Wirehaired Pointing Griffons | Bluestem Kennels

Breeding season update and more hunting

November 14, 2023

Charity Upchurch AKC Hunt Tests, Hunting Tales, Kennel Update, NAVHDA, Upland Hunting Trips, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Gun Dog, Hunting Dogs, Korthals Griffon, NAVHDA, Nebraska Sandhills, North Dakota, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

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 roosters

They ended day one with a limit of roosters and two sharptailed grouse

On 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 pheasant

Obi, 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!

Our son’s first Sandhills hunt

October 25, 2023

Charity Upchurch AWPGA, Hunting Tales, Kennel Update, Sire and Dam Ability, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Duck Hunting, Heartland NAVHDA Chapter, Korthals Griffon, NAVHDA, Nebraska Sandhills, Puppies, Sharptailed Grouse Hunting, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

Our son’s fall break coincided with the perfect time of year to do some sharptailed grouse and duck hunting back in my homeland of the Nebraska Sandhills, so we took the opportunity to do it. Caleb has been pretty fit his entire childhood participating in various sports clubs in elementary and middle school, and now AFJROTC in high school. The Sandhills demand considerable athleticism, therefore this was a bit of a forge for him.

It was a comeback for myself after battling a few years of orthopedic issues, starting with a bad flare-up of high school sports generated osteoarthritis about five years ago, followed by a horrible case of plantar fasciitis in my feet right around the plague times. I went through a long period where I really wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to walk any sort of distance again, let alone go hunting. I switched to low support shoes to get my feet in shape while walking, then took up swimming to work out the bugs in my knees (I swam 100 miles last year). Even with all of that work, there is nothing that gets you in shape for hunting like just doing it.

We spent more days in the car driving from South Carolina and back than we did hunting, but it was totally worth it. We also got to see our two adult children living in Omaha, then my mom and extended family in Valentine.

On our way up (Caleb and I were in a seperate vehicle), Charles surprised me and stopped off at our old NAVHDA chapter, Heartland, in the Lincoln, Nebraska area and re-qualified Obi for NAVHDA Invitational. So Obi now has two Utility Prize I awards and is going to Invitational 2024 in Iowa to try again for the Versatile Champion. He had more points than some of the dogs who won the 2023 VC but was just knocked out by his break on the shot on the double mark.

Charles and Obi (UT I again) with our old friend Pam Robinson of Robingun Kennels Small Munsterlanders

But back to the Sandhills: I like to hunt by myself there with a dog or two. I know where I am, I know the lay of the land, it doesn’t bother me to be alone. I am also low tech in that I don’t use a bunch of GPS stuff, so I can only get away with being low tech and alone on my home turf. The first day, Caleb and Charles took the boys (Obi and Duke) and didn’t manage to see anything.

I was with Ruth and our “training aid” rescue English Pointer, Dolly. Luckily within the first 15 minutes I stumbled across a single at about 25 yards and was able to take it down with a right-to-left pull through as it flew across my line of sight. Ruth fetched it right up for me and brought it to hand.

Dolly is hard for me to keep up with, English Pointers like to move a bit faster than I can. Dolly and Ruth busted up another group of about eight or so an hour later, but they were way out of range for me.

My single sharptailed grouse was the only bird that we took that day, the boys didn’t see a single thing. But I was back on the board after a six year drought and was extremely happy about it. Especially to have done it with my female who’d had pups go home just a few weeks before.

The old mama squad: Charity and Bluestem Peaches En Regalia NA I, UPT II, UT III “Ruth” and a sharpie

The second day we opted for walking one of our favorite creeks with Duke and Sally to see if we could jump hunt some ducks, but it became apparent to us right away that someone had recently beaten us to the punch, with human footprints and dog prints visible. We walked it anyway, seeing (and missing) mostly snipe. In my twenty years of hunting I had yet to take a snipe, but always take shots even though they are hard to hit. So we shot after snipe and shot after snipe and missed. Of course, right when Charles and I are talking loudly and yelling across the creek at each other we finally jumped a pair of teal out of range.

