Puppy Update | Bluestem Kennels

More Field Trial Action and Pupdates

September 28, 2012

Charity Upchurch Field Trialing, Kennel Update, Puppy Update, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons AKC Field Trials, Amateur Walking Derby Stakes, American Field Region 19 Field Trials, Bird Hunting, Hunting Dogs, Korthals Griffon, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons 2 Comments

On Field Trials

Saturday, September 22nd was a big day for AKC field events in the Lincoln, Nebraska area, so the kids and I hit the road to visit friends and family involved. Our first stop was the Missouri Valley Brittany Club’s AKC Hunt Test at Yankee Hill Wildlife Management Area just southwest of Lincoln, near Denton. Although Charles and I lived in Lincoln for a couple of years in the 1990’s, I had never been to this WMA. It is very nice, lots of good cover and space, I can see why the Nebraska Game and Parks selected it as a new spot to plant pheasant for the youth hunting weekend in October. Yet I digress.

I was headed to the test to visit with my friend Sally Jo Hoagland from North Platte. Although she is probably closer to my mom’s age than mine, she is one of the top (if not THE top) Weimaraner breeders in Nebraska (Weimshadow Kennel) and one of the only professional dog trainers in Central Nebraska (Four Paws Dog Training). We had met at the Grand Island Kennel Club Dog Show earlier in the year after first connecting on Facebook, due to our mutual involvement with NAVHDA and AKC. It was funny that at the hunt test I not only knew Sally Jo, but probably 90% of the people at the test and what was even funnier is that we were not the only family of spectators.

The hunt test environment is very family friendly, there are usually multiple families with elementary age children running about, so we all look out for one another’s kids and there is never any worry about any of the dogs being mean. The dogs typically sit quietly in their crates or on their stakeout chains and love to have the kids mess with them.

Following lunch at the hunt test and a good visit with friends and fellow local hunt test junkies, we loaded up and headed north to Branched Oak Field Trial Grounds near Raymond. Although we had been there for hunt tests in the past, this field trial environment was completely different. The German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Nebraska’s field trial over last weekend was four days long and had 235 entrants, making it one of the largest AKC field trials of the entire year. Our “camp” was out in the back 40, so when the kids wanted to go to the clubhouse to get some sweets and sodas, we had to wade through the melee. As most field trials are on horseback, most of the other camps consisted of a camper/horsetrailer/dogtrailer combo, a stakeout chain of 10-25 dogs and at least one horse. Anytime someone walked down the dirt road in the midst of the gypsy village, all 235 dogs barked and spazzed out on their chains. This was with the exception of BB of course, who really wanted her people very close to her in this strange setting. I don’t think that any of us were comfortable and felt pretty alien: a family with small children and one griffon surrounded by herds of barking shorthairs, German Wirehaired Pointers and Vizsla dogs along with their owners who reminded me of the rodeo crowd; not sure if their faces are red from being sunburned or last night’s whiskey, or both. The only time that I saw any other women is when they came out of their campers to water their dogs or smoke a cigarette.

A string of German Shorthaired Pointers at the AKC Field Trial on Saturday

Maybe I’m only drawing these caricatures because I was nervous and scared that my 3 year old was going to wade into a pack of freaked out hunting machines. I don’t want to hurt any field trialer’s feelings and I’m sure we’ll be back for more, so I’ll get more comfortable and quit seeing things that make me want to point them out. But as the hunt testing environment is where my fellow griffoniers find themselves, I wanted to point out the differences before anyone else decided to strike out into the field trial world. Not that I have any serious ideas of other griffoniers going this route, as a few of them have raised questions about participation.

Our take on it is that Korthals wanted to breed a foot hunting dog that was faster than the bootlicking continental breeds of his time. We do not believe that hunt testing does enough to test the athleticism and endurance of the animal, as it is a brief exercise that is only looking for the dog to satisfy the training requirements of the test (search, pointing, retrieving, steadiness, honoring etc.). Even in NSTRA and BHU trials, the field is too small for it to be a valid test of athleticism. We intend to continue to participate in walking stakes at AKC field trials and other trialers at the event encouraged Charles to look into American Field’s Region 19 events.

