This is all going way too fast, how can these pups already be three and a half weeks old?!? Sorry for the delay in posting, I’ve had a respiratory bug and in the throes of my final two weeks of graduate school. I will be done with grad school right when the puppies get super active, so I’m looking forward to that. Velma and her litter joined us on the 27th of March, so it is exciting having so many puppies! As of right now, all puppies have homes. Here is this week’s YouTube video: Here are some photos.
Caleb with BB’s pups
Puppy faces
Caleb multi-tasking: holding a pup and playing on the iPad (BB’s litter)
Velma’s litter having some grub
Cordelia and a pup
BB and pups
Velma’s pups
Folks have been asking about how I do picks. I do breeder picks based on questions that I ask the new owners and evaluating the puppies. I then assign puppies to owners around 6-7 weeks. Owners will pick up their puppies at 8 weeks old, which is the weekend of May 9-10. Please e-mail bluestemkennels@cox.net with any questions.
Pupdates
Nancy in Minnesota sent over a picture of Winston, who is from our “A” litter between Sue and Sam in 2010, making him 5 years old. I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for 5 years now, it just seems like yesterday!
5-year old Winston from our “A” litter
Duncan up in North Dakota from last year’s “H” Litter between Sam and Mae is already out enjoying his spring duties as a fish finder.
Duncan the fish finder
Thanks to my owners for the great puppy updates! It is time to continue my constant quest to keep the mamas fed, watered and up on potty breaks. I doubt I will get an update in this weekend since my comprehensive exam for my grad program is due on Monday, but I should be able to get something out early in the week. Enjoy spring until then!
Wednesday, March 11 and Thursday, March 12 were a busy time for Aaron and I! Velma (De Jac Pine’s Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah) had 8 pups on Wednesday: 5 males, 3 females. One of the males was odd and was lost a week later. So, the surviving litter is 4 males, 3 females. BB (Bourg-Royal’s CB Bluestem) had 11 puppies: 10 females and 1 male. That brings the total between the two litters to 5 males and 14 females. At this time, all of the puppies are spoken for.
Velma x Ben (pedigrees and health information is on the About Our Dogs page)
Velma and Ben’s litter while they were being whelped
Velma’s puppies at 1 week old
Avery and Josie giving Velma’s puppies some love
Mama Velma
BB x Sam (pedigrees and health information is on the About Our Dogs page)
BB and Sam’s puppies first born
BB and Sam’s pups at 1 week old
Caleb giving BB’s puppies some love
Mama BB
Here are a couple of videos that we took of the litters during their first week of life:
Pupdate
Here are some birthday shots from 3-year-old TracHer in North Dakota that belongs to Susan and Tom.
TracHer 3 years old by the creek
TracHer retrieves a squirrel
In closure
The puppies will be two weeks old mid-week. Velma and her puppies will move over to our house on Friday for the duration of the puppy period, so it will be a fun puppy land! I will try to get an update posted on Sunday. Catch you then!
Greetings to my loyal readers and let me apologize for my extended absence. It is show choir season for our daughter, plus mid-terms for me both as a HS English teacher (for this semester, at least) and in my last semester at graduate school.
I am excited to announce that both females were successfully bred. BB is pregnant with Sam’s pups and Velma is pregnant with Ben’s. We will be keeping a male out of Ben and Velma. Ben is a pup out of our first breeding pair of Sue and Sam, so we are super happy to bring Sue’s blood into the future. Velma is out of De Jac Pine Kennels in WI, who also breed outstanding hunting dogs. Check out the “About Our Dogs” page if you would like to look at additional pedigree or health info. We have an additional 16 reservations on top of our keeping a puppy, so I am not accepting any further reservations until the pups are born. We should know within the next 3 weeks.
Here are some shots of pregnant BB:
Pregnant BB in the living room.
Pregnant BB outside.
Here is a video of pregnant Velma. I just got word now that Charles is home from today’s NAVHDA training that Aaron (Velma’s owner) texted him that her temp dropped today to 99. So, it should be within the next 24-48 hours that pups are coming or on the ground.
We are all ready to go for the next stage here. BB is in the house when we are here or in the whelping area when we are not. Since it is nice out and we are home, she gets to spend time in her outdoor kennel today. I expect that we are still 2 weeks out on BB.
The whelping area
Here is a shot of Fire (1 yr old from our “G” litter of Sam x BB) with Charles at today’s NAVHDA training session with our Heartland NAVHDA Chapter. Word has it that there were 5 griffs there today! Photo by our 10 year-old son, Conrad.
Fire and Charles working on “whoa” today.
Pupdates
Happy Birthdays to all of our litters this spring! I am terrible about keeping up with who dropped when. Here is a shot of Whiskey (far right) from our “A” litter between Sam and Sue in 2010. I can’t believe that we have been at this for 5 years now! What an amazing adventure, full of new knowledge and fun. Whiskey lives in Nevada with his human peeps Pete, Deborah, and Andi. Here he is with his rainbow coalition of Basco the old griff, Tucker the baby Golden Retriever, and Ruger the lab.
Friends and our Whiskey.
Jimmy and Sandy shared this picture of Zoey, from our last litter between Sue and Sam 2 years ago. It was our E litter. Great job guys on the deer track in Oklahoma!
Jimmy and Zoey the deer tracker
I suspect that I’ll be blogging again sooner rather than later. Thinking happy thoughts to Velma and Aaron for a successful whelping. Aaron has whelped German Shorthaired Pointers and Labrador Retrievers before, so I’m sure that he is ready for this. I’ll keep you posted as soon as I have news. Spring has arrived in Nebraska within the last couple of days, so it is a good time for us to bring babies into the world. My cattle rancher friends have been at it for the past month with cold weather, so I’m glad that we’ve eeked out of that for puppy season.
Having puppies satisfies my mothering instinct since I’m done having human babies. It is nice to have another mother carry the load. What good-natured beasts to give us such delightful young to bring into this precious gun dog lifestyle. Long live the griff!
It has been absolutely arctic around here. We stayed close to family and did not venture out for grouse, pheasant, or Canadian geese while we were in Valentine. It was very cold outside and several of us were sick with colds. It has stayed cold down here in Bellevue, so nobody has been out anywhere except for the yard. But the good news is that while we were hunkered down in Valentine, we think that Sam and BB got the job done. So, fingers crossed, BB is about 3 weeks along. Velma has just become fertile and is with Ben down in Springfield, Nebraska. They will stay together for two more weeks and see what happens. So if Mother Nature smiles upon us, puppies in March.
Yet if you call or e-mail me, I’m going to refer you to another breeder. I currently have 16 reservations with deposit on file and just have no idea how successful these litters will be. We’ll just keep our fingers crossed and wait and see.
The dogs have been coming in the house quite a big with the cold temps, but I didn’t get the camera out until we were outside today.
Caleb let himself into the kennel with BB and Sam while Charles and Conrad were shooting archery.
Conrad getting his archery practice in!
BB and Fire on a tear in the woods
Fire on a lope, you can still see the shaved patch on her abdomen.
Fire and Caleb
BB, Sam, and Fire
Sam Profile
Fire Running
BB heading in
Sam Eyes
Sam looks on while BB and Fire battle in the yard
Pupdates: Christmas Cards 2014
It’s funny that both of the cards that I received from puppy owners were from the “C” litter of 2012 of Sam and Mae. Not that I can say anything about Christmas cards, I just don’t send them anymore. I figure I send everyone a card everytime I write up a blog post, right? Some cute photos of Chester from Long Island, New York came in Sal’s Christmas card:
Happy Chester
Running Chester
Peaceful Chester
A cute card from the owners of his sister, TracHer, far right, up in North Dakota. Susan in read with Zephyr, also a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon (but not from us). Tom with Max the baby German Wirehaired Pointer and TracHer.
We hope that everyone had a great holiday season and is ready to tackle the New Year ahead. Charles is talking about one more hunt before the Jan 31 close of season, but I’m out of time. I will keep everyone posted with breeding season, please join NAVHDA and the AWPGA, and stay warm!
My most favorite holiday quote this year is: “Christmas, when Christians and atheists can put aside their differences to celebrate paganism”. I know that “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” is popular, but the reality is that the early Christian church adopted the holiday to co-opt the previous pagan celebrations of the solstice. Christmas was actually banned by the Puritans in early America due to its origins and up until the mid-19th century when Charles Dickens and Washington Irving wrote their Christmas tales, it was a holiday for mischief and drunken debauchery. That is actually a good lead in for what I’m about to tell you, since knowing about literature, history, and culture is a big part of who I am.
After my youngest child, Caleb, who is now five, was born, I stayed home full time and started this kennel. As Caleb has grown older, I’ve continued working on my master’s degree and substitute teaching for the local school district. Well, as of a couple of weeks ago, the school district asked me to teach sophomore English full time this semester and coach the varsity debate team. It is not a permanent thing yet, but it is a trial run for all involved to possibly make it so. If you enjoy reading what I am up to in general, here is the blog that I’m setting up for students to keep up on assignments and for me to just make notes as to what it is that I’m doing: http://mrsupchurchenglish.wordpress.com/
Since I’ve found out about this new assignment, I’ve really been focused on getting ready for the semester and have fallen behind on my kennel phone calls and e-mails. I plan on being caught up by early next week. The Wirehaired Pointing Griffon breed is everywhere in the press right now and the reputable breeders are not in a position to keep up with the demand. I know that I could move to a farm and have 20 or more dogs and have puppies all of the time and make a living, but as much as I love dogs and hunting, it is really only one part of my life. That is the situation with the majority of the breeders in this breed. We are not set up for the demand that we are getting and I don’t think that most of us are willing to change our lives to do so. So be patient with us, please.
