Both Ruth and Sally were bred during the days surrounding Christmas, with Ruth and Duke having their first tie on the 22nd and their last on the 26th, then Sally and Obi having their first tie on the 26th, then two on the 27th. Ruth and Duke had four ties, one each day for four of the days and taking one day off in that span, Sally and Obi were three ties in two days and done. So puppies should be whelped at the end of February/beginning of March and go home at the end of April/beginning of May.
As my reservations list is pretty long, anyone who is expressing interest at this point should be comfortable with waiting until Spring 2025 in the event that I do not have enough puppies to satisfy all of my reservations this year. Feel free to email bluestemkennels@gmail.com and we can exchange phone numbers from there to talk. All of the health clearances, pedigrees, etc. can be found on the “About Our Dogs” page, with the button up above. I am still compiling our recent hunting photos on the “Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Photos” page, but you can go back through the last couple of years of hunts (and more) from the Archives dropdown menu over to the right. I spend so much time between taking care of dogs, having contacts with folks through email, and blogging that my static pages get a little neglected.
I am in the process of going through my reservation list to make sure that the folks who are on it are ready to take a pup this year in the event that I have one available. If you are farther down the list, it may take a little bit as I am giving folks a chance to contact me back in order. I have had a few switch to next year already, and since my deposits are fully refundable up until the puppy is three weeks old there could still be more changes as folks have life situations arise between now and then.
Ruth, Sally and I will visit the vet at the end of the month just to confirm pregnancy, not to count puppies. From there we will wait to see what is whelped and makes it through the first couple of weeks. I usually have a good idea within the first 48 hours what my final count will be, but sometimes in a really large litter there can be a pup or two who fails to thrive in the first couple of weeks. As I have a health guarantee, it does me no good to send weak or defective puppies home to folks, so I let the mom and Mother Nature drive a lot of what happens early on. By two weeks of age, I feel like I have pups who will live long and healthy lives.
In hunting news, things have been a little slow in the woodcock fields of South Carolina lately. Caleb did get his first shot off on a woodcock a couple of weeks ago but it didn’t connect. He and Charles are only seeing singles here and there, no flights as of yet. We’re seeing some folks in states north of us having great success.
I decided to take my camera out yesterday on our near-daily walk down the power line cut next to our house. We were able to survey the flood damage to the creeks. Our yard and home were spared from harm, just a few small gullies in the gravel driveway and side yard with some branches and buckets blown around.
I tried to get shots of everyone, but some are better than others. Sally got one kind of boring picture and then I forgot to get any more of her alone.
Sally sniffingRuth coming out of the brushObi running towards me with Briar off in the distanceObi off in the brushBriar on a full runBriar in the grassDuke jumping around the creekDuke trotting aroundFive dogs is a dog pack: Sally, Ruth, Briar, Obi and Duke
Having a dog kennel is a lot of work. Not only are we training and keeping healthy a bunch of dogs, there is a plenty of human interaction online and over the phone, then additionally there’s our volunteer work with the dog registries and clubs who help us preserve our breed. It is much more of a lifestyle than a hobby or business.
So the next you’ll hear from me here is towards the end of the month with our pregnancy confirmation ultrasound results and any other hunting news that we have. Good luck to those winding down their late season hunting and also everyone who is gearing up for spring hunt testing and puppies. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers for healthy pregnancies.
Merry Christmas from Bluestem Kennels! I figured that Charles spending seven days hunting in Nebraska would butt right up to breeding season and I was correct! He got home just in time to get everyone full of energy and nutrition for puppy making. When I emailed out my prospective puppy owners a few days ago, it looked like Sally was going to be the first to breed. But with Ruth being the alpha and older, I knew that a silent heat could be possible and that she could be bred first. Sure enough, yesterday Duke was just barking his head off when Ruth was around and she was starting to stand and be receptive. We had a tie between Ruth and Duke yesterday and this morning. Sally just stopped her proestrus bleeding and should be a week or so away from breeding (but you never know, you can also have split heats where they bleed, are infertile/unreceptive for awhile, then out of nowhere are ready to breed). There is a lot of observing behavior at this point since I don’t run to the vet for daily hormone testing and I’ve always done it naturally.
I do have a longer list going of reservations, so I’d say anyone inquiring at this point should understand that I might not have availability until Spring 2025. Feel free to contact me at bluestemkennels@gmail.com and we can exchange phone numbers from there. My deposits are fully refundable, therefore there could be folks who drop off of the list or want to wait until the following year due to life circumstances. I’ll be reaching out to those who are on the list after the holidays to make sure that they are in a place to take a puppy in May. At this point I’ll assume that the breeding will take place in January, with puppies whelped in March and going home in May.