In my brief readings on American Field Region 19, these are events that last longer than an hour and are on open terrain and wild birds, which is a lot like what we are doing for hunting anyway, where we walk for at least an hour before stopping for water and usually two hours before we really stand or sit around for any lengthy period of time. I would suspect that BB would be the first griffon to ever participate in American Field, should we decide to check it out.

BB placed 4th out of 5 in the Amateur Walking Derby stakes last Saturday, beating out a Vizsla her same age, working the terrain more thoroughly and having the one bird find of the run. Although we are flying in the face of current convention with the breed, we worry more about the prevelance of designer house pets and conformation show-only dogs than about our involvement in walking stakes at field trials. I really just wish we could channel the spirit of Korthals to ask him himself, but in the meantime we’ll just keep doing our research to support our methods and having fun with our dogs.

BB’s Fourth Place Ribbon.

Pupdates

TracHer is busy as usual in North Dakota, she’s 7 months old now and been out on a few sharptail grouse and Hungarian Partridge hunts. She’s even retrieved a few of them! Most recently, she brought a live rabbit into the house through the doggie door while company was over, luckily they were fellow hunters!

TracHer on left (7 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon) with Susan and her old buddy Zephyr with Tom and their limit of sharptail grouse!

TracHer and her bunny (7 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon)

TracHer retrieving a sharptail grouse (7 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon)

Mike out in Colorado has also been working with TracHer’s “twin” sister Frankie on some pheasants. He’s been working on steadiness on the point and he says she’s doing a great job! Both TracHer and Frankie are from our 2012 “C” litter with Sam and Mae.

Mowgli is 18 months old and is from our 2011 “B” litter out of Sue and Sam. Quite the looker! I saw his brother Duke’s owner at the movie theater when I was taking the kids to see Finding Nemo 3-D, so hopefully I’ll get to see him soon.

Mowgli (18 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon) and his neighbor friend the Dachshund chilling on the deck

Coming Soon to Versatile Hunter

Well in less than a week, we’ll be headed back out to the Sandhills for some more hunting. There are no words for how terrible Eastern Nebraska has been this year thus far. The swamps are too dry for early teal and snipe, then the prairie chicken grounds have all been mowed for hay. Damn drought. We are going to have to start commuting to not only the Sandhills, but the Rainwater Basin of Central Nebraska, the pheasant fields of South Dakota and Southwestern Nebraska as well as the quail fields of Kansas. I hope that this is a temporary blip in the hunting situation in this part of the state because I don’t see us moving anytime soon. But we are in fear of this being the beginning of a total collapse in hunting in Southeastern Nebraska.

Shirts!!

Oh and one last thing, be sure to check out the new t-shirt designs on our Shop!! You can either click the button at the top of the page or go directly to http://www.wirehairedpointinggriffongear.com Buy a shirt to show your griffon pride, 100% made in the USA, from the shirt itself, the artists designs to the embroidery and screenprinting!!

BB’s AKC Field Trial: Amateur Walking Derby Stakes

August 29, 2012

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update AKC Field Trials, Amateur Walking Derby Stakes, Branched Oak Field Trial Grounds, German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Nebraska, Korthals Griffon, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

On Saturday, August 25th, Charles handled our 17 month old female pup, Bourg-Royal’s CB Bluestem JH NA 1, more commonly known as “BB” to a 3rd place finish in the Amateur Walking Derby stakes of the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Nebraska’s AKC Field Trial at the Branched Oak Trial Grounds near Raymond, Nebraska. We were in total shock. Charles stayed for the placement announcement, but somehow didn’t hear (a bad case of shotgunner ear) that BB won third. I was at the house and got a phone call from the trial grounds letting me know about it. We had been texting all day while he was waiting for his run and his phone was dead on the drive home, so he didn’t find out until an hour and a half later when he got to town.

