At this time the litter is entirely spoken for so any new interest should be considered for next year’s litters. Reach out to us at bluestemkennels@gmail.com. Aside from emails and phone calls from the new puppy owners, I am using my blog entries as my primary method of communication with the general public for the time being. I am hoping to be caught up on new interest emails by the end of this week.
Snow on top of snow on top of snow and subzero temperatures have been making life difficult in Bellevue, Nebraska lately. We shovel, and it snows, we shovel again, and it snows again. The last little skiff of snow is just sitting there unshoveled as we stare at it disgusted, knowing that it won’t get warm enough for it to melt and that we need to shovel again.
I know that I only have a couple of more weeks of Fire cleaning up after the puppies before I am going to be shoveling lots of poop. The setup might have to be in the basement if it doesn’t get warm enough. Right now the puppies are in the kitchen. I decided that the Step 2 sandbox was getting too small and moved the big whelping box in the house with a blanket underneath. I will need to change the blanket every day so that it doesn’t get stinky.
The puppies are starting to get loud sometimes at night. Hopefully the bigger quarters will prevent some of that but it might just be like having a baby for awhile where I have to get up with them in the middle of the night. I’m not working outside of the house a whole lot these days, just a couple of afternoons a week probably until they go home.
You can see their little legs starting to work a lot in the video: Q Litter One Month Old
Here is the montage of photos that I took today. You can click on the individual images to make them larger. The lighting in the pictures makes their dark liver coloring look black. They are not black! And in the video you see a bare patch on Fire’s back. She does not have any disease. This is where I went to grab her hide to stand her up during whelping and a big patch of fur let go into my hand. It is not uncommon for females to get weird bald patches right after birth, so she is fine. But anyway, here are the pics.
The only time that Ruth and Obi get a chance to see the puppies is when Fire is outside. Otherwise she will growl and snap at them to get back! A mother’s instinct is to protect her young when they are this small. Once they are up and moving around, Fire will allow the other dogs to have play time with them.
Once their eyes are open I will take individual pictures, identify their genders and give them their silly “Q” names.
Charles is signing Obi and Ruth up for an AKC Walking Field Trial in Missouri at the end of the month to get primed up for the big show in Illinois in March. Speaking of which, I had better sign off and get those premiums in the mail to the Heart of America German Shorthaired Pointer Club.
Stay safe and warm in these Arctic times. Until next week.
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.
We have a litter due to be whelped the first week of February between Bluestem’s Prairie Fire, NA I and Bluestem Otoe Chief, NA II. I currently have ten reservations with deposit and a backup contact list in the event that anyone decides not to take a pup this year. Should you wish to be included on this contact list, please email bluestemkennels@gmail.com. Our pups are placed in hunting homes only and need to be picked up at our residence at eight weeks of age, air cargo is no longer available.
I took Fire down to Hillcrest Animal Clinic in rural Lincoln, Nebraska a couple of weeks ago to have an ultrasound to confirm pregnancy. They saw 12-15 embryos in there! Whether they all turn into viable puppies is a mystery, it is not unusual to have a couple of stillborns or one or two that are born alive who fail to thrive in the first week or so. But it was fun to find out two weeks earlier than usual that she was indeed pregnant and it is something that I plan on continuing in the future.
Fire getting her ultrasound
View of the pups
There is no mistaking now that Fire is pregnant!
Fire eating at six weeks along
Fire flopped out with a full belly
Late Season Hunting
Charles has been staying busy in the field while I’m trying to finish healing a torn up right foot from a year ago. My goal for 2021 is to swim 100 miles (I’m on mile 5), so I’m hoping that by grouse season in September I’ll be ready to rock and roll again. I don’t walk with a limp and really only start to have pain when I get up in the 10,000 step range, but that is a normal day in the bird field. My oldest son is at the end of his high school career and the beginning of his life in the work force, so I stay plenty busy keeping him and his younger brother (who starts middle school in the fall) on track. I figure that as long as I stay in shape that I have the rest of my life to bird hunt, but only have a few more years with kids in the house.