Seven Day Hunt in Nebraska
Charles took a new hunter in his twenties from Virginia, Evan, out to Nebraska with his German Shorthaired Pointer, Ridge. They were able to visit and hunt with our old friend and co-breeder, Aaron, who still has old Velma who was the mother of a few of our litters. Aaron was just down to one dog, his Griff Chewie, so we all decided that Dolly the English Pointer should go and live with him. She has already harvested six or seven wild roosters with Aaron and he says that she’s even starting to retrieve now that she doesn’t have a bunch of Griffs to do it for her.
Obi, Duke, Ruth and Dolly running on the first day
There were no birds harvested on the first day, but it was a chance for everyone to get acclimated to being out west. Luckily the weather wasn’t super cold and there weren’t any blizzards, but it was definitely dry.
As they worked their was across South Central Nebraska, they finally got into birds on day two. It is never a blowout for pheasant in Nebraska anymore, so Charles, Obi and Sally scratched out a couple of roosters the second day. Sally was queen of the bird finding and Obi came up with the retrieves.
Sally, Obi and Charles’s two roosters for the day
It was finally on day three that everyone got on to the board. Having four Griffons with him, Charles was bracing Obi and Sally together, then swapping them out for Duke and Ruth midday generally. Here is a shot of Sally retrieving the first rooster of day three.
Sally bringing in a pretty one on day threeEvan and Ridge with two roosters and a quailCharles with Obi, Sally, a limit of roosters and a quail
Day four was an all-Charles show again. The experience of the dogs plus the hunter in these scenarios is a pretty unfair advantage. You’ll also see that Charles now wears shooting glasses. When we were out in the Sandhills, I noticed that he was missing shots that he should have been hitting. He had Lasik surgery about 20 years ago and I was betting that some of the focus was starting to wear off with age. So I made him an appointment at the eye doctor and sure enough enough he needed some corrective lenses. He says that they are making all the difference (thank God, the yelling about the bad misses was getting tiresome!).
Ruth and Duke with two roosters for the morning of day fourSally and Obi rounding out the day with one more rooster for the limit of three
(Just FYI, I don’t have a lot of control over the size of these photos and I keep messing them up trying to change them, so it just is what it is right now.)
Day five was a total bust on public land, but day six was on some nice private ground that Charles made contact with through folks at his old job in Nebraska. Thank you to the hosts for having Charles, Evan and the dogs on your property. Here are all of the photos from that day, the bird total was: 3 quail and a rooster for the hosts, 6 quail for Evan and Ridge, then five quail and a rooster for Charles and the four Griffons. Duke is pictured for the Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, but Obi, Sally and Ruth also contributed.
Charles and Evan in the back of the truck with the morning harvest, the hosts/locals standing to the sidesEvan with Ridge the GSP and Charles with Duke the Griffon and the birds for the morningDuke and Charles with a rooster, Evan and ridge with a quail in the afternoonEvan and Ridge with the host, Duke, Sally and Charles with a bumper bird total on the day
Of course on day seven, you not only end up with tired dogs, but also tired photographers. Here’s the bumper bird total with Evan and one of the hosts. The breakdown on the day was two roosters for the host, two quail for Charles and one rooster for Evan.
The host and Evan with a tailgate bird total for day seven
I’m not even going to go back and do a bird total on that trip, an epic adventure for sure! The most important thing is that there was good dog work and everyone came out of it uninjured. There was some fur worn off of the tops of noses and a few burrs in beards that I had to pull out when they got home. They were sore and hungry for a few days afterward.
Now they’ve bounced back for puppy making, what a whirlwind! Keep us in your thoughts and prayers for successful breedings. Merry Christmas everyone and if I don’t have any other news prior, I’ll throw in a Happy New Year just for good measure. I appreciate all of our puppy families past, present and future: may God bless us all, everyone.
According to the calendar, Sally should already be starting her heat cycle, but nothing with dogs ever follows the calendar. The one thing about having two males is that I never have to worry about missing it! Since Ruth is the alpha of the two, I don’t wonder if Sally’s waiting for hers to start. I’ve had two litters at once before and it is super busy, but doable. I do have quite a list of reservations, but since my deposits are refundable there’s no guarantee that each of those people will take a pup. So feel free to email me at bluestemkennels@gmail.com if you’d like to discuss, but realize that there might not be availability until Spring 2025. We don’t know until they get here! I’ll keep everyone posted once things start happening with the heat cycles, I check the girls every day. Hopefully, I won’t be waiting until Valentine’s Day, but it could happen.
