Today we ran Bluestem’s Prairie Fire “Fire” in her first formal dog event. She participated in the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Nebraska’s Fall Field Trial in the Amateur Walking Puppy and Amateur Walking Derby stakes at the Branched Oak Field Trial Grounds near Raymond, Nebraska. These grounds are famous and I noticed a new sign hanging in the lodge as I was getting breakfast this morning. It is notes made this spring by Delmar Smith.
Comments from Delmar Smith about Branched Oak Field Trial Grounds, April 2014
We met Delmar in Kansas City at Pheasant Fest a few years back and he is definitely a sage of the sport.
Sunrise over Branched Oak Field Trial Grounds
Horse barn and clubhouse of Branched Oak Field Trial Grounds
A standard setup at Branched Oak
It was entirely English Pointers and German Shorthaired Pointers, but we had fun and Fire had a great experience. Of course she was shown up with range in the field because of her young age (6 1/2 months) and the close-working nature of the breed, but due to the fact that there were only 4 dogs entered in the Amateur Walking Derby, we did walk away with a ribbon. Although it was a “gimme” (which none of BB’s field trial placements were), it was still cool to represent griffons and be the only 6 month old griff ever to have placed in an AKC Field Trial.
Walking to the line
At the line
Starting in the field
Escapee
Running Fire
Charles and Fire with their 4th place ribbon in the Amateur Walking Derby
We also had visitors from Matt and Carter, who live around Lincoln and will be getting a Sam/BB pup next year.
Matt and Carter saying hi to Fire.
Fire and Carter
I really hate to cut this short, as there’s more to say, but I am still not packed for the AWPGA National Specialty Dog Show, Hunt Tests and Annual Meeting this week in Maine, and I have a 6 AM flight to catch in the morning. I’m taking all of my equipment with me, so maybe there will be a blog post part 2 if I get the time this week, but I will probably be busy seeing all of my long lost dog friends. If I don’t get to it, I’ll catch up with y’all next weekend.
I received an e-mail from Charbel in Mexico City that six month-old Bluestem Freyja, sister to our pup Fire out of Sam and BB, is now officially the only registered Wirehaired Pointing Griffon in Mexico! Viva Griffon! I find the name that they use quite interesting, as it literally translates into “Pointer Griffon of Hard Hair”. Here is the official pedigree from FCM, and thank you so much to Charbel for sending me a copy!
Federacion Canofila Mexicana Pedigree of Pointer Griffon de Pelo Duro, Bluestem Freyja
It is pretty cool that in 3 generations it goes from France (Cyr, the sire of BB), Canada (BB was born), US (where Freyja was born), and now to Mexico. I know that she has a good life down there, and I can’t wait to get some pics of her chasing some of their crazy quail.
Fire Training Day Epic Fail
Our poor raggedy chukar have been sitting in the holding pen for too long. It isn’t a flight pen and most of them are big males and have pecked one another over quite a bit. But we decided that Fire absolutely had to get out. So yesterday morning, off we went to the dog training wildlife management area south of town with three chukars.
It has been raining so much that the grass was wet, and the birds were wet. But Charles planted them anyway. At that point, we hadn’t had Fire out working birds or even for a multi-hour walk for about a month. The first thing that she did was take off like a bat out of hell right down the scent of Charles’s boots, with no care in the world for the whistle. We finally found her about 150 yards away, up and over the hill with the last bird that he had planted in her mouth.
On the second bird, we got a point out of her that Charles was able to walk in on, but it barely flew and was almost an Arky shot (looks like I need to add Arky Shot to Urban Dictionary. It is when a person shoots a bird on the ground or in a tree, which is extremely unsportsmanlike when not totally illegal). But he wanted to make sure that he fired the shotgun and the bird was dead when she got ahold of it. I think that the shotgun blast scared me more than it did the dog, so it looks like we’ve got the pup’s shotgun conditioning finalized.
Charles walking in on Fire’s point
Fire showing off her prey drive on the flush
Charles going for the near-Arky
She retrieved that bird, but I was still too stunned from the blast to get a photo of it. We got a decent point on the last bird, but it didn’t fly but about 6 inches off of the ground, right into Fire’s mouth. Aw hell. Although it makes for a funny story, and everyone who trains dogs has these days, it was still a big thumbs down.
Everybody Run
Remember that awesome song from Sesame Street in the 1970s? Well, here it is:
Yet I digress. This morning, we finally got everyone out for a run. And it was fun.
Sam, Fire, BB, and Charles.