The amateur walking stakes setup is nearly identical to a hunt test. The dog works planted quail for 30 minutes braced with another dog. No live fire though, the handler shoots a starter pistol on the flush. Places are awarded instead of pass/fail. I’m still learning the specifics about how it is judged, but in general it is based on covering ground/desire to search and bird finds/points. I think BB had a lot of individual finds/points and also backed her bracemate on another point.

As all of the fellow competitors were either Vizslas or German Shorthaired Pointers, we were quite excited to show them the potential of a good griffon who can run. The griffon will never range as wide as the big running dogs and that isn’t the point (ha, ha). BB was able to outscore her competitors with bird finds and tractability. BB’s bracemate ran like a bat out of hell and the owner spent most of his time trying to chase it down. It blew past a number of birds that BB was able to locate because of her attentive nose and appropriate pacing. There were only 7 dogs in the stakes, so the placement did not count for FC title points, but it was still the highlight of our weekend. I’ve only been able to find one other griffon within the last 10 years who has placed in an AKC field trial (in online research) and I haven’t had a chance to talk to the AKC about the rarity of the event.

I wasn’t there to take live photos and we have no rosette to pose with yet (it’s in the mail), so I’ll have to just post a past photo of BB. This is from her perfect score of 112 NAVHDA Natural Ability test in April.

Bourg-Royal’s CB Bluestem JH NA 1, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

So, for my birthday and Christmas this year I got myself the GoPro Hero2 camera to wear hunting. I should have enough battery and memory card power to just let it run all day (as long as I switch out the battery every 2 hours and the 32 GB memory card every 4), so it should be fun to watch me cuss, lose my breath, fall in coyote holes, miss easy shots and get lucky every once in awhile. It does get a little heavy on your head, so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to convince Charles to try it, but I’m going to work on him. I took the camera out to the pond with us on Sunday, but I was pressing all of the wrong buttons and got nothing, but the videos of the week are two unedited GoPro videos of Caleb and I walking the dogs (first Sam and Sue, then Mae and BB) in the back yard. I should have edited them, but just really don’t have the time this week, sorry. Part I with Sam and Sue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbp7jhB2KCk Part II with Mae and BB: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znd2BiO–14

Susan and Tom in North Dakota are always sending me great pictures of TracHer from our “C” litter earlier this year. She’s coming up on 6 months of age and is working good on pointing and retrieving!

TracHer on point, 6 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

TracHer looking pretty in the sunflowers, 6 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

TracHer after she retrieved the goose Dokken, 6 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

I also received an update from Rick who just lives on the other side of town with 3 month old Dottie from our “D” litter (the family liked her litter name so much that they just decided to keep it). She is the star of the neighborhood and is on track with her growth, as well as work in the yard and field.

Dottie pointing the pheasant wing, 3 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

It’s time to move on to filling out more AKC event premiums and packing for the big weekend grouse/prairie chicken and dove hunting trip. It is supposed to be extremely hot, so we only see ourselves in the field for a few hours every morning. I hope we’re able to capture some cool moments on film to share with you and we’re always good for some long-winded tales. Wish us luck!

A little too much adventure…

August 15, 2012

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update Dog Training, Hunting Dogs, Korthals Griffon, Lost Hunting Dog, Missouri River, Swimming, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

It was our second Sunday in a row for an all-pack walk, so we thought we would mix things up a little and try a different spot than normal. This area is along the Missouri River, south of Plattsmouth, Nebraska. Even though the road we were walking on is a good 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile from the Missouri (when it is cooperating with channelization) the area was completely submerged in about a foot or more of water all last summer. So, even though we are in a drought this year and the vegetation is shorter than normal in most other places, due to the remnant moisture in the soil, the cover was 4-8 feet tall.

All was going well until a mile or so into the hike, when the 3 year old child decided he needed a break. The road had ended anyhow and Charles and the dogs would have to wade through zero-visibility tall weeds for a half-mile or so to get to the river. Here is a video of short clips of our hike up until the point of us stopping for a break, including some random shots of sunflowers at the end: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s0jYVoPoeU

About a half hour or so later, Charles turned back up, sounding rather disgusted. “Is BB with you?” he queried. She wasn’t. He hadn’t seen her since before he reached the river. Given the fact that she ranges farther than the other three dogs and that it was pretty warm (probably 85, not heatwave hot), he thought that she had jumped in the river and gotten sucked downstream in the strong current. My gut told me otherwise. I’ve seen BB go for a long time without drinking and she is way more into running than swimming. She’ll get out in the water if there is something to retrieve or if there are people or other dogs out, but I just couldn’t see her navigating the steep bank of the Missouri into the swiftly moving river.

Standing in the tall vegetation, we called and called and whistled for BB. I kept the other three dogs and the kids at our spot in the shade, calling and whistling from where we were while Charles headed back down to the river calling for her. 20-30 minutes of calling and searching. The vegetation was working against us and absorbing our noise. We ran out of water and since we’d been in the field for over 2 hours and it was another mile hike back to the truck (which takes about 30 minutes with the kids), it was time to move. We were hoping that maybe BB was back at the truck, but otherwise we’d replenish our water supplies and continue our search. It was only 3 PM and we had another 6 hours until dark.

Caleb fell behind and wanted to take a break, playing in the dirt on the road next to a soybean field. As the soybeans are only shin high and it was about a 20 acre field, I thought that this was probably my one chance to have my voice project and echo off of the nearby valley hills to the west. I spent a good 5 to 10 minutes calling her name to the sky and whistling. Looking back at Caleb playing in the dirt, I swore I saw a little reddish brown fur pop around the bend of the soybean field. I ran over and thank God it was BB! At first she was happy to see me, but then she got really “low dog” with her tail between her legs. She knew she had been bad, meaning that most likely she got onto and chased a deer.

Every one of our dogs has had the experience as an older pup/younger dog of being overpowered by prey drive and the desire to run, chasing a deer, getting lost for a few hours, but then pulling their wits together and finding the pack. It scares everyone, but is an important learning experience for the dog to keep checking back with the people. This is an essential skill to keep Wirehaired Pointing Griffons as foot-hunting dogs and not just another out-of-control field trialing breed.

It felt good to be heading home together with all four Wirehaired Pointing Griffons we arrived with!

On the ride home, I found out that not only did BB have a misadventure, but when Charles came up on the Missouri, Sam piled in and swam about a third of the way out into the main channel, then realizing he needed to get back, tried to swim against the current to make his way back to shore, but was no match to the Mighty Mo. Sam was sucked around a bend where Charles couldn’t see him. The frightened owner ran the bank around the bend, calling for the dog. The echo off of the other bank was confusing the dog, thinking that his boss was on the opposite bank. Luckily Charles had Conrad’s blaze orange shirt in his hand, so he began waving Sam into the approaching wing dam. Sam successfully made it to the calm upstream from the wing dam and climbed the rocks out of the churning channel.

That particular area is a bit too wild for all of us. Maybe Charles with one dog can handle its peril, but the pack will stick to our usual spots.

In other news, I did receive a cute picture of Kyle and Jenna in Illinois, along with their puppy, Gomer, formerly known as “Darryl”. They will be getting married soon and their pup will be their first baby (as was our first pup together):

Jenna and Kyle in Illinois with their 10 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Gomer, from our recent “D” litter

Susan and Tom in North Dakota sent over another great photo of TracHer on one of her first wild bird points, on sharptail grouse at 5 months old:

TracHer in North Dakota from our “C” litter on point, 5 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Sixteen more days until opening day of hunting season for us! I plan on getting some videos made showing my grooming techniques this weekend to post for next week’s check-in, then it will be time to shift gears into the next phase of my writing year. Thanks for coming along!

Pupdate: Homegoing!

August 6, 2012

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update Dog Training, Puppies, Quail, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

The last of the puppies went home on Saturday, August 4th. There was a mad rush on Sunday, July 28th, three puppies went home in two hours! Hence amidst that chaos, I forgot to take pictures of two out of three families. Darryl went home to Illinois with Kyle and Jenna, who will be married in September. Then David went home with Brian, Mindy and their two boys to south central Nebraska. If you guys can send me pictures, I would greatly appreciate it!!

