Bluestem Kennels

We are five weeks from Ben and Velma’s first breeding date and she is visibly pregnant.  So that puts us between May 11-17 for a whelp date.  Just a quick update today.

Charles and I have been called in to evaluate some rescue dogs from time to time.  If a dog has been exposed to overly harsh hunting training, it will do what is called “blinking the bird”.  It knows that a bird is in the field and will physically acknowledge it only briefly, but then move away from it in fear.  I have been doing that with this blog.  I know it is here and that I need to engage, but have been turning away from it.

I’ve been devoting most of my free writing time to serving as co-editor of the Griffonnier, the magazine of the AWPGA.  The American Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Association is the AKC Breed Parent Club and is dedicated to the preservation of the breed through promoting good breeding and training practices.  You can join at: https://awpga.com/membership.  My friend and co-editor, Amy Caswell-O’Clair of Soonipi Point Griffons in Newport, New Hampshire, have been working hard at putting out a great quarterly magazine.  Our graphic designer has encouraged us to the enter the Dog Writers Association of America Breed Club Magazine contest for 2016, so we are really pouring ourselves into putting out a great product because we want to win.  So that is part of the reason why I’ve been absent.

Charles and I have also been very busy with home improvements.  Earlier this year, we finally took out the living room carpet of a million puppy pees and had the oak flooring underneath refinished.  No more puppy pee carpet!  If you love dogs, solid flooring is the only way.  Our latest project has been putting up a sheep and goat fence on our back 3/4 acre for the dogs.  So now we are a true urban dog farm, free range dogs and all.  It sure cuts down on having to take them out for walks, they can just run around the yard themselves.  And where they used to be able to run three neighborhoods over when they wanted to on walks, there is no more of that.  Here’s some views of the new fence from the kitchen window:

But I guess I still need to catch you up on the end of hunting season and the beginning of puppy season.

January 2016 Hunting

We managed to get out in the Sandhills over Christmas break, but with no success.  We walked 5 miles over 4 hours and didn’t see a single grouse.  We then flushed up a flock of 15 with our truck as we were driving out and they sailed far away.  But that is why it is called hunting and not just killing.

Charles and some friends made it back down to Matt’s for some more quail action and he had another hunt with Matt where it was too dark for them to take photos of the roosters and quail, but we did get some shots from our January hunts.  Early in the month, we did a hunt near the Missouri River.  We had been hunting for awhile when Charles got his rooster on the day.  He was walking north towards me along the bank of the river and I was walking towards him southbound when a rooster got up.  It flew over the river and he nailed it good.  I was so scared for the dogs and the big icy river, but luckily the rooster had landed on the edge of the ice and wasn’t floating away.  Fire was in the lead on the retrieve with stupid pup Chief and retrieve-hog BB tailing her.  Luckily, Charles was able to call the two misbehavers off of the bank before anyone had to fall through the ice.  The rooster was in the bag.

The last day of the season was January 31st and we took advantage of it.  Charles had his “best last day ever” taking two quail and two roosters.

Puppy Season 2016

If there is one thing that I’ve learned from this year, is that I will never attempt an off-site litter again.  I hate not being in control.  When Velma didn’t cycle at the same time as she did last year, it was very stressful.  Did she cycle early and we missed it?  Just as I had almost given up hope, Aaron finally noticed signs of proestrus around March 9th.  I had him bring Velma (that we co-own with Aaron) and the stud, Ben, (who is from our “B” Litter between Sam and Sue) over to our place on Friday the 11th.  Breeding started on the evening of Sunday, March 13th and concluded on Wednesday, March 16th.  So assuming that all goes as planned, the puppies will be born mid-May and go home mid-July  (All of the puppies are spoken for at this time).  Aaron will do the whelping and have the pups until my family returns home from 4th of July travels.  I’ll have the pups the last two weeks and for the new owners to pick up here.  I didn’t get any great pictures of Ben and Velma while they were here, so these will have to do:

It is a huge relief to have this breeding done.  As far as looking ahead to 2017, I am pretty doubtful that I will do a litter.  I do not have a homegrown stud dog up and ready (Ben has fulfilled his contract and will be neutered), with Chief only a year-old right now and no hunt tests.  He will be doing his NAVHDA Natural Ability either in May with the Heartland Chapter in Brainard, Nebraska, or in June with the Midwest Tri-State Chapter in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

I would like to wait until Chief has a Utility Test under his belt before breeding him.  My female from Quebec, BB, has her NA and UT tests, but I would have to use an outside stud in order to have a litter.  I just don’t feel the need to put in the time and expense for all of the hormone testing and stud service to time and have an outside stud litter, when I am not in a situation to keep a pup out of it myself.  I don’t want to 100% say, no, I won’t do a litter in 2017, but I’m about 90% sure.  I have a 90 year-old grandmother and 95 year-old grandfather that I have to get out to California to visit right when school lets out in 2017 and I can’t let anything get in the way of that.

But back to talking about NAVHDA testing, we are looking to have Fire ready to Utility Test this Fall.  That means that every weekend from here on out, we are going to have to be working with her to get ready.  It is an exciting time, but also a lot of hard work.  Last weekend, we started our big walks with all of the dogs since it was dry enough.

Here’s just a random shot of Fire and Chief on the kitchen floor being buds:

Pupdates

Lots of birthdays this time of year, I can’t keep track of all of the dates!  It is hard to believe that our “A” litter is six years old now!  Happy birthdays to everyone.

Our retired female, Mae, is now a grandmother with the birth of Midge’s (from our 2013 “F” litter) pups at Vigilante Griffons in Helena, Montana.

