Before I get into the hunting photos, I just noticed as I logged into the dashboard to write this post that this is my 400th blog post. What started out as an easy way to show puppy photos to my families has really grown into a passion project. Thank you for being a part of this incredible journey that has taken my mediocre writing all over the globe. I started writing poetry and essays in elementary school, eventually moving on to high school, college and small town newspaper, then corporate technical and catalog writing and now this. We are in a semi-retirement period in regards to puppies and do not currently have any breeding plans and are not taking any reservations or deposits. We’ll let you know once that changes. I’m always at bluestemkennels@gmail.com to answer questions from my owners or puppy updates.
Alec Schrank has Luna, a 2025 X Litter puppy between Obi and Sally. I somehow missed his quail hunting photo with his buddies from last year when I was compiling the pupdates over the last month or so. She did 26 retrieves!
Alec with Luna and his buddies, along with a bunch of quail
She also got a NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize I with a maximum score of 112 points at the Volunteer Chapter test over in Tennessee recently. He said, “Rainy morning in Pelham, TN. We got delayed about an hour for lightning, but then it was great conditions aside from the light wind. Luna KILLED the pheasant track.” I’ve always thought that the pheasant track is the hardest part of the natural ability test, sometimes the dog gets way off and never does find the bird. I’m so proud to hear that Obi and Sally’s pup got down to business! Congratulations to Alec and Luna!
Alec with Luna at the Volunteer Chapter test with a NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize I, maximum score 112 points
Nebraska Sandhills 2026
Our son Caleb went out to the Nebraska Sandhills over his fall break with Charles and had a productive hunt. It was in the 90s in the afternoon, so it was too hot to hunt the dunes. He didn’t get to connect with any grouse, but he did get a drake woodduck while jump hunting ducks along the creeks. That is one of my favorite ducks to harvest with them being so colorful. Caleb said that he enjoyed getting some shooting in. He was annoyed with the fact that the woodduck dove under the creek bank with some heavy brush after it had been hit and Belle couldn’t get in there to get ahold of it. He ended up having to reach in there and grab it with his hand. But at least the duck was retrieved. The hen woodduck pictured here was harvested by Charles.
Caleb with a drake and a hen woodduck
Charles finally did get into some sharptailed grouse after Caleb flew back to the Carolinas. NAVHDA senior judge and longtime Griffon owner Ron Granai along with Ted Gagnon of Wet Acres Griffons made the trip out there from Massachusetts, but they all had a sparse hunt. The Sandhills involve so much walking and many times you are chasing birds hundreds of yards from one dune to the next, it is definitely not easy!
Molly and Belle with a couple of sharptailed grouse on October 10thBelle retrieving two sharptailed grouse at once on October 11th
Charles then took a break to work-from-home at my mom’s house before he headed up to North Dakota. This also gave the dogs a well-needed rest.
North Dakota 2026
Charles had a banner year in North Dakota, probably the best in the last decade. The corn and sunflowers were still standing dry and the soybeans were harvested. They had a cool, wet spring, unlike the moderate drought conditions in the Sandhills. Obi and Belle did the heavy lifting with pointing and retrieving. Molly was along for the hunt, but did find a downed rooster before the others did towards the end of the hunt.
Obi, Molly and Belle with the rooster limit on October 17thObi, Belle and Molly with a grouse, two green winged teal and two roosters for October 18thObi, Molly and Belle with the bird bag for October 19thTired dogs: Obi, Belle and Molly with a nice mature North Dakota rooster limit for October 20thObi, Belle and Molly with a couple of roosters for the last day on October 21st.
Charles will make one more trip out to Nebraska later on this year for a late season pheasant hunt in Nebraska. He also has a woodcock hunt in the works for somewhere here in the Southeastern U.S. I did not dress my dogs up for Halloween for yet another year, but I love to watch social media for the other dressed up dogs. Everyone out there keep enjoying the fall litters, hunting, hunt testing and all other things dog fun.
We hope that you all had a Merry Christmas and many blessings for the New Year! As many of you know, life with dogs is never dull. Keeping a breed going takes the work of many and there’s always something to do: whether it is training a young dog or keeping the adult dogs healthy and entertained. As of now, we’re still saying that we’re taking a break from litters, but all of these puppies on the ground with our breeder friends makes us miss our littles.
Yet soon enough we’ll have something to keep us occupied with bringing home a new male puppy at the end of the month. Our VC Obi is the stud and the female is a Firebirds/Aux Lake cross. For those of you who don’t know, Gary Engebretson of Firebirds in Wisconsin and Larry Woodward of Aux Lake in Kansas are both well-tested NAVHDA breeders. We’re hoping to compliment what we already have going in our breeding program with that blood.
I tend to get lost in hunting updates and haven’t been good about posting “pupdates”, so here we go with my effort to catch up! I only pull from my texts and email, there is no way for me to keep up with everyone’s socials at this time. When I have time to check Instagram and the Griffon Facebook groups, I do appreciate everyone sharing the photos of their pups, I guess I need to just do a better job of downloading and managing them as I see them (but I don’t).