The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Charles headed to central South Carolina to look for some quail. One thing that he has learned about hunting down here is that you really have to read your regulations. Some fields are only open for hunting for certain days per year. The place that he went was one of those quail management units, which is not how it is out west, so it was something new for him to check out. There was one other hunter there without dogs, so they just worked away from each other. He had our pointer Dolly out first with our older male, Obi, and she is just a bird finding machine. I really did not want a pointer, but it is nice to have a hot-footer out in front sometimes really zooming around looking for birds. They pushed up a covey and another single before they connected here. On this one Dolly stayed on point, Obi honored, Charles got the shot, then Obi retrieved.
Obi and Dolly with their quail
The second half of the hunt was a Sally and Duke run. I’m not sure who ended up with the retrieve, but Sally is a long nose. She points birds from really far away and is steady.
Duke and Sally with a single South Carolina quail
While Charles was hunting, I was down in Atlanta visiting family and picked up the seasonal crud. This is just a funny picture of what it is like when you’re sick with Griffs around.
Sally and Briar making sure that mom knows that she is loved.
I’ve also been busy working on the AWPGA 2024 National Specialty for Winston-Salem, North Carolina for November 7-12, 2024. For those of you who don’t know, a national specialty has our national breed dog show (the winner of Best of Breed automatically qualifies for Westminster), then it also has field events such as AKC Hunt Tests and/or working standard field trial, possibly an obedience trial, some educational seminars, plus we have social events like receptions and an awards banquet. I don’t want to steal the club website’s thunder, so I’ll wait and link to that for the tentative calendar of events once it drops. If you would like to join the AWPGA, the AKC breed parent club for the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, please visit our website: https://www.awpga.com/2024-member-application-form.html
I was the editor for the quarterly club magazine the Griffonnier for four years, I went inactive for awhile, now I’m back serving on the Board of Directors as Secretary while also being the Chairperson of the National Specialty. It is fun and challenging. We went with a futuristic logo with a Griff’s head with the NC state shape inside. Our club is passionate about the breed and welcome new members and attendees to the national specialty. I will keep you all posted as more news of the event drops.
Please email bluestemkennels@gmail.com for inquiries relating to our upcoming or future litters.
I am checking Sally everyday for sign of coming into season, as the boys are starting to act like things are going on and there are some subtle changes occurring. I’m going to be conservative and say that she’ll be bred by Christmas, but once proestrus bleeding starts I’ll know more exactly. That would put puppies being whelped in January or February and going home in March or April. I am not keeping a puppy from this litter with Sally being young enough for me to do that, so that will move folks up the reservation list one slot. It is always tough to tell where everything will shake out owner-wise between a list and a litter. With my deposits being refundable until a puppy whelped is three weeks old and the possibility that some people will want to wait for Ruth’s litter, or have life situations arise where they will wait for the following year, even having a long list doesn’t guarantee folks showing interest now won’t get a puppy. We are all placing bets on a natural process and just pray that it all works out.
The breeding that is coming up soon is AKC/NAVHDA Bluestem Sally Forth SH, NA II “Sally” and Wyo Plainsman Kenobi NA I, UPT III, UT I “Obi”. Obi qualified for NAVHDA Invitational in 2023 and recently re-qualified for 2024. Sally went 5 passes in 5 runs for her AKC Senior Hunter. Her NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize II was with our son Caleb as a junior handler. We’ve tested her in both Utility Preparatory Test and Utility Test and she does all of the skills except picking up the live duck at the end of the duck search. She had a bad run in with a mean duck pecking her in the face and we’re working back into being aggressive on the live duck. I’m hoping to re-test her in the Fall of 2024, she is still young and we have plenty of time. There are so many things that a dog has to do right in the Utility Test and just missing one is not the end of the world. She is phenomenal in the field and is a pretty looking and healthy dog.
The second breeding probably won’t happen until between Christmas and Valentine’s Day, that will be between our older female Bluestem Peaches En Regalia NA I, UPT II, UT III “Ruth” and our young male, Cedar and Spruce’s Apollo NA III “Duke”. Ruth is beautiful and one of our best bird-finders, just off-the-charts prey drive. Duke is our young male who was also handled in NAVHDA Natural Ability by our son as a junior handler. This is Ruth’s last litter and we really want a pup between her and Duke so we are going ahead with the pairing before he even utility tests. His hips are phenomenal, his prelim elbows were good, his eyes are normal and we’re waiting for his two year birthday in a couple of weeks to do his final elbows and thyroid test.