I love this picture of her older brother Chester (from our “C” litter Sam/Mae in 2012) and his owner Sal in New York by Field Dog Imagery:

And here’s Chester’s sister and littermate, TracHer in North Dakota:

Chester and TracHer’s little sister, Josie, from Mae’s last litter (our “H” litter) in 2014 celebrated her 2nd birthday up in South Dakota with a swim:

Rob here in Omaha sent an update on Maggie, from our “E” litter in 2013 (Sam/Sue):

It has been too long since I have reported on Maggie (Edna from Feb. 2013). As I have said before she is constantly impressing me and never disappoints. I have never hunt tested her but we do a lot of wild bird hunting around Winner and Presho, SD. Our family friend who owns the land that we hunt also wants us to start guiding some of his paying customers that he has a few weekends a year. This is not the lodge type setup as it is all wild birds, but the bird population is great and we love it there. The best part is he has no concerns with Maggie being used with paying customers as she is a fantastic hunter and very well behaved, and not even 3 years old yet!!

At home she is great with our 7 year old daughter, whom you met when we picked her up, and our 22 month old son who came after we added Maggie to our family. Her only downside is if I get up from my recliner she likes to jump in it and try to steal it from me, and she will growl her disapproval when lying on the foot of our bed and I want to move my feet making her move! We have to keep an eye on our son because he likes to pull on her beard while trying to kiss her, but she is so patient that we never worry as she will just smother him with kisses until he backs off.

Maggie’s sister/littermate Zoey in Oklahoma had some fun blood tracking some hogs recently:

Maggie and Zoey’s older sister, Dottie, from our “D” litter in 2012 (Sue/Sam) is still around town here in Omaha and getting out and chasing birds.  Her owner Rick said,

It’s been a while since we’ve sent you an update on Dottie.  She’s been absolutely great!  The absolute best mix of a solid, reliable hunting dog and a family companion.  I’ve attached some pics from our youth outing last weekend and our open day haul today.  We’re so happy you introduced her into our family.

My dog Fire’s sister, Willow, just celebrated her second birthday with her owner Kaylee making a cute card.  The picture on the left was taken by me at my house when she picked up her puppy and the one on the right is the same pose now.  Love it!  Fire and Willow are from Sam and BB’s “G” litter.  Kaylee and Willow live in Missouri.

Willow’s little sister, another Maggie, from our 2015 “J” Litter (Sam/BB) just turned one.  This Maggie lives in Iowa.

Last but not least, Chief’s brother Cooper also celebrated his first birthday with his owner making a cute card.  Chief and Cooper are from our 2015 “I” litter between Ben and Velma.  Cooper lives in North Dakota.

Retirement Update

Sam is enjoying life on the sheep farm near Bowling Green, Kentucky.

I haven’t had any recent pictures from my brother of Mae, but he recently texted me that she is the “funniest dog ever”.  She hangs out with my brother and his crazy Siberian Husky in Valentine, Nebraska.

Conclusion

I had this whole pheasant noodle soup recipe of Charles’s with pics and stuff ready to go, but this post has become an epic tome and I’ll save it for another day.  Good luck to everyone out there with spring training and testing.  If you love your griffon, or any versatile dog for that matter, test it in NAVHDA.  It is fun and important.  If you are not yet a member, please join at: http://www.navhda.org/sites/www.navhda.org/files/assets/Mem_NewMemFrm.pdf

Happy Spring!

Please note that if you are shopping for a puppy, I am currently full on reservations for my 2016 litter.  Due to several other things taking my time, I am a few weeks behind on kennel e-mails.  I will respond to them as soon as I can.  I am also behind on returning phone calls and have taken my phone number down again due to the volume of calls that we’re receiving.  If you would like to be placed on a contact list for this year’s litter in the event that there are additional pups (which is fairly unlikely), if you have questions about the breed, or would like a recommendation on a breeder, please e-mail instead of calling.  I am not responding to anything in a timely fashion right now.  I hope to get back on track and getting all of the phone calls and emails returned once the holidays are behind us.

Yesterday was nearly a perfect day for hunting: around 50 degrees with a solid cloud cover but no precipitation.  It was a bit breezy, but nothing compared to some of the gale-force winds we encounter farther west and north.  The corn and soybeans are all harvested and the southeast Nebraska winter farm-scape makes for a rather bleak picture without snow.

The Lakota have a legend or a prophecy that one day the earth as we know it today will all roll back and will return to what it was before all of this industrialization.  It fascinates me that so many people in this country are wrapped up about the Amazon rainforest or the African savannah, but don’t realize that the most endangered ecosystem on the planet is right in our own backyard.

The tallgrass prairie of the North America is gone.  If you have ever driven US interstate 80 between Grand Island, Nebraska to around Cleveland, Ohio, you know that it is wall-to-wall corn and soybeans.  That all used to be a beautiful blend of native grasses that grow up to 8 feet tall.

Aside from limited government land and one Nature Conservancy preserve in Oklahoma, it is only through US Farm Bill Programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) that pieces of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem still exist.  Even if you are not active with a local chapter of Pheasants Forever, it is important to keep your national membership up so that we can maintain pressure on the folks in Washington in order to preserve this national treasure.

Our hunt yesterday took us to a half-section of private CRP thanks to Charles’s friend, Matt.  I saw more bobwhite quail yesterday than I have in the whole rest of my life put together.  I have encountered a handful of coveys over the years, but was never able to put together a shot.  Our hunt consisted of Matt on the left outside, Charles in the middle, and me on the right outside, with Fire and BB as our dogs for the day.  We were probably 15 yards from the truck when one got up on my right and flew to my left.  I swung on it and connected on the first shot.  I had to grit my teeth to keep myself from screaming out loud.  But there was definitely a “Yesss!” and a fist pump in there.

Matt was on the edge of the brush, then Charles, with me out in the middle of the grass.

Another 40 yards down the line, a full covey got up with none taken since most of them flew right over my head.  Then another 30 yards down, a covey got up and Charles took one out of it.  As we worked our way around, we got up another two coveys and no birds taken out of them (but great pointing action from the dogs regardless).  When we got to the far end of the property, we were probably 45 minutes into the hunt and had seen 80 birds.  Right as we had changed direction, BB went on point not too far away from me.  I hustled up to her and fully expected to kick up a pheasant in the tall grass.  But instead out popped a single quail and once again I took it down with one shot.