The neighbor Sam and Charles headed over to close out Iowa’s hunting season with some success. Compared to southeastern Nebraska, which hasn’t had a decent pheasant population since the nineties, it is a paradise! I’m going to have to think about getting an Iowa license in the future. We think that it is just the difference in terrain and agricultural practices. Southeast Nebraska is flat enough that you can farm it fenceline to fenceline with no scrubby borders like pheasants need. Iowa has more hills and draws, so you either have terraces that have the lip on the end that you can’t hit with a tractor, or just naturally occuring draws and creeks with the thick cover.
Obi our Griff and the neighbor’s DD Elsa with an Iowa quarry
Last Friday, Charles and friends braved the blizzard in Eastern Nebraska to head out to the southcentral part of the state to see if there were any birds left from the last time. There were plenty of cars in the ditch and going off into the ditch between Omaha and York, but things were clear sailing by the time that they got past there.
It was a long Saturday hunt walking nine miles for the people and far more for the dogs, but with plenty of success. Obi is getting lots of good practice running down and retrieving poorly hit birds that are still alive. No offense against the shooters, it is just that the pheasant is a tough bird and can take some pellets. The dogs really have to work some thick tumbleweed cover and it is very dry out that way (a town almost burned down from a prairie fire last week and had to be evacuated at 4:30 AM). I am really proud of their hard work on these wild birds in wild country.
Obi, Ruth and the southcentral Nebraska birds
This old bird caught Charles’s eye and I thought that it looked like Gonzo from The Muppet Show.
The neighbor is trying to get his DD certified in fur, so we’ve been trying to live trap a raccoon, but ended up with an oppossum instead. He was happy to play dead while Obi fetched him (the oppossum was not injured and lived to see another day).
Obi and his oppossum
So I’m now on puppy watch and we’ll see if Charles takes these last couple of weekends of Nebraska bird season off (ha) or not.
It is easiest for me to keep my Facebook page up-to-date, so keep an eye on that for when the puppies start to arrive! I’m expecting them sometime between January 30th and February 5th, but the Good Lord and Mother Nature will let me know when it is time. Keep us in your good thoughts for a safe delivery.
Please e-mail bluestemkennels@gmail.com if you wished to be placed on the contact list should someone back out of taking one of these puppies home. At this time, all puppies are spoken for.
Saturday Ruth and the puppies moved out into the garage, which is just off of the kitchen and directly beneath my bedroom. So I’m feeling a bit like having a new baby since I wake up every time one of the puppies pitches a fit on their way to the teat at night (going to have to talk to my contractor about getting some more insulation between the garage and the bedroom).
They are really starting to scoot around and we only have another week or so before their eyes open and they start to try to stand up.
The weather is warming up, the snow is melting and it is going straight into the rainy season. But the change in the weather makes it so that they can be in the garage, otherwise they would still be in the kitchen if it was in the teens and snowing like it was a few weeks ago.
No news is good news, everyone is growing like they are supposed to be and all is well. Here is the video from today: https://youtu.be/RlFBWcz4cu8
E-mail bluestemkennels@gmail.com to be placed on the list should someone back out of taking home one of these puppies! As of right now, they are all spoken for. The soonest the puppies can go home is on Monday, April 29th and I’d like to have them all out of the door by Sunday, May 5th so that I can get ready for my daughter’s high school graduation a couple of weeks later.
The “P” Litter of 2019 between Ruth and Zoro arrived on Monday morning, March 4th. Ruth began whelping right before I got out of bed at 6:30 AM and finished up by 11 AM so it was very quick. Five girls and three boys. The whelping went very smoothly and the puppies are growing quickly! Here is a photo of them right before bedtime on Monday.
Ruth and the newborn pups of the “P” Litter
The pups went to the vet Tuesday afternoon to get their tails docked and their dew claws removed. My vets were on vacation and it was a substitute vet, so I was too busy talking to get any photos. I take of 1/3 of the tail and leave 2/3, the longest allowed by the AKC breed standard. I think that it make their point look more stylish and helps them use their tail as a rudder for direction when swimming in the water. The AKC standard states that the tail should be docked to 1/2 to 2/3.
The temperatures are starting to warm up here, so with supplemental heat the pups will be moving out into the attached garage over the weekend. Not that I don’t love having them in the kitchen where I can be with them all of the time, it is just that after whelping the mother females lose their housebreaking with the amount of food that they have to eat and it makes for some nasty cleanups overnight and when I need to leave the house for a few hours.
I am very excited to watch these pups mature, as this is the mating that I am planning on taking the next generation of my kennel from in a new years. It will be the fifth generation of Wirehaired Pointing Griffons that we’ve owned and the fourth generation and we have bred. It is exciting and pretty amazing how the last nine years have flown by. Caleb is still my head puppy hugger and does not know life before the annual arrival of the puppies. He is so good with them and checks up on them almost hourly. Caleb loves puppies so much that he has asked that his birthday cake is decorated with Griff heads this year!
Caleb hugging puppies in 2019
Caleb snuggling puppies in 2011
Here’s a collage of some of the photos that I took today. I don’t take individual photos until their eyes open in another ten days or so.
And one more of everyone before I close out before the weekend. Catch up with all of you next week with one week old photos and video.
It would be near blasphemy if I did not wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day, since I am a native of Valentine, Nebraska! Sorry that I’ve been absent on the blog, my schedule has been extremely hectic. I was supervising a high school debate tournament on the last day of hunting season and it rained/snowed all day, so Charles didn’t go out into the slop.
Last night there was a raccoon on the prowl in the woods behind the house, so the dogs were in full frantic mode outside and I brought them in for the night. It was a good chance to check BB out. Not that I don’t spend time with her outdoors, but when we’re out there she is always on the move so I don’t get a good opportunity to analyze her behavior. At this point in a dog pregnancy they don’t show much, so watching behavior is the best way to figure it out. She is pudgy and whereas before she would play with Fire and Sam, she wants nothing to do with them now. She is also very food and bone protective, which she isn’t normally. I’m very confident that pups will be arriving in March. Right now I have 16 reservations and am not taking any more.
As far as Velma goes, she has a stockier build to begin with so Aaron isn’t sure. We will keep watching her and hope for the best.
My brother has been sending over pictures of retired mama Mae. She is enjoying her retirement in Valentine with her Siberian Husky friend, Whisper.
Nap time for Whisper and Mae
Whisper and Mae hanging out in the yard.
Pupdates
Susan in North Dakota has been out cross country skiing with 3 year old TracHer from our 2012 “C” Litter between Sam and Mae. Zephyr is also a griff, but not from us.
TracHer, Zephyr, and Susan enjoying the snow.
Matt had TracHer’s sister Josie, from our 2013 “F” Litter of Sam and Mae’s out enjoying some snow time too up in South Dakota.
Josie snow profile
Josie’s snow run
Jimmy in Oklahoma takes 2 year old Zoey, from our 2012 “E” Litter of Sam and Sue’s, out into the oil fields with him. Here she is begging the trucks for treats.
Zoey scoping for snacks
Kaylee in Missouri put together a cute birthday card for Fire’s sister, Willow. They are both now 1 year old, from our 2014 “G” Litter from Sam and BB.
Willow is 1!
Thanks to everyone for keeping me updated on their pups, it is always fun to look at the great photos and read the stories. If you’ve left a message for me and I haven’t called you back, I will do so tomorrow. Today is an official holiday for me, so I don’t want to disturb anyone. I will check back in a few weeks with some belly pics of BB. If you are looking to get a hold of us right now, the best way is by e-mail at bluestemkennels@cox.net. The school district asked me to fill in full time this semester in high school English and debate, plus I’m doing my last semester of grad school and helping with the Griffonnier magazine. It is super busy and I’m looking forward to the summer. Talk at you in a couple of weeks.
Happy Valentine’s Day from your official representative of The Heart City, Valentine, Nebraska!
My last graduate school class of my program is a full day Saturday class, it just happens to fall on every Saturday this semester that I’m not coaching a high school debate tournament. We were working our way through introductions in the room and word had gotten around to me that there was a fellow dog person present. I went up to her and said, “I hear that you’re into dogs, so am I!” One of our classmates, who I’ve had classes with in the past turned to me and said, “That’s one of the greatest introductions that I’ve ever heard!” Of course, the fellow dog lady and I launched into all sorts of chatter about where we are in our breeding programs and gossiping about what is going on in our respective breeds. She is a Boston Terrier girl, which is one of the two small dogs I’ve ever thought about (the other being a Jagdterrier). But I’ll be a one-breed dog owner for the foreseeable future.