Pupdates
Back in May of 2025 (keep in mind that we had three litters go home in 2025, so I am way behind) BJ from Tennessee took his male pup Blair from the 2024 “U” Litter between Obi and Sally to the Missouri Southern Chapter of NAVHDA for his Natural Ability Test at one year, two months old. Here is what BJ had to say about the experience:
Wanted to let you know Blair passed the NA test with a prize 2! A feat made more remarkable by the fact I only got him over birds three times last year and his handler has no idea what he’s doing.
His only subtractions were in search and desire. In talking with the judges after, they said it was a close call but he wasn’t going out and searching where the birds “should be”. They said it seemed like a lack of experience in the field and was confirmed when I told them about his limited exposure.
Thanks for the advice on the tracking portion. I did as instructed and it really panned out. The dog tracking before Blair caught its pheasant and ran all over the field with the bird. Since that field was ruined we had to go to an unprepared field the judges hadn’t planned to use. The bird shot away from the judges like a rocket. It went about five yards and hooked a 90 degree left turn. I was panicking. When I approached the judges they were also panicking. They said we’d give it a shot but that they might need to retest that portion because everything was stacked against Blair.
Blair put his little nose to the ground and followed right along for the first 15 yards. I was thrilled. Then he stopped. Then he turned 90 degrees in the wrong direction and made a 20 yard loop. My heart sank. But he circled back behind us, made contact with the scent, and trailed the pheasant all the way to a point. I almost teared up. It was that beautiful.
The judge said afterward that the dog completely bailed them out on that track. He said Blair was notably calm and focused and patient during that exercise.
My first NAVHDA event – much less test – was a great success. My fellow handlers were delightful and the judges were gracious with their time and the way they handled the event. I hope you’re as pleased as I am with the result. Thanks for your work with the breed. Blair truly did that on his natural abilities.
BJ and Blair in the field by Debbi McCaulBlair working scent by Debbi McCaul
Blair ended up with a NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize II with 103 points. A great job for a new dog and handler to the sport! Sorry BJ that it took me so long to get you a shout out!
Our next puppy NAVHDA test news was from Tate in Indiana with Willow. She’s from the early 2025 “V” Litter between Duke and Briar. At seven months and in her first heat cycle, she scored 110 points for a Prize I Natural Ability at the White Creek NAVHDA Chapter in Indiana back in August. Awesome work Tate and Willow!
Willow at seven months old in August with her NAVHDA NA I
In other news from the “V” Litter from early 2025, Bazooka is maturing nicely with Eva down in Arkansas.
Bazooka on the hunt at 11 months oldBazooka on the duck retrieve
Next we have Millie (2025 X Litter Obi x Sally) who is with Dara and Pericle in Upstate New York. She’s been looking super cute in the snow.
Millie with a beautiful head shotMillie in the snowA side profile of Millie in the snow
Millie’s sister Luna in Mississippi is having lots of adventures with her airman owner Alec, both in and out of the field.
Alec and Luna in the fieldAlec and Luna with their best girl on the tarmac
Last but not least, we have Gary with Marcus who is right here on Lake Wylie, South Carolina. He’s also handsome! Gary is out of the 2025 W Litter between Duke and Briar.
Gary with another cute puppy faceGary taking lake life seriously
Look at all of those cute dogs! I’ll keep telling myself that we’re taking time off from having puppies for now. I will be sure to keep you all posted as to when we start making plans otherwise.
Nebraska Pheasant and Quail 2025
Charles had a good trip out to south central Nebraska for pheasants and quail in December.
Belle and the first day’s limit of pheasantBelle and Charles’s Day two single roosterFront to back: Belle, Sally and Obi all on pointBelle with a limit of quail on day 3
East Coast Woodcock
The weekend after Christmas, Charles and Caleb headed out for woodcock here back on the East Coast and each took a limit.
Some Sundance Shorthairs with Caleb, Charles, Belle and some limits of woodcock
We’re all thankful for our successes in the whelping box and the field for 2025 and are looking forward to new adventures in 2026! I’m sure I’ll get inspired to get my camera out and brag on our new puppy, so keep an eye out in another month or so and I’ll be back. Let’s stay warm and push through to spring.
Merry Christmas from Bluestem Kennels! I figured that Charles spending seven days hunting in Nebraska would butt right up to breeding season and I was correct! He got home just in time to get everyone full of energy and nutrition for puppy making. When I emailed out my prospective puppy owners a few days ago, it looked like Sally was going to be the first to breed. But with Ruth being the alpha and older, I knew that a silent heat could be possible and that she could be bred first. Sure enough, yesterday Duke was just barking his head off when Ruth was around and she was starting to stand and be receptive. We had a tie between Ruth and Duke yesterday and this morning. Sally just stopped her proestrus bleeding and should be a week or so away from breeding (but you never know, you can also have split heats where they bleed, are infertile/unreceptive for awhile, then out of nowhere are ready to breed). There is a lot of observing behavior at this point since I don’t run to the vet for daily hormone testing and I’ve always done it naturally.