Then it was Charles’s turn for a singleton.

As we were nearing the truck, Charles took one more single bird for his total of three.  There were more birds getting up right before the truck that we missed.  This got Charles all fired up, so he took the dogs and headed back through a small area that we hadn’t thoroughly covered.  Matt and I were like, “Go for it,” and stood there chatting as we watched Charles and the dogs work the area over.  Sure enough, Matt and I were dive-bombed by three and Matt took his single bird right over our heads.

The dog work was excellent on this trip, lots of great points and downed bird finds that we never would have gotten without them.  Even on the blind retrieve on Matt’s bird where they were 50 yards away on the other side of a hedgerow, once Charles brought them around, BB and Fire wasted no time in locating our quarry.  I need to carry a notebook with me on trips and write more details about the dog work on our drive home to share with you all.  The shots always stand out in my mind, but even though their hard work is extraordinary, it all becomes a blur.

Even as we were approaching the truck and unloading, there were birds getting up.  I bet that we saw close to 100 in total.  Completely amazing, to have a bird that was almost completely gone from our area of the state come back with such power.  The incredible forces of nature at work.

Since these were my first quail, I had to get a photo with the dogs.  It took me 17 years, but I having finally completed the Nebraska upland bird hunting grand slam.  A Nebraska upland bird hunting grand slam (in the order that I harvested them), is: sharptailed grouse, greater prairie chicken, rooster pheasant, and bobwhite quail.

Last night, Charles and I were talking about what a North American Upland Game Bird Grand Slam would consist of.  Here is what we came up with (I am doing this as much for myself as I am for you, I’m afraid I’ll lose my list):

Prairie Grouse: Sage, Sharptailed, Greater Prairie Chicken (the Lesser Prairie Chicken of Kansas is no long able to be hunted as of recently) [3]

Rooster Pheasant

Mountain Grouse: Ruffed, Blue, Spruce, Dusky [4]

Woodcock

Quail: Bobwhite, California (Valley), Mountain, Mearns, Scaled, Gambles [6]

Partridge: Hungarian (Gray), Chukar, Himalayan Snowcock [3]

Ptarmigan: White-Tailed, Willow, Rock [3]

Is that a bucket list?  I think so.  Charles has one on me that I don’t have: the Hungarian/Gray Partridge he took in North Dakota in 2014.

Several of these we’ll have a chance at during our trip next year to Montana for the AWPGA National Specialty.  There will be some trips to Wisconsin, Arizona, California, and Nevada for sure in this lifelong effort.  The long shots will be the ptarmigan and the Himalayan Snowcock.

But alas, it is time to prepare for some Christmas travels.  I do have some pupdates, but they will have to wait for my return.  May the peace and joy of Christmas be with you all, here is a photo of “Chief” and Caleb from earlier this week, who didn’t quite make it through the movie of “A Christmas Carol”.

The merriest of Christmases and a Happy New Year to you all!

Planned Breeding Announcement

Update 12/9/2015: Please note that the reservation list for our Spring 2016 litter is full and closed.  Feel free to e-mail if you would like to be placed on a contact list in the event that there are more puppies than there are reservations, or if you would like a recommendation of a quality breeder in your area.

Ben and Velma are going to be bred for a Spring Litter 2016.  I will be raising the pups the last several weeks before they go home and placing them in their new homes.  We co-own Velma (De Jac’s Zip A Dee Doo Dah, NA I Score 112) and currently have 7 month-old “Chief” out of their Spring 2015 litter.  Ben is the son of our foundation dogs, Sam and Sue.  Photos and more information about Ben, Velma, Sam and Sue can be found on the “About Our Dogs” page.  Information about purchasing a pup can be found on our “Puppies” page or by contacting us at bluestemkennels@gmail.com.  This will be the last litter between Ben and Velma; and Velma’s co-owner, Aaron, will be keeping a female pup this year.  My 6 year-old son has been asking, “Who is going to have puppies?” and saying, “I can’t wait for all of the little puppies to follow me around”.  He has never known a spring without puppies, so I’m glad that we’re able to fulfill his wishes.

North Dakota 2015

Many people wonder why we choose North Dakota as our hunting destination as opposed to South Dakota, since SD is closer.  Really, it is a cultural thing.  Almost everything in South Dakota is pay-to-hunt.  There are slews of “hunters” in South Dakota, many of them just telling their wives that they are going hunting so that they can get drunk and hang out with strippers.  Where we go in North Dakota is stodgy German Lutheran farmer country where you can’t even find a Pizza Hut.  Not to say that there aren’t hunters, but they’re not present in the numbers found further south.  Primarily they are from Minnesota and Wisconsin.  There are a few far flung outfits, but not like the massive migration that SD takes in.  Additionally, if the landowner doesn’t post his property “No Trespassing”, it is open to access, which is really nice that so many of the landowners choose to let us walk in.

The week prior to our arrival, Aaron and Velma had a heck of a time in the same area of North Dakota, with 90 degree heat and 50 MPH winds.  A party of three hunters over a week only harvested 11 birds, which is super tough hunting.  Charles and I took about the same number of birds, except that I’m a notoriously crappy shot on roosters.  One of my Facebook friends posted this meme the day that we got home and it totally cracked me up.

There’s something about his cackle and his color and his fancy tail that just throw me for a loop.  I’m a great sharptailed grouse and duck shot, but Charles just expects for me to miss roosters anymore.  As Alice in Chains says, “Yeah, they’ve come to snuff the rooster…you know he ain’t gonna die!”  Yet I digress.

We had fabulous weather: the coldest it ever got was 35 one morning, but usually stayed in the 60s for the highs.  The wind is omnipresent in North Dakota, but it wasn’t obnoxious.  Our arrival was early afternoon on Saturday the 17th, so we hurriedly unpacked the truck and headed out to what we call “the big hill”.  A rooster got up way out of range.  As we approached what we call “the magic bush”, we were both prepared for something to pop out.  Something is always there.  Today it was a lone sharptailed grouse about 10 yards away from me.  I took it with one shot.  Our 1 1/2 year old female, “Fire”, came in for the retrieve.  I had forgotten that I was wearing the GoPro and pulled out my pocket camera (as you see in the video), I was so excited.

We hit a couple of other spots and I took some pictures, but we didn’t see any more birds that short day.

Monday morning we hit up a Federal Waterfowl Production Area.  These areas turned out to be the areas with consistently great hunting.  In this spot, there were about 200 ducks on the pond, there were pheasants in the lowlands and we could see sharptailed grouse flushing in the high hills.  It was tough to know what to go after.  I am very rarely close enough to Charles to get a good video of him taking a bird.  But the first rooster of the trip was the exception.  BB and Fire were super birdy, locking up, we’d walk in and kick around, then we’d release them to relocate.  Finally we got into this flat and neither one of them would budge.  Charles is trying to release them and they would not move.  I had turned my back to move on (I was really distracted by those 200 ducks on the pond), but then heard a flush behind me.  When the bird flushes, you can see where we are with training.  Fire stops on the flush like she is supposed to, since we’ve been working with her a bunch.  BB is out of practice and totally breaks on the flush, which puts her in position for the retrieve.

We continued to follow the marshy slough and again the dogs got birdy.  A rooster got up in my sights, but I missed both shots and Charles got it on the clean-up shot.

On our way back to the truck, we thought that all of the ducks had flushed from the pond.  There was no sneaking up on most of these guys, they were way too wiley.  But a slow female shoveler found its way into Charles’s bag.  Fire was the first one to get to the duck, but BB was rude and stole it from her.

The finish for the day was this little dried cattail swamp chock full of roosters.  We had walked 7 miles at the WPA, so I was pretty fried, but still pushed through as best I could.  I have no idea how many roosters I missed, but it was fun listening to the dogs scrounge around through the cattails and rooting them out.  Charles was able to take his last rooster for a limit on the day.

We went back to the WPA on Monday, trying our hand at hauling in our portable duck blind, chairs, and decoys.  Once we got our gear set up, we went after a rooster that we had missed the previous day.  He was waiting right where we expected him and Fire took us right to him.  Both of us shot at the bird and initially Charles took credit, but once we cleaned the bird, we could see that we had clearly hit it from both sides.  So it was a team effort.

After sitting in the blind for an hour, all that we had drawn in were coot.  The 200 ducks that were there the day before were nowhere to be found.

This is a photo of Fire waiting patiently in the blind.  It was taken off of my right shoulder, so she’s resting her head on the butt of my gun and on Charles’s elbow.

A few more spots in the area were covered, but to no avail.  That day we spooked up the biggest bodied whitetail buck I’ve ever seen in my life, he was probably 250-275 lbs. and when he ran off it sounded like a galloping horse.  There was also what I’ve dubbed the “Corgi Coyote” that we came upon.  It was the shortest legged coyote I’ve ever seen in my life.  Seriously, it had a normal sized body, was really poufy and furry, but had super short legs.  Fire easily caught up with it and towered over it.  But we decided to avoid getting the dogs torn up and called them off of it.   A one rooster day it was, but better than getting skunked (or coyoted).

Our Tuesday morning stop was yet another large Waterfowl Production Area.  Not ten steps from the truck we got a rooster up.  I took a shot and missed, Charles took both shots and peppered his butt.  He soared over into a little cattail ditch and we took chase.  Once we got over there Chief and Fire went on solid point, the rooster got up and Charles nailed it.  Another one soared out of range off into the distance, which we took note of as Chief got his first wild rooster retrieve at 7 months.  (I have all of this still on my GoPro and haven’t downloaded it yet.  It was all pretty far away from me and the quality probably isn’t good enough to post anyway.)

Instead of chasing after the other rooster that had gotten up, we opted for the north end of the lake, where we found nothing.  So chasing the known rooster to the south it was.  As we made our way along the bank, BB knew that there was a rooster somewhere there.  Shaking her birdy booty, she scooted along tracking the scent.  Then she locked up.  I kicked around and kicked around in the cattails.  Finally, I got under a bent down tree and out he came from the other side, where Charles shot him.  I took a shot, but had no chance, since I was tangled up in tree branches.  But that bird is just as much mine as it is his.

It is tough to write about long distance trudging and make it interesting.  It took us nine miles of swamp hiking for us to get those two birds.  Swamp hiking is not like walking across a prairie.  It is high stepping while crashing down cattails and trying to keep your feet from getting tangled in reed canary grass.  It is hoping that your boots hold up to keep your feet dry and praying that you don’t walk into too soft of mud and sink in to the point where you can’t get out.  It is tough.

Our last full day was Wednesday, October 21st.  We were headed towards a new WPA, but saw a promising piece of private ground that we decided to work, with lots of harvested crop ground surrounding our favorite: the cattail swamp (see a pattern here?).  Charles took the first bird, with another one heading around to the far end.  I was on it.  I was not going this whole trip without getting a rooster.  Sure enough, the dogs got in there and rousted him up and I shot him squarely on the first shot.  He went tail straight up and nosedived down.  It took the dogs awhile to find it, the cattails were so thick.  I started wading into them towards the bird when I heard Fire wagging her tail and hitting the cattails behind me.  I turned around and she handed me my bird.

Once we moved on, our journeys took us back to the little cattail swamp where I missed a whole bunch of roosters.  I proceeded to miss a whole bunch of roosters again.  One of my favorites was where I was shooting at this rooster’s tail and he was furiously flying away from me and laughing with his evil cackle as he went, but he was flying straight at Charles.  Charles totally lit him up and he went end over end before crumpling to the ground.  Charles finished off the day with a nice limit.