Dottie stays in the Omaha metro with Rick’s family

Doris will make her home in northwestern Iowa with Shane and family

Don went to northwestern Missouri with Dustin’s family

Daisy will live with Rob’s family in Illinois

Aaron’s family drove all the way from Ohio to collect Derry

The day before the puppies started going home, I worked with them individually on exposing them to a live quail: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URwusELauGw

Yesterday was spent devoting our attention to the adult dogs. Charles has been working quite a bit with training BB and Sam for the AKC Senior Hunter test, but it had been a long while since all four dogs were out on a run. So we loaded the kids and dogs up yesterday and marched them around. Then we came back for a dog spa day, everyone was groomed and bathed. Tonight Cordelia and I will take BB and Mae to conformation handling (dog show) practice. It will be Mae’s first time practicing, so it should be interesting to see how it goes.

Of course, we are busy planning our hunting season, which begins in 25 days!

Good luck to all of the new owners with their puppies and do not hesitate to ask any questions if you have any! I will be focused on writing about the basics of griffon care for the next couple of weeks and need to get Charles motivated to start posting on Versatile Hunter.

Here’s some cute pictures of TracHer in North Dakota, a puppy from our “C” litter earlier in the year. Susan and Tom are doing such a great job with her!

TracHer with flowers, female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon at 4 months

TracHer on the training table, female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon at 5 months

Pupdate: Seven Weeks!

July 26, 2012

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update Korthals Griffon, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons 2 Comments

Today the puppies were given their final health examinations prior to homegoing and they all received perfect scores from Dr. Kliewer! We are getting prepared for departures, our first one being this Sunday. I couldn’t be more pleased with how they have all turned out and quite surprised that we were totally victorious in our battle against this heatwave. It feels like over the last month we’ve hit highs between 97-107F every day, with the exception of a handful of days. I’ve been spending hours a day back in the woods with the puppies, letting them dig themselves wallowing holes in the deep shade midday and soaking them down in cold water afterwards, in addition to their typical morning and evening run/playtime. Here is a video of the kids and pups in the woods on a morning runabout: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nb3jyStko4

Last Friday we ended up down at a pond that we have access to south of town. At least two, maybe 3 puppies swam on their own. You don’t see it in the video, but the rest I carried out a little ways and set them down in the water and let them swim back to shore. Everyone made it back in on their own steam, so we’re good there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjDGsJ80rrg

This week we’ve been starting individual crate conditioning and socialization. It has been too hot to drive them around in the van and run errands with them, so we had to take that part out of the routine (they got plenty of driving in the crate during pair conditioning, coming and going with vet needs and going down to the pond). So the individual routine has been to pick a pup each day to bring in the house individually, crate the pup for 1.5-2 hours, take it out in the front yard on a leash for 5-10 minutes to potty, then bring it back into the house for the kids to play with for another couple of hours.

Caleb messes with the pup while Cordelia squeaks a toy, with friend Allena waiting her turn to play

Really all there is left to do with the pups at this point is finish up individual crate conditioning and socialization, then do their brief introduction to a live bird. Aside from that I need to get my office work on and get all of the invoices, guarantees, health documents and transfer forms completed and bundled up.

“Doris”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Dottie”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Derry”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Daisy”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Don”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

“Darryl”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

“David”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

The kids and I have big plans for the last couple of weeks of summer post-puppy and pre-beginning of school. I have a few griffon “how-to” items up my sleeve for this blog before we get ready to fire up the hunting blog for the season. Charles and I collaborate on the hunting blog, it has a bit of a different voice and structure than this, the kennel blog. Check out some of our posts from last year if you like by clicking the “Hunting Blog” button on the top navigation bar of this site.

D Litter: Six Weeks!

July 19, 2012

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update Korthals Griffon, Puppies, Puppy Guarantee, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

Wow, the pups are really starting to keep me busy! They love attention and running around the woods. In this week’s first video, my favorite part is right at 1:28 when Caleb is running up the hill, the last puppy in the line stops and points his siblings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f7KfMe1ic0

Between Sue and the pups, they are eating two big coffee cans full of food a day. I’ll find out their exact weights when we go to the veterinarian for first shots a week from today, but they are big and stout.

