Wirehaired Pointing Griffons | Bluestem Kennels

Puppy Update: a Griffon named Griffen in RI

November 21, 2010

Charity Upchurch Bird Dog Training, Puppy Update, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

Sorry for the blog neglect, I’ve been fighting off the seasonal illnesses. I did receive a great update from Stephen in Rhode Island about the pup he called “Griffen”, known as Male 2.2 of my 2010 litter. Here’s what he had to say:

“Griffen is doing great. He is a very happy and active 6 month old. I have been training him all summer for hunting season, he is very smart and catches on quickly. I take him in the woods as much as possible he loves it. Only been out hunting a couple of times so far this season, he did well for a young dog. Here are a few pictures of him. I will send you more during hunting season .”

Griffen (Male 2.2 2010 litter) at 6 months

Griffen in the forests of Rhode Island

For the breeding being a complete outcross, I am very happy with the uniformity of the three pups that I have seen recent photographs of. There are photos forthcoming from Sean and Amber in Wyoming that I am also very excited to see. I hope that the owners keep the updates coming!

Charles did get a nice buck out in the Sandhills and went out for deer again here in Eastern Nebraska this weekend, but didn’t see anything that met his liking. He was more excited to flush up a woodcock on his hunt yesterday than anything else. Our freezer is near capacity anyway, so I was not upset. He was going to head out for birds today, but decided to stick around the house for a change.

Give thanks for our hunting heritage!

Pupdate, Litter 2010: Alpha Male “Whiskey”

October 20, 2010

Charity Upchurch Bird Dog Training, Hunting Tales, Puppy Update, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Bird Hunting, Dog Training, Duck Hunting, Ducks, Gun Dog, Hunting Dogs, Korthals Griffon, Puppies, Water Retrieve, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

The pups will be six months old on the 30th and our good buddy, Pete, out in Nevada gave us an update on Spring 2010 litter’s alpha male without us even asking. I will be getting e-mails out to my other owners over the weekend to try and get other pictures and updates, but this is enough to make a dog mama proud! Thanks, Pete!

Whiskey’s first water retrieve at 6 months

“A little update on Whiskey. Chukar opener was on the 9^th and was one of the most disappointing in years. I only harvested 9 birds in three days. Whiskey was outstanding. It rained all week and birds were scattered and if it weren’t for the dog I would have come out of that hunt with no Chukar. We retrieved every bird that I shot and a half dozen for one of my hunting partners that didn’t have a dog. All birds that Whiskey recovered for my hunting partner where done on scent alone. We got into the Quail on Sunday and Whiskey was hunting with two older very accomplished dogs and my 6 month old pup performed like it was his 5^th season.

Last weekend was Nevada waterfowl opener and since the Chukar hunting was so bad I decided to give the Ducks a try. I have had Whiskey in the water several times retrieving dummies but he has never even seen a duck before Saturday. After only hunting for a few minutes Saturday morning I dumped a pair of huge mallards at first Whiskey was not crazy about retrieving something that almost outweighed him but after dragging the first pair of ducks back to me by the wing he was hooked on Duck hunting. Sorry for the lack of pictures, like a big dummy I left my camera at home for the chukar opener and only had my blackberry for duck. I promise better pics in the future. Whiskey is doing great on all of his verbal and e collar commands and is picking up hand signals very fast. We are still working on holding point, he is creeping on birds but for 6 months old I am amazed on how well he is doing. On the home front Whiskey is a terrific companion and one of the funniest personalities I have ever seen in a dog.

Whiskey is making me look like a genius. Just get these dogs on birds, teach them commands, and socialize them properly and 90% of the battle is won. There is so much potential with these dogs, I was kinda dreading this hunting season, breaking in a new dog but I can’t wait until Friday when I throw all of my stuff in my truck and get him hunting again (5 weeks in a row now). Pheasant season opens in November.”

Whiskey’s first duck hunt — he looks like Sam Jr. to me!

Eastern Nebraska Prairie Chicken 2010

October 19, 2010

Charity Upchurch Hunting Tales, Kennel Update, Sire and Dam Ability, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Bird Hunting, Dog Training, Gun Dog, Hunting Dogs, Korthals Griffon, Prairie Chicken Hunting, Southeastern Nebraska, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

Southeastern Nebraska’s prairie chicken population has recovered to the point of having a limited season. Hunters who apply for the tags are limited to three prairie chicken for the whole season, Sept. 18-Jan. 31. Charles, Sam and Sue ventured down last weekend and were able to scare up a few flocks.