Thursday morning brought us to packing up the cabin and heading for home.  But on our way, we couldn’t help but hit up one more Waterfowl Production Area.  Charles took a rooster and the dumbest bufflehead duck on the planet.  The dogs just so happened to be working back towards us and pushed the rooster so that it was flying right at Charles.  The duck seriously flew into us about 5 minutes later and landed on the pond.  We had to yell at it and flap our arms to get it to fly.  I have both the rooster retrieve and the duck retrieve as video on my phone camera, I just haven’t figured out how to get it into a YouTube yet.  But here is the photo with a big North Dakota rock (there are lots of rocks in North Dakota, deposited by glaciers).

I wish that I could muster up some sort of profound conclusion or insight from the trip, but waxing philosophical about hunting is not my forte.  I will not talk about how my soul was reconnected to the spirit of the wild on this trip, or how hunting draws us back to the activities of our primitive ancestors, or that it is all about camaraderie of hunters and spending quality time with the dogs.  Hunting is fun and my dogs need the practice.  As Charles said, “this is the forge”.  We learned what our dogs training weakness is: the NAVHDA Utility Test Duck Search.  They did great searching in dry cattails, open field, or open water.  You get them into cattails with knee deep water and they were at a loss.  Usually Sam covered those retrieves and we just never had to worry about it.  Well, now that Sam is gone, the rest of the crew needs to step it up.  We will be doing lots of practice on that between now and next fall when Fire does her first UT with Charles and I re-test with BB.

Although I was not very happy with my shooting, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for roosters.  I need to practice more.  What I was happy with was that I swamp hiked 45 miles in 6 days while carrying an 8 pound shotgun and loaded down with gear.  And never complained or quit.  My right ankle (which is an old high school sports repetitive injury) took a good pounding from all of the rocks and critter holes, but I’ll be ready for Nebraska pheasant opener this weekend.  We’re going to sit out Saturday to try to avoid some of the craziness and see what we can come across on Sunday.

I do have pupdates, but I’m going to save them for next week when there isn’t so much hunting stuff to post up.  And it is time for me to go to our sons’ Halloween parties.

We ate at a South Dakota Pizza Ranch on our way home and this song came on.  I had never heard it before and thought it was funny and appropriate for this forum.  Good luck to all of the hunters out there!

Sam’s Stud Dog Retirement

It was only just today that I added my contact information back on to the site, but a few weeks back it wasn’t on here.  Troy and Cristen were on their way back to Kentucky from an elk hunt in Colorado and were looking for a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon in the process.  He kept scouring the internet looking for our phone number and eventually found it and called.  I picked up the phone on that rainy evening and Troy was asking if I had any pups or dogs available.  We don’t currently have any pups and I don’t sell started dogs, but we had been thinking about re-homing Sam for several weeks.  He has sired over 65 puppies (so he’s made his contribution to the breed) and with 3 other dogs that we are hunting and training, we just didn’t feel like we were spending enough time with him.  So, I told Troy about Sam and he agreed to drive up from where he was camping in Lincoln to visit us.

Charles and I hit it off with Cristen and Troy immediately.  Very down home, hard working folks who have been long time dog owners and know how to give Sam a great farm home.  I had been hesitant to put anything out about wanting to re-home Sam because of the flood of calls and e-mails that would ensue.  I just seemed to know that the right person for Sam would find us.  Troy has a job where he can take Sam along with him and last I heard, Sam hadn’t left Troy’s side.  I am so glad that Sam has a new bud and I hope that they get to spend several more years in the field together.

Training and Hunting

We’ve gone back to skeet shooting in order to get ourselves ready for the big push coming soon.  We head to North Dakota for five days starting on Saturday looking mainly for ducks and pheasants, but sometimes sharptailed grouse and Hungarian Partridge find their way into our sights.

On Saturday, September 19th we chased snipe at our normal spot, but only saw a pair.  The flock that we had been going after previously must have moved on and there were no new arrivals.  Charles bagged one, but I didn’t take the time to photograph.

The following day, we spent the morning out for the last day of Nebraska Low Plains Early Teal Season.  We did spot a pair of ducks, but hesitated to identify them properly, so they were up and gone by during the time that we were hemming and hawing.  Game and Parks is very clear that we can only shoot teal during that early season or we’ll lose the privilege of having it.  Better safe than sorry.  As the day got on, we decided to sit for doves.  I hate sitting over decoys for anything, it is like fishing with a gun, not really for me.  I didn’t even get a shot off, but Charles managed to bag one.  Once again, not even worth taking a photo of.

The following weekend, on Sunday, September 27th we had a good day out training Chief for the field portion of the NAVHDA Natural Ability test and Fire for the Utility Test.  With Chief we’re mainly focused on extending his range and pointing.  Fire is currently in the process of getting steady to wing, shot, and fall.  We are using the Smith method of e-collar around the loin, then stimulating the dog if it breaks on the wing, shot or fall.  Right now she is steady to the wing, but she really wants to go on that shot.  She is probably 50/50 steady on the shot.  We get good stop-to-flush, which is when the bird gets up surprisingly and she doesn’t chase it.  Her retrieves are really nice.  I don’t photograph when I’m running the e-collar remote while Charles guns, so most of these are with Chief.

Nebraska Sandhills Duck Opener

We spent the weekend of October 3-4 in our usual spot for Nebraska High Plains duck opener.  It was a very gray and rainy couple of days.

The numbers were not what we were used to and when we did get into a bunch of of ducks, we just weren’t in position to take them.  We jumped this little puddle, probably 20 feet wide by 10 feet across that held 5 teal.  We broke the wings on two of them (each of us taking one) and they landed in the grass.  Since we didn’t have dogs out, we went back and got Chief for the retrieve.  He found the first one about 20 yards from the pond.  When we weren’t making progress finding the second one, we brought out Fire and BB.  BB did an amazing job locating the green-winged teal with the broken wing about 60 yards away from where it went down.