But that really has nothing to do with the task at hand, which is updating you on the end of hunting season and the beginning of puppy season. This Saturday the 31st is the last day of hunting season in Nebraska, and of course I will be at a debate tournament. But Charles and Matt are planning on hitting the fields. They had great success last weekend just south of Auburn, Nebraska on some private land full of quail. They said that they saw numerous coveys and probably 40-60 birds in total. The harvest shows a successful hunt.
Charles and Matt’s harvest of quail with Fire and BB.
Breeding Update
Although I had thought that I’d missed Sam and BB’s breeding while we were in Valentine for Christmas, last week told us otherwise. If Sam wasn’t having his way, he was howling and barking at BB 24/7. We had to bring in Sam at night in order to not disturb the neighbors. So that puts us at pups being born toward the end of March if Mother Nature smiles upon us.
Aaron also brought Velma over this week to see what the interactions between she and Sam were like. Ben has been kenneled with her since before Christmas and all of the signs seemed to be correct for her being bred. Velma was looking chubs when she was here and she had absolutely no interest in letting Sam get with her. So, we’re going to assume that the deed is done and keep an eye on her for possible March pups as well.
Velma and Sam hanging out.
Here’s just a random photo of Caleb with BB and Sam. He is my dog boy and loves spending time with them.
BB, Caleb, and Sam
I have caught up on my e-mails, but am a bit behind on returning phone calls. Right now, e-mail is the best way to get a hold of me with my erratic schedule. I will return phone calls as I can, but I also know that I take down messages sometimes, then the kids get into my office playing around and carry away my papers. So, if you haven’t heard from me, please e-mail bluestemkennels@cox.net for the best response.
Pupdate
Fire’s sister Bella got out for her first hunt recently. Here’s the word from Gil:
Bella’s first bird hunt was a success! Even more impressive considering the tough conditions. The wind was blowing 25 mph, gusting to 35 mph! Nothing was flushing. Everything was running. She also found plenty of dead/un-retrieved birds.
This sweetheart is a bit of a late bloomer, but seems the training and bloodline kicked into gear.(@ Pheasant Bonanza)
Bella with her chukar from Pheasant Bonanza
Thanks to Gil for the update and thanks to you all for continuing to check up on us even though I’ve gotten a bit sketchy on posting with my new duties. The school district asked me to teach 10th grade English full time and coach the high school debate team this semester, so it is crazy! It might just be for the semester, or it might turn into a permanent thing. The district has to cut 5 million from the budget next year, so there is a possibility the position could be eliminated.
Charles and the kids are stepping up around the house and kennel to make sure that everything we need to do is done. I might drift off for a bit on the blog between now and when the puppies are born, but make no mistake about it, the puppies will be well tended to. My school is only 5 minutes from the house and I will be running back and forth during plan periods and lunch once the puppies are born.
I will certainly let you know about the hunt next weekend and a few weeks after that when and if the females are showing signs of pregnancy. At this point, I am not taking any more reservations this year until I know what the puppy count is. I won’t start thinking about next year until these (hopeful) puppies go home.
I can feel spring in the air and the snow geese are traveling north. Enjoy the extra daylight and send good puppy vibes our way!
Nebraska High Plains duck opener on October 4th found us in our usual haunts up in the Sandhills. We didn’t get out into the field until around 9 AM both days; that is the nice thing about jump hunting as opposed to sitting over decoys. Sitting over decoys requires three things that I don’t like to do: 1) haul excessive amounts of gear 2) get up early 3) hold still. So even though Charles had brought up all of the decoys and blinds and such to do it, we just didn’t.
We work a network of small ponds, swamps, and beaver dammed creeks trying to keep the dogs on heel as best we can. It is about a 50% success rate on a jump as far as getting shots off. Sometimes a dog will spook a flock, other times we come across a pond that we didn’t know was there at full standing profile and scare them off, or take a shot at a single in one pond that sets off a giant flock in the next pond.
We’ve taken up enough of a pattern that the game warden was able to track us down on Sunday just because he wanted to chat and see what we’d gotten into. Charles took 3 teal and a hen wood duck on Saturday and I took 3 teal. Sunday was a 6 hour day in the field and I took nothing, Charles got 2 snipe and a mallard hen. I got a couple of videos, the first of Fire retrieving Charles’s mallard hen, her first wild duck retrieve: . The second is my first anything of the year, I think that I’ve shot at 15 snipe this year with no luck:
The photo from Saturday is a bit goofy, I just threw the camera up on the tripod, hit the timer and took the shot. I obviously did not review the pic for my odd facial expression while talking to the crazy dogs. Oh well, there it is.