All of the dogs pedigrees and health clearances are on the “About Our Dogs” page. They are not only hunting dogs and breeding stock, but also our family pets. Everyone is crate trained, housebroken, good with kids and other dogs (free range chickens and cats are a no). You can train a Griffon to be friendly with a cat, like when we go to the vet there are loose cats and they don’t eat them, but my dogs want to torment cats. We have a barn cat that gets chased up trees. You have to have chickens or any birds in a coop.
Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffons
Speaking of birds, after Caleb and I returned to South Carolina last month, Charles continued his adventures with the dogs, leaving my mom’s house in Nebraska and headed up to our usual old haunts in North Dakota. He did bring home German kuchen and sausages like I always ask for. It looks like the young dogs Sally and Duke got in on most of the action. He got excited and took the first picture in the morning before he had finished his harvest.
Sally and Duke with a couple of morning roostersThey ended day one with a limit of roosters and two sharptailed grouseOn the camp chain gang, from left to right: Duke, Sally, Ruth and Obi
On the second day, Ruth and Obi harvested three ducks and a pheasant, but there was no photo.
Day three Duke and Sally were back on duty and took two ducks and a pheasant.
Duke and Sally with two ducks and a pheasantObi, Sally, Ruth and Duke with the North Dakota harvest
North Dakota produces but does so with great effort. A person has to root pheasants out of little cattail patches in harvested fields, walk the rolling hills for sharptails and check scattered ponds for ducks. But it is always a fun hunt and we love checking in on the people that we’ve now seen almost annually for about 10 years.
Charles stopped back in the Nebraska Sandhills to work remotely for a few days and was able to get in a couple of more days of hunting. The first day was photographed with Duke getting in on a few ducks.
Duke with three Nebraska Sandhills ducks
We’re not sure what the rest of the hunting season holds for us, Charles may sneak in one more trip out west, there’s talk of looking for some North Carolina ruffed grouse, around the New Year there should be some woodcock moving through down here, we’ll just take it all as it comes. As much as we love the mild winters down here, we really have our sights set on Charles working remotely out of Nebraska once Caleb graduates high school in 2027. The hunting out west just cannot be beat.
I have a new friend who I would like to introduce you to. I bought back one of my “S” Litter pups since we won’t be repeating the Obi x Ruth cross again. She is just over a year old and I have her ready to NAVHDA Natural Ability test, but there are no test openings before she turns 16 months old. So my current plan is to use the AKC Junior Hunter as her puppy test this spring. What is really crazy is how much she looks like our foundation female, Sue. So here is little Briar getting a treat from Charles last night:
AKC/NAVHDA Bluestem’s Carolina Briar Thicket
Here is our foundation female Sue:
Sweetgrass Sandhill Sioux “Sue” our first female Griffon
Looking at Ruth and Obi, you never would have imagined that they would produce a pup with that coat, but it happened. Genetics are an interesting thing. Sue is Briar’s Great-Great Grandmother.
It is time to get on with the day, I will be sure to keep you posted with the breeding developments and any new hunting adventures that come about. Happy hunting to everyone out there in the fields!
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 DukeYou 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 going in for the first duckObi going in for the second duckObi bringing Charles the duck to handObi, 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.
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.
Puppies in 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:
Tabitha showing interest in the chukarTabitha picking up the dead quail
Now here is Tobin with the same sequence:
Tobin inspecting the chukarTobin picking up the dead quail
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 CharlotteAndy 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.
Indoor crate room for night
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.
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!
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:
Male pup, Tobin, faceMale pup, Tobin, side profile (he looks like he is pointing, but he’s really just walking through grass)Male pup, Tobin, running
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!
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.
Obi swimming to the bank for the duckObi picking up the duckObi swimming with the duck to CharlesObi bringing the duck to the bank to CharlesObi’s second swim across with a duckObi’s third pond swim coming to CharlesObi’s third water retrieveObi closing in with the duck in mouthObi retrieving to handObi looking at Charles after his third retrieve
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 Updateand 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.
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 yesterdayRuth side profile in the drivewayRuth having fun in the yard
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.
Sally on pointSally pointing while gunners shootSally retrieving chukarSally retrieving to CharlesSally close-up on pointSally runningAnother shot of Sally retrievingClose-up of Sally retrievingCharles sending Sally to duck searchSally with the duckSally shaking off after giving up the duckSally swimming through water liliesSally with a duck retrieveCharles working with Sally on steady by blind
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:
Duke on pointCharles walking in to Duke’s pointDuke in the fieldDuke retrieving a bumper in the water
And last but not least, by a long shot, Obi:
Obi bringing in the dummy in the double mark retrieveCharles watching Obi work on the double mark retrieveObi 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.
Ruth pointing a wayward quail
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 aroundObi gets his whole body wetSally usually ignores it, but sometimes digsDuke doesn’t want his rear wet
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.