The teal went back down further up the creek and I had it marked. As we approached a wide spot, I could see them ahead and warned Caleb and Charles by giving them the old “pointing at the eyes” hand symbol. Yet even though we knew they were there and were able to get close, we still didn’t knock them down as we all three emptied both barrels. But the ducks were starting to tire and went down again up the creek.

Caleb switched to my side of the creek, so now he and I were walking together. This time it was Charles who spotted the ducks on the water ahead and sent Caleb and I in for the flush. Charles was able to pinpoint them and had Caleb walk right up on them. Caleb flushed the ducks but missed them both. We both tucked down and I hid my face under my hat as the ducks circled behind our backs. I waited and hid, crouched down and I turned towards them with my face to the ground until I knew they were flying in range. At just the right moment I stood up and let it rip with both barrels, taking the second one down on to dry land. It took awhile but young Duke found the teal under Charles’s direction and retrieved it to him since he was handling.

The boys decided to continue on a little ways farther down the creek to see if they could find some snipe or anything other ducks. I opted to sit in this grove of dead trees next to the creek where a beaver had conveniently knocked down the trunks, making for some comfortable benches. I was just sitting there enjoying the nice day and out of nowhere three snipe landed around me within five yards. Two of them took off when I looked up at them, but I knew that there was a third. So I stood up. And as he flushed to fly away, I finally harvested my first snipe. After twenty years and at least a hundred shots at their fast, zig-zag flying, squeak squawking swamp bird survival skills, I finally had one.

And not fifteen minutes later, I was standing right behind Caleb as he shot his first bird of the Sandhills, also a snipe. Duke was also on the retrieve for him. It is almost never that Charles is the one who walks out of a field with an empty game bag, but it was that run.

Charity with a teal and a snipe, Caleb with his snipe and Duke

You can see Caleb’s face in this photo but Duke’s legs got cut off

(As an aside: I am not wearing the same clothes every day, I have two versions of the same outfit and alternate.)

There was a nice pond our our way out where we had pushed some ducks out of, so we decided to stop at that and let Charles have a shot at not getting skunked on the day.

Charles was able to jump a flock of bufflehead ducks up from the pond and knock a couple down. I wish that I had grabbed my good camera and put the big lens on it to capture the retrieves, but I was tired and hand the phone in my hand, so that is what we got.

Obi, Charles and the two bufflehead ducks

Day three was a big push for grouse. Charles was anxious to get some in the bag and I didn’t want to have to run behind the pointer anymore, so Dolly and Sally went with Charles. Ruth and I went off on our own and covered a whole ridgeline. Similar to Charles and Caleb’s first day, we saw absolutely nothing in our hills.

I could hear shotguns going off on the other side of the valley, so I was hoping that Charles and Caleb were having good success and I was right. After I had wrapped my walk up and was sitting in the truck eating lunch, they even pushed a few right over the top of my head as I had a mouth full of food. But they soared another 500 yards off into the distance never to be seen again (I tried to find them with no luck).

But Charles had a limit of sharptails so all was right with the world. It had been a long three days marching the dunes and we were ready to go back to town and visit family.

Charles, Dolly and Sally with a limit of sharptailed grouse

Dolly is naturally a bag of bones. We have had her almost a year and have tried feeding her as much as she can eat and she just does not put on condition. Just poops it all out and looks neglected. The nicest dog you will ever meet though, just loves all of the people. I like how she pushes our Griffons to not be lazy bootlickers.

Charles continued on to North Dakota from the Sandhills, then back to Nebraska before coming home to South Carolina. Those are photos and stories for another day.

I really need to get back to finishing my Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Photos gallery, I am almost done adding all of the pictures and then I just need to add captions. The AWPGA is keeping me busy lately organizing the 2024 National Specialty and doing secretary duties, but once I get the locations booked for the specialty and meet with the host kennel club at the beginning of November things should calm down a bit.

We have two litters planned for the spring, Duke and Ruth, then Obi and Sally. The girls won’t come into heat until around Christmas, I will keep everyone posted on that. I do have a reservation list for the litters, but feel free to email bluestemkennels@gmail.com to inquire. Stay safe out there in the fields until next time.

“T” Litter Homegoings

September 25, 2023

Charity Upchurch AKC Hunt Tests, AWPGA, Kennel Update, NAVHDA, Puppy Update, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons AWPGA National Specialty 2024, Foothills Chapter NAVHDA, Korthals Griffon, NAVHDA, Puppies, Sandhills Pointing Dog Club, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

The last week with the puppies is always fun and bittersweet. I love to see them start to show off their natural abilities and fun personalities.

Little brother bringing me a leaf down the stairs.

They did really well with my new cap gun, I upgraded from the Walmart plastic model to the Cabela’s metal version and it so so much louder. But after being exposed to loud noises their entire puppyhood it was no big deal.

I used to also take them swimming at this age, which they can do, but I’ve stopped doing that for fear of exposure to toxic algae or nasty wildlife diseases. I figure that the new owners have plenty of time for that once the pups are fully vaccinated and have built up their adult immune systems. So I’ve substituted that with the kiddie pool.

Putting them on a leash for the first time is always a rodeo, they really like to thrash around and fight it for the first five minutes or so and then just settle down into the fact that now they have to follow the person around.

Bird exposure is my absolute favorite, seeing them get excited about the live bird, then pick up the dead bird is what it is all about. All of these actions are just first exposures to set the new owner for successful gun dog training, they are by no means training at all.

So the sequence that I do here is: take the pup out of the kennel and put it on the leash. Let it fight out the leash then walk 15 yards to the live bird in the wire crate. Once the pup acknowledges the bird and gets to check it out awhile as I say “good puppy” in my cute baby-talk voice, we walk on the leash to the ex-pen with the dead quail on a string. Take the pup off the leash and place in the ex-pen. I pull the string on the dead quail to get the pup’s attention. I’ll let the pup chew and play with it a little bit. I do not ever yank the bird out of the pup’s mouth, only pulling the string once the pup has put the bird down. I’m really wanting to get the pup to pick that bird up, then once again give positive verbal feedback once the bird is picked up.

Here’s Tabitha with the birds:

Now here is Tobin with the same sequence:

Caleb was about 15 months old when we had our first litter in 2010 and has become an important helper at 14. Here he is with our first litter and now:

We also went to the vet for our final health inspections, first shots and microchips in the last week. Everyone came out with a clean bill of health: no umbilical hernias, no heart murmurs, no base narrow canines, the boy has both testicles. Everything perfect.

Then on Saturday and Sunday they went to their new homes:

Tabitha going with Lisa, David and boys to Charlotte

Andy with his second Bluestem pup going all the way to Minnesota

Andy’s 8 1/2 year old boy Foley is from our “I” Litter in 2015 between Ben and Velma. That would make Foley the brother of Ruth’s (the dam of the puppies) sire Chief. So that would make Foley his new puppy’s great-uncle. Here are some photos of Foley that Andy shared with me:

Speaking of our puppies, our “S” Litter puppy Chase ran his Natural Ability Test this weekend at the Foothills NAVHDA Chapter up in Harmony, North Carolina. He received a Prize II with 102 points. You can follow him on Instagram @griffins.griffon. Great job Ian and Chase!

Ian and “S” Litter puppy Chase with a NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize II

And this is totally random, but I was so proud of myself for getting the crate room really clean that I took a picture of it. Everyone has their different style of housing their dogs: some have a kennel building where their dogs live all of the time, some have all of them as full time housepets, some are like us and do a combination. We have outdoor kennels to keep the dogs out from underfoot during the day, rotate them for socialization one at a time in the house (I have really cool black walnut floors that the original owner of this house custom hewn and installed that I don’t want torn up), then they stay the night in their very own crate room. I don’t have mine decorated all cool like some folks do, it gets really dusty in there so I’d rather not have to mess with that cleaning.

I will be back on the blog at some point to give the full run down on NAVHDA Invitational once the professional photos come back. I’ll also have some hunting posts upcoming. It probably won’t be every week like it has been with the puppies here. As always, if you are interested in future litters or want to talk dogs, shoot me an email at bluestemkennels@gmail.com and we’ll set up a time to talk.

One last bit of news, it has been ratified by the AWPGA board that 2024 National Specialty will be in North Carolina. The shows, annual meeting and banquet will be November 8-10 with the Furniture City Kennel Club show in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The AKC Hunt Tests will be November 11-12 in Jackson Springs, North Carolina at the Sandhills Pointing Dog Club land. We’ll be lodging and dining in Pinehurst, North Carolina for the hunt test. Please get in touch with me if you would like to be involved with the planning and execution of this fun and important event for our breed.

“T” Litter Seven Weeks and NAVHDA Invitational

September 17, 2023

Charity Upchurch NAVHDA, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Korthals Griffon, NAVHDA, NAVHDA Invitational 2023, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

Charles and Obi didn’t get the Versatile Championship today, but they had a good experience at NAVHDA Invitational. I’m glad that they are safe after having a bolt come off of the truck yesterday and having a tie rod come loose in the middle of driving. Luckily Charles was driving slowly and it was only a trip to the repair shop. Rural Ohio and NAVHDA friends saved the day and I didn’t have to do a rescue mission.

But back to the test. Charles said that Obi struggled on the honor of retrieve and broke during a shot on the double mark. They ended up with 188 points, which would have been enough for a VC had Obi not broke on the shot. I will go into the test more when the official results come out and these puppies are home. Obi will retire from hunt testing as a NAVHDA Utility Prize I dog. We will not test over and over looking to requalify for Invitational.

This week was my first AWPGA board meeting, Caleb’s last week of club fencing (with the foils and masks) and helping Charles get ready for his trip, so we didn’t get a lot of structured activities done with the pups this week. Mostly we focused on letting them run the yard twice a day. They go for their microchips and first shots tomorrow, so that will be their first crated car ride. They went up and down stairs today. They’ve been playing inside the basement with the rain, so they know how to explore the house. This week I’ll do indoor crate conditioning, walking on a leash, intro to cap gun fire, and intro to live and dead birds. I’ll take pictures of that and post those with the homegoing photos from next weekend. It is going to be a busy week!

Each of these blocks of photos is a gallery, so you can click on the first image to make it larger and then page through.

Here’s some photos of them running in the field together:

Here’s some individual photos of the female pup, Tabitha:

Here’s the male pup, Tobin:

Here’s the last YouTube for this litter, as I do the rest of the work with them in still photos:

I am looking forward to putting puppies into people’s hands next weekend and starting our hunting season!

“T” Litter Five Weeks Old

September 3, 2023

Charity Upchurch AWPGA, Kennel Update, Puppy Update, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons AWPGA, Gun Dog, Hunting Dogs, Korthals Griffon, NAVHDA Utility Test, Puppies, South Carolina Dove Hunting, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

Hunting season is here! I am jealous of all of the harvest posts that I’m seeing on social media. It is still a few weeks away before I get to participate since I am home with these little ones. My youngest son Caleb harvested his first dove yesterday at a big community hunt here in Clover, South Carolina. Thanks to our neighbor Quentin and his buddies for hosting and keeping it safe for everyone.

Caleb and his first dove, photo by Charles

In other non-puppy news, Sally was a big butthead at her Utility Test in Delaware. Although she retrieved the duck on the duck water retrieve and the duck drag, she would not pick the live duck up at the end of her duck search. She was also subpar in the field, which really surprised me after I watched her be a rockstar during her AKC Senior Hunter. But it is one dog and one day. She’s already signed up to test again with Charles as handler in November in Virginia, then if she still has another bad day with him I’ll take over as her handler in 2025. We had a great AKC Senior Hunter together, going 5 passes in 5 runs. I hope she and Charles do it in November, but she might be my dog to handle. I did raise her from birth, so the relationship is just that much closer. And we are both girls.

So anyway, about these five week old puppies. They are up and running. This is my favorite part of raising the puppies: when you see that they’ve grown up big and strong, ready for the world. You can click on the first picture in the gallery and then page through to see larger versions:

Here are the individual pictures of the puppies.

Male pup, Tobin:

Female pup, Tabitha:

For some reason Microsoft decided to change the video editor on my computer, so things will look a little different on this YouTube. It seems to work, but it is so annoying having to wake up and teach myself new software by surprise. But you really get to see the puppies up and moving around:

Aside from the puppies, I’ve been working on a bid to host the 2024 AWPGA National Specialty Dog Show and AKC Hunt Tests in conjunction with the Furniture City Kennel Club Dog Show in Winston-Salem, North Carolina the weekend of November 9 & 10, 2024. Our AKC Hunt Tests would be held at the Sandhills Pointing Dog Club in Hoffman, North Carolina November 6 & 7, 2024. This is still in the very early planning stages and I have yet to finish my bid paperwork to present to the board, but I’m hoping to have everything finalized in time for the board meeting mid-month and for a confirmation announcement at the 2023 specialty in Helena, Montana in a few weeks.

A random point to note: my blog posts are always hand-typed and never have nor ever will involve the use of artificial intelligence in composition. I only create 100% certified organic intelligence blog posts.

Good luck to everyone out there in the fields and I look forward to getting out there myself here in a few weeks. These little ones go home in three weeks to their new families and as much as I’ll miss them, it will be happy time for hunting!

Puppies confirmed!

July 14, 2023

Charity Upchurch Bird Dog Training, Kennel Update, NAVHDA, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Breeding Health Clearances, East Coast Griffons, East Coast Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, Gun Dog, Hunting Dogs, Korthals Griffon, OFA CHIC, Orthopedic Foundation for Animals, PennHIP, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

Please email bluestemkennels@gmail.com to inquire about future litters.

Yesterday Caleb and I took Ruth down to York Vet for a pregnancy confirmation ultrasound. At 44 days it was about 10 days too early to do a puppy count x-ray. Since the possibility exists that some of the skeletons showing are not viable puppies, I don’t do puppy count ultrasounds or x-rays. I just do an ultrasound to confirm a pregnancy and that there are enough puppies en utero to trigger a natural whelping. In the event of a one or two puppy pregnancy (which thank the Lord I have not encountered) the puppies don’t generate enough of the hormone that makes labor start, so folks have to c-section those pregnancies.

Ruth with a vet tech and Dr. Ashley Goforth of York Vet doing the ultrasound yesterday.

My biggest preoccupation with Ruth right now is balancing outside time and staying cool in this heat wave. I let her out to run morning and midday, then bring her inside early and late afternoon. She is still comfortably fitting in her crate at night, but the indoor kennel is set up for when she needs to move over to sleep in there in a week or so. We are also feeding her extra midday, focusing on things like meat, bones and vegetables to give extra puppy development nutrition. Now we just wait the two to three weeks for the little ones to arrive!

Ruth taking a nap and keeping cool in the house a couple of afternoons ago

Keep on Trainin’!

Last weekend we found a great pond to work with Obi on blind retrieve for NAVHDA Invitational. The blind retrieve skill is where the dog is sent, does not do a duck search and goes directly to the far end of the pond, retrieves the duck, then swims back to the handler on the other side of the pond. Charles says that the Invitational pond is around 100 yards across one direction, the one that we were practicing on was right at 125 yards.

Typical for when you are starting off on a skill, the dog needs commands to complete the task. On the side of the pond where the duck is placed in plain view (in a gap in the vegetation), someone hides in the shrubbery to briefly call the dog in the event that the dog gets confused about what is going on and turns back towards the handler. The first time we did it, Obi needed two re-directions, the second time he only needed one, the third time he did it with no commands. After three back-and-forths across the pond the dog had swam 750 yards, so that was enough for one day. Plus the oppressive Southern afternoon heat was creeping up on us!

I’m going to once again put the training photos in a gallery, if you want to see enlarged versions you just click on the first photo then page to the right with the arrow to the see the remaining photos.

Tomorrow Charles, Caleb and the dogs will be up to Rimrock Preserve in Statesville, NC at the Foothills NAVHDA training day. It sounds as if there will be other Griffs and owners there too if anyone wants to pop in and observe. My gang usually doesn’t get a bunch of training done on those days, with Charles helping other handlers and dogs on their skills quite a bit.

Health Testing Update and Breeding Thoughts

All of my dogs are seen by a vet at least twice a year, actively breeding females usually three or more. In the past, I’ve only done OFA Hip or PennHIP x-rays. I’m in the process of getting my three younger dogs through OFA CHIC certification, in the long form that is the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals Canine Health Information Center. For the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon breed, the screenings needed for CHIC are: hips, OFA elbows, ACVO Eye Exam and an Autoimmune thyroiditis blood panel from an approved veterinary laboratory. Keep in mind that these are simply certifications of clear health that we already know exists through close veterinary observation. I will post the results to the blog as they come in (everyone but Sally already has hips, Sally is x-rayed hips and elbows in a couple of weeks) and update my About Our Dogs page as well.

Some points of clarification about health testing in general. The health tests for OFA CHIC do not cover all of the genetic problems known in the breed. You need to trust your breeder to be educated about other issues, to know how to watch out for them, and to be honest with their breeding to exclude dogs exhibiting them. I do that. Making a laundry list of the problems in our breed is not within the scope of this blog post, maybe another day. Additionally, health testing an individual dog does not certify a clear pedigree. Puppies have been bred with hip dysplasia (not by me) that have had generations of clear ancestors. We are all standing on the shoulders of giants and trusting that those who have gone before us have made sound breeding decisions.

Breeding is a passion project for us. Working to recover what Korthals intended for the breed and creating a healthy hunting dog with family member temperament is for our purposes as well as spreading the joy to others. We will be keeping a pup out of this litter and keeping one in the spring as well.

It’s strange when a hobby takes over your life. Nineteen years of owning and hunting with Wirehaired Pointing Griffons and thirteen years of breeding them. This will be my twentieth litter whelping soon, all natural breedings (no artifical insemination) and natural whelping (no c-sections). Charles and Obi are heading to our Super Bowl of hunt training, the NAVHDA Invitational, in September. It has been a grand adventure and I pray that we can keep it going.

Conclusion

This is a deadly heat wave, keep the dogs cool! If they are outside, make sure that they have access to shade and water. Exercise them early in the morning. Keep them brushed out so that their fur isn’t holding in heat. Make sure that they have access to open water or a pool after exercise. Know the signs of heat stroke in dogs and how to save them if they start to stroke out (oops, there’s another article). Everyone stay cool, hydrated and safe now. Keep us in your prayers. Talk at ya later.

Training and waiting for puppies…

July 1, 2023

Charity Upchurch Bird Dog Training, Kennel Update, NAVHDA, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Carolina Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, Dog Training, East Coast Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, Gun Dog, Hunting Dogs, Korthals Griffon, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

Please email bluestemkennels@gmail.com regarding future litters. Ruth is at right around 30 days gestation (God willing) and is starting to show. We go to the veterinarian for an ultrasound on July 13 and will hopefully see a pregnancy. I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted here, on Facebook, and on Instagram as news develops. Here are a few photos of her from the last couple of days:

Ruth having a rest on the living room floor yesterday

Dogs generally don’t show much in the first 30 days, but I can definitely see and feel a little pooch. Keeping her cool in the heat and spending plenty of quality time with her indoors are a priority right now for the completion of a successful pregnancy. Please send us good thoughts and prayers for the weeks ahead.

Training

Charles is out dog training pretty much every weekend and spends time working on skills with the dogs daily. I went out for a training day with the Carolinas Chapter of NAVHDA towards the beginning of June and got some photos. My camera seemed to be focused on Sally, so here is a gallery of her training photos. You can click the first photo of the gallery to see an enlarged version, then page through the remaining enlarged photos.

Her training day was basically a mock Utility Test and Sally is probably at the level of passing this fall, fingers crossed.