I do have a longer list going of reservations, so I’d say anyone inquiring at this point should understand that I might not have availability until Spring 2025. Feel free to contact me at bluestemkennels@gmail.com and we can exchange phone numbers from there. My deposits are fully refundable, therefore there could be folks who drop off of the list or want to wait until the following year due to life circumstances. I’ll be reaching out to those who are on the list after the holidays to make sure that they are in a place to take a puppy in May. At this point I’ll assume that the breeding will take place in January, with puppies whelped in March and going home in May.
Seven Day Hunt in Nebraska
Charles took a new hunter in his twenties from Virginia, Evan, out to Nebraska with his German Shorthaired Pointer, Ridge. They were able to visit and hunt with our old friend and co-breeder, Aaron, who still has old Velma who was the mother of a few of our litters. Aaron was just down to one dog, his Griff Chewie, so we all decided that Dolly the English Pointer should go and live with him. She has already harvested six or seven wild roosters with Aaron and he says that she’s even starting to retrieve now that she doesn’t have a bunch of Griffs to do it for her.
Obi, Duke, Ruth and Dolly running on the first day
There were no birds harvested on the first day, but it was a chance for everyone to get acclimated to being out west. Luckily the weather wasn’t super cold and there weren’t any blizzards, but it was definitely dry.
As they worked their was across South Central Nebraska, they finally got into birds on day two. It is never a blowout for pheasant in Nebraska anymore, so Charles, Obi and Sally scratched out a couple of roosters the second day. Sally was queen of the bird finding and Obi came up with the retrieves.
Sally, Obi and Charles’s two roosters for the day
It was finally on day three that everyone got on to the board. Having four Griffons with him, Charles was bracing Obi and Sally together, then swapping them out for Duke and Ruth midday generally. Here is a shot of Sally retrieving the first rooster of day three.
Sally bringing in a pretty one on day threeEvan and Ridge with two roosters and a quailCharles with Obi, Sally, a limit of roosters and a quail
Day four was an all-Charles show again. The experience of the dogs plus the hunter in these scenarios is a pretty unfair advantage. You’ll also see that Charles now wears shooting glasses. When we were out in the Sandhills, I noticed that he was missing shots that he should have been hitting. He had Lasik surgery about 20 years ago and I was betting that some of the focus was starting to wear off with age. So I made him an appointment at the eye doctor and sure enough enough he needed some corrective lenses. He says that they are making all the difference (thank God, the yelling about the bad misses was getting tiresome!).
Ruth and Duke with two roosters for the morning of day fourSally and Obi rounding out the day with one more rooster for the limit of three
(Just FYI, I don’t have a lot of control over the size of these photos and I keep messing them up trying to change them, so it just is what it is right now.)
Day five was a total bust on public land, but day six was on some nice private ground that Charles made contact with through folks at his old job in Nebraska. Thank you to the hosts for having Charles, Evan and the dogs on your property. Here are all of the photos from that day, the bird total was: 3 quail and a rooster for the hosts, 6 quail for Evan and Ridge, then five quail and a rooster for Charles and the four Griffons. Duke is pictured for the Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, but Obi, Sally and Ruth also contributed.
Charles and Evan in the back of the truck with the morning harvest, the hosts/locals standing to the sidesEvan with Ridge the GSP and Charles with Duke the Griffon and the birds for the morningDuke and Charles with a rooster, Evan and ridge with a quail in the afternoonEvan and Ridge with the host, Duke, Sally and Charles with a bumper bird total on the day
Of course on day seven, you not only end up with tired dogs, but also tired photographers. Here’s the bumper bird total with Evan and one of the hosts. The breakdown on the day was two roosters for the host, two quail for Charles and one rooster for Evan.
The host and Evan with a tailgate bird total for day seven
I’m not even going to go back and do a bird total on that trip, an epic adventure for sure! The most important thing is that there was good dog work and everyone came out of it uninjured. There was some fur worn off of the tops of noses and a few burrs in beards that I had to pull out when they got home. They were sore and hungry for a few days afterward.
Now they’ve bounced back for puppy making, what a whirlwind! Keep us in your thoughts and prayers for successful breedings. Merry Christmas everyone and if I don’t have any other news prior, I’ll throw in a Happy New Year just for good measure. I appreciate all of our puppy families past, present and future: may God bless us all, everyone.
According to the calendar, Sally should already be starting her heat cycle, but nothing with dogs ever follows the calendar. The one thing about having two males is that I never have to worry about missing it! Since Ruth is the alpha of the two, I don’t wonder if Sally’s waiting for hers to start. I’ve had two litters at once before and it is super busy, but doable. I do have quite a list of reservations, but since my deposits are refundable there’s no guarantee that each of those people will take a pup. So feel free to email me at bluestemkennels@gmail.com if you’d like to discuss, but realize that there might not be availability until Spring 2025. We don’t know until they get here! I’ll keep everyone posted once things start happening with the heat cycles, I check the girls every day. Hopefully, I won’t be waiting until Valentine’s Day, but it could happen.