What surprised me was to hear his report of the habitat that they occupy. I assumed that the prairie chicken would be the same as pheasants, favoring heavy bunches of tallgrass. They actually are more commonly found in the shorter, more sparse brome grass. Similar to the chicken and grouse in the Sandhills, they are most commonly found on the sides of hills.

Here are Sam, Charles, and Sue, with a couple of prairie chicken roosters, while Caleb looks on.

Some great Wirehaired Pointing Griffons!

Pheasants Forever Youth Hunt: Heartland #491 2010 and Pheasant Pot Pie

September 27, 2010

Charity Upchurch Hunting Tales, Kennel Update, Sire and Dam Ability, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Bird Hunting, Gun Dog, Heartland Chapter Pheasants Forever, Hunting Dogs, Korthals Griffon, Pheasant Bonanza, Pheasant Hunting, Pheasant Pot Pie, Pheasants, Pheasants Forever, Pheasants Forever Youth Hunt, Tekamah Nebraska, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, Youth Pheasant Hunt Leave a comment

Charles and Sue had a grand time guiding at Pheasants Forever Heartland Chapter’s Youth Hunt on Saturday, September 25th at Pheasant Bonanza in Tekamah, Nebraska http://www.pheasantbonanza.com/. I wasn’t there to witness, but Charles said that Sue did a great job pointing and retrieving the birds. She’s got the point part down on the bird box.

Sue pointing the box of pheasants

The best tale I heard was where a pheasant went down on the far side of a barbed wire fence and Sue had no problem going through the fence to retrieve and back through with the bird in her mouth without dropping it. There will be more pictures of the youth hunt forthcoming from other members.

Unidentified youth, Sue and Charles at the 2010 Pheasants Forever Heartland Chapter Youth Hunt

Since I knew that Charles would be bringing home EVEN MORE pheasants to put in the freezer, he pulled a couple out before he left that morning for me to do something with. So I made my most easy, “half-homemade” pheasant pot pie.

Place two whole plucked and gutted pheasants in a large stock pot. Fill with water and boil for a couple of hours or so. Defrost two frozen roll-out pie crusts
Shred/debone pheasant meat, preheat oven to 375
Sautee about 5 sliced mushrooms, mix with pheasant meat in a bowl
Add about 3 cups of frozen mixed vegetables
Add 1 can of cream of chicken soup, mix
Warm the whole mixture up in a sauce pan on the stove, but don’t cook it too much
Grease a round casserole dish and place one of the frozen pie crusts in the bottom
Dump the grub in and put the other pie crust on top, cutting slits
Place foil on the crimped edges of the pie and bake for an hour and a half or so

Pheasant Pot Pie

Sandhills Grouse Opener 2010

September 21, 2010

Charity Upchurch Bird Dog Training, Hunting Tales, Kennel Update, Sire and Dam Ability, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Bird Hunting, Gun Dog, Hunting Dogs, Korthals Griffon, Nebraska Sandhills, Sharptail Grouse Hunting, SKB Shotguns, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

Charles and I were back in the Nebraska Sandhills for sharptailed grouse and prairie chicken opener on Saturday, September 18th. We arrived to our first special spot about 10:30 AM to a windy, chilly and misty morning. Due to the wind, the grouse were absent in the valleys and were only present in the high choppy dunes. Our first flush was only three grouse who popped up out of range, which told us the area had probably been worked over. Sure enough, we spotted the tracks of our most hated nemesis, the ATV, shortly thereafter. Yet we were undeterred and continued to work this high dunefield.

Charles and the dogs made it up and over the top of the ridge before I had a chance to witness the first grouse of the season being taken. According to Charles, both dogs locked on point, he flushed and shot the bird. Sam quickly retrieved.

Charles, Sam and the first grouse of the year

We continued working this dunefield for another couple of hours, but were only getting one or two birds up at 50-100 yard ranges before the dogs could even get a lock on them. Blasted ATV’s. So we moved deeper into our zone where the truck tracks ended and we knew we had the place to ourselves.

The second dunefield we worked on was much more productive. We busted up a coyote. Charles has been reading up on the European version of the versatile hunting dog, where they hunt foxes with these dogs, so he wanted to see what would happen if he sicked Sam on the coyote. Luckily, we were at the peak of a high dune so we could watch Sam chase the thing for about a mile into the valley. Charles headed down into the valley with Sue to make sure Sam didn’t get himself lost. As I was hollering and waving my blaze orange hat to get Sam off of the coyote, I heard the music of “blllrrr, bbblllrr, bbbllrr” as a flock of 10-15 grouse flushed about 30 yards behind me.

Once we were all back together, we headed towards where I thought I saw the flock land. I was walking alone and had a great shot at a 15 yard flush of a singleton, but my lack of practice came shining through and I totally missed it. We worked our way back towards the truck and came into another flock of 10-15 birds at 20 yards. Charles shot a double and once again I croaked. Each dog had a bird in their mouth…I probably should have had my camera instead of my gun!

Charles rounds out his limit of grouse for the day with Sam and Sue on retrieve

We were headed back to town by 3 PM, just in time for Charles to cook up some sweet and sour grouse over rice for supper!

I definitely have my grouse hunting homework cut out for me before next year: get into shape and get to the trap and skeet range!

Patriots’ Day Teal

September 13, 2010

Charity Upchurch Bird Dog Training, Hunting Tales, Sire and Dam Ability, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Bird Hunting, Cass County Nebraska, Dog Evolution, Dog Training, Duck Hunting, Ducks, Gun Dog, Hunting Dogs, Korthals Griffon, Nebraska Sandhills, Patriots' Day Hunt, PBS Nature, Teal, Water Retrieve, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

Wirehaired Pointing Griffon and Blue-Winged Teal

Sam, Charles and a pair of blue-winged teal

On this past Saturday, September 11, Sam and Charles went down to the private pond that we frequent in Cass County, Nebraska and bagged a couple of blue-winged teal. I was occupied entertaining family who were visiting from out-of-town, but Charles was able to slip out for a few hours, only after he put a pot of really awesome turkey chili on the stove.

He really had the Canadian geese who normally hang out at the pond in mind, so the teal were a pleasant surprise. As the story was told to me, Charles put Sam on heel and sneaked up on the teal at the pond. Charles missed on his first shot attempt, but he and Sam dropped down in the grass, so the teal circled and landed back on the other side of the pond. It took them about 20 minutes to sneak their way around the pond and the final approach was made with Charles crawling and Sam next to him (still on heel). By a strange bit of luck, Charles shot the double of blue-winged teal with one shot and both of the ducks only took pellets to the head (yum…no bits of steel surprise while we’re eating them).

Sam swam out into the pond and tried to retrieve both ducks at once, but figured out that he could only get one at a time. True to the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon’s versatile talents, they were two successful water retrieves with no additional coaxing of the dog required, he just did it.

Speaking of the amazing talents and abilities of dogs, PBS Nature is currently running a two-part special about the evolution of dogs. Last night’s episode was about the transition from wolf to proto-dog and the symbiotic relationship between dogs and primitive societies. Next week, they are going to be talking breed specialization and the world of dog fancy, so I’m excited for that. There’s additional information on the PBS Nature website if you are interested: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/dogs-that-changed-the-world/introduction/1273/

Only four days until sharptail grouse and prairie chicken opener back in the Sandhills…

Sandhills Dove Hunt 2010

September 8, 2010

Charity Upchurch Bird Dog Training, Hunting Tales, Kennel Update, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Bird Hunting, Dove hunting, Gun Dog, Hunting Dogs, Korthals Griffon, Nebraska Sandhills, Valentine Nebraska, Windmills, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

Sandhills Dove Hunt 2010 is on the books. Charles and I were joined by our old friend Mike on our hunt near Valentine, Nebraska. While the morning was cool and we had the energy, we started the day off jump shooting different windmills. If you’re not familiar with jump shooting, you simply walk up and see what jumps up in front of you. In regards to dogs, dove hunting is a little like duck hunting with a blind: we only use them to retrieve the fallen birds when necessary (which it is typically not).

Mike and Charles going to jump shoot for dove at a windmill

First dove on the ground

Charles shooting at some dove in flight

Mike shooting at doves in flight

Mourning doves in flight

Mike, his dove and his Baikal 12 gauge over/under

Once the day heated up, we decided to pick a windmill and set up some decoys. As the windmills are the sole source of water on the open prairie, the doves cannot resist flying in.

Sam and Sue help Charles set up at the windmill

Charles setting up dove decoys on the windmill

Prior to getting settled in our spots, we let Sam and Sue out of the truck for a break.

Sam cools off in the stock tank

Sue cools off in the stock tank

For awhile we had Sue sit with us at the windmill and used her to retrieve our birds for us, just for fun and practice.

Sue retrieves a dove

I was primarily focused on taking pictures, but towards the end of the day I took up Charles’s 12 gauge and was able to take a dove.

Me, my dove and Charles’s SKB 12 gauge over/under

Saturday’s dove total: 13

The birds have since been cleaned and eaten in a corn stuffing.

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