It’s a rainy weekend here in South Carolina, so that is perfect weather for a new post. Last weekend we had some sun, so we got some chukars out of the bird hut and planted them for our 6 month old puppy Molly (NAVHDA Church Road’s Blue Molly). We were impressed with her scenting, pointing and retrieving abilities. Charles is still a sharp gunner, connecting on all four birds. Sometimes I had direct sun in my lens, making for bad photos, so I didn’t get great captures on all four birds but it was enough for a nice collection nonetheless. Our home sits adjacent to a Duke Energy power line cut, which makes for a convenient dog training area.
Chukar taking the shot from CharlesMolly bringing in the retrieve to CharlesMolly thinking that she’s coming to me while Charles reloadsMolly alert and on pointMolly bringing in a bird through the roughMolly with the retrieve-to-hand to CharlesMolly with another staunch pointCharles telling Molly what a good girl she is as he takes the birdOn point again in some thick coverMy favorite capture of the day: Molly’s reaction to the bird flushYet another retrieve, slightly blurred due to the direct sunlight in my camera lensYet another retrieve through the brushMolly’s last retrieve-to-hand for the day to Charles
Pupdate
Our latest pupdate was from Clint and Shelli Krow from Pennsylvania. They have a 2022 R Litter pup from Obi and Ruth. You can definitely see the resemblance to mama Ruth in this shot, taken up in Maine with her Pudelpointer and German Shortaired Pointer siblings.
Pudelpointer, Rosie the Griffon, and a German Shorthaired Pointer on a dock in Maine
If you have a Bluestem pup, feel free to share your updates with me at bluestemkennels@gmail.com. Although we are not currently producing litters, we love to hear from our many owners across the country.
I’m seeing great success in the fields throughout the U.S. on social media and I hope that continues for everyone. Our dogs will be out later this season and I’ll make sure to keep you updated here. Until then, enjoy time with your dogs and the sport that we all love.
We love hearing from our puppy owners and have many fantastic photos to share. If you are a Bluestem puppy owner, feel free to share photos and updates to bluestemkennels@gmail.com. We are in a semi-retirement period with no current breeding plans, but we’re still hunting with and training our own dogs. You’ll see our dogs in action over the coming months during hunting season so stay tuned.
I was excited to be interviewed by Chewy aka chewy.com about the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon breed recently and to be featured under the “Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Temperament” section of their breed profile. You can read my contribution here: https://www.chewy.com/education/dog-breeds/wirehaired-pointing-griffon
Charles’s hunting season began with an unconventional and dogless hunt. He drew an alligator tag for the state of South Carolina and made a trip with Caleb to the Lowcountry Lake Marion for a successful hunt. They weren’t in the boat more than an hour before having one in the boat.
Caleb at the lakeGator in the boatCaleb, Charles and the gator at the processor
Pupdates
Lorraine Sinnott in Iowa is always sharing her old girl Maggie with me on Facebook. She is from our 2015 J Litter between Sam and BB.
Maggie chilling out in her senior years.
Kelvin and Nancy Childers in Colorado shared photos of their 2018 O Litter pup between Chief and Fire, who goes by the name of Breeze. She is their second Bluestem pup, with their first being from our A Litter between Sam and Sue in 2010 (who has since gone over the Rainbow Bridge).
Breeze in the flowersRescue Griff Max with the lighter coat with Nancy and Breeze
Joe Martin out in Iowa has two of our pups: his first from when we were in Nebraska, which is “Gus” from our 2021 Q Litter between Chief and Fire. The second he flew down to the Carolinas for “Wade” from our 2025 W Litter between Duke and Briar.
Here’s what Joe had to share:
“Wade has had a very good start to his hunting life! I was a little worried about him being gun shy as he did not respond as well as I had hoped around the house. We eased him into gun shots for a few weeks and I decided that maybe an actual outing would be better. I took Wade and Gus out on New Year’s Day with the hopes of finding a bird to shoot at on a quick walk. We didn’t have any luck finding a rooster or a quail but he had fun. I sent pics from his first actual hunt trip on the 1-2. He had zero negative reactions to gun shots with the excitement of birds. I was able to get him out on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th. His growth was incredible. He’s a full on hunting dog now. Pointing pheasants, quail, and honor pointing. He really loves to retrieve the downed birds! In the last 4 days we were lucky enough to shoot 28 roosters and 13 quail. He got so much growth in such a short amount of time! I’ll attach pictures of us with his first rooster shot off of his point as well as some other pics. Gus has been an amazing instructor to his mini me.”
Gus and Wade on pointJoe with a rooster and WadeJoe with Wade and some buddies and roosters
Cliff Herr from Oklahoma also has a 2021 Q Litter pup between Chief and Fire, who goes by Quyen. He shared these photos with me when we lost her littermate Sally in a car accident earlier this year.
Quyen with a roosterA shot of Quyen in the truck bed with another rooster
Sheri and Stelios Gatanas from New Jersey have a 2025 V Litter pup from Duke and Briar who has been out on the hunt and they captured these great photos for me. Ledger is the dog with the shorter coat and full blaze on the face (I do not have the call name or breeding of the second Griff).
I have three pupdates from the X Litter of 2025 between Obi and Sally. They are particularly special after losing Sally earlier this year.
The first is from Pericle and Dara Magagnoli up in New York. Dara had the following to share about Millie:
“We were so saddened to hear about Sally. Our hearts truly go out to you and your family — what a tremendous loss. We are grateful for Millie every single day–and feel like we see a lot of Sally in her. She is exactly what we hoped for in a dog: smart, affectionate, goofy, curious and endlessly sweet. She attracts attention everywhere she goes — offering her belly to any who will rub it, and to say she is loved would be an understatement. She has two friends who come over regularly to romp around the yard and pond together — Tula, a Malinois, and Colby, a Chihuahua mix. We take her everywhere with us. She’s become a favorite at Lowe’s and at our local cidery here in Chatham (I keep thinking maybe one day we’ll run into your sister there!). She gets lots of interaction with both kids and other dogs, which she absolutely loves.”
Brianna Powers in Virginia had the following to share about Waffles:
“I wanted to let you know that Waffles is the best boy. He has fun camping with us, loves the water, and has a great sniffer. He’s starting out in dock diving soon. His drive from toys is crazy. I’m also looking into scent work and agility soon. He does good with his kitty siblings and has lots of doggy friends at day care. We couldn’t be happier with him. Thanks for your passion for this breed. I’m not sure I can own another type of dog now!”
Waffles out on a kayak adventure with her peopleBrianna and Waffles out fly fishing
Jon Pinion down in Georgia shared a couple of snaps of Liesl.
Liesl’s first birthday on June 8, 2026A recent photo of Liesl in the flower bed
Thank you so much to all of my puppy owners for providing great homes for these dogs, please stay in touch!
Good luck to everyone out there in the fields this fall chasing birds around, along with training and hunt testing. We’ll keep you up-to-date on our dog adventures here. I’m always at bluestemkennels@gmail.com, even though we are not currently producing litters. The heat is gone and fall is in the air, hooray!
Where has the time gone? How has it been three months since I’ve written my last blog post? We’re in semi-retirement right now with no firm breeding plans. I appreciate y’all who have been checking in, you never know if an accident could happen with two females and a male on the property.
I also love the pupdates coming through email and text. I have totally neglected re-posting those, I feel terrible. Let’s plan those over Christmas break, since I decided to go back into teaching middle school English this year and it is hectic just keeping up with the dogs and a son in his junior year of high school. My head kennel tech/son Caleb is currently holding straight A’s since freshman year with hopes of going to either Clemson or The Citadel to major in urban planning and civil engineering. Our older son Conrad is getting ready to graduate from Metropolitan Community College Omaha with an Associate’s Degree in Information Technology. Our oldest, daughter Cordelia is the sales manager at an optometrist and is thinking of finally using her finance degree in banking.
Duke was our first dog to go into retirement this year, he went out to Oregon to live the good life with Ben. We really appreciate Ben giving Duke a great home. Duke has put out some nice puppies but we really want to focus on higher level hunting test dogs. A NAVHDA UT III is respectable, but there are enough VCs nearby between our Obi and our friend’s dog Gauge that we think that we have what we want for males here.
Duke and his new GSP buddyDuke with ducks and Ben
Briar has gone to live another fantastic retirement life in Virginia with Priscilla. I absolutely love Briar’s size and she is the sweetest dog, but she just didn’t have what we wanted in the ability to take pressure in training. She was my pick of that litter, we bought her back from someone and love her genetic contribution to the breed, but whatever happened with guns and pressure in training while she was away was not good. She has her Junior Hunter, but we were nervous to try more advanced things with her. So she is a beloved family pet to a couple who spends a lot of time with her along the James River.
Briar’s adventures in retirementMore of Briar’s adventures in retirement
Sandhills Hunting
Charles and the rest of the pack: Obi, age 6, Sally, age 5, and Belle being almost two went out to the Nebraska Sandhills at the beginning of October for grouse and ducks this year and it was rough hunting. Caleb went with him and got skunked. Here is the run down of the game bag:
It was day four of the hunt when he and Belle got on the board with two grouseDay five was one snipe with BelleBelle with a limit of woodducks at an old creek haunt of ours
After a week, Caleb came back home to get back to school after fall break. The dogs and Charles spent a few days of working in Nebraska, then they made their way up to North Dakota. The hunting is never a giveaway up there, but it was more productive in a short amount of time than the Sandhills this year.
Day One North Dakota: Obi and Belle with two roosters and a grouseNorth Dakota Day 3: Sally, Belle and Obi with two ducks (one a nice drake mallard) and three roostersNorth Dakota Day 4: Belle and Sally with three roosters and a grouse
Charles is actually packing up today to go out to South Central Nebraska for pheasants. It is going to be a snowy trip, so it will be interesting to see what comes of it. I will be back sometime over Christmas break, I hope that everyone enjoys their holiday season!
I’m pretty sure that everyone is going to show up to pick up their puppies, but feel free to email bluestemkennels@gmail.com in the event that someone doesn’t show up. We don’t have any immediate breeding plans for the future and are taking a little semi-retirement, so we’re not taking deposits or reservations on future litters at this time.
It is super hot here and these guys are all super crazy, so it keeps us super busy. Here’s the photos from the leash and bird exposure this morning.
Males:
Xander
Male Xander on the leashMale Xander looking at the pigeonMale Xander with the dead chukar
Xavier
Male Xavier on the leashMale Xavier checking out the pigeonMale Xavier with the dead chukar
Xerxes
Male Xerxes on the leashMale Xerxes looking at the pigeonMale Xerxes with the dead chukar
Females
Xena
Female Xena on the leashFemale Xena checking out the pigeonFemale Xena with the dead chukar
Xantia
Female Xantia on the leashFemale Xantia checking out the pigeonFemale Xantia with the dead chukar
Xaria
Female Xaria on the leashFemale Xaria checking out the pigeonFemale Xaria with the dead chukar
Xandra
Female Xandra on the leashFemale Xandra looking at the pigeonFemale Xandra with the dead chukar
Xyla
Female Xyla on the leashFemale Xyla looking at the pigeonFemale Xyla with the dead chukar
And here’s the last video for this litter! Next blog posts will be of the photos of the new families. Always a fun and exciting time for everyone!
All puppies have homes at this time, but email bluestemkennels@gmail.com to be on the contact list in the event that someone backs out at the last minute.
Here is the four week update on the “W” Litter.
Here is the video of the litter shot today:
Here are their individual photos, starting with the female.
Wynonna
Female Wynonna faceFemale Wynonna body
Males:
Winston
Male Winston faceMale Winston body
Wade
Male Wade faceMale Wade body
Waylon
Male Waylon faceMale Waylon body
Wycliffe
Male Wycliffe faceMale Wycliffe body
Washington
Male Washington faceMale Washington body
They’ve made the transition to the outdoor kennel and are now on hard kibble as well as nursing from mom however much she’ll tolerate it. They’ll get daily time in the yard and lots of play with Caleb and I. I’ll let folks know once availability ends and the spot has been taken, then come back on Sunday with the four week update on the “X” litter. Stay cool and enjoy the 4th of July safely!
All puppies have homes at this time, but email bluestemkennels@gmail.com to be on the contact list in the event that someone backs out at the last minute.
Here is the three week update of the “W” Litter:
It has been unbearably hot here the last few days, but luckily all of the puppies are in the basement until they are four weeks old. Once they reach that age, they are able to regulate their body temperatures, plus they just get too stinky to be inside.
I haven’t started feeding these guys mush yet since they are so big and fat on mom. With there only being six, she can easily handle them. I will start mush tomorrow, just so that we can start the process over the week of them being able to gnaw on kibble once they get outside.
When I walked in this morning with the cameras they happened to be nursing, so I pulled a chair up to the kennel and stood leaning over the top to make this video:
When they are in this “in between” stage before they are running the yard, these are the worst individual photos to take. The lighting isn’t great, they don’t want to hold still, just not my best photography. But here they are anyway:
Female:
Wynonna
Female Wynonna faceFemale Wynonna back
Males:
Winston
Male Winston faceMale Winston back
Wade
Male Wade faceMale Wade back
Waylon
Male Waylon faceMale Waylon back
Wycliffe
Male Wycliffe faceMale Wycliffe back
Washington
Male Washington faceMale Washington back
I’ll be back on Sunday with the three week update of the “X” litter!
All puppies have homes at this time, but email bluestemkennels@gmail.com to be on the contact list in the event that someone backs out at the last minute.
Here’s today’s two week update of the “X” litter pups between Obi x Sally.
Sally and the “X” Litter pups
Everyone is developing as they should, with their eyes opening and scooting around on their little legs. Here is the YouTube video for the week:
Here are their individual photos. We don’t even start the process of evaluating for homes until around the 5-6 week mark, but this is where we start to be able to tell them apart. I do not call them by these names, these are just for online identification purposes only.
Males:
Xander
Male Xander faceMale Xander body
Xavier
Male Xavier faceMale Xavier body
Xerxes
Male Xerxes faceMale Xerxes body
Females:
Female Xena faceFemale Xena body
Xantia
Female Xantia faceFemale Xantia body
Xaria
Female Xaria faceFemale Xaria body
Xandra
Female Xandra faceFemale Xandra body
Xyla
Female Xyla faceFemale Xyla body
I’ll be back on Wednesday with the three week update of the “W” litter between Duke and Briar. They are getting really big and active, so it will be fun to try and put it all together in this heat! Try to stay cool out there!
All puppies have homes at this time, but email bluestemkennels@gmail.com to be on the contact list in the event that someone backs out at the last minute.
Here is the two week update of the “W” Litter:
We are planning a temporary retirement from breeding starting in 2026. Our youngest is an upperclassman in high school and our two older are back in Nebraska, so we’re needing a bit more freedom of movement than producing litters every year. 2025 is our 15th year in a row (minus one year off for COVID lockdown) and we feel like we deserve a break.
I’ve decided to have a blog post for each litter, rather than trying to cram them all in to one post. So “W” Litter will be on Wednesdays and “X” Litter will be on Sundays. So here is the video and individual photos of the “W” Litter 2025 between Cedar & Spruce’s Apollo NA III UT III “Duke” x Bluestem’s Carolina Briar Thicket JH “Briar”.
Female:
Wynonna
Female Wynonna faceFemale Wynonna back
Males:
Winston
Male Winston faceMale Winston back
Wade
Male Wade faceMale Wade back
Waylon
Male Waylon faceMale Waylon back
Wycliffe
Male Wycliffe faceMale Wycliffe back
Washington
Male Washington faceMale Washington back
Oh and last but not least, here is the YouTube video. It was a hot one, but it was their first time outside and it didn’t seem too traumatic for them.
Thanks for checking in on us, I have to get ready to put dinner on the table and then hop on to an AWPGA board call so I will talk at you again on Sunday with the “X” litter.
All puppies have homