Field Trial

Today we ran Bluestem’s Prairie Fire “Fire” in her first formal dog event. She participated in the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Nebraska’s Fall Field Trial in the Amateur Walking Puppy and Amateur Walking Derby stakes at the Branched Oak Field Trial Grounds near Raymond, Nebraska. These grounds are famous and I noticed a new sign hanging in the lodge as I was getting breakfast this morning. It is notes made this spring by Delmar Smith.

Comments from Delmar Smith about Branched Oak Field Trial Grounds, April 2014

We met Delmar in Kansas City at Pheasant Fest a few years back and he is definitely a sage of the sport.

Sunrise over Branched Oak Field Trial Grounds

Horse barn and clubhouse of Branched Oak Field Trial Grounds

A standard setup at Branched Oak

It was entirely English Pointers and German Shorthaired Pointers, but we had fun and Fire had a great experience. Of course she was shown up with range in the field because of her young age (6 1/2 months) and the close-working nature of the breed, but due to the fact that there were only 4 dogs entered in the Amateur Walking Derby, we did walk away with a ribbon. Although it was a “gimme” (which none of BB’s field trial placements were), it was still cool to represent griffons and be the only 6 month old griff ever to have placed in an AKC Field Trial.

Walking to the line

At the line

Starting in the field

Escapee

Running Fire

Charles and Fire with their 4th place ribbon in the Amateur Walking Derby

We also had visitors from Matt and Carter, who live around Lincoln and will be getting a Sam/BB pup next year.

Matt and Carter saying hi to Fire.

Fire and Carter

I really hate to cut this short, as there’s more to say, but I am still not packed for the AWPGA National Specialty Dog Show, Hunt Tests and Annual Meeting this week in Maine, and I have a 6 AM flight to catch in the morning. I’m taking all of my equipment with me, so maybe there will be a blog post part 2 if I get the time this week, but I will probably be busy seeing all of my long lost dog friends. If I don’t get to it, I’ll catch up with y’all next weekend.

Bluestem Kennels

Dog Days of Summer 2024

Thanksgiving Quail and Breeding Update

“R” Litter Five Weeks and Carolinas Field Trial

Q Litter Homegoings!

Q Litter Seven Weeks

Q Litter at Five Weeks

1st Griffon-Only AKC Field Trial To Be Held

Q Litter at 4 Weeks

Welcome Q Litter!

Field Trial Placement and on to Maine

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