The next thing we did was walk about 7 miles along a creek that has been turned into a network of beaver dam ponds.  This area has produced for us year after year.  Of course, we’re loaded for ducks and see tons of snipe.  On our second sweep, we were loaded for snipe, but saw nothing.  This is a spot that we’ve taken duck limits for 3 people on opening day, but there was no mojo that day.  I was done.  I had been rained on and all sweated up, so I camped out in the truck while Chief and Charles took 7 snipe in another spot.  I was lazy and didn’t get a picture because I had sat in the truck freezing for 2 1/2 hours.  But Charles said that Chief retrieved every single one of them to hand.

Sunday was a similar story.  We spent several hours walking a very tough 5 miles along a winding creek with a tangle around it, hoping for wood ducks and saw nothing.  We went walked another couple miles at another spot and got a big flock of teal up out of range.  One of the big ponds was full of ducks, but we didn’t have our canoe with us to get at them.  Again, I bail towards the end of the day.  Charles and Fire took a nice wood duck drake.  That was it on the day.

Pupdates

Congratulations to Matt and Chloe on their recent accomplishments!  Chloe is from our 2015 “J” Litter between Sam and BB.  You can sure tell that she is Fire’s sister (but not littermates, Fire is a year older).  She just earned her NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize II here at the Heartland Chapter test.

She also just finished her last leg of her AKC Junior Hunter title on Sunday!  She picked up a fourth place ribbon at the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Nebraska’s Amateur Walking Puppy AKC Field Trial on September 17th.  Congratulations AKC/NAVHDA Bluestem Blooming Sunflower JH NA II “Chloe” and Matt!!

George and Harry (a girl) from our “H’ Litter between Sam and Mae have been busy.  George dropped me a line, saying:

Harry is shaping up to be a pretty good girl. We’re seeing glimpses of the adult dog at this point – she’s very sweet. I believe she my be the most outwardly happy dog ever. The tail is always wagging!  She got out last fall almost every weekend, and by my count had just under 50 birds shot over her.

This fall we’ve chased sharpies, but after three times and no birds, I’m giving up on them for the year!  Blue grouse and ducks have been productive.

We had Harry spayed after last fall. We considered doing the hunt testing and breeding her for a while; however, it seemed like breeding is best left to folks that are more dedicated, responsible, invested, you know the type. It does no one a favor to half-ass genetics.

I’m attaching a few pictures. Pheasants were from last fall. It was the last day of hunting, and she put a limit in my bag as well as a companion’s later the same day.

Pictures of aspen are from this weekend and last. We jump shoot ducks off of beaver ponds in this area, and the scenery is to die for this fall.

Wishing you the best in your autumn pursuits!

Tom and Susan up in North Dakota are always busy this time of year with TracHer and crew.  TracHer is from our 2012 “C” Litter between Sam and Mae.

I am going to do a better job posting closer to weekly, it is too much to go several weeks during hunting season without blogging, then try to get it all down.  My tales get pretty lean, I leave pictures out that I wish I could include, and just drop whole topics when that happens.  Sorry to have been absent this summer, but I appreciate your patience while I took a break.  Things happen, right?

Heartland NAVHDA Spring Test

Immediately following the last of this year’s puppies going home, I went down to the Heartland Chapter Spring Test.  Much to my surprise, I had heard that my friend Gino Troy from Austin, Texas and his dog “Brie” from Whiskeytown Kennels were up doing UPT.

I have no idea what the results were, but it was good to have a visit.  Our one year old female, Fire, her sister Gracie tested Natural Ability but didn’t get a prize.  Still it was nice to see how well she has turned out in the looks department.  I think that she is prettier than Fire.

Bluestem’s Otoe Chief

I am really happy with how Chief is coming along.  He is really growing and is a nice close-working dog.  It is interesting to contrast his style with Fire’s, who will probably be bringing home some AKC Amateur Walking Derby ribbons this fall: speed queen.  But here are some photos of Chief as we’ve been training him over the summer.

Pupdates

A month or so after the pups went home, I got a few pupdates.  Here is Willa out in Colorado with Mort and Patty.  She is from Sam and BB and would have been about 3.5 months in this picture.  Here is what Patty had to say, “Hello Charity – we have been meaning to email you and let you know what a complete delight our puppy girl is.  Her name is Willa now and she is thriving.  You and your family did such a wonderful job socializing the puppies.  We feel very lucky to have picked your kennel and are so happy with such an amazing little creature.”

Megan and John, also from Colorado, sent this update on Remi (who I called “Little Sioux” because she reminded me of my first Griff, Sweetgrass Sandhill Sioux, who would be her grandmother).  This also would have been at about 3.5 months and she is out of Ben and Velma.

Just wanted to send you a quick update. Sioux /AKA Remi is such a perfect fit! Her spunky personality and cuddle-bug nature is the best blend. Logan was NOT a happy camper when we brought her home, but he is quickly coming around and is trying to get her to chase him through the fields. She can’t really keep up with him just yet but I suspect will give him a run for his money soon. Her hidden talent seems to be surprise attacking dandelion fluffs, which entertains her no end. She’s quickly picking up on commands and loves to learn new things.

Matt down in Lincoln, Nebraska shared some videos of when Chloe was around 3.5 months old.  Here is what he had to say:

Just wanted to drop you a quick note to let you know how Chloe is doing.  Chloe has been amazing in the house and has been a breeze to potty train so far.  She loves to pick on our old lab, Ace, but he takes it like a champ.  She gets really frustrated that he doesn’t respond to her little barks, she doesn’t realize he’s deaf!