Charles used some live quail for training on Saturday, so Sunday the puppies had some little bird carcasses to investigate and carry around: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDhvHOCd-LY

“Doris” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Dottie” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Derry” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Daisy” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Don” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

“Darryl” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

“David” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

Here is a shopping list for traveling by car with a puppy:

1) Crate (he/she will probably get held a lot on the way home, but it is good practice)

2) Small food/water dishes

3) Bottled water and a small supply of dry dog food

4) Collar and leash. Today I just upgraded them to the Medium (5/8 inch wide, 10-16 inch length), but I keep ahold of these collars for future litters.

5) Paper towels and baby wipes, in case of any messes.

6) Plastic bags for waste clean-up if you stop. I like to recycle my newspaper bags for this.

I know there are some super excited kids and adults out there ready to give these puppies some fabulous homes! These puppies are getting to be almost more than I can handle on my own, so I know that means that they are ready for their own people.

The puppies will be missed, but looking at my 2012, I’ve been working on something to do with breeding constantly since January, whether it was getting them mated, watching over a pregnant female or whelping and raising puppies. It is so fun and rewarding, but I’ll be ready for my few weeks off between this litter going home and the opening day of hunting season on Sunday, September 1st.

For those of you joining us in the heatwave, stay cool until next time! If you are getting drenched with rain over in Europe, stay dry!

Pupdate: Five weeks!

July 13, 2012

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update Korthals Griffon, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons 4 Comments

Kallie holding a 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppy Sunday

Last weekend brought a few kennel visits from some families considering puppies from future litters. The “D” litter pups had a good time with their visitors!

Rick and his daughter pose with a 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppy last Friday

Most notable is that the puppies have starting exploring the area outside of the kennel, which is the subject of this week’s YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGncSlePLvI (I realized as I was posting this video that I accidentally left last week’s video where the pups are messing with the pigeon carcasses locked as private, so if you would like to go back and watch it, it is now available). At this point I’m just opening the door and letting them check out the area just surrounding, but later this week I will take them to the back of the property and have them follow me back to the kennel, so that they can start learning the layout of the area. They also finished their 20 lb. bag of dry puppy kibble, so now they are on “big dog” food with everyone else (Diamond Performance).

This week will also be the beginning of crate conditioning and individual work with the wing. They have grown and changed so much in the past week, here are their updated photos:

“Doris” 5 week old female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

“Dottie” 5 week old female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

“Derry” 5 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppy

“Daisy” 5 week old female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

“Don” 5 week old male Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

“Darryl” 5 week old male Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

“David” 5 week old male Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

I also received a few photo updates from some of the “C” litter puppies who are now 4 months old:

TracHer in North Dakota playing with toys, 4 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

TracHer in North Dakota attacking the camera, 4 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Belle in Oklahoma checking out a trapped armadillo, 4 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Belle in Oklahoma playing lap dog on her owner, Cliff. 4 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

So now that the temperatures in the triple digits are gone, things are pretty well back to normal around here. Not having to soak down the kennel every couple of hours and enjoying our time outside. Three more weeks until the puppies go to their very excited new owners!!

I’d like for you all to check out my latest project called Griffon Gear. I’ll be adding more to it, like shirts, books, cards, stationary and training supplies, but right now I have some nice home decor items available from some talented American artists across the country (including TracHer’s mom, Susan, who is a potter in North Dakota!). I’ll let you know as I get more “gear” available, but as of right now I’m just happy to have the site built and fully functional as well as having some great partners in the art world on this! http://www.wirehairedpointinggriffongear.com For future reference, the link is also available to access through the “Store” button on the top navigation bar of this site.

Pupdate: Four weeks old!

