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Dog Days of Summer 2024

July 15, 2024

Charity Upchurch AKC Hunt Tests, AWPGA, Field Trialing, Hunting Forecasts, Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Puppies, Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, NAVHDA, NAVHDA Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Hope that you all are staying cool in this hot, hot summer! Our next litter (maybe litters?) won’t be until Spring of 2025, so if you are looking to get on our reservation list or just want to ask questions in general, you can reach us at bluestemkennels@gmail.com. If you’ve sent me an email in the last couple of weeks, we’ve been on the road, but I’ll be sure to answer them in the coming days.

We were podcast by Bill Tomlin of The Whoa Post in Episode 21 on June 24th. It is available on all podcast platforms, or you can try this link: https://pca.st/episode/7bef06bd-9943-4bfb-866e-503ea39063e1 It was really fun and I hope that you give it a listen!

On our way out to Nebraska, we met Ruth’s retirement family in Missouri who also has her mom, Fire (now Bella). Ron and Bonnie used to go back and forth between Arizona and Minnesota, but have sold their home in Minnesota and now are either in their RV or in Arizona.

Ron, Ruth and Bonnie
Ron with Fire, Bonnie with Ruth
Gracie the GSP, Ruth and Fire on the campsite. Photo by Ron Funk.

I know that Ruth and Fire have a great home in Arizona and it sounds as if Charles may go out that way to hunt with them in January or February.

It was great to have a cool down while we were out visiting in Nebraska, the heat of the day was only 75 or 80, so when we would get out in the morning it would be in the 60s.

Here are some pictures from one day when we were roading the dogs out in the Sandhills. It is tough to get good shots of running dogs from a moving vehicle, especially when my telephoto lens is on its last legs (I’ll be getting a new one for my birthday/Christmas). This isn’t something that we just do out of nowhere with the dogs, we start with fast, long foot walks and build up to this. We might be going 10 mph when we’re driving the truck. We live right next to a busy road and they are around the truck in the farm yard, so they know to stay out from under tires. But it is a situation where I have to say, “we are professionals, don’t try this at home!” because of the risk if you haven’t been doing this for a long time.

From left: Duke, Sally, Briar, Obi and Belle in a swampy green valley in the Sandhills
Left to right: Briar, Sally, Duke, Belle and Obi running out in the open.
Left to right: Duke, Briar, Belle, Obi and Sally heading into a windmill.

I got a few extra pictures of the “little girls” as we call them: almost two-year-old Briar and five-month-old Belle. Here’s Belle:

Belle on the run
Briar and Belle checking something out.
Belle retrieving a stick in the water

Belle using the string on the Dokken to retrieve since she’s used to smaller ones

Now here’s Briar’s batch of photos. You can see that she has more brown in her coat than most of my other dogs, similar to a Stichelhaar. This coat style goes all the way back to my foundation pair of Sue and Sam. I have not seen it since then. She is DNA tested 100% Griffon, but this harkens back to when all of these European rough-haired breeds were all one.:

Briar standing in the prairie
Briar checking something out
Briar on the move through the grass
Briar on the water retrieve

Here are some field shots of Sally:

Sally taking a stroll on the prairie
Sally with a look of joy on her face

Here’s our younger male, Duke:

Duke on the run with Obi in the background
Duke was also having a grand time on the prairie

Last but not least, our patriarch Obi, who is getting ready for NAVHDA Invitational:

Obi mid-stride with the sand dunes in the background
Duke and Obi going all-out in the field

Multiple times during our excursion we saw prairie chickens in the field, at one time it was a large group of six or eight, so it should be a good year for bird hunting. Once again, taking photos of moving animals in a moving vehicle is very difficult, so I didn’t get as cool of picture as I wanted.

Prairie chicken in flight!

Here’s one more photo of everyone swimming for Dokkens in a pond:

Obi, Duke, Sally, Belle and Briar in the pond

Like I’ve said before, the weather was just perfect for running dogs out in Nebraska, but now we’re back in the South Carolina heat. Griffons love to have fun and so making the training fun makes it easier for everyone.

Charles has already been back out with the local NAVHDA chapters doing the serious training while I get everything ready for Caleb to start his sophomore year of high school (I can’t believe the first day is August 1st!). He has also acquired his learner’s permit, so we’re practicing driving.

The clock is ticking on the 2024 AWPGA National Specialty events in November, so I continue to plug away at that.

Here’s the entry form for the AKC Hunt Test held in conjunction with the 2024 AWPGA National Specialty: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11DdLegFUMG6sM0KMj3olPK9Ao7S2ztGQ/view

Here’s the entry form for the Working Griffon Field Trial held in conjunction with the 2024 AWPGA National Specialty:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SmSCQSlPQ-L6JE5sd0xVX6D1CBbtDYPR/view

Here’s the link to our online auction where you can bid on the donated items. All proceeds go to supporting the 2024 AWPGA National Specialty. https://awpga.betterworld.org/auctions/2024National

Here’s the schedule of events, we’re looking forward to seeing everyone! https://www.awpga.com/2024-natl-specialty-schedule.html

Everyone stay cool in this hot summer weather and we’ll keep everyone posted on the road to the 2024 NAVHDA Invitational in Iowa.

Welcome Belle!

June 8, 2024

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Back in April I got a call from one of my puppy buyers that there had been an unplanned litter between one of my Obi x Ruth females and a male from Frank Puccio of Hun Hill Kennels. It had been a goal of ours to somehow bring in Hun Hill blood at some point, but the distance between Nebraska and now South Carolina and Frank having been in Idaho and now Arizona just was always an obstacle.

So on a Saturday in mid-April, I jumped on a plane out of Charlotte-Douglas International Airport really early in the morning and flew out to San Antonio to stuff an eight week-old puppy in a carry-on bag, then I turned around and flew back to Charlotte. We just registered her with NAVHDA as 19 Griffs Texas Bluebell “Belle”. I guess Rocky’s cattle brand is 19.

The dam’s pedigree Bluestem Two Mules for Sister Sara “Sister”
The sire’s pedigree Hun Hill Pardon My Dust “Gus”

From a pedigree perspective, I get several key items in this match. The biggest being VC CH Griffe D’Automne Mr. Brown “Jacque” bred by Martin Gagnon of Quebec, originally owned by Phil Parseneau of Montana, then later transferred to Frank at Hun Hill as Phil’s health declined. Here is a photo of “Jacque” in the field that I snagged from Frank’s Facebook page.

Jacque in the field

Jacque crossed the rainbow bridge a few years back, but he will always be a legend and I am excited to carry the bloodline into the future.

I also get some newish, but close enough to be bringing together similar traits genes from Kevin Crisp of Kanzakaw Sporting Dogs out of Kansas who has since retired. I get a line on Tim Nemeth in Idaho who is still going at Owyhee Sporting Dogs. There’s also some Greg Curtis who is also still breeding infrequently out in Arizona under Ear Mountain Griffons. Gus’s sire is George DeCosta’s The Hunting Griff beloved dog “CK”.

So here’s my little sixteen week-old 19 Griffs Texas Bluebell “Belle” also known informally as “Bad Baby” and “Jelly Belly”. If you click on the thumbnails in the gallery, it will enlarge the individual photo.

Belle looking back
Another over the shoulder of Belle
The flying ears run of Belle
A little mock point movement from Belle
Belle’s free stack listening to a motorcycle go by

Belle has been welcomed into the pack by the older dogs and already on her way to a NAVHDA Natural Ability test in the fall. We’ll be back on the blog in July with a training update, so talk at you then.

“U” Litter Homegoings

May 7, 2024

Charity Upchurch AKC Hunt Tests, AWPGA, Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Puppies, Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, Kennel Update, NAVHDA, NAVHDA Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, Puppy Update, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The puppies of the “U” Litter have all gone to their new homes. Due to a last minute business trip for one of the new owners, the last one flew away to Texas as a carry-on item yesterday. I will be working through my list that I have for Spring 2025 over the coming weeks to see if folks want to stay on or have made other decisions. Also, if you have emailed with new interest in the last few days, I see you and will get back to you before Friday.

A quick aside and a shameless promotion of the 2024 American Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Association National Specialty, I present you with this infographic covering our schedule at a glance. You can find the detailed version on the club website at: https://www.awpga.com/2024-natl-specialty-schedule.html

The only event that is AWPGA members-only is the Morning Annual Meeting, all other events are open to non-members. The AKC Hunt Tests on Monday are Wirehaired Pointing Griffon only. I am not doing this alone, there are many members behind the scenes helping to prepare, but covering that and thanking them are not within the scope of this post. If you are looking to see Griffons and network with the community, plan on taking this great opportunity to do so. I will post ticketing information as it becomes available.