If you like to read about Wirehaired Pointing Griffons and versatile hunting dogs in general, you need to join two organizations. The AWPGA is the AKC breed club for the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon. We put out a nice magazine called the Griffonnier every quarter, so be sure to join to receive it (since I’m the co-editor). Here is the link where to join the AWPGA: http://awpga.com/membership. The other organization you need to join is NAVHDA, they put out a great magazine by the name of Versatile Hunting Dog every month http://www.navhda.org/membership-chapters. I have met some really amazing people and lifelong friends through both of these organizations and hope that you take the time to join them.
Recent Hunts
A couple of Thursdays ago, I went out on my own during the day to see if I could find any ducks or pheasants. I found them both, but didn’t bag any. The first place that I stopped was a private pond along the south bank of the Platte River that we have access to. There were 3 mallards on the far side of the pond that got up upon my arrival. As I was making my way towards the river, I was so focused on the edge of the pond for any singles that I totally missed the huge flock that flew right over my head coming off of the river.
The Platte River, about 1 mile west of the confluence with the Missouri River
Sam and I loaded back up into the truck and headed down to a wildlife management area where we know that there are pheasants. Sam and BB managed to find about 30 hens and about 7 roosters, but I think I only took one shot. I was having more fun watching the dogs and the birds than I was worried about shooting.
Charles, Matt, and Conrad went out Sunday for a little bit with Fire and Sam. It was Fire’s first time out after her accident and she did just fine. Here’s a picture of Conrad and the rooster, along with some duck decoys that they found.
Conrad, rooster, and decoys.
I took this picture of Caleb and Fire that evening, they were not interested in the end of “The Sound of Music” and fell asleep instead.
Caleb and Fire having a snooze
Pupdates
Susan sent me a funny video of training: Zephyr is the lighter colored griff, TracHer is the darker griff (from our 2012 “C” Litter from Sam and Mae), and Max is a German Wirehaired Pointer puppy.
Fire’s sister “Willow” (from our 2014 “G” Litter of Sam and BB) and Kaylee got into some gadwalls a month or so ago and I forgot to share the pictures! Kaylee is a middle schooler in Missouri and I love that she is into hunting!!
Willow, Kaylee, and a gadwall duck
Willow and her ducks
Another angle on Willow and the ducks
There are hunting plans for us following the Christmas festivities, so I’ll get one last hunt in before I turn my life over to school. So happy Festivus/Saturnalia/Winter Solstice/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Christmas, or if you celebrate nothing just enjoy life as you normally do. For this Christian, it is time to pack some bags and wrap some presents. But not without one more story.
Today the kids and I went out to lunch at the best family diner in Omaha, Petrow’s. We were on our way back to Bellevue, driving in the rain down I-80, when I spotted what I thought was a teenage girl walking down the shoulder. I stopped and picked the person up, since people get killed far too often on that road. Come to find out, it was a woman who had gotten into a fight with her boyfriend and he had thrown her out of the vehicle, into the mud, in the rain, on the side of the interstate in the middle of Omaha. She was so thankful that the kids and I stopped and picked her up. We had nothing better to do, so we just drove her the 20 miles home to Plattsmouth. That was the best Christmas lesson I could have given to my kids. It can be a cold world, we have to help people out when we have a chance. And in the words of Tiny Tim:
According to my calculations and based on physical changes, I suspect that BB should come into heat within the next month or so. We are also keeping an eye on Velma over at Aaron’s house. I am going to hold off on taking any additional deposits/reservations at this time, but will keep you posted if things change.
Fire’s Trial
Fire chased a deer into the neighbor’s property the morning of the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. There was no yelp, crying, blood, or change in behavior immediately. About 6 PM in the evening, she had her tail between her legs and was snuggling up to me funny as I was watching the news on the living room couch. I started checking her over and there was a huge tear about 4 inches long and two inches wide on the right side of her abdomen. It was a skin tear only, luckily no muscles or arteries were punctured. I immediately loaded her up for the 24 hour emergency vet clinic across town. An hour later they had her stitched up with drain tubes in each end of the tear.
Fire at the emergency vet
We treated it with oral antibiotics and I cleaned the wound area with hydrogen peroxide 2-4 times per day. A week after the procedure, the drain tubes were removed, then the stitches were removed on Monday. As you can see based on the condition of the cone in the photo below, she became used to it quickly and learned to use it as a weapon. We were rammed in the calves multiple times per day with it and she almost pushed me down the stairs with it a couple of times.