Opening day, Saturday, October 4th.
BB and Charles with Sunday’s quarry.
Fire’s NAVHDA Natural Ability Test
Before I get into the test itself, I want to tell you about my new friend, Bob. He is 75 years-old and ran his 52nd NAVHDA test on Sunday. He is a retired truck driver from Pennsylvania who was en route to my beloved Sandhills and has been traveling out there for many years. Before he takes his buddies hunting in the Sandhills, they are required to read the famous Nebraska author Mari Sandoz’s novel Old Jules. I am certified as a middle and high school English teacher in Nebraska and have not read Old Jules. Bob laid quite a bit of grief and shame on me, so I will be going on to Amazon to pick up a copy later today since it is not available on iBooks.
My new friend Bob from Pennsylvania
Bob travels in style
His cool license plate
My favorite picture of the day was of Blaine Erkenbrack looking on as his daughter, Alexa, tossed the bumper for “Khloe”, a 14 month-old German Shorthaired Pointer. Khloe and the gang earned a Prize I, Score 112 in Natural Ability.
Blaine, Alexa, and Khloe.
Eight month-old Bluestem’s Prairie Fire “Fire” now has a NA I at the end of her name, with a maximum score of 112 points. Thanks to Senior Judge Mike Garriott of Falls City, Nebraska, Gabby Awbray of San Diego, California, and Darin Tolzin from Atlantic, Iowa for coming out to judge. It was a little chillier than what we’ve been used to lately, but there was no rain, and the breeze was pleasant, not a howling gale.
Fire found a number of quail in the field and pointed them all, but proceeded to rip almost every single one (catching the bird before it flushes, also known as a “trap”). There were a few that were able to get up and fly.
Fire working the thick tallgrass cover
Fire slamming into point. Two quail successfully flushed from this one.
Charles holds Fire’s collar while a quail flushes.
After 2 Natural Ability dogs ran the field, they did their track, so 2 field runs, 2 tracks, alternating. There were 8 Natural Ability dogs running for the day. The track was a mowed strip leading into a dense, food plot-sized growth of native tallgrass prairie. Conrad and Charles have been working with Fire quite a bit on the tracking skill and it paid off.
Fire successfully working the track.
Fire inherited her sire’s absolute love of water retrieving and had two great bumper retrieves.
Fire getting excited when seeing the bumpers
Fire bringing one back in
L to R: apprentice from NJ (sorry, I didn’t note the name), Gabby Awbray, Mike Garriott, Darin Tolzin, and apprentice John Green at the reading of the scores.
We were very pleased with Fire’s performance and enjoyed the day. Good luck to John and Cle, Fire’s brother, on his Natural Ability test in Tennessee this weekend.
Velma in North Dakota
Velma’s owner, Aaron, was up on the federal ground in North Dakota the weekend before the PLOTS land opens and got into some pheasants and sharptailed grouse. Velma is right next to Aaron giving him a kiss, we will be keeping a pup out of her breeding to Ben this spring for our next stud dog.
Aaron, his lab, and Velma WPG in North Dakota on Saturday.
Pupdate
Tyson up in Bangor, Maine sent over a nice report on the start of his hunting season, his pup, Moose, is from our 2014 “H” Litter between Sam and Mae:
It has been a crazy busy summer here in Maine with some vacation and lots of training with Moose. We feel so blessed to have such an incredible dog. He is fitting in great and does awesome with the kids. I have attached some pics for you. Moose spent most of the summer sleeping in the boat, as you can see.
The most exciting thing to report is that bird season officially opened in Maine on October 1st. And Moose got his first day in the field this Saturday. He got the chance to hunt with her good friend Spice who is an 8 year old female GSP that is an amazing Maine gun dog. She definitely showed him the ropes. They have spent some time training together this summer. Some good pics of Moose with some very rare Maine Pheasant. He also pointed the first grouse of the day at our first stop. Thanks again for an amazing dog!
Best,Tyson
Moose is looking handsome at 7 months old.
Moose spending some time on the Atlantic.
Moose and the elusive Maine roosters
Thanks, as always, to my owners for the updates!