We also worked with Duke on skills for the Utility Preparatory Test and Obi for Invitational, but my photos of them were not as focused or plentiful. Here’s Duke’s selection:

And last but not least, by a long shot, Obi:

Obi bringing in the dummy in the double mark retrieve

Charles watching Obi work on the double mark retrieve

Obi on left with “S” litter pup Chase on right at a NAVHDA training day. Photo by Ian Taylor

One of our puppy owners caught the above photo of Obi with one of his pups and posted it to Instagram on Father’s Day, so cute!

Otherwise, when we’re not out training, we’re just hanging around the yard. Charles had some quail escape and Ruth found one in the back driveway.

With the temperatures rising, it was time to get the kiddie pool out for the dogs. They each have their own style of getting wet.

Ruth likes to sit in the pool and scoot around

Sally usually ignores it, but sometimes digs

So those are the goings on here lately, I will be sure to post in a couple of weeks once we get the ultrasound results on Ruth. Everyone have a safe and Happy 4th of July, please be sure to keep your dogs crated in a safe area while lighting fireworks (typing that just brought up a childhood memory of our family cocker spaniel attacking a Roman candle as it was going off). Dogs and fireworks don’t mix. The biggest problem with trained gun dogs is that they’ll run towards the sound of the shot thinking that there is a bird down and you lose your dog in the commotion if you’re not careful. So for everyone’s sanity, put the dogs up.

Happy 4th of July!

2023 Breeding Completed

June 9, 2023

Charity Upchurch Bird Dog Training, NAVHDA, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Dog Training, East Coast Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, Gun Dog, Hunting Dogs, Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, Korthals Griffon, Puppies, South Carolina Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

Please email bluestemkennels@gmail.com with inquiries regarding future puppies. Due to the high volume of telemarketers and robo-callers, I discontinued releasing my phone number online. Once you’ve emailed your interest we can arrange a time to talk.

As of right now, I have thirteen reservations with deposit for this litter that was just bred. As my deposits are fully refundable until the puppy is three weeks old, I can and do have folks back out or move their reservation to the following year at the last minute.

I will not be like the breeders in Europe who post photos of their mating dogs in a tie, that is just too graphic for me. We had our first breeding on May 30 and our last tie on June 2, so four days of breeding and one of those days had two ties. We’ve walked Obi and Ruth together since and he has shown no sign of being interested in her any further, so we’re going to assume that the breeding was a success.

The first week of July, I will take Ruth to the vet for an ultrasound to confirm pregnancy. We will not know the size of the litter at that time. I do not take my females for a puppy count ultrasound due to the risk of disease exposure. A nearby breeder lost a litter to disease exposure from the vet going for a puppy count ultrasound and I just do not like the risk. After thirteen years of whelping puppies, I know what is going on during the whelping and when the female is finished, so a puppy count is not necessary.

Here are some photos of Ruth today, so that we have a benchmark to watch her tummy develop. I have recent photos of Obi that I’ll share in the training news.

We will repeat the breeding of Obi and Ruth one last time in the Spring of 2024, so anyone who puts down a deposit will roll over to that litter should they choose to do so. It is a double NAVHDA Utility Prize breeding, Ruth with a Prize III and Obi with a Prize I. Obi will be going to NAVHDA Invitational in Ohio in September. We will be keeping a female pup either from the litter this fall or the one in the spring (it is already factored into the reservation numbers), so it is a breeding that we’re relying on to produce great hunters and healthy family dogs.

Spring 2024 will also be the first litter between Duke and Sally. Sally just achieved her AKC Senior Hunter and has a NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize II under our Junior Handler son Caleb. Duke has his NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize III also with our son as Junior Handler. Sally is preparing to run the NAVHDA Utility Test in the Fall right after Obi goes to Invitational. Duke is still young, but has fantastic hips and health with an amazing wire coat. I need to start compiling the stats (health clearances and hunt tests) for the two young dogs since Spring 2024 may bring their litter to the ground first, we just have to see what the good Lord and Mother Nature brings us.

