Puppy Update | Bluestem Kennels

Welcome “R” Litter

January 25, 2022

Charity Upchurch Hunting Tales, Puppy Update Bird Hunting, Gun Dog, Hunting Dogs, Korthals Griffon, Puppies, South Carolina Woodcock, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon 3 Comments

Complaining that I only ended up with three beautiful, healthy puppies and a perfectly healthy mama is like getting some really nice stuff for Christmas, but griping that it wasn’t exactly what I wanted. I have had friends go into the emergency vet for a c-section and come out with nothing, no mama and no puppies. I’ve had friends come out with puppies and no mama and vice versa (a living mama that is unable to breed again and no puppies). Dog breeding is not a vending machine and it is really whatever mother nature gives you. You cry and pout with the mama, but you have to keep going with positivity for the pups who are here and those who are yet to come. I can’t even count how many times I’ve said “I’m never doing this again” to myself. But I’ve matured as a breeder over the last 12 years and I do it for this:

Whiskey of our “A” Litter 2010 will be 12 in April

Old Whiskey of our “A” litter will be twelve in April. There have been so many great dogs that we’ve made. And we have to push past these times to get to the good ones.

“R” Litter Arrival

I woke up Sunday morning to two puppies nursing and one still born. It was all a very normal birth that lasted from the early morning Sunday until about mid-Sunday afternoon. Ruth never strained with any of the puppies, it was all 2-3 pushes and they came out. About an hour between each pup. There were more angel puppies than I would have liked, but I was at five alive on Sunday night.

One of those was a girl who was slow to come around after being born and I really worked on to get going. The other was a boy who seemed fine and lively at first but come Monday morning, I saw no signs of any peeing or pooping from him, which really concerned. me. I tried to get both the boy and the girl to take a bottle with limited success. The vet and I both agreed that we just needed time and Mother Nature to sort things out. I tried getting them to take a teat with help, but once again, with limited success. I don’t do tube feeding and I don’t to intravenous fluids to try to save a pup, it just isn’t worth it to me to try and save a pup that could have problems later in life from whatever issues they were having.

Ruth never showed signs of any illness or distress throughout her pregnancy or whelping, nor now. She is shaking off the sadness of the lost babies and focusing on those that are strong and thriving, same as I am.

Ruth and the puppies go in on Thursday morning to York Vet for examinations and tail docking and dew claw removal. Ruth will have a full exam with blood work done to make sure there is nothing identifiable/viral as the cause. It really could be anything from random congenital abnormalities, a reaction to flea/tick preventative or Ruth unknowingly ingesting poisoned mice. We may never know. But we’re going to do a full blood panel to rule out anything identifiable (brucellosis, canine herpes, a parvo exposure breaking through her vaccination, etc.).

I really appreciate the Griffon breeder community for their insights and talking through theories and next steps with me on this litter. It helps to hear other breeders similar/worse experiences and how to best react and move forward.

(One totally random thing that came up in all of this is that a FB dog friend asked about the bottom of the whelping box. This is a very well-heated interior room of the house. So here’s the layout of the bottom of the whelping box: mom and puppies on top, pine shavings, plywood under the whelping box, tarp that goes under the entire whelping box and kennel and is zip tied to the kennel wire, horse trailer pads that are like wrestling mat type material that is under the entire tarp and kennel, linoleum, cement floor. The puppies are not laying directly on a wood floor of a barn or house. I have tried blankets, towels, and carpet scrap as fabric alternatives but I have found that they are so dangerous, along with gross and unsanitary. The bitch will dig up any fabric I put under them and then I find the puppies and mom all wadded up in a scary way. So I ditched fabric years ago and found that this works best for us. Where there is bare wood showing is where Ruth has shoved the wood chips out of her way.)

Ruth looks healthy and is moving around well, this is her spontaneously running to me this morning, I didn’t call her to get her to run just for a photo. She is producing milk and tending to the puppies as she should be.

So there are two girls and a boy. At this time, all are spoken for. I have decided that I’ve had enough stress with the move, the holidays and having a one year-old pup Sally that I am going to hold off on keeping a puppy myself (so they will all go to owners on my reservation list). Obi and Ruth are young enough to breed again and we’ll be making sure (as much as we possibly can) that we control the environment for potential hazards such as: hold off of flea/tick medication during breeding and gestation (even though the packaging says it is safe) and making sure our immediate neighbors aren’t setting out bait poison for raccoons or poisoning mice without us knowing.

The reality is that we may never know what caused the angel puppies (but obviously I’ll let you know if I find something out). So we’ll just keep trying and praying and hoping for the best.

“Find us ready, Lord, not standing still/find us working and loving and doing your will/find us ready Lord, faithful in love/building the kingdom both here and above/building the kingdom with mercy and love.” – “Find Us Ready”, a newer Catholic hymn by Tom Booth

I will be back on Sunday with the One Week Old pupdate!