Chloe loves to hang out in her swimming pool while the kids play in their pool.  https://youtu.be/LzYFENNw2Uo

Chloe has seen pigeons on several occasions.  She has had some awesome points already and is starting to get introduced to the starter pistol.  She went from full speed to perfect point in an instant on the first bird last weekend.  I wish I would have had video because it was awesome!  She came into the bird in this video from slightly upwind and I think she was surprised by how close she was when she found it.  https://youtu.be/uHqLwwVcpY8

She is really starting to love the water!  We started doing some easy water retrieves parallel to the shore last weekend.  https://youtu.be/Fjx6Xmyus_Q   Last night we tried stretching her out in the water a little further and she didn’t miss a beat (even though I forgot my bumper and had her retrieving a piece of wood!).  https://youtu.be/GzS-wRRsK-c

Basic obedience is coming along nicely.  She is so smart and picks up on things very fast and is very eager to please! 

I plan on taking her to her first training day this weekend so we are looking forward to that.

We are so thrilled to have such a calm little pup!  Everyone she’s met just raves about how calm and laid back she is for such a young puppy. 

As you can tell, we are like proud new parents wanting to show off our new baby.  We just wanted to let you know how happy we are that we were able to get a puppy from BB and Sam.

Susan and TracHer took another shot at the NAVHDA UT test, but didn’t take home a prize.  Which is okay, it is a tough test.  In the deed the glory.

Congrats to Ernie and Duncan on a NAVHDA NA Prize III at the Central Dakota Chapter Spring test!

Puppy shoppers please note that I am not yet ready to start taking reservations for 2016.  I need to catch my breath a bit!

It was great meeting all of the new owners last weekend.  It was a very busy one with 16 pups going home between Friday and Sunday, with the very last one yesterday evening.  Last weekend was not only puppy homegoing weekend, but was also supposed to be my graduation weekend for my master’s degree.  We just couldn’t make it work between the puppies and the Heartland NAVHDA Chapter Spring Test.  We didn’t run any dogs, but Charles and Conrad cooked breakfast and lunch.  But I’ll write more about that later.

Taking 18 puppies to the vet all at once was quite a challenge for me and the staff at Heartland Animal Hospital.  We’ve got a system down to keep all of the puppies straight. (You’ll have to excuse the grubby Pet Porter, I couldn’t get my other wire crate to fit in my van and I was in a hurry)

I have to send out a big thanks to the Kliewers (both Andrew and his wife, Susan, are vets) and the staff for helping us with all of these pups!  The vet techs are amazing!  An extra big thanks to Tracy, who I didn’t get a picture of, but she is always helping me organize all of the records and paperwork.

I had one unplanned air shipment of a pup up to North Dakota, but other than that, everyone else came to the house.  Here’s the departure of the flying pup at the Delta Air Cargo office.  Some people worry about flying pups, but I’ve done it about 20 times now and have never had a problem.

Pickups started right after work on Friday the 8th.  Luckily the rain stopped for us for the weekend, because it has been raining for about 2 weeks straight prior to that and has rained every day since that weekend.  Feels like we’re living in a rainforest or something!  You’ll notice how green it is.  It is illegal to complain about too much rain in Nebraska, so I will just tough out the mud knowing that there are hot, dry summer days to come.

Here are the homegoing photos from Friday the 8th:

And the pickups from Saturday the 9th:

Mort had an interesting story about purchasing his first Wirehaired Pointing Griffon from Harrison Reimers of Kalispell, Montana in 1978.  Mort’s puppy was the only one who lived out of the whole litter, the rest died from parvo.  High mortality in litters was not uncommon in the past.  It is really a miracle with how busy I was this semester that I ended up with 18 perfectly healthy puppies.  But I am a stickler for sanitation and health care.  The last 2-3 weeks, I was probably spending 2-3 hours a day in the kennels keeping them clean (puppies poop A LOT!).  Yet I digress.  More homegoing photos:

Pickups on Sunday the 10th:

Yesterday was my last homegoing:

I have pupdates and pics from the NAVHDA test, but I really need to get on with the day! Oh, new puppy owners, I will get all of the NAVHDA and AKC registration papers in the mail to you on Monday, so keep an eye on your mailboxes for that (I will also send an e-mail when they go).  Thanks to everyone for providing great homes for these little ones!

Bluestem Kennels 5th Anniversary

Happy 5th Birthday to our “A” Litter, including Whiskey in Nevada!  Thanks Pete and Deborah for this pic with their daughter, Andi, Whiskey, and some birds that they brought home.

I had no idea what I was doing when I let Sam breed Sue in late February 2010 when Charles was traveling to India on business.  I figured I would sell a few pups out of the newspaper just to see what it was like.  But the Omaha World-Herald cost $50 a Sunday to advertise, so I looked for something cheaper.  I settled with gundogbreeders.com and was trying to figure out a way to better communicate with my new puppy owners rather than sending pictures through e-mail.  So, in May of 2010 this blog was born and later on spawned a YouTube channel.  At this point, the blog has had 370,000 views from all over the world.  Some of what I have posted has been flat out dumb.  Some people say that I don’t deserve the attention since I don’t have an alphabet soup of titles tied to all of my dogs names.  But here is what I do have: a love of this breed, a love of hunting, and a love of sharing through writing and photography.  Even though the pressure of the attention on top of my family and work responsibilities makes me want to go and live under a bridge sometimes, I don’t see me changing anything any time soon.  I know that there are people that get bored at their desk jobs and guys overseas who are just homesick for any news from home.  I’m glad that I get to help entertain you.  Of course there are the fun new puppies every year, hunting trips, and good news from our puppy owners that keeps me going.  I have had a very busy semester and have not been the greatest ambassador for the breed or sport lately, but soon that will all change and my schedule will open back up so that I can again be available for phone conversations.  I’ve missed my hunting and dog phone chats!  This whole thread has gone on for way too long and it is time to move on.