The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Charles headed to central South Carolina to look for some quail. One thing that he has learned about hunting down here is that you really have to read your regulations. Some fields are only open for hunting for certain days per year. The place that he went was one of those quail management units, which is not how it is out west, so it was something new for him to check out. There was one other hunter there without dogs, so they just worked away from each other. He had our pointer Dolly out first with our older male, Obi, and she is just a bird finding machine. I really did not want a pointer, but it is nice to have a hot-footer out in front sometimes really zooming around looking for birds. They pushed up a covey and another single before they connected here. On this one Dolly stayed on point, Obi honored, Charles got the shot, then Obi retrieved.
Obi and Dolly with their quail
The second half of the hunt was a Sally and Duke run. I’m not sure who ended up with the retrieve, but Sally is a long nose. She points birds from really far away and is steady.
Duke and Sally with a single South Carolina quail
While Charles was hunting, I was down in Atlanta visiting family and picked up the seasonal crud. This is just a funny picture of what it is like when you’re sick with Griffs around.
Sally and Briar making sure that mom knows that she is loved.
I’ve also been busy working on the AWPGA 2024 National Specialty for Winston-Salem, North Carolina for November 7-12, 2024. For those of you who don’t know, a national specialty has our national breed dog show (the winner of Best of Breed automatically qualifies for Westminster), then it also has field events such as AKC Hunt Tests and/or working standard field trial, possibly an obedience trial, some educational seminars, plus we have social events like receptions and an awards banquet. I don’t want to steal the club website’s thunder, so I’ll wait and link to that for the tentative calendar of events once it drops. If you would like to join the AWPGA, the AKC breed parent club for the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, please visit our website: https://www.awpga.com/2024-member-application-form.html
I was the editor for the quarterly club magazine the Griffonnier for four years, I went inactive for awhile, now I’m back serving on the Board of Directors as Secretary while also being the Chairperson of the National Specialty. It is fun and challenging. We went with a futuristic logo with a Griff’s head with the NC state shape inside. Our club is passionate about the breed and welcome new members and attendees to the national specialty. I will keep you all posted as more news of the event drops.
Please email bluestemkennels@gmail.com for inquiries relating to our upcoming or future litters.
I am checking Sally everyday for sign of coming into season, as the boys are starting to act like things are going on and there are some subtle changes occurring. I’m going to be conservative and say that she’ll be bred by Christmas, but once proestrus bleeding starts I’ll know more exactly. That would put puppies being whelped in January or February and going home in March or April. I am not keeping a puppy from this litter with Sally being young enough for me to do that, so that will move folks up the reservation list one slot. It is always tough to tell where everything will shake out owner-wise between a list and a litter. With my deposits being refundable until a puppy whelped is three weeks old and the possibility that some people will want to wait for Ruth’s litter, or have life situations arise where they will wait for the following year, even having a long list doesn’t guarantee folks showing interest now won’t get a puppy. We are all placing bets on a natural process and just pray that it all works out.
The breeding that is coming up soon is AKC/NAVHDA Bluestem Sally Forth SH, NA II “Sally” and Wyo Plainsman Kenobi NA I, UPT III, UT I “Obi”. Obi qualified for NAVHDA Invitational in 2023 and recently re-qualified for 2024. Sally went 5 passes in 5 runs for her AKC Senior Hunter. Her NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize II was with our son Caleb as a junior handler. We’ve tested her in both Utility Preparatory Test and Utility Test and she does all of the skills except picking up the live duck at the end of the duck search. She had a bad run in with a mean duck pecking her in the face and we’re working back into being aggressive on the live duck. I’m hoping to re-test her in the Fall of 2024, she is still young and we have plenty of time. There are so many things that a dog has to do right in the Utility Test and just missing one is not the end of the world. She is phenomenal in the field and is a pretty looking and healthy dog.
The second breeding probably won’t happen until between Christmas and Valentine’s Day, that will be between our older female Bluestem Peaches En Regalia NA I, UPT II, UT III “Ruth” and our young male, Cedar and Spruce’s Apollo NA III “Duke”. Ruth is beautiful and one of our best bird-finders, just off-the-charts prey drive. Duke is our young male who was also handled in NAVHDA Natural Ability by our son as a junior handler. This is Ruth’s last litter and we really want a pup between her and Duke so we are going ahead with the pairing before he even utility tests. His hips are phenomenal, his prelim elbows were good, his eyes are normal and we’re waiting for his two year birthday in a couple of weeks to do his final elbows and thyroid test.