July 5, 2012

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update Dog Training with Pigeons, Korthals Griffon, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons 1 Comment

The puppies are getting quite lively at 4 weeks old, it’s hard to believe that we are half way through our journey before sending them off to their forever families. The puppy formula/soft canned dog food mush was transitioned to straight soft canned puppy food and they’ve since moved on to dry puppy kibble mixed in with their soft canned puppy food. They are now wearing collars and are almost ready to start playing in the woods.

“Doris” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Dottie” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Derry” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Daisy” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Don” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

“Darryl” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male in the dog house

“David” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

When they are awake and not eating, they spend most of their time barking at and chewing on each other. They aren’t quite steady enough on their feet yet to run after each other too much, but they are able to manage the steps in and out of the dog house.

Charles took Sam and BB out for some training with live pigeons over the weekend and brought the carcasses back so that I could show them to the puppies, as you can see in this week’s video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEexjh0p7Hc

Puppies and pigeons

4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppies sniff a dead pigeon

We’ve been battling 100 degree heat over the last week and it doesn’t appear we’ll get a break until Saturday. I make sure I’m getting out to the kennel every couple of hours to soak the puppies down and cool the stone floor with a few gallons of cold water. Even though they are in the shade, there’s no way to get around the fact that it is hot!

The puppies’ first outside visitors were my grandparents from California, who had flown into Omaha to attend my grandmother’s 70th high school reunion in Valentine, Nebraska.

Hope (age 86) and Ken (age 91) enjoying 3.5 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppies

The kennel beckons for dog and puppy cool down time, so I’ll catch up with you all next week! The dog days of summer!!

Three week old puppies keeping cool and safe!

June 29, 2012

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update Dog Fireworks Safety, Dog Pool, Korthals Griffon, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Leave a comment

The 2.5 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppies get their first taste of mush

Once the puppies eyes open, everything changes! We spent the end of last week and the first part of this week rotating the pups between the whelping box and the inside pen as the temperatures dictated, but by Monday it was obvious that the puppies’ development would be better served by the outdoor activity and larger area of the puppy kennel (10 ft x 10 ft). I also got them started on one meal of mush (puppy formula + canned puppy food) a day and they should be ready to go to just straight canned puppy food soon. I never take the female away from the puppies for weaning, just feed them enough so that they can get by when she starts to try to avoid them.

Here is this week’s YouTube video, showing how the puppies are really starting to move around and interact with each other now that their eyes are open: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E578pSAuE7s

Before I forget, new owners: the puppies will be 8 weeks old on August 2nd, which is when I (and the USDA) consider them ready to go home. I am planning on flying pups on Friday, August 3rd. Anyone driving in is welcome between August 1st and August 5th. I would really like to have them all in their new homes by Sunday, August 5th.

Social time with the Upchurch kids

Now that they are three weeks old and their eyes are open, it is time for individual pictures and the giving of nicknames.

Face shot of “Doris”, 3 week old female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Back shot of “Doris”, 3 week old female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Face shot of “Dottie”, 3 week old female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Back shot of “Dottie”, 3 week old female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Face shot of “Derry”, 3 week old female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Back shot of “Derry”, 3 week old female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Face shot of “Daisy”, 3 week old female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Back shot of “Daisy”, 3 week old female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Face shot of “Don”, 3 week old male Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Back shot of “Don”, 3 week old male Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Face shot of “Darryl”, 3 week old male Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Back shot of “Darryl”, 3 week old male Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Face shot of “David”, 3 week old male Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Back shot of “David”, 3 week old male Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Lunch time in the kennel for the 3 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppies

Big dogs and kids spent a day at the pond on Saturday

With the recent heatwave, we’ve been spending a lot of time trying to keep cool both at home and away! We are lucky enough to have access to some private land that has a pond where we can all take in a swim. With the temperatures creeping towards 100 most days over the last week, having shaded dog runs is not enough, I’ve also been giving the big dogs and the pups a soak down a couple of times a day.