Well, that is about all of the excitement I can handle for one day. Charles and the dogs head to North Dakota on Saturday, so it will be interesting to see what they come across. I’m sure we’ll all be jealous. Stay warm, until then.
The weekend before last, Charles and his friend Matt went out and got into some snipe with success, each of them got a few. Fire had her first full wild bird retrieve. She had picked one up earlier in the season, but BB rudely stole the retrieve from her.
Some snipe, Charles and Fire
Last weekend, Charles, Conrad, and Fire were been out working on drills for Fire’s Natural Ability test, specifically the water retrieve and the track. Conrad was my cameraman during the training session and got some pretty good pictures!
Charles, Fire, and the chukar for the track.
Fire bringing in a long water retrieve of a canvas dummy.
Fire with the nasty old dummy
We are looking forward to the opening of Nebraska High Plains duck season this weekend, especially me, since I have a big fat goose egg on hunting season thus far. Much of it has to do with my opting to stay home or carry a camera most of the season and only having three days in the field with a gun in my hand. Charles has to decide whether he’s going to North Dakota or South Dakota for his weeklong hunting trip later this month. I am going to sit it out since I already missed one of my grad school class sessions to go to Maine.
Pupdates
Although we were skunked on our sharptailed grouse outing last month, I’ve been hearing good reports farther north and west. TracHer got some retrieves in from Susan and Tom’s good shooting up in North Dakota. TracHer is from our “C” Litter of Sam and Mae.
TracHer on retrieve in North Dakota
Closeup of TracHer and the sharptail
TracHer’s retrieve to hand
TracHer just recently lost her younger brother, Max, an 18 month old German Wirehaired Pointer, to blue-green algae exposure. I had never really taken it seriously, but will from here on out. Very sad for Susan and Tom, we were sorry to hear it.
My friend George saw Sandi with our pup Zoey in Michigan at the Midwest Griff Fest, which was held just a couple of weeks after the National Specialty. Not sure how George had the energy to make it to both events, but kudos to him! Zoey lives in Oklahoma with Sandi and Jimmy, and is from our 2013 “E” Litter from Sue and Sam.
Sandi with Zoey in the harness and an encroaching gang of griffs.
Sandi and Zoey overtaken by the gang of griffs
Sandi and Zoey get to know the griff gang.
Last but not least, Lindsay and Midge took Winners Bitch two of the four days of the Gallatin and Helena Cluster Show up in Montana a couple of weeks ago for two points. I’m not sure how many points Midge is up to these days, but it sounds as if Lindsay is determined to put a conformation championship on her as hard as she is working at this. Great job!
Lindsay and Midge
Thanks to everyone who submitted pictures over the last couple of weeks for me to include in the blog, I couldn’t do it without you! Good luck to all of the hunters out there with the big season openers across the country this month!
I received an e-mail from Charbel in Mexico City that six month-old Bluestem Freyja, sister to our pup Fire out of Sam and BB, is now officially the only registered Wirehaired Pointing Griffon in Mexico! Viva Griffon! I find the name that they use quite interesting, as it literally translates into “Pointer Griffon of Hard Hair”. Here is the official pedigree from FCM, and thank you so much to Charbel for sending me a copy!
Federacion Canofila Mexicana Pedigree of Pointer Griffon de Pelo Duro, Bluestem Freyja
It is pretty cool that in 3 generations it goes from France (Cyr, the sire of BB), Canada (BB was born), US (where Freyja was born), and now to Mexico. I know that she has a good life down there, and I can’t wait to get some pics of her chasing some of their crazy quail.
Fire Training Day Epic Fail
Our poor raggedy chukar have been sitting in the holding pen for too long. It isn’t a flight pen and most of them are big males and have pecked one another over quite a bit. But we decided that Fire absolutely had to get out. So yesterday morning, off we went to the dog training wildlife management area south of town with three chukars.
It has been raining so much that the grass was wet, and the birds were wet. But Charles planted them anyway. At that point, we hadn’t had Fire out working birds or even for a multi-hour walk for about a month. The first thing that she did was take off like a bat out of hell right down the scent of Charles’s boots, with no care in the world for the whistle. We finally found her about 150 yards away, up and over the hill with the last bird that he had planted in her mouth.