Sally’s first wild bird retrieve

Sally brought this woodcock to Charles on Friday

Charles had the day off on Friday and took Sally back out by herself for some South Carolina woodcock. They got into a few more and connected with this one. The first one a week or so ago, Sally found it and just stood there sniffing it, not sure what to do. This time, she picked it up and brought it to Charles. The retrieve in the field is usually the last basic hunting skill that they pick up. Birds are stinky and sharing is not a natural instinct. It takes lots of training and practice to get to this point where they bring the bird back to you. Sally is Ruth’s full sister from Chief and Fire’s litter last year (both Chief and Fire are retired from breeding now). This picture is another great reminder of what this is all about.

R Litter Confirmed by Ultrasound

December 30, 2021

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

The Bluestem Kennels “R” Litter was confirmed by ultrasound today! Please see the earlier breeding announcement blog post for additional photos of the parents and our “About Our Dogs” page for pedigrees and health clearances. Right now, we have 11 reservations with deposits. This is going to be a large litter so there is a possibility that if you put down a deposit and made a reservation now, that there could be a puppy available. We are also repeating this breeding in the fall, so if you get on the list and don’t get a spring pup, you could get a fall pup: bluestemkennels@gmail.com.

Why do back-to-back litters? Ruth is young, in her prime breeding years at age 5 and we are finally in a place where we can expand our breeding kennel. She is the great-great granddaughter of Am/Can CH Duchasseur Moustache, UT I, an AWPGA Hall of Famer from Quebec, Canada. The Quebecois bloodline was joined with our strong foundation blood from the upper Midwest US. A fantastic combination of health, hunt drive and family companion.

Obi is a new start for us, coming out of a small breeder in Wyoming. He has hips in the top 10% for the breed recorded by Penn-HIP. He is the most silly, gentle male we have ever owned as a family dog. He also has great biddability and is easy to train. We have high hopes to eventually take him to NAVHDA Utility Prize I in his life.

So this is the beginning of the next chapter.

I had to stay outside during the ultrasound due to COVID restrictions. York Vet in York, South Carolina

Ruth resting with her little sister Sally a couple of nights ago

As we read test scores and judges evaluations in NAVHDA’s Versatile Hunting Dog magazine, as well as talk to other owners and breeders, it is tough for us to decide where to go next with bringing in outside blood again. We are keeping a male from this litter, so our backs are a little against the wall to come up with a mate for him somewhere. Now that I’m within halfway decent driving distance of Quebec, my eyes wander up there (also because I love the food and hanging around Vieux Quebec “est tres bien”). But I need to do my research on any new paperwork and veterinary requirements. But that is not where we are right now!

We need to focus on getting ready for the puppies. They are taking over the guest bedroom from the guests. I will finally have a whelping box with a bed next to it, like I’ve always wanted. So now it is just time to watch and wait! I will post more pictures of Ruth as she gets bigger and some of Obi training and just playing in the yard (once this rain goes away).

Happy New Year from Bluestem Kennels! Going into our twelfth year of puppies in style!

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 Six Weeks Old

March 15, 2021

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

All of these puppies are spoken for, but feel free to email bluestemkennels@gmail.com if you are interested in our Spring 2022 litters. I am working with a considerable backlog of emails right now but I am receiving them and will be responding and placing you on our contact list for the future when we are ready to do interviews and take deposits for 2022. Due to the demands of home and family, it is pretty much impossible for me to manage raising a litter and communicating with those new owners, while trying to work with interest on future litters. Sorry.

These puppies are ready for action. We are going out in the yard around three times a day and if it is raining I have the garage picked up enough for them to run around. This is a big week for the puppies since they are going to be de-wormed for the first time, also introduced to the pigeon coop and a dead quail. It is always fun. Oh and I want to get them started on crate conditioning. It is not full-on crate training, but just the opportunity to spend time in a crate so that it isn’t a totally unfamiliar experience. They already prefer to potty outside, so hopefully having the new owners housebreak them once they are in their new homes won’t be awful, although Griffs are notoriously long to housebreak.

They are weaned off of canned food and only eating puppy kibble and drinking from the water dish. They do still get to see mom at night. They are all conditioned to the weather and are no longer receiving supplemental heat to their living quarters.

I will be in touch with all of the new owners this week and picks will be finalized by this weekend since they get their microchips a week from today. Also make sure to have your pickup plans finalized so that I can have you on my calendar.

Okay, time for photos! I took these this morning in the yard, they are pretty random and I’m just going to post them in the order that I took them.