Back to puppies! The eight plus weeks that go into raising a litter involve a lot of interrupted sleep and manual labor. By the time puppy pickups happen, I’m pretty drained from the process and mourning that separation process a little. I am bad about catching all of the family members’ names and the new names of the puppies. But I do know that they all went to fantastic families where they will be loved and cared for.

Wes and Caroline will work on waterfowl with Ulysses in Alabama
Unity will have three young boys to play with in North Carolina (the other two were in school).
Gaines and his daughter will work with Ursula also in Alabama
Ryan and his family will be doing NAVHDA in Pennsylvania with Uschi and his father-in-law, who also has a Bluestem pup.
Colin with be hanging with Unique down on the South Carolina coast.
This is John and BJ’s second Bluestem pup, taking Uriah with them back to Tennessee.
Zach will be training Upman with NAVHDA in Kentucky.
Uma flew with Saxon yesterday to Texas.

So that’s a wrap on the “U” Litter! Charles is busy getting Obi ready for Invitational this fall. I need to finish Briar’s AKC Junior Hunter (I have commitments on the weekends for the rest of the month, then testing shuts down until September). Ruth has her spay appointment on Thursday, then I nurse her back so that she can join her mom, Fire, traveling between Minnesota and Arizona with our friend, Ron. I’ll be sure to keep everyone up-to-date on our adventures over the summer, although it won’t be as frequent as hunting season or when we have puppies. You know where I am in the meantime, shoot me an email at bluestemkennels@gmail.com if you need to talk Griffons (I do talk on the phone, I just use my email as my robocaller screening tool).

“U” Litter Seven Weeks Old

April 16, 2024

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My time with these little ones is coming to a close soon, we go to the veterinarian for final checks, shots and microchips on Thursday, then they start to go home on their eight week birthday on Monday. I’m only doing spring litters at this point, so my next litter won’t be until 2025. Feel free to reach out to bluestemkennels@gmail.com if you are thinking about getting on a list for that time. There are several people who already have deposits down, but things always change with us since the deposits are fully refundable. We pride ourselves in being reputable breeders of Wirehaired Pointing Griffons; you can see the health clearances, hunt titles and pedigrees of our dogs on the “About Our Dogs” page.

They’ve all done really well with cap gun fire exposure, I call them to meals by banging on a metal bucket with a rod, so loud noises have a positive meaning for them. As long as their new owners focus on working with bird contact excitement while exposing them to things such as starter pistols and eventually shotgun fire, they won’t have problems with gunfire conditioning. I still like Richard Wolters Gun Dog as an easy place to start with puppies in book form. Of course, once your puppy is fully vaccinated you should take him or her to their first NAVHDA training day for advice too! Griffons don’t do very well with being sent away for training since they are so attached to their people, so if you decide to work with a professional, have them work with both you and the dog together.

Their favorite toys are rope bones and hard rubber balls. They eat Diamond Puppy food twice per day, about 3/4 cup per pup each feeding. They are all used to wearing collars and have been exposed to walking on a leash briefly (if owners want to pick out and bring their own collars, they are wearing the small 8-12 inch size). They naturally tug and resist the leash at first, as you can see here in this photo:

They’ll get their first crate exposure later on this week as well. I recommend puppy families put the crate next to their bed and start nighttime crate training right away. I will take them out at night when they wake up for the first week or so and as needed to avoid accidents. After a week or two they usually sleep through the night as long as they are getting plenty of exercise during the day.

I’ve been walking them twice per day around the farm, for about an hour of exercise per day. It makes it so that they are calm in the kennel. I do not work on them with housebreaking, but if you take them out once an hour or so, then every time they wake up from a nap, they will naturally learn to hold it until they go out. Just give them a firm “no” when you catch them starting to piddle and don’t give them too much room to roam where you can’t see them. I use lots of baby gates to keep a pup in the room with me when I am housebreaking. If you don’t have time to watch them, they need to be crated.

Okay, so here are the photos from the live and dead bird exposure. The set up I use is to take them out of the kennel, walk them to the live chukar in a cage on a leash, after they check out the live bird I pick them up and praise them on the way to the ex-pen where the dead quail on a string sits. I keep the interactions fun, low pressure and positive. I don’t make them pick up the dead quail, I let them just sniff it or pull feathers off if they want to. So these are the last photos of the litter before they go home to their families!