All of the dogs pedigrees and health clearances are on the “About Our Dogs” page. They are not only hunting dogs and breeding stock, but also our family pets. Everyone is crate trained, housebroken, good with kids and other dogs (free range chickens and cats are a no). You can train a Griffon to be friendly with a cat, like when we go to the vet there are loose cats and they don’t eat them, but my dogs want to torment cats. We have a barn cat that gets chased up trees. You have to have chickens or any birds in a coop.
Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffons
Speaking of birds, after Caleb and I returned to South Carolina last month, Charles continued his adventures with the dogs, leaving my mom’s house in Nebraska and headed up to our usual old haunts in North Dakota. He did bring home German kuchen and sausages like I always ask for. It looks like the young dogs Sally and Duke got in on most of the action. He got excited and took the first picture in the morning before he had finished his harvest.
Sally and Duke with a couple of morning roostersThey ended day one with a limit of roosters and two sharptailed grouseOn the camp chain gang, from left to right: Duke, Sally, Ruth and Obi
On the second day, Ruth and Obi harvested three ducks and a pheasant, but there was no photo.
Day three Duke and Sally were back on duty and took two ducks and a pheasant.
Duke and Sally with two ducks and a pheasantObi, Sally, Ruth and Duke with the North Dakota harvest
North Dakota produces but does so with great effort. A person has to root pheasants out of little cattail patches in harvested fields, walk the rolling hills for sharptails and check scattered ponds for ducks. But it is always a fun hunt and we love checking in on the people that we’ve now seen almost annually for about 10 years.
Charles stopped back in the Nebraska Sandhills to work remotely for a few days and was able to get in a couple of more days of hunting. The first day was photographed with Duke getting in on a few ducks.
Duke with three Nebraska Sandhills ducks
We’re not sure what the rest of the hunting season holds for us, Charles may sneak in one more trip out west, there’s talk of looking for some North Carolina ruffed grouse, around the New Year there should be some woodcock moving through down here, we’ll just take it all as it comes. As much as we love the mild winters down here, we really have our sights set on Charles working remotely out of Nebraska once Caleb graduates high school in 2027. The hunting out west just cannot be beat.
I have a new friend who I would like to introduce you to. I bought back one of my “S” Litter pups since we won’t be repeating the Obi x Ruth cross again. She is just over a year old and I have her ready to NAVHDA Natural Ability test, but there are no test openings before she turns 16 months old. So my current plan is to use the AKC Junior Hunter as her puppy test this spring. What is really crazy is how much she looks like our foundation female, Sue. So here is little Briar getting a treat from Charles last night:
AKC/NAVHDA Bluestem’s Carolina Briar Thicket
Here is our foundation female Sue:
Sweetgrass Sandhill Sioux “Sue” our first female Griffon
Looking at Ruth and Obi, you never would have imagined that they would produce a pup with that coat, but it happened. Genetics are an interesting thing. Sue is Briar’s Great-Great Grandmother.
It is time to get on with the day, I will be sure to keep you posted with the breeding developments and any new hunting adventures that come about. Happy hunting to everyone out there in the fields!
I apologize for my absence from the blog and social media in general. Organizing the trophies for the Eastern Regional Specialty Dog Show in York, Pennsylvania has taken up so much time. Not only did I have to figure out all of the placements for three shows, but then I had to figure out the budget for each placement and order a prize. I think that I’m getting closer to the end of the process. The trophies are all hunting dog items, so where I’ve written for hunting dog catalogs and have just been a bird dog junk junkie for 15 years it was actually fun to shop for the items. I was able to give business to all of the major players: Cabela’s, Orvis, Filson, Gun Dog Supply, Lion Country Supply and Ugly Dog Hunting. Those are all unpaid shout outs and they all had something unique to contribute to the cause.
So here is the basic schedule: Thursday is the Field Day at York Pointer and Setter Club, Friday is ALL DAY of dog shows: Sweeps, Supported Entry and Regional Specialty. For those of you new to dog shows, what will happen is that the classes of the first show run, then we go through best of breed for that show. Then we go to the second show where the same thing happens, you go through the classes, the best of each class is awarded, then it goes to best of breed. We do it a third time for the Regional Specialty. It will be a very exciting day to see many old friends, but also stressful and chaotic with so much going on. I have never helped with that many shows all in one day, they are usually spread out over multiple days. This whole schedule is intense, since we are doing double/double AKC hunt tests Saturday and Sunday.
Due to the intensity of the schedule for the performance events and the fact that it is St. Patrick’s Day that Friday night, there is no banquet scheduled. Those of us who are running dogs Saturday morning in the hunt tests have to be at the field ready to go by 7:30 AM, so we’ll need to start moving in the morning around 5:30 AM. We’ll probably get some dinner groups together at the show for Friday night just by word-of-mouth and those of us who have to be up early the following day will be done by 9 PM.
I am running our young dogs Duke and Sally in AKC Senior Hunter at the York Pointer and Setter Club. Since it is a double/double, I’ll be doing four runs a day (two runs a day with two dogs) for a total of eight runs. There will be lunch available to purchase at the hunt tests both Saturday and Sunday. Once again, there are no formal dinner plans and we’ll just bunch up and figure things out during the day.