Fire getting ready to have her cone removed.
After it happened, we thought it would be the end of Fire’s hunting season for sure. We will evaluate the situation when we get to Valentine, but since the cover on the dunes is not thick like it is down here, I think she’ll be fine to join us looking for grouse around Christmas. Charles saw good numbers while he was hunting deer in November. If we don’t get any at Christmas, it will be our first hunting season ever without bagging any sharptailed grouse. Let’s hope that it doesn’t happen!
Fire taking it easy after having her stitches removed.
Thanksgiving Pheasants
Charles, his friend Matt, and our son Conrad managed to get out for some pheasants the weekend after Thanksgiving. I stayed home to get stuff done around the house and work on the AWPGA magazine. Matt and Charles each brought home two roosters from public land in southeastern Nebraska.
10 year-old Conrad and the Thanksgiving roosters.
AWPGA Membership
It is that time of year for members to renew their membership and we’d love new members who hunt with griffs! Charles and I are on the field committee, which is working promote more hunting and hunt testing within the breed. Then once you are a member, you can also consider attending the National Specialty and related events in Des Moines, Iowa on September 3-7, 2015. The membership application is now available online: http://awpga.com/membership
Pupdates
Matt and Josie up in South Dakota have been chasing roosters too, and have also been practicing having her swim in the Missouri River. Josie is from our 2014 “H” Litter between Sam and Mae.
Josie along the Missouri
Josie on the lookout
Josie out in the frost
I think I should hit up the North Dakota Department of Tourism for sponsorship with as many great photos I’m getting out of there. Just kidding. It is a great place to send pups home to, plus we love to hunt up there ourselves!
Josie’s brother, Duncan, is at it again with Ernie and his gang.
Ernie and Duncan with another mess of roosters.
Ernie also put together another fun video of pheasant hunting for us all to be jealous of:
In other news of North Dakota, Susan, TracHer and the gang are still knocking them down. TracHer is from our “C” Litter in 2012 from Sam and Mae.
Another cool pic, TracHer is up with Tom on the top step.
TracHer retrieving a rooster in the snow.
Zoey down in Oklahoma has been helping Jimmy with the harvest down there. She is from our 2013 “E” Litter between Sam and Sue.
Zoey up on the tractor.
I’m not quite sure why my pictures are so small this week, they made some changes to WordPress that I’m still working out. Charles is down in Texas for the rest of the week for work, so I’m going to try and get out on my own tomorrow to do some hunting. I’d like to jump a pond that we have access to along the Missouri River, then make my way down south a bit to chase some pheasants.
I have done nothing for Christmas yet (and a part of me wishes I could boycott it altogether). Tradition is a force to be reckoned with, and I’m looking forward to seeing my family back home in a couple of weeks. And then of course, there’s that last shot at grouse for the year…
I’ll check back in before the holiday and let you know how my hunt went.
I will be 40 on Sunday. Not sure how to feel about that. Hopefully I get at least 40 more years and I get to hunt for most of them. We plan on going out to dinner Saturday night and probably chase some birds either Saturday or Sunday. The other day we’ll spend with the kids and my mom. I’ve told everyone no gifts since I’m spoiled enough as it is.
Brian over at Ultimate Upland wrote a post this week about slowing down as a hunter as we age http://www.ultimateuplandnews.com/upland-with-friends/. Charles and I have been discussing the same thing this year. I can remember being in our 20s and how we would hunt all day, then party for most of the night back home in Valentine for several consecutive days. Over the years, the beers have become fewer and evening hours have grown shorter progressively. I’ve actually given up drinking altogether as of two months ago (I’m making it official here on the blog since I’m going to stick with it this time). I hope that is enough oversharing for everyone this week.
AWPGA
Mr. T says so http://awpga.com/index.php. Since you get to read my blog free from advertising, with the exception of the junk WordPress puts at the bottom, I am going to start plugging AWPGA membership. Especially those of you who own griffs and do NAVHDA testing. Now that I’m working on the Griffonnier and Charles and I are starting to help with the field committee, I see that probably less than 10% of those prizing are AWPGA members. We are going to change that. Plus, we are looking to get more AWPGA sponsored field events across the country. I am very excited to be helping out the elders who have been doing this for a long time and using my blog as a way to help get the word out.
AWPGA Database: I have not yet added my litters to the database, but will have done so by the next time I post to the blog. That will allow any of my puppy owners to add health and title information. Griff owners can add information at http://awpgadb.com. This is not only for AWPGA members, but any griff owners.
Pheasant Season Update
I was out of commission last weekend with a cold, but Charles and his friend, Matt, made it out into the field with Fire and BB. Charles got a rooster and the world’s smallest quail and Matt got two roosters.