Females

Unique

Unity

Ursula

Uma

Uschi

Males:

Ulysses

Uriah

Upman

And here’s the last video for this litter:

Next time you’ll hear from us will be with the puppies homegoing photos! Enjoy spring until then!

“U” Litter Six Weeks Old

April 9, 2024

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Time is getting shorter and shorter with this bunch. For those of you who check in with my often, you all know that my litters are spoken for well before they are bred. For those of you who are new to my blog and are looking for a puppy in the future, feel free to reach out to me at bluestemkennels@gmail.com. It is taking me a few days to get back with folks since I am so busy with not only these six week old puppies, but I just trained the new editor of the AWPGA magazine the Griffonnier, and I’m working on more preparations for the 2024 National Specialty in North Carolina in November. Whew!!

I needed a new headshot with the puppies, so here I am (from a week and a half ago, the pups are smaller here than they are now):

Spring in the Carolinas with puppies and pear blossoms (and sun in my eyes!)

And here is Charles from his latest NAVHDA Utility Test run with Cedar & Spruce’s Apollo NA III, UT III “Duke”. They hit prize three in both runs this spring with the Foothills and Carolinas NAVHDA chapters after Duke just turned two. The duck search is so hard, but we’ll take some passes to start.

A cool morning in the Carolinas is great for NAVHDA Utility Test field work.

April 2nd was the 14th birthday of my “A” litter. Thank you to Winston’s owner Nancy for posting about it (I have a spreadsheet with litter whelp dates, but I’m terrible with birthday wishes for humans even). Winston is the last one alive who I am still in touch with. Whiskey in Nevada passed at 13.5 in January and Gauge in Nebraska passed not too long before that at 13. Their mom “Sue” lived to be 17, so I am not surprised.

Happy 14th birthday Bluestem “A” Litter Winston in Colorado!!

Of course, here is what everyone has been waiting for: puppies! I should have posted this yesterday, but the eclipse threw my whole groove off. I probably spent at least and hour looking through my eclipse glasses at it, since North America won’t see another one for 20 years.

Here’s this week’s video, good thing I got the footage yesterday because it is raining today.

Females

Unique

Unique, female, face
Unique, female, body
Unique, female, action

Unity

Unity, female, face
Unity, female, body
Unity, female, action

Ursula

Ursula, female, face
Ursula, female, body
Ursula, female, action

Uma

Uma, female, face
Uma, female, body
Uma, female, action

Uschi

Uschi, female, face
Uschi, female, body
Female, Uschi, action

Males

Ulysses

Ulysses, male, face
Ulysses, male, body
Ulysses, male, action

Uriah

Uriah, male, face
Uriah, male, body
Uriah, male, action

Upman

Upman, male, face
Upman, male, body
Upman, male, action

“U” Litter Five Weeks Old

April 1, 2024

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It’s taking me a few days to respond to emails, but if you’re patient and want to talk Griffs, feel free to email me at bluestemkennels@gmail.com and I’ll get back with you as soon as I can. These puppies are all spoken for.

I can tell that I’ve been running on a really low battery, looking back on some of my previous weeks’ photos. It looks to me that last week, I double shot the same girl pup under two different names! Now that we have collars on them it will be so much easier to tell them apart. We even noticed after we shot this week’s video that we had two girls with red collars and fixed that right up, so I’ll be extra sure not to get confused. This is really when I start looking at who belongs to which family.

The “breeder pick” process is pretty common in Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, where we are getting interest from all over the country well in advance. We basically interview our families and evaluate our puppies to see who will be the best fit together. There’s no time for folks to come over and pick out the puppies themselves, so we handle it for them.

Here’s this week’s video:

Here are their individual photos.

Females:

Unique (black collar, had red in video)

Unique, female, face
Unique, female, body

Unity (green collar)

Unity, female, face
Unity, female, body

Ursula (blue collar)

Ursula, female, face
Ursula, female, body

Uma (light pink collar)

Uma, face, female
Uma, female, body

Uschi (red collar)

Uschi, female, face
Uschi, female, body

Males

Ulysses

Ulysses, male, face
Ulysses, male, body

Uriah

Uriah, male, face
Uriah, male, body

Upman

Upman, male, face
Upman, male, body

These are really just the shots that I caught them in that moment. They are all up to pretty much the same things, they are really tough to get in action! They are eating only kibble now and running around the yard twice a day while I clean out their kennel. I need to start the deworming process and make their appointment for first shots and microchips.