On the second bird, we got a point out of her that Charles was able to walk in on, but it barely flew and was almost an Arky shot (looks like I need to add Arky Shot to Urban Dictionary. It is when a person shoots a bird on the ground or in a tree, which is extremely unsportsmanlike when not totally illegal). But he wanted to make sure that he fired the shotgun and the bird was dead when she got ahold of it. I think that the shotgun blast scared me more than it did the dog, so it looks like we’ve got the pup’s shotgun conditioning finalized.
Charles walking in on Fire’s point
Fire showing off her prey drive on the flush
Charles going for the near-Arky
She retrieved that bird, but I was still too stunned from the blast to get a photo of it. We got a decent point on the last bird, but it didn’t fly but about 6 inches off of the ground, right into Fire’s mouth. Aw hell. Although it makes for a funny story, and everyone who trains dogs has these days, it was still a big thumbs down.
Everybody Run
Remember that awesome song from Sesame Street in the 1970s? Well, here it is:
Yet I digress. This morning, we finally got everyone out for a run. And it was fun.
Sam, Fire, BB, and Charles.
Fire in the flowers
Go Sam go
BB on the move
Three dogs in the grass: Sam, Fire, BB
Here comes BB
Happy Sam
The people
Upcoming trialing and hunting
This weekend, we will be running Fire in the Amateur Walking Derby and the Walking Puppy Stakes at the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Nebraska’s Fall Trial at Branched Oak Lake Trial Grounds. I’ll be sure to get something up about that at the end of next weekend before I get on the plane for Maine. I’m hoping that the stakes prior to the Derby are large, because if it falls on Friday, I will have to handle. It would be my first time. I thought we’d be running again the following weekend, but once I went to fill out the premium for the Lincoln club, I realized that there are no walking stakes. So we’ll have the first weekend of September off from dog activities and just plan on sitting for some doves on Monday the 1st.
P
Pointing Dog Journal: Nebraska Sandhills Prairie Chicken Mention
This month’s PDJ Pass Along E-mail Blast was about the Greater Prairie Chicken and my very own Nebraska Sandhills. The following is the full text from the e-mail and I hope that I am re-printing it with permission. Full credit goes to Pointing Dog Journal and the author listed below:
Prairie Chickens in the Nebraska Sandhills by Greg Septon, STCP
Founded in 1961 to save the greater prairie-chicken (GPC) in Wisconsin, the Society of Tympanuchus Cupido Pinnatus, Ltd. (STCP) is working today to better understand the dynamics that maintain the nation’s largest viable population of GPC in the Nebraska Sandhills – the last best place to study the species in their natural grassland environment.
The goal in the Sandhills is to document productivity, habitat use, and movements of GPC and provide an understanding of how this is interwoven with human activities in the region. If GPC are to prosper as a species we need to better understand their needs and work to determine a scenario where compatible land uses will provide a secure future for them as well as humans so that both may coexist.
Our proactive approach at studying the dynamics of this large population now means that we can likely prevent the GPC from following in the wake of the lesser prairie-chicken – which is now listed as threatened, and the greater sage grouse, which may also be listed next year. If similar proactive research had been undertaken 20 years ago with these species, they might not be facing the uncertain futures they face today.
Gaining a thorough understanding of the life history of Nebraska’s large GPC population will also help provide a future for the isolated, remnant GPC populations in Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa. For it is from the large populations that these states will need to translocate birds from torestore genetic health and increase numbers to maintain their “museum” or “zoo” populations as they are often referred to. Without a stable source population where birds can be drawn from for periodic translocations, these small, isolated populations will eventually fade away one by one.
For a more comprehensive history of STCP and an account of our research efforts including work with the endangered Attwater’s prairie-chicken, please visit our website at: www.prairiegrouse.org.
Until next weekend
I need to go and get the kids ready for school tomorrow. It is very much unlike me to do a Sunday night post, but I desperately need to save my writing time in the morning for my paid writing gig. Oh, I also wanted to give a special shout out to the late night internet lurkers on my blog. I am also one of those people who gets up almost every night for 15 minutes or so between midnight and 4 AM and gets online. I know it is neurotic and a bad habit, but I always check my stats and see there are folks out there reading my blog at that time. I also see that there are people reading my archived posts from several years back. How embarrassing, it is a real cesspool in places. But that is just part of keeping an online diary. I’m glad that you enjoy it.
Bluestem Kennels 