Sam takes a dip in the dog pool, which is actually a plastic sandbox for durability

An extra dog dish serves as the puppy pool:)

With the upcoming Independence Day holiday, please remember that dogs and puppies do not belong in the middle of the fireworks display, either keep them securely kenneled in the back yard (the 4 foot fence may not be enough for a full grown dog) or in the house while lighting fireworks. Also keep in mind while exercising your hunting dogs that they could mistake fireworks for gunfire and bolt in that direction, so make sure that any off-leash activity is done well away from where the neighbors are setting off fireworks. A safe and happy 4th of July to everyone out there!

Two Week Old Puppies plus The Soapbox

June 21, 2012

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update Gun Dog, Hunting Dogs, Korthals Griffon, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Leave a comment

Sue and the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon pups take respite from the heat in the basement living room

This week we played a bit of musical pens due to the heat. The wooden whelping box with cedar chips is out in the garage due to space and child (three year old boy) issues. The garage is well insulated, but not set up to be cooled yet (I can make it hotter, but not colder). It is the eventual goal to have the room climate controlled, but we’re not quite there yet. The beginning of this week brought a few days of 95+ degree weather and it just got to be what I thought was too hot for everyone. So I ran to PetCo and splurged on the 24″ tall Precision exercise pen. It has been on our wish list for awhile, but the weather forced us to make the purchase and it was perfect for the pups and Sue. Yesterday a front moved in and cooled things down, so I was able to open the garage door to air and move the pups back out there.

While they were in the house, the pups were on top of a plastic sheet covered by a blanket and wow, I’m glad I don’t use cloth as my normal bedding. Cedar chips really rule, they keep things smelling clean, are absorbant and give the pups something to nestle down into. I had to change the blanket twice a day to keep things half as clean as the cedar bedding. Charles reads lots of old bird dog literature and he says that is what the old timers swore by it for puppy bedding, just because of the natural disinfectant that the turpines in the cedar create.

Speaking of old timers, Delmar Smith, realizing that Charles and I are breeders, spoke to the old days of puppy rearing at Pheasant Fest. He said that it was expected to lose half of a litter to disease and the elements. Not to say that loss doesn’t occur anymore, but the advancements in sanitation in puppy rearing conditions, vaccinations in the kennel population and increased awareness of temperature control have greatly increased puppy production.

Before I keep rambling, I’ll share the picture of one of the pups with its eyes coming open. I didn’t want to annoy all of them to pull them out to take a picture.

Two week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon pup with its eyes open

Here’s the still shot of the litter:

Litter of seven, two week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon pups, Bluestem Kennels “D” Litter

Here’s this week’s exciting and action packed YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnf0OeM447o

Before I give you some updated photos on a few pups from previous litters, I have a couple of random things I want to soapbox on.

In my recent reading online, I see that there are a number of people who aren’t taking seriously the warning that most breeders provide about restricting exposure and contact prior to the puppy being through their shots and even being careful after that throughout the first year. Those first couple of months in the new home, the pup should really not be exposed to dogs outside of their packmates. Anywhere there is animal feces of any kind or even just eutrophic looking water should be off limits. Puppy classes, doggy daycare or socialization with non-packmates has to wait until the puppy shots are done at a minimum. These are serious risks to the health of the puppy. Breeders are even wary of having other dog owners on their property when there are puppies on the ground, for fear of fecal material on their shoes. I don’t even let outsiders near my puppies until after 4 weeks of age and even then, they are washing their hands and I’m checking their shoes that they are not contaminating my facility. It sounds paranoid, the the health of my puppies is my utmost concern.

That’s the end of my soapbox time. Now let’s look at some fun pictures!!

13 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppy from Sam and Mae’s litter, TracHer in North Dakota, had fun flower picking!

13 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppy Frankie, from Sam and Mae’s litter, kicking it on the patio in Colorado with owner, Mike

Two year old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon from Sue and Sam’s first litter, Whiskey, watches Andi and a chicken in Nevada

That officially brings me to the end of my allotted blogging time for the week folks. If you just can’t get enough of us here at Bluestem Kennels, please be sure to follow my mobile updates on our Facebook page by giving us a “Like” at Bluestem Kennels ~ Wirehaired Pointing Griffons https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bluestem-Kennels-Wirehaired-Pointing-Griffons/185207431498228

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