I always enjoy this phase with the puppies, where they are big and rambunctious. They’ll start ranging farther away from the kennel and I can start bringing out the pheasant wings and things to play with. It is getting late and people and pets need attention, so I’ll wrap it up for now. Catch up with you next week.

“U” Litter Four Weeks Old

March 25, 2024

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We are half way through the early puppyhood journey of the “U” Litter prior to their departure to their new families. I am going to be honest, I am struggling with my email traffic right now. Normally I can turn around responses in 24 hours, but between keeping in touch with these new families, trying to stay on top of my breed parent club responsibilities and responding to new contacts, it is taking me a few days to get back to folks via email. So if you are patient with me and want to talk Griffs at some point in the future, feel free to shoot me an email at bluestemkennels@gmail.com.

Here is this week’s video. It was shot in the twilight of a long day of getting the kennel and the puppies moved outside, then cleaning up the whole mess inside. So the puppies are acting in this video how I feel!

I feed them canned food twice per day, but now that they are outside and around kibble, that transition to kibble-only just happens naturally. They will also nurse when Sally lets them. Now that they are outside with more space, they will get stronger and more sure on their feet. They will go from hardly being comfortable outside of the dog house to wanting to bust out of the kennel as much as possible within the next week.

Here are their individual pictures. Once again, they were done at the end of a long day, so some of their poses are awkward and less than ideal.

Females:

Unique

Unique, female, face
Unique, female, back
Unique, female, side

Unity

Unity, female, face
Unity, female, back
Unity, female, side

Ursula

Ursula, female, face
Ursula, female, back
Ursula, female, side

Uma

Uma, female, face
Uma, female, back
Uma, female, side

Uschi

Uschi, female, face
Uschi, female, back
Uschi, female, back

Males

Ulysses

Ulysses, male, face
Ulysses, male, back
Ulysses, male, side

Uriah

Uriah, male, face
Uriah, male, back
Uriah, male, side

Upman

Upman, male, face
Upman, male, back
Upman, male, side

Well that is all of the puppy news for this week. On Saturday, Duke earned his NAVHDA Utility Prize III at the Carolinas Chapter test with Charles as handler. I don’t know if anyone got any photos, but we don’t have any as of yet. It isn’t a bad prize for a dog who just turned two. They will have another go at it at the end of April.

I’ll be back here next week with another update. Take care until then.

“U” Litter Three Weeks Old

March 18, 2024

Charity Upchurch Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Puppies, Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, NAVHDA Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, Uncategorized, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

All of these cute little ones have homes and it takes me a few days to respond to emails these days, but if you want to reach out, I’m at bluestemkennels@gmail.com.

Here’s this week’s video. It was a little cool for outside today, so we are inside in the whelping box.

They started food today with much fanfare and excitement. I didn’t want to try and get them started on food and run the video camera at the same time, so you just get a still photo of that. All I do is take canned puppy food and mix it with prepared puppy milk replacer to make a soft puppy mush. If there were a larger litter or some puppies who were small, I may have started them on food sooner, but where they were getting plenty fat from mom I didn’t feel the need to rush this year.

The “U” Litter with some puppy mush

It was really warm earlier this week, like 80 degrees, so they got to go outside on the lawn one day. They squirm around and get back into a pile at this point, not a really big excitement.

“U” Litter puppies squirming on the lawn
They made it back into their puppy pile in the sun

Here are there individual photos. There still really isn’t a lot going on personality wise, they are just busy being puppies. They will move into the outdoor kennel on the back patio a week from today so that they quit stinking up my basement and get lots of fresh air and room to run around.

Females:

Unique

Female, Unique, face
Female, Unique, back

Unity

Female, Unity, face
Female, Unity, back

Ursula:

Female, Ursula, face
Female, Ursula, back

Uma:

Female, Uma, face
Female, Uma, back

Uschi:

Female, Uschi, face
Female, Uschi, back

Males

Male, Ulysses, face
Male, Ulysses, back

Uriah:

Male, Uriah, face
Male, Uriah, back

Upman:

Male, Upman, face
Male, Upman, back

Charles and Duke run in the NAVHDA Utility Test at the Carolinas Chapter this weekend and I’m hoping the best for them. The duck search is always such a pain, we’ll see where it all comes out. I’ll check back in with you all next week.