“A” Litter 13th Birthday

Speaking of thirteen years, we can barely keep track of our human children’s birthdays, so we are bad about marking litter birthdays. April 30th was the 13th birthday of our “A” litter between Sue and Sam. I was staying home with my youngest son Caleb, who just turned 14, and decided that it might be fun to have puppies.

Little did I know that I was making a decision that would change the course of our lives entirely! Breeding and training Wirehaired Pointing Griffons has become our lifestyle. Care of the dogs and making sure that they are healthy and ready for both bird hunting season and hunt tests is ingrained in our daily routine.

I am in touch with two of the owners of “A” litter puppies who are still thriving! Whiskey is still going strong out in Nevada:

Old man Whiskey at thirteen from our “A” litter between Sue and Sam

Winston has a young niece from our 2018 “O” litter between Fire and Chief, so by my best guesstimate that makes Winston her uncle. They live together out in Colorado.

On the left is Breeze from our “O” litter, with her big uncle Winston from our “A” litter at 13

NAVHDA Invitational Training

Charles and Obi have been training for NAVHDA Invitational nearly every weekend. Last weekend a group from the Carolinas Chapter got together and we were lucky to have Terry Ann Fernando of The Accidental Bird Dog podcast and blog https://accidentalbirddog.com/ available to photograph. We appreciate her willingness to donate her talents.

Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffon — Obi and Charles

Even though Sally is not going to Invitatational, she tagged along for the training to prepare for her Utility Test in the fall.

Sally stopped (looks like either a back or a stop-to-flush)

Speaking of end-of-training-day heat, Sally is going out again tomorrow with Charles and Obi to trains and she has some shag on her, so it is time to groom. Best wishes to everyone out there doing spring hunt testing and having puppies, I know that I missed my little ones this spring because of my daughter’s college graduation back in Nebraska. But hope springs eternal around here with the cycle of new life and I’m looking forward to puppies arriving at the beginning of August!

Charles, myself, the graduate Cordelia (22), Conrad (19) and Caleb (14) at the graduation reception.

Nebraska and North Dakota Hunt

November 15, 2022

Charity Upchurch Hunting Tales, Upland Hunting Trips, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Bird Hunting, Gun Dog, Hunting Dogs, Korthals Griffon, Nebraska Sandhills, North Dakota hunting, Pheasant Hunting, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

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.

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 bag

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.

“S” Litter Seven Weeks Old!

October 11, 2022

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Korthals Griffon, Puppies, South Carolina, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

We’ve got new owners ready to show up to take these guys and gals home next week, but we have our next litter planned for Fall 2023. If you’d like to get added to the list of reservations for that, feel free to email me at bluestemkennels@gmail.com. I’ll start contacting folks about interviews and deposits once these pups go home.

This coming week is consists of bird work (both retrieving a dead bird and seeing a live bird), walking on leash, crate exposure, coming into the kitchen to play, and riding in a car. I will try to catch some of it on camera, but working with birds and running a camera at the same time is tricky. I’ve done it in the past but we’ll see how it goes this year.

They’re starting to go up and down stairs and have had their noise conditioning. The neighbors even helped out unknowingly by sighting in their deer hunting shotguns just across the road for four hours one day last weekend. The pups will see the vet on Friday for their last checkups, microchips and shots.

Here is their last set of individual photos that I can promise before their homegoing pics with their new owners:

Male pup, Sebastian:

Male pup, Simon:

Male pup, Samson:

Female pup, Simi

Female pup, Spokanne:

Female pup, Sue:

It is always tough getting ready to let go of a litter of pups. I take comfort in the fact that these pups will turn into great dogs who will give their owners lots of joy throughout their lifetime.

Here is their last video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InhOkKHC52U&ab_channel=CharityUpchurch

It is time for me to sign off to attend to evening mom duties, but I hope that you enjoyed following these pups through their early weeks. I hope to catch some shots with the birds and of course we’ll have the homegoing photos with their new owners posted once they all go home.

Then it’s back to chasing wild birds and hunt test titles for awhile! Good luck to everyone out there in the fields.

Bluestem Kennels