Charles with Fire, Matt with BB
Pupdates
Sounds like last weekend was beautiful up in North Dakota and there were plenty of birds to be had. Ernie, Duncan and a large party of fellow hunters and dogs found a mess of roosters! Duncan is from our 2014 “H” Litter between Sam and Mae and is 7 1/2 months old.
Duncan and a big pile of ND roosters
Of course, TracHer, Susan, and Tom are out chasing roosters again. They were joined by Jim Borg, participant in the 2014 NAVHDA Invitational and owner of VC Agate Hill’s Akeeta (who had to sit out of the hunt due to injury).
Susan said, “The weather has been unbelievably gorgeous for this time of year and we are so glad we can take advantage of it. TracHer really is coming into her own…she’s showing great drive, points, retrieves—I couldn’t ask for more from her, and it took until this season for her to come into her own. We hunted with Jim Borg today with his 12 year old Griff Max.”
TracHer on point. She is from our 2012 “C” litter between Sam and Mae.
Jim with TracHer and Max on point
Close up of TracHer and Max on point.
TracHer, Tom holding Max the GWP pup, Susan, Max the griff, Jim, and Zepher.
An aside for those of you who are not familiar with the NAVHDA hunt testing system. The Invitational is held every year for those dogs who earn a Prize I in the Utility Test. From the NAVHDA website:
Field work consists of a search, pointing, steadiness, backing and retrieving with the dogs being run in braces. Water work consists of a blind retrieve, double-marked retrieve and honoring a retrieve. Cooperation, obedience, desire and nose are judged throughout the entire test. Dogs successfully completing the Invitational Test with a passing score will receive the title of “Versatile Champion,” further recognized by placing VC before their names.
Susan does such a great job keeping me in photos! I hope to make it up to a Central Dakota Chapter NAVHDA Test one of these years so that I get to meet all of these great griff hunters who are members up there.
Danny down in Texas has Fern from our 2013 “F” litter from Sam and Mae. He said:
We work on upland, waterfowl, fur and tracking. This morning I shot a doe and she tracked it about 100 yards. I was so proud of her, even though it appeared to be super easy for her. We start duck season next weekend, so with a deer in the freezer we can concentrate on what she/I love the most.
We moved this summer to a house on ~6 acres. It’s fully fenced and she is a hunting machine. She spends so much time hunting at full throttle that I was remiss in her training for a couple of months. We have stepped up our effort and she is getting back to her old obedient self.
Fern’s blood track
That is so cool, we have never used our griffs for blood tracking big game, but it is one of their historical purposes and it is great to see one of our owners out there doing it!
Rob lives just across town here in Omaha and has Maggie, who is from our 2012 “E” litter between Sam and Sue. He said:
Maggie is doing fantastic. She hunted last year at 9 months and our hunting friends were shocked she was that young, because of how well she did. Since then we have been training all the time, in the hope that she will be better at hunting than I am at training!! And it’s going well. This is us working on retrieving, and hopefully I will get some great photos, or maybe video, after we spend next week in Winner, SD chasing those roosters.
Maggie and a rooster
Wow, owners, thanks for all of the great updates! The day is getting away from me and I need to fix supper. I have some big projects due for grad school coming up, so I don’t know if I’ll be back in one week or two. But God willing, I’ll be back. Talk at you then.
Fellow Wirehaired Pointing Griffon breeders and owners: please participate in the AWPGA Health and Genetics Database. You do not have to be an AWPGA member to participate. We are looking to collect as much pedigree and health information as possible, so that we can go forward with a clearer picture of where the breed is currently and make appropriate breeding decisions. http://www.awpgadb.com/
2014 Hunting Issue of the Griffonnier
I am now co-editor of the Griffonnier with Amy Caswell-O’Clair from New Hampshire. The first issue that I’ll be working on is appropriately the Hunting Issue 2014. If you are an AWPGA member and have hunting training tips, hunting tales and photographs, or game bird recipes, please e-mail them to griffonniereditor@cox.net by November 30th. If you aren’t an AWPGA member, please consider joining us: http://awpga.com/beamember.html. We will be having our annual gathering in Fall 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa and would love to have you all join us.
Pups Hunting in North Dakota
I’m getting good reports out of North Dakota from both my puppy owners and Charles. Here’s Susan’s North Dakota hunting party, with our pup TracHer from our 2012 “C” Litter from Sam and Mae. Susan and TracHer are on the far left of the photo.
Susan and TracHer with friends and family.
Susan said that the numbers were great and that they all would have had their limits if their shots had connected. I know that feeling!
Ernie is having fun in North Dakota with 7 month old Duncan, from our 2014 “H” Litter from Sam and Mae.
Duncan and Ernie with a pheasant limit
Ernie has also picked up a GoPro camera and got some video of points and retrieves from Duncan. GoPro seems to have improved the distance perception in the newer models, it seems more true to real sight. I couldn’t be more pleased with this footage, what great work for a 7 month old pup.