“U” Litter Two Weeks Old

March 11, 2024

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All of these puppies have homes, but if you’d like to talk about the future here, feel free to email me at bluestemkennels@gmail.com.

Here’s the two week old video, not very exciting just yet!

They are all fat and happy

Puppies getting attention from our son Caleb and his friend.

All of their eyes are open and they are starting to get up and walk. There are five females and three males for a total of eight puppies for Sally and Obi. Here they are:

Females

Unique:

Unique, female, face
Unique, female, back

Unity:

Unity, female, face
Unity, female, back

Ursula:

Ursula, female, face
Ursula, female, back

Uma:

Uma, female, face
Uma, female, back

Uschi:

Uschi, female, face
Uschi, female, back

Males:

Ulysses:

Ulysses, male, face
Ulysses, male, back

Uriah:

Uriah, male, face
Uriah, male, back

Upman:

Upman, male, face
Upman, male, back

As you can see, they are pretty floppy looking at this point. They will liven up as they get older. One more shot of them all together and then I’m going to sign off for the night and hope that I can get the video posted in the morning.

The eight puppies of the “U” litter snuggled down

Welcome “U” Litter!

February 29, 2024

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Just as a warning if you are trying to reach out to me these days, I am still recovering from a week of little sleep and am not ready to crank on the email responses just yet. Feel free to contact me at bluestemkennels@gmail.com, but it may be mid next week before I respond. All of these puppies are spoken for, but I don’t mind talking about the future here or just Griffons in general. I use my email account as my robocall filter so that my phone doesn’t ring all day.

I’m just going to write all of what I have to say in chronological order like I usually do, I’m not good at putting lipstick on pigs or hiding from reality. I took all of the dogs for a walk down the power line cut on Monday, February 19th. When I got everyone back to the house, Ruth was whining pretty loudly. I brought her in the house with me and by the time we got to potty breaks before bed, she was trying to dig dens in the side pasture next to the house and barn.

I laid down in the bed next to the whelping box in the basement and she had the first pup, it was very small but alive. Four more came out dead (I am not going to describe in detail what they looked like) in the next couple of hours. They did not die during the birth, they had been gone for at least a few days if not longer. They were not properly formed and probably didn’t attach to the uterus correctly.

Ruth and the tiny pup that was lost

My hope going into this breeding was that my prior fertility issues with Ruth had been either genetic with Obi as the stud or the fact that we had been traveling during the mating and early pregnancy with the two small litters of two that we had with her. This time we used both a different stud and barely left the house during mating a pregnancy. It will be interesting to see what her uterus looks like when they take it out in her spay, I know of females in the breed who have their uteruses break down over time and this may be that situation.

The little puppy that Ruth had never warmed up and slowly lost its ability to latch on. As much as we fought, I came into the room at around the 36 hour mark and it was gone. Ruth cried almost nonstop for two days afterward, but she is now healthy and in good spirits. Later this year, she will go to live with our friend Ron and her mom Fire (now Bella) and travel between Minnesota and Arizona hunting birds and being a pet.

But there’s good news at the end of this! At 3 AM on Monday the 26th, Sally woke me up with a big howl. We walked in the yard on a checkcord with a flashlight for about an hour with lots of grunting, then we went to the whelping box and had a big healthy pup. An hour later, another followed, also big and healthy. I figured that she was doing her mom instincts well, cleaning up the puppies and positioning them to nurse, so I laid down for a little more sleep. When I woke up at 6:30 AM there were five puppies and by the time 10 AM rolled around there were eight. All big and healthy, nursing on their own without any assistance, no stillborns. It was such a relief after I’ve struggled with Ruth and her pups over the last few years. Ruth is my first struggle with a dam, I’ve had all blue hens with Sue, BB, Mae and Fire. I’m glad to be back in the good graces of Mother Nature.

The eight puppies of the “U” Litter at 24 hours with mom Sally
“U” Litter puppies, photo taken today while Sally was on a potty break

The gender count is five females and three males. I won’t be keeping one from this litter and those of you who are on my reservation list will be contacted within in the next week.

My biggest job right now is keeping the room warmer than normal and keeping Sally fed and hydrated. We go in for tail docking and dew claw removal tomorrow morning at York Vet, I’ll also ask them when I should bring Ruth in for her spay.

I’ll post here weekly with photos and videos from here on out, I typically don’t identify them individually until after their eyes open. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, I’ll be back soon.

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