Puppy homegoing

Here are this week’s videos:

I will ship one of the puppies to North Dakota via Delta Pet First/Air Cargo first thing Friday morning, then Friday evening the rest will begin their journeys by car.  It will be a weekend-long labor of love.  I’m looking forward to meeting many of my new owners for the first time.

Instead of re-posting the puppy pics with their owners listed, I simply put the owner’s last name and the state in the captions of the photos in last week’s post.

Here is what you need to bring for a car trip:

Small collar (12-16 in. adjustable), leash, a towel or blanket if someone is holding the pup in the car, a crate if there is nobody holding the pup, paper towels in case of an accident, food and water dishes if the ride is longer than 5 hours (I will give you a baggie of food). And of course, the remainder of your balance for the pup (see e-mail).

Here is what I will give you: a puppy, a bill of sale, a 3-year health and hip guarantee, vaccination record, microchip information and the NAVHDA registration paperwork.  It looks like the AKC paperwork is running behind schedule and I will need to follow-up with that by mailing it to you.  The litters are AKC registered, we just need to get our puppy forms in the mail.

Right now the pups are eating Purina One Smartblend, but feel free to use any high quality puppy food.  Also purchase a liquid de-wormer to administer a day or two after returning home.  Even though the pups will have been de-wormed before I send them home, I want them to be parasite free.  Since they have been living outside and running in the woods, there is a higher risk.  You’ll also want to give your puppy a bath with puppy shampoo when you get home, since they play in the dirt quite a bit.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with additional questions about pickup.

Pupdates

Congratulations to Sal and Bluestem Winchester “Chester” from our “C” litter in 2012 between Sam and Mae.  Chester is now an AKC Senior Hunter!  Great job, gang!

Susan bought the GoPro Fetch harness, which I have also purchased.  I’d like to see if I can manage to put the Hero2 that I currently own on the Fetch harness, then get either a new GoPro (rumor has it that the Hero5 comes out in October, but I might not wait that long) to wear on the chest harness, then film the same hunt from both angles.

So here is Susan’s video of TracHer in North Dakota, who is actually Chester’s “C” litter sister:

I thought that this was a funny picture that Jimmy down in Oklahoma took of Zoey from our 2013 “E” Litter between Sam and Sue.

Time to prepare for the adventures coming soon!  See you in a week and a half with puppy homegoing photos!

I have an owner of one of our now 4 year-old pups, “Roxy” from our “B” litter, who has a litter on the ground right now that are ready to go home in two weeks.  There are three males available from this litter in Logan, Utah.  I do not have the health clearances or hunt testing records from the parents, but know that the dam is from our Sam and Sue.  Please contact Randy at (435) 713-0847 or randyfeser@yahoo.com if you are looking for a male pup.  He will be through Omaha in a few weeks, so if you need to meet him here or points in between, he can arrange for that.  I am in no way involved in this breeding and am only posting this notification as a courtesy.  Please do not contact me in regards to this litter, as I have no information.

Individual puppy photos

We are at that time where we start looking at which pup goes into what home.  I have a few in mind, but will need the future owners input to help select the rest.  If I’ve accepted a deposit from you, please e-mail bluestemkennels@cox.net with your preferences.   If the puppy is marked with a preference being indicated, I’ve already been in contact with the future owners about the designation.  Those of you who I have not contacted directly, please forward any preferences that you have based on the photos to the above e-mail.  To anyone who is currently puppy shopping, all of these puppies have homes reserved.

All of the pups will be microchipped an vaccinated on Monday, May 4, so I need to have my picks finalized by Sunday.  I realize that this is a difficult process for all of us, but I haven’t had anyone complain about my picks yet.  So here we go with the pictures.   Due to the order that the photos were taken in, it is easier to put the “J” litter (Sam x BB) first, even though they were born second this year.

Next comes the “I” Litter from Ben and Velma!

That was really exhausting and it is getting late.  I will get the video and pupdates posted within the next few days.

Please note that at this time, all of these puppies have homes.  Our next litters will be in the Spring of 2016 (God willing).

How can this even be possible?  I have spent so much time just scooping poop, feeding, and playing with puppies that I’ve failed to post pictures and videos.  I am so sorry.  Plus, I just completed the comprehensive exam for my master’s degree and finished my last class, so that is in the books.  This summer will be a welcome reprieve.  Also, my experiment with teaching full time has been fruitful this semester, as it made me decide that I do not want to do it.  The family and dogs need me too much, especially with Charles’s travel schedule.  This will be the third time that I’ve gone back to work full time while having three kids and I plan on it being my last (unless our situation changes).  But enough about me!

I moved the puppies outside two weeks ago on Friday and they immediately took to being in the outdoor kennel with the fresh air and sunshine.  Being inside is okay, but it just doesn’t provide the stimulation that birds and squirrels and the ever-changing weather provides.  The first week they did not venture out of the kennel, but now they are on full-blown play-in-the-woods mode.

Over the weekend, I want to get individual 5 minute videos on each litter and individual photos for each pup, then get them posted.  I already have our male pup picked out of Velma and Ben’s litter, and have some ideas on a few of the other pups.  Many of the locals have been by on kennel visits and have given their input on the traits that they are looking for.  Now I need to reach out to the new owners out yonder about what they are looking for.  I plan on having picks finalized by Sunday, May 3.  We go to the vet on Monday, May 4 for shots and microchips.  Then the pups go home between the evening of Friday, May 8 and Sunday, May 10!

Here are some photos from the last few days.  The photos of Velma and Ben’s litter were taken on Sunday.  I was trying to squeeze everything in before the rain started back up, but that was a fail.  So, the pictures from BB and Sam’s litter are from yesterday.  Here is the video too: 

I got up early this morning in order to post, but it is time for me to get ready to go take care of the puppies before school.  I apologize that I ran out of time to post the pupdates that I have of previous litters, I will be sure to do that this weekend.