Fire in the flowers
Go Sam go
BB on the move
Three dogs in the grass: Sam, Fire, BB
Here comes BB
Happy Sam
The people
Upcoming trialing and hunting
This weekend, we will be running Fire in the Amateur Walking Derby and the Walking Puppy Stakes at the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Nebraska’s Fall Trial at Branched Oak Lake Trial Grounds. I’ll be sure to get something up about that at the end of next weekend before I get on the plane for Maine. I’m hoping that the stakes prior to the Derby are large, because if it falls on Friday, I will have to handle. It would be my first time. I thought we’d be running again the following weekend, but once I went to fill out the premium for the Lincoln club, I realized that there are no walking stakes. So we’ll have the first weekend of September off from dog activities and just plan on sitting for some doves on Monday the 1st.
P
Pointing Dog Journal: Nebraska Sandhills Prairie Chicken Mention
This month’s PDJ Pass Along E-mail Blast was about the Greater Prairie Chicken and my very own Nebraska Sandhills. The following is the full text from the e-mail and I hope that I am re-printing it with permission. Full credit goes to Pointing Dog Journal and the author listed below:
Prairie Chickens in the Nebraska Sandhills by Greg Septon, STCP
Founded in 1961 to save the greater prairie-chicken (GPC) in Wisconsin, the Society of Tympanuchus Cupido Pinnatus, Ltd. (STCP) is working today to better understand the dynamics that maintain the nation’s largest viable population of GPC in the Nebraska Sandhills – the last best place to study the species in their natural grassland environment.
The goal in the Sandhills is to document productivity, habitat use, and movements of GPC and provide an understanding of how this is interwoven with human activities in the region. If GPC are to prosper as a species we need to better understand their needs and work to determine a scenario where compatible land uses will provide a secure future for them as well as humans so that both may coexist.
Our proactive approach at studying the dynamics of this large population now means that we can likely prevent the GPC from following in the wake of the lesser prairie-chicken – which is now listed as threatened, and the greater sage grouse, which may also be listed next year. If similar proactive research had been undertaken 20 years ago with these species, they might not be facing the uncertain futures they face today.
Gaining a thorough understanding of the life history of Nebraska’s large GPC population will also help provide a future for the isolated, remnant GPC populations in Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa. For it is from the large populations that these states will need to translocate birds from torestore genetic health and increase numbers to maintain their “museum” or “zoo” populations as they are often referred to. Without a stable source population where birds can be drawn from for periodic translocations, these small, isolated populations will eventually fade away one by one.
For a more comprehensive history of STCP and an account of our research efforts including work with the endangered Attwater’s prairie-chicken, please visit our website at: www.prairiegrouse.org.
Until next weekend
I need to go and get the kids ready for school tomorrow. It is very much unlike me to do a Sunday night post, but I desperately need to save my writing time in the morning for my paid writing gig. Oh, I also wanted to give a special shout out to the late night internet lurkers on my blog. I am also one of those people who gets up almost every night for 15 minutes or so between midnight and 4 AM and gets online. I know it is neurotic and a bad habit, but I always check my stats and see there are folks out there reading my blog at that time. I also see that there are people reading my archived posts from several years back. How embarrassing, it is a real cesspool in places. But that is just part of keeping an online diary. I’m glad that you enjoy it.
Today, for the first time in 13 years, I don’t have a child in daycare, preschool, or at home with me. The youngest is off to kindergarten and as much as I’ve looked forward to this day for so bloody long, it still hurts a little. But I’ll be back to substitute teaching English at the high school the day after tomorrow, so that will be exciting. And there’s always the dogs.
It has rained every day since we’ve been back from vacation, so they haven’t gotten a good long run in for awhile. It shows; they are a bit rammy on their walks out back. Yesterday, Sam finally met the new intact male pitbull that moved recently in a few properties over. I was very nervous, but the pit is probably several years younger and 3-4 inches shorter than Sam, so nobody was questioning who was dominate (thank God).
Fall is Coming
In case you hadn’t noticed, fall will be here soon. The dog cult of Branched Oak Field Trial Grounds will be re-assembling in 10 days for the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Nebraska’s Fall Field Trial. We’ll go ahead and run Fire in the Amateur Walking Puppy and Amateur Walking Derby stakes. The following weekend, we’ll do the same thing at the same place with the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Lincoln. Those trials fall on each end of my work week trip to Maine, August 25-29 for AWPGA National Specialty, so it will be a very doggy week.
Speaking of the people who hang around Branched Oak, I’d like to give a shout out to Kahne Packer, and his folks Dana and Chad. Kahne is bud of my kids at dog events and was featured in the Best in Show photograph for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission Nebraskaland Magazine Photo Contest for 2014.
Kahne Packer and his German Shorthaired Pointer anxiously wait to set foot afield at a youth mentor pheasant hunt at Cub Creek Hunting in Beatrice. Photo by Kaleb White
Sharptailed Grouse and Statewide Early Teal
We will skip opening day of sharptailed grouse on September 1 and instead head out there on Friday the 5th to chase them, with statewide Nebraska early teal opening on Saturday the 6th. If you go out for early teal on the 6th, make sure you take the time to properly identify what you are shooting. This season is under evaluation by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and if we harvest too many non-teal ducks, we will lose the season. TEAL ONLY. Please download the NGPC Waterfowl Guide to your phone or tablet prior to going out into the field for further guidance: http://outdoornebraska.ne.gov/hunting/guides/waterfowl/waterfowl.asp
The battle of the over/unders: the SKB Model 505 vs. the Browning Citori Lightning
We have a way of winning big ticket items at Pheasants Forever banquets. Charles and Conrad both have Nebraska Lifetime Hunting and Fishing licenses. I won the 12 ga. Browning Citori Lightning O/U four or five years ago. I used to shoot a 20 ga. SKB 505, but I don’t get a chance to shoot skeet that often, so I needed the extra reach of a 12 ga. to put more birds in the bag. Plus, it took me several years of hunting to work up the upper body strength to carry a shotgun all day and not end up with a black shoulder from bad form. Charles would have taken the Citori, but it is just too long for him.
An array of Browning Citoris, from pafoa.org
I have fought with that damn shotgun since the day I won it. It has driven me to tears. Both the Browning and the SKB have the safety on the top of the grip of the stock, just behind the receiver. With the SKB it is a simple thumb push forward to take the safety off. On the Browning Citori Lightning the safety and the O/U switch are one in the same, where you push the same switch side to side to choose barrels, then forward to take off the safety. If the O/U switch is not properly engaged, the safety will not turn off. And it is just enough to send me into a complete hissy fit and makes me lose my focus on the shot. So good riddance, Browning Citori Lightning O/U 12 ga., into the safe to be a loaner gun. Or maybe one of the boys will have more patience for it than I.
Unfortunately, SKB shotguns are not currently in production. About three years ago, the family who owned the SKB factory in Japan decided that they no longer wanted to carry on operating it once the family patriarch passed on. So, SKB USA, which is headquartered right here in Omaha, Nebraska, is building a new plant in Turkey to continue to manufacture these functional tools. Sure, it is cool to look at a Kreighoff, but what happens when I fall into the swamp (again)? But luckily around Christmas time, we found a 505 12 ga. in mint condition here at Guns Unlimited (aka SKB USA headquarters), so I am super excited to get her out in the field and shoot some stuff. Oops, I mean harvest the sacred game.
SKB Model 505 12 ga. field grade. Photo from skb.com
Vacation selfies
Looking back on my vaca post, I realize that I edited myself out of the photos. Here I am, “Hi!!”
Great Sand Dunes National Park kicked my arse. Photo by Charles.
Charles and I at the Grand Canyon. Photo by our 10 year-old son, Conrad.
Pupdates
We received Ben’s OFA certification back and it was Good. He is a 3 1/2 year old male out of Sam and Sue that we’ll be breeding on to our co-owned female, Velma. I can check that off of the list.
Ben’s OFA certificate
Ernie up in North Dakota has been working with his 5 month-old pup, Duncan, and the Central Dakota NAVHDA chapter towards the Natural Ability test. Duncan is from our 2014 “H” litter of Sam and Mae. He said, “Duncan is doing great, he has more natural ability than any other dog I have ever seen at this age. He is picking up on the obedience training very quickly. The guys at NAVHDA are sure he could do his NA test now, but I will wait until spring. Hope you have a great hunting season.”
He also sent along a video of their training:
As it says in the credits, thank you to Ernie for the great video, and to the Central Dakota NAVHDA chapter for the training opportunities!
Duncan on a fishing trip, waiting for hunting season.
Also working with the Central Dakota NAVHDA chapter is TracHer, with Susan and Tom. TracHer is from our 2012 “C” litter of Sam and Mae. They sent along a GoPro headmount video of working with her on steadiness. I appreciate them sharing a video of a work in progress, as training steadiness is challenging. If you are sensitive to motion, you might want to start the video at 1:15 or so. I also film with a GoPro and know that getting anything of quality is lucky, so thank you again Susan and Tom for putting in the effort to share this.
Matt up in South Dakota has been out with Josie, Duncan’s sister. He called me up and said that she’s gaining her independence in her puppy adolescence, but they are getting her reined back in by having her drag a check cord. She had a bit of random nervous barking early on, but they resolved it quickly with a no-bark collar. Matt guides upland and waterfowl near Vermillion when he isn’t doing his day job, and I learned something interesting from him about hunting waterfowl along the Missouri River. They do not use any type of collar on the dog up there, for fear of having dogs snag on the numerous logs and branches in the water. We have yet to try and take on the Mighty Mo here, it is a big deep channel, but that is a smart tip.
Josie sitting
Josie in the field
Josie with a bumper in the yard
TracHer’s brother, Chester, out in New York was caught on camera by his trainer, Steve Anker. Charles hangs out on the versatiledogs.com forum and showed me this. I loved it so much that I had to snag it. Chester is working on his NAVHDA Utility Test with the Hudson Valley NAVHDA Chapter, and is pictured with his owner, Sal.
Sal and Chester up to serious training business. Photo by Steve Anker.
Okay, not a pupdate, but still a silly griffon photo from my pack. My brother Ron had Mae out on Main Street in Valentine, Nebraska while the bar folk were about. I didn’t ask the details, but he titled this one “Mae Meets the Party Girls”.
Mae giving love to the party girls
Time for me to get on with the day. Party on, Mae.
On Saturday, August 25th, Charles handled our 17 month old female pup, Bourg-Royal’s CB Bluestem JH NA 1, more commonly known as “BB” to a 3rd place finish in the Amateur Walking Derby stakes of the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Nebraska’s AKC Field Trial at the Branched Oak Trial Grounds near Raymond, Nebraska. We were in total shock. Charles stayed for the placement announcement, but somehow didn’t hear (a bad case of shotgunner ear) that BB won third. I was at the house and got a phone call from the trial grounds letting me know about it. We had been texting all day while he was waiting for his run and his phone was dead on the drive home, so he didn’t find out until an hour and a half later when he got to town.
The amateur walking stakes setup is nearly identical to a hunt test. The dog works planted quail for 30 minutes braced with another dog. No live fire though, the handler shoots a starter pistol on the flush. Places are awarded instead of pass/fail. I’m still learning the specifics about how it is judged, but in general it is based on covering ground/desire to search and bird finds/points. I think BB had a lot of individual finds/points and also backed her bracemate on another point.
As all of the fellow competitors were either Vizslas or German Shorthaired Pointers, we were quite excited to show them the potential of a good griffon who can run. The griffon will never range as wide as the big running dogs and that isn’t the point (ha, ha). BB was able to outscore her competitors with bird finds and tractability. BB’s bracemate ran like a bat out of hell and the owner spent most of his time trying to chase it down. It blew past a number of birds that BB was able to locate because of her attentive nose and appropriate pacing. There were only 7 dogs in the stakes, so the placement did not count for FC title points, but it was still the highlight of our weekend. I’ve only been able to find one other griffon within the last 10 years who has placed in an AKC field trial (in online research) and I haven’t had a chance to talk to the AKC about the rarity of the event.
I wasn’t there to take live photos and we have no rosette to pose with yet (it’s in the mail), so I’ll have to just post a past photo of BB. This is from her perfect score of 112 NAVHDA Natural Ability test in April.
Bourg-Royal’s CB Bluestem JH NA 1, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon
So, for my birthday and Christmas this year I got myself the GoPro Hero2 camera to wear hunting. I should have enough battery and memory card power to just let it run all day (as long as I switch out the battery every 2 hours and the 32 GB memory card every 4), so it should be fun to watch me cuss, lose my breath, fall in coyote holes, miss easy shots and get lucky every once in awhile. It does get a little heavy on your head, so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to convince Charles to try it, but I’m going to work on him. I took the camera out to the pond with us on Sunday, but I was pressing all of the wrong buttons and got nothing, but the videos of the week are two unedited GoPro videos of Caleb and I walking the dogs (first Sam and Sue, then Mae and BB) in the back yard. I should have edited them, but just really don’t have the time this week, sorry. Part I with Sam and Sue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbp7jhB2KCk Part II with Mae and BB: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znd2BiO–14
Susan and Tom in North Dakota are always sending me great pictures of TracHer from our “C” litter earlier this year. She’s coming up on 6 months of age and is working good on pointing and retrieving!
TracHer on point, 6 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon
TracHer looking pretty in the sunflowers, 6 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon
TracHer after she retrieved the goose Dokken, 6 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon
I also received an update from Rick who just lives on the other side of town with 3 month old Dottie from our “D” litter (the family liked her litter name so much that they just decided to keep it). She is the star of the neighborhood and is on track with her growth, as well as work in the yard and field.
Dottie pointing the pheasant wing, 3 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon
It’s time to move on to filling out more AKC event premiums and packing for the big weekend grouse/prairie chicken and dove hunting trip. It is supposed to be extremely hot, so we only see ourselves in the field for a few hours every morning. I hope we’re able to capture some cool moments on film to share with you and we’re always good for some long-winded tales. Wish us luck!
Bluestem Kennels 