My hunt test style from 2020A more recent photo in travel mode
In the event that you are looking for me at the shows or the hunt tests, here are some pictures of me. I am usually behind the camera instead of in front of it. I have a blaze orange knee length dress that I am planning on wearing to the shows, so I should be easy to spot.
Breeding Update
As of right now, I have eleven reservations with deposit for my Fall 2023 litter between Obi and Ruth. As my deposits are fully refundable until the pups are three weeks old, these numbers can change rapidly depending on peoples’ life situations. I have frequently had four or five folks defer to the following year in those first three weeks. Obi and Ruth will be having their last litter before Ruth’s retirement in the Spring of 2024, so should there not be enough pups in the Fall of 2023 the reservations can roll over. We’ll also be breeding Sally and Duke in Spring 2024. Feel free to email bluestemkennels@gmail.com to express interest in the litters. I know that I have a few emails sitting in my inbox needing responses, so if one of those is yours from the last few days, I will be getting to them this afternoon (I also had to get my tax information to my accountant this week, so I’m sort of on brain fry mode, sorry).
As far as the specific breeding schedule for the fall, Ruth had her winter heat cycle at the end of January. So that means if my experience from the past is correct, her summer cycle will be at the end of July. Pups would then be born at the end of September and go home around Thanksgiving. That is all guesstimation from past experience and Mother Nature is in control.
Social Media Info
I am not going to be on TikTok. I downloaded the app and started looking at videos one day and the very next day the financial information stored in my phone was compromised. I caught it before my bank did since I was looking for it. So no TikTok for me.
Instagram is a lot of ads. Also, the AI censors hunting photos from hashtags. So if I have dead birds and a gun in my pictures, it gets wiped from the hashtag almost instantly. I am going to use it sparingly. Once I start backing up old hunting photos again this summer, I will get those posted. I will try to be more active on it, but like I say, I am a bit salty about the censorship. The two pups from the “R” Litter are very active on there under the accounts @griffons.griffon and @thelifeandtimesofbeatricebriar. The first one follows Chase Wiley with his family here in the Charlotte suburbs, the second follows Beatrice Briar as a Kentucky ultramarathon trail dog with her veterinarian dog dad.
Even though this blog/website is thirteen years old and my photo galleries are pretty sketchy with their organization (I will fix it this summer), this is my primary tool. I have to use my English degree skills somewhere. I am not good at little tidbits of information spread out through days and weeks. I have to sit down and write you an essay. I also like Facebook since it is full of Boomers and Gen X, those are my people. My page there is old and has a lot of followers, so I’ll just keep riding that until we are all in the nursing home I guess. I do not have anyone else with login access to this blog. I do not have a “last post” written and in storage anywhere. The thought of doing estate planning on this website does not appeal to me and I’m just not there yet. So hopefully the construction dumptrucks of the Carolinas continue to avoid hitting me.
YouTube is what I use to make videos of puppies anymore. I would love to do grooming and training videos someday, but I need to figure out the whole Patreon racket so that I get paid for views. And although I have the hardware to do video content, I also need to invest in Adobe Creative Cloud software, specifically the Premier Pro video editor, to do my art the way that I want it to look. And then I need to train myself on it. So hopefully more YouTube content will be rolling in the next year or so (weekly low budget puppy videos will continue as normal without change for now).
South Carolina Woodcock
Charles and Obi wrapped up the woodcock season at the end of January with one in the bag. I have to be honest, as much as I love the Carolinas, Charles is dying to get back to Nebraska at some point. The hunting here is not what he wants. I’m in love with the Carolinas and am determined to stay here. Although we have a piece of raw land way out in Western Nebraska, we’re talking about having a second home close to our kids in Omaha so that he can go out and hunt, he can work remotely and access the airport if needed. Both of us moving back and forth as needed. We are at least a year away from that possibility with two kids in college right now, but that is in our minds pretty seriously. Send us good intentions for the manifestation of that dream.
Oh, but the woodcock with Obi! Here it is:
The trusty SKB 12 gauge, Obi and the woodcock from the end of January. Photo by Charles.
Fire in Retirement
I loved seeing this picture of Fire (now “Bella”) on the right, enjoying her retirement life moving between Arizona and Minnesota with one of our old pals from Pheasants Forever in Nebraska. Out getting in on some wild quail action in Arizona with her GSP buddy. Thank you Ron for giving her a great retirement home. She is the mother of our current females, Ruth and Sally.
Fire/Bella on right enjoying her retirement with some Arizona quail.
Well the day is getting on and it is time to wrap up the blogging. I have a gobzillion dog hunting items to unbox sitting in my entryway! Spring is really springing here and I hope it makes it out to the frozen wasteland in North Central Nebraska and South Central South Dakota. They are in a top 10 snowiest year on record and folks are pretty miserable about it. Keep our beef cattle ranchers in your prayers as they are having a tough start to calving season.