Hunt Test News
Congratulations to Sal and Chester (TracHer’s littermate) on two AKC Senior Hunter passes at the Long Island (New York) Viszla Club the weekend before last!
Sal and Chester with SH ribbons
Also, congratulations to John and his pup, Cle, who is our Fire’s brother, on his NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize III at 8 months with the MidSouth NAVHDA Chapter in Pelham, Tennessee over the weekend.
More North Dakota
The dogs and Charles rolled into North Dakota mid-day Sunday, giving them some time to hunt in the afternoon and evening. He took his first ever Hungarian Partridge then. (Sorry for the low quality phone photos)
Charles’s first Hungarian Partridge
I received another truck and bird photo mid-afternoon today, a drake redhead and two nice roosters. The story on the duck is that he was working a slough surrounded by a cornfield when a group of ducks got up from the pond. Charles tucked down, with this one flying in range. The duck landed in standing corn and little Fire retrieved it. He took the two roosters an hour or so later within 5 minutes of each other, but saw nothing else the rest of the day. Still a nice bag.
Drake redhead and two roosters
Good luck to everyone else in the field out there!
I received an e-mail from Charbel in Mexico City that six month-old Bluestem Freyja, sister to our pup Fire out of Sam and BB, is now officially the only registered Wirehaired Pointing Griffon in Mexico! Viva Griffon! I find the name that they use quite interesting, as it literally translates into “Pointer Griffon of Hard Hair”. Here is the official pedigree from FCM, and thank you so much to Charbel for sending me a copy!
Federacion Canofila Mexicana Pedigree of Pointer Griffon de Pelo Duro, Bluestem Freyja
It is pretty cool that in 3 generations it goes from France (Cyr, the sire of BB), Canada (BB was born), US (where Freyja was born), and now to Mexico. I know that she has a good life down there, and I can’t wait to get some pics of her chasing some of their crazy quail.
Fire Training Day Epic Fail
Our poor raggedy chukar have been sitting in the holding pen for too long. It isn’t a flight pen and most of them are big males and have pecked one another over quite a bit. But we decided that Fire absolutely had to get out. So yesterday morning, off we went to the dog training wildlife management area south of town with three chukars.
It has been raining so much that the grass was wet, and the birds were wet. But Charles planted them anyway. At that point, we hadn’t had Fire out working birds or even for a multi-hour walk for about a month. The first thing that she did was take off like a bat out of hell right down the scent of Charles’s boots, with no care in the world for the whistle. We finally found her about 150 yards away, up and over the hill with the last bird that he had planted in her mouth.
On the second bird, we got a point out of her that Charles was able to walk in on, but it barely flew and was almost an Arky shot (looks like I need to add Arky Shot to Urban Dictionary. It is when a person shoots a bird on the ground or in a tree, which is extremely unsportsmanlike when not totally illegal). But he wanted to make sure that he fired the shotgun and the bird was dead when she got ahold of it. I think that the shotgun blast scared me more than it did the dog, so it looks like we’ve got the pup’s shotgun conditioning finalized.
Charles walking in on Fire’s point
Fire showing off her prey drive on the flush
Charles going for the near-Arky
She retrieved that bird, but I was still too stunned from the blast to get a photo of it. We got a decent point on the last bird, but it didn’t fly but about 6 inches off of the ground, right into Fire’s mouth. Aw hell. Although it makes for a funny story, and everyone who trains dogs has these days, it was still a big thumbs down.
Everybody Run
Remember that awesome song from Sesame Street in the 1970s? Well, here it is:
Yet I digress. This morning, we finally got everyone out for a run. And it was fun.
Sam, Fire, BB, and Charles.
Fire in the flowers
Go Sam go
BB on the move
Three dogs in the grass: Sam, Fire, BB
Here comes BB
Happy Sam
The people
Upcoming trialing and hunting
This weekend, we will be running Fire in the Amateur Walking Derby and the Walking Puppy Stakes at the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Nebraska’s Fall Trial at Branched Oak Lake Trial Grounds. I’ll be sure to get something up about that at the end of next weekend before I get on the plane for Maine. I’m hoping that the stakes prior to the Derby are large, because if it falls on Friday, I will have to handle. It would be my first time. I thought we’d be running again the following weekend, but once I went to fill out the premium for the Lincoln club, I realized that there are no walking stakes. So we’ll have the first weekend of September off from dog activities and just plan on sitting for some doves on Monday the 1st.
P
Pointing Dog Journal: Nebraska Sandhills Prairie Chicken Mention
This month’s PDJ Pass Along E-mail Blast was about the Greater Prairie Chicken and my very own Nebraska Sandhills. The following is the full text from the e-mail and I hope that I am re-printing it with permission. Full credit goes to Pointing Dog Journal and the author listed below:
Prairie Chickens in the Nebraska Sandhills by Greg Septon, STCP
Founded in 1961 to save the greater prairie-chicken (GPC) in Wisconsin, the Society of Tympanuchus Cupido Pinnatus, Ltd. (STCP) is working today to better understand the dynamics that maintain the nation’s largest viable population of GPC in the Nebraska Sandhills – the last best place to study the species in their natural grassland environment.
The goal in the Sandhills is to document productivity, habitat use, and movements of GPC and provide an understanding of how this is interwoven with human activities in the region. If GPC are to prosper as a species we need to better understand their needs and work to determine a scenario where compatible land uses will provide a secure future for them as well as humans so that both may coexist.
Our proactive approach at studying the dynamics of this large population now means that we can likely prevent the GPC from following in the wake of the lesser prairie-chicken – which is now listed as threatened, and the greater sage grouse, which may also be listed next year. If similar proactive research had been undertaken 20 years ago with these species, they might not be facing the uncertain futures they face today.
Gaining a thorough understanding of the life history of Nebraska’s large GPC population will also help provide a future for the isolated, remnant GPC populations in Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa. For it is from the large populations that these states will need to translocate birds from torestore genetic health and increase numbers to maintain their “museum” or “zoo” populations as they are often referred to. Without a stable source population where birds can be drawn from for periodic translocations, these small, isolated populations will eventually fade away one by one.
For a more comprehensive history of STCP and an account of our research efforts including work with the endangered Attwater’s prairie-chicken, please visit our website at: www.prairiegrouse.org.
Until next weekend
I need to go and get the kids ready for school tomorrow. It is very much unlike me to do a Sunday night post, but I desperately need to save my writing time in the morning for my paid writing gig. Oh, I also wanted to give a special shout out to the late night internet lurkers on my blog. I am also one of those people who gets up almost every night for 15 minutes or so between midnight and 4 AM and gets online. I know it is neurotic and a bad habit, but I always check my stats and see there are folks out there reading my blog at that time. I also see that there are people reading my archived posts from several years back. How embarrassing, it is a real cesspool in places. But that is just part of keeping an online diary. I’m glad that you enjoy it.
Today, for the first time in 13 years, I don’t have a child in daycare, preschool, or at home with me. The youngest is off to kindergarten and as much as I’ve looked forward to this day for so bloody long, it still hurts a little. But I’ll be back to substitute teaching English at the high school the day after tomorrow, so that will be exciting. And there’s always the dogs.
It has rained every day since we’ve been back from vacation, so they haven’t gotten a good long run in for awhile. It shows; they are a bit rammy on their walks out back. Yesterday, Sam finally met the new intact male pitbull that moved recently in a few properties over. I was very nervous, but the pit is probably several years younger and 3-4 inches shorter than Sam, so nobody was questioning who was dominate (thank God).
Fall is Coming
In case you hadn’t noticed, fall will be here soon. The dog cult of Branched Oak Field Trial Grounds will be re-assembling in 10 days for the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Nebraska’s Fall Field Trial. We’ll go ahead and run Fire in the Amateur Walking Puppy and Amateur Walking Derby stakes. The following weekend, we’ll do the same thing at the same place with the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Lincoln. Those trials fall on each end of my work week trip to Maine, August 25-29 for AWPGA National Specialty, so it will be a very doggy week.
Speaking of the people who hang around Branched Oak, I’d like to give a shout out to Kahne Packer, and his folks Dana and Chad. Kahne is bud of my kids at dog events and was featured in the Best in Show photograph for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission Nebraskaland Magazine Photo Contest for 2014.
Kahne Packer and his German Shorthaired Pointer anxiously wait to set foot afield at a youth mentor pheasant hunt at Cub Creek Hunting in Beatrice. Photo by Kaleb White
Sharptailed Grouse and Statewide Early Teal
We will skip opening day of sharptailed grouse on September 1 and instead head out there on Friday the 5th to chase them, with statewide Nebraska early teal opening on Saturday the 6th. If you go out for early teal on the 6th, make sure you take the time to properly identify what you are shooting. This season is under evaluation by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and if we harvest too many non-teal ducks, we will lose the season. TEAL ONLY. Please download the NGPC Waterfowl Guide to your phone or tablet prior to going out into the field for further guidance: http://outdoornebraska.ne.gov/hunting/guides/waterfowl/waterfowl.asp
The battle of the over/unders: the SKB Model 505 vs. the Browning Citori Lightning
We have a way of winning big ticket items at Pheasants Forever banquets. Charles and Conrad both have Nebraska Lifetime Hunting and Fishing licenses. I won the 12 ga. Browning Citori Lightning O/U four or five years ago. I used to shoot a 20 ga. SKB 505, but I don’t get a chance to shoot skeet that often, so I needed the extra reach of a 12 ga. to put more birds in the bag. Plus, it took me several years of hunting to work up the upper body strength to carry a shotgun all day and not end up with a black shoulder from bad form. Charles would have taken the Citori, but it is just too long for him.
An array of Browning Citoris, from pafoa.org
I have fought with that damn shotgun since the day I won it. It has driven me to tears. Both the Browning and the SKB have the safety on the top of the grip of the stock, just behind the receiver. With the SKB it is a simple thumb push forward to take the safety off. On the Browning Citori Lightning the safety and the O/U switch are one in the same, where you push the same switch side to side to choose barrels, then forward to take off the safety. If the O/U switch is not properly engaged, the safety will not turn off. And it is just enough to send me into a complete hissy fit and makes me lose my focus on the shot. So good riddance, Browning Citori Lightning O/U 12 ga., into the safe to be a loaner gun. Or maybe one of the boys will have more patience for it than I.
Unfortunately, SKB shotguns are not currently in production. About three years ago, the family who owned the SKB factory in Japan decided that they no longer wanted to carry on operating it once the family patriarch passed on. So, SKB USA, which is headquartered right here in Omaha, Nebraska, is building a new plant in Turkey to continue to manufacture these functional tools. Sure, it is cool to look at a Kreighoff, but what happens when I fall into the swamp (again)? But luckily around Christmas time, we found a 505 12 ga. in mint condition here at Guns Unlimited (aka SKB USA headquarters), so I am super excited to get her out in the field and shoot some stuff. Oops, I mean harvest the sacred game.
SKB Model 505 12 ga. field grade. Photo from skb.com
Vacation selfies
Looking back on my vaca post, I realize that I edited myself out of the photos. Here I am, “Hi!!”
Great Sand Dunes National Park kicked my arse. Photo by Charles.
Charles and I at the Grand Canyon. Photo by our 10 year-old son, Conrad.
Pupdates
We received Ben’s OFA certification back and it was Good. He is a 3 1/2 year old male out of Sam and Sue that we’ll be breeding on to our co-owned female, Velma. I can check that off of the list.
Ben’s OFA certificate
Ernie up in North Dakota has been working with his 5 month-old pup, Duncan, and the Central Dakota NAVHDA chapter towards the Natural Ability test. Duncan is from our 2014 “H” litter of Sam and Mae. He said, “Duncan is doing great, he has more natural ability than any other dog I have ever seen at this age. He is picking up on the obedience training very quickly. The guys at NAVHDA are sure he could do his NA test now, but I will wait until spring. Hope you have a great hunting season.”
He also sent along a video of their training:
As it says in the credits, thank you to Ernie for the great video, and to the Central Dakota NAVHDA chapter for the training opportunities!
Duncan on a fishing trip, waiting for hunting season.
Also working with the Central Dakota NAVHDA chapter is TracHer, with Susan and Tom. TracHer is from our 2012 “C” litter of Sam and Mae. They sent along a GoPro headmount video of working with her on steadiness. I appreciate them sharing a video of a work in progress, as training steadiness is challenging. If you are sensitive to motion, you might want to start the video at 1:15 or so. I also film with a GoPro and know that getting anything of quality is lucky, so thank you again Susan and Tom for putting in the effort to share this.
Matt up in South Dakota has been out with Josie, Duncan’s sister. He called me up and said that she’s gaining her independence in her puppy adolescence, but they are getting her reined back in by having her drag a check cord. She had a bit of random nervous barking early on, but they resolved it quickly with a no-bark collar. Matt guides upland and waterfowl near Vermillion when he isn’t doing his day job, and I learned something interesting from him about hunting waterfowl along the Missouri River. They do not use any type of collar on the dog up there, for fear of having dogs snag on the numerous logs and branches in the water. We have yet to try and take on the Mighty Mo here, it is a big deep channel, but that is a smart tip.
Josie sitting
Josie in the field
Josie with a bumper in the yard
TracHer’s brother, Chester, out in New York was caught on camera by his trainer, Steve Anker. Charles hangs out on the versatiledogs.com forum and showed me this. I loved it so much that I had to snag it. Chester is working on his NAVHDA Utility Test with the Hudson Valley NAVHDA Chapter, and is pictured with his owner, Sal.
Sal and Chester up to serious training business. Photo by Steve Anker.
Okay, not a pupdate, but still a silly griffon photo from my pack. My brother Ron had Mae out on Main Street in Valentine, Nebraska while the bar folk were about. I didn’t ask the details, but he titled this one “Mae Meets the Party Girls”.
Mae giving love to the party girls
Time for me to get on with the day. Party on, Mae.
Bluestem Kennels 