Quest with rop, Queen and Quartz in the background

WordPress (what I design this blog with) just did an update and changed some things on me, so I just had one of those times when you do something, then click the wrong button and all of your work disappears so that you have to do it all over again. So putting those photos in took way longer than I had planned!

Here’s this week’s video which was taken yesterday evening between rainstorms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SszbnY3D_W4&ab_channel=CharityUpchurch

Time to walk some dogs! Hopefully everyone out in Colorado and Wyoming is safe and digging out from the big storm. We just have had lots of rain these last couple of days, it should stay cool throughout the week and be nice over the weekend. It is actually easier to keep pups healthy when it is cool outside since you aren’t fighting all sorts of weird dirt fungi, bacteria and bugs. So the cool weather can just stay until these pups go home in a couple of weeks!

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.

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!

Q Litter Three Weeks Old

February 22, 2021

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

All of these pups are spoken for, but feel free to email bluestemkennels@gmail.com if interested in future litters (Spring 2022).

After hitting us with seven inches of snow yesterday, Mother Nature is going to give us a break with snow-melting temperatures for the foreseeable future! The puppies are really upping their output, so it was time to get them into the garage with woodchips. I was struggling with indoor bedding, as Fire would dig at any blankets that I would put underneath the whelping box and I was afraid that a pup would get wrapped into it and get hurt or die. So we settled on a layer of cardboard on the bottom with brown builder’s paper on top. Okay absorbancy and needed frequent changing. But it was totally safe so that was the most important thing to me. Wood chips just make a huge mess in the house, but are the best thing if they are in a space that they can mess up. They are old enough to regulate their body temperature now and I’ll have a warming lamp and heater on them for a couple of more weeks.

Here is this week’s video, taken today: Q Litter Three Weeks

And the moment that we’ve all been waiting for, individual pictures and names! I do not call the puppies these names, they are just silly names that I give them to identify their pictures. They generally get called “puppy” or “puppies”.

Also because of the perspective, angle, lighting, etc. it is tough to really tell too much about them at this point. We’ll have a better idea after 5 weeks.

Males

Quartz

Quartz face, three weeks

Quartz back, three weeks

Quentin

Quentin face, three weeks

Quentin back, three weeks

Quince

Quince face, three weeks

Quince back, three weeks

Quetzal

Quetzal face, three weeks

Quetzal back, three weeks

Qbert

Qbert face, three weeks

Qbert back, three weeks

Females

Queen

Queen face, three weeks

Queen back, three weeks

Quest

Quest face, three weeks

Quest back, three weeks

Qiana

Qiana face, three weeks

Qiana back, three weeks

Quarry

Quarry face, three weeks

Quarry back, three weeks

Okay, that is all nine puppies. Between moving their living quarters, giving them their first mush meal and getting these photos taken I worked up a sweat today with dogs. Here was what I fed the puppies, some Science Diet puppy food mixed with dog milk replacer.

We’ll do this everyday until they get the hang of it. Then we’ll get rid of the milk in a week or so, then after awhile we’ll add kibble, then the soft food goes away once they can handle the kibble.

Everyone enjoy the warm up and hope that you were all spared any power outage related horrors (we were all fine). Until next week.

Q Litter Two Weeks Old

February 15, 2021

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

Fire and the Q Litter at Two Weeks Old

With all of the snow clearing and bitter cold I am running behind on responding to new interest emails. At this point I don’t know when I’ll be caught up, since we have another cold day off from school tomorrow and I have to keep up with the boys as well as the puppies. All of the puppies have homes at this time, so if you do email it should be for interest in future litters. Our email is bluestemkennels@gmail.com.

Today it is so bitter cold that we are subject to rolling blackouts, so I’m going to keep this short. The puppies are growing. They are starting to push themselves up on their legs and their eyes are opening. Next week we will definitely be ready for individual pictures and names. We’ve passed the critical two week mark and I can see that these guys and gals are all going to make it to long, happy lives. It is also time to start them on mush soon to take some of the feeding pressure off of mom.

Here is the video that I took earlier today: Q Litter at Two Weeks Video

And of course a photo montage:

I am going to do my part to conserve energy (the power company even called us with a message asking us to do so) and sign off for now. The weather is supposed to break on Saturday and we will be looking forward to more normal temperatures. It will be -25 without wind chill tomorrow morning. May the Lord keep us safe and warm in these trying times.

Q Litter One Week Old

February 8, 2021

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

Fire and the “Q” Litter at One Week Old

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.

Bluestem Kennels

Welcome “R” Litter

R Litter Confirmed by Ultrasound

Q Litter Homegoings!

Q Litter Seven Weeks

Q Litter at Six Weeks Old

Q Litter at Five Weeks

Q Litter at 4 Weeks

Q Litter Three Weeks Old

Q Litter Two Weeks Old

Q Litter One Week Old

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