Good luck to everyone with spring pups and doing training/testing. Talk at you again soon with the update from Pennsylvania.
Feel free to email bluestemkennels@gmail.com if you are interested in reserving a pup from our planned litter for Fall 2023. We will not be breeding or hunt testing in the spring due to some family travel obligations.
While I was in South Carolina wrapping up raising our last litter of pups, Charles took Obi, Sally and Duke out to the Sandhills of Nebraska and the prairie pothole region of North Dakota for some mixed upland and waterfowl action. The trip was a great success, especially with the new technology allowing Charles to work his regular job remote for a few days, then hunting a few days.
I don’t have a ton of details except that the dogs covered lots of ground and had plenty of wild bird action.
The first morning in the Nebraska Sandhills with a limit of sharptails. Obi, Sally and Duke.Duke went solo went some teal (also on Day One in the Sandhills)The end of the day photo from the first day in the Sandhills: a grouse limit, a woodduck and four teal.
The second day he had to work for his grouse limit, which he didn’t wrap up until the middle of the afternoon. He added one teal to this photo before he headed back to my mom’s house.
Grouse limit for day two in the Nebraska Sandhills. Obi, Sally and Duke.
He spent the next three days working, then picked back up for another grouse limit and a ringneck duck.
Sally (farthest away), Obi (on left) and Duke (in the foreground) pointing an antelope.Sally, Duke and Obi with the three sharptailed grouse and a ringneck duck on the third day of Nebraska Sandhills.
Charles then worked another handful of days before heading out again. I was really surprised with all of the negative reports that I had been hearing from locals and ranchers due to the drought that he had such great success each day.
His last day in the Sandhills was a super windy day (you can see by the dogs’ head furnishings blowing in the wind in the photo) and he decided to focus on waterfowl for the day. He took Duke out for the three snipe and Sally for the mallard drake. Mallard drakes are super difficult to jump hunt and Charles just happened to pop over a hill and the the duck was right there as he got up from the water. I have never shot a mallard drake.
Duke and Sally with three snipe and a mallard drake for the last day in the Sandhills.
Charles had another first when he shifted his hunting to the prairie pothole region of North Dakota. The very first spot that he and some of our neighbors down here in South Carolina hit had a low flying flock of Canadian geese. Charles was able to snag a goose out of the bunch. Although Sally is pictured here, none of the dogs really knew what to think of the goose flopping around since the largest birds they’ve ever messed with up to that point were mallards and pheasant.
Sally and the North Dakota Canadian Goose from day one.
Although he and the neighbors were there for four days, I didn’t really get a good run down of the bird numbers. As near as I can gather from our texts, the second day the neighbors got three roosters, Charles got two roosters and four ducks.
Griffons, pointers and setters on the prairie, with the neighbor Quentin on the right.
I don’t have any photos from the third day, but the report was that Charles got a pheasant double off of Obi’s point, two grouse and one duck.
The fourth day was another mixed bag, with the neighbors getting one rooster, Charles got three ducks, a snipe and the most exciting part was a Hungarian partridge! This is only the second hun that Charles has shot. I’ve only flushed one covey up in Montana in 2016 but never got in a shot.
The excitement of a North Dakota hun!Duke, Obi and Sally in harvested corn in North Dakota
So that was a wrap! Here’s the traditional North Dakota trip game bag shot, with the dogs posed underneath:
Obi, Sally and Duke with the 2022 North Dakota game bagThe beauty of a North Dakota sunrise
Aside from missing the hunt, I missed seeing the usual people of the towns that we visit down there. They are such interesting characters, I’m glad that Charles went and laid eyes on them. The cafe is still going, the same ladies are at the registers at the grocery store and the gas station owner still recognizes the regulars. Charles headed home after a long journey but the neighbors continued on to South Dakota where they had better pheasant numbers. But to us, sometimes the comfort of tradition beats the number of birds in the bag.
I have more news about some hunt testing success of some of our progeny, some health test results for Duke and social media pages where you can follow some of our pups, but I need to get on with the day for now. Good luck to those out in the hunting fields, Charles will be at it again in a few more weeks. I am going to wait patiently for woodcock hunting down this way after the first of the year. Talk at you more in a week or so.
The two girls are really getting active, come when called for the most part, explore, eat just hard kibble and love lots of hugs and pets. They go in for their shots and microchips a week from today and so we’ve sorted out who goes where. Reba will be going home to Kentucky and Rosalind with be rolling out for Pennsylvania in a couple of weeks.
Reba head onReba side profileReba facing the other wayReba with a leaf in her mouthRosalind laying on her bellyRosalind sitting downRosalind looking at the skyRosalind on the runRosalind through the fence, you can see Reba’s rump squeezing between the postsRosalind being accosted by RebaReba and Rosalind palling aroundGirls on the prowl
This is actually a shot from last week that I forgot to include. They moved from the inside whelping box out on to the covered patio with a kennel and dog house. Outside is much more entertaining and where they start eating primarily solid food, they get pretty stinky to be indoors.
Outside is best after 5 weeks old
They also have spent time with our older puppy Duke and our son Caleb. It is fun for them to get exposure to dogs other than Ruth and people other than me.
Charles and Quentin went out one last time on the final day of quail season in South Carolina. It took them all day, but they each put one in the bag. It was dark by the time they wrapped up, so there were no dead bird photos. Charles did snap this pic of the sunset with the pointers, setters and Griffons all together.
Sunset with a mixed bag of dogs
This was actually back on President’s Day but I somehow forgot to post this photo of our almost thirteen year old son Caleb with Charles, Obi and Sally and a big haul of preserve quail. Charles wanted to get Caleb even more excited about bird hunting and this seemed to do the trick!
Caleb and Charles with a big haul of preserve quail with Obi and Sally
This has taken me way longer than I intended, so it is time for me to get on with the day. Next week will be our last video before the puppies go to their new homes! See you then.
The three musketeers of the “R” Litter have made it to one week old. We went to York Vet on Thursday for a health checkup and to have their tails docked and dew claws removed. We also had Ruth examined and blood drawn from her to make sure that everyone is healthy. There are no outward symptoms of any sort of infection, so we are anticipating the bloodwork to come back clear.
The two females are just huge since there are so few puppies to compete with, then little brother is about half of their size. He moves normally and latches to the teat on his own, so we’ll just hope for the best unless things take a turn. This next week is extremely critical as we count down to when their eyes open and they can start taking a little bit of canned puppy food mush.
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Puppy nap pileLittle brother nursing while the two big sisters nap
Last day of hunting season
Charles and Sally went and harvested a couple of more South Carolina woodcock yesterday, as it was the last day of the season on public land. They are having good adventures in the cane swamps of the central part of the state. Charles says that it is tough shooting through the tree branches and the terrain is pretty uneven, so it is a challenge. But nice to see them put birds in the bag in a new state.
Sally and the last two woodcock of the season
So keep us in your doggy prayers this week as we wait for the bloodwork results on Ruth and hope that this little boy keeps on trucking. Our two weeks of winter are winding down here and it will be spring later on this afternoon, it looks like. It is so strange going from five months of winter with a few subzero weeks to pretty much no winter at all. I’ll take it though! I’ll be back next week, hopefully with all good news from here on out.
We are expecting our “R” litter from Obi and Ruth in the next week or two. I currently have 18 reservations with deposit. The largest litter of Griffs registered in recent times is 16 puppies, so I assume that I have homes for this bunch. If you are interested in waiting until our Fall 2022 litter, email bluestemkennels@gmail.com. Once the spring litter is two weeks old, I should know where my fall list stands.
Here are some updated photos of Ruth sporting her very pregnant belly. It doesn’t seem to slow her down much!
Pregnant Ruth running in the yardRuth side profileAnother belly shot (a little fuzzy phone pic)Pregnant Ruth running in the snow (I circled her so you can see her)
Now it is just a matter of waiting for puppies to arrive! We just finished our whelping box setup this morning. It will be so nice to have them in a bedroom in the house instead of the heated garage. That way I have a bed right next to the whelping box in case of all-night puppies!
Ready for puppies!
This will probably be my last blog post until after puppies arrive. As they are being whelped, I will keep my Facebook page up-to-date. Then I will contact folks who have reservations once we are done whelping and I’ve had some rest. Finally, I will make a post here to the website.
First South Carolina Woodcock!
Charles is getting Sally ready for her UPT in May up at the Hudson Valley NAVHDA Chapter in New York. This is the NAVHDA chapter nearest to Charles’s hometown of Newburgh and he thought it would be fun to get up there to run some tests. He will also be re-testing Obi in UT to see if he can get a Prize I.
In the meantime he is trying to figure out the hunting game in these parts and he and Sally had success this weekend. They only saw one woodcock pop out of a cane swamp on some public land and they were able to put it in the bag. Charles is pretty sure that this is his first woodcock and it was Sally’s first wild bird.
Sally’s South Carolina WoodcockOur South Carolina Woodcock
I was really excited to hold a bagged woodcock, as I’ve only flushed them in the Missouri River Valley back in Nebraska while out exercising dogs maybe three or four times. I’d only ever seen photos of them up close. Their feathers are much more colorful than a snipe and their bodies are stubbier.
Here’s a random photo of Sally training in the yard with Charles back in November that I just noticed in my files.
Charles and Sally doing yard work
Here’s another random photo of Obi bringing me a stick the other day when I had my good camera out.
Obi with a stick in the driveway
Having snow on the ground in South Carolina is pretty fun and we are so glad that it isn’t day after day with feet of snow piling up like it was back in Nebraska. I think it will be all melted by tomorrow. But for now I will throw on my boots and go muck around in it with the dogs.
Keep an eye on my Facebook page for the latest on the puppies whelping and keep us in your thoughts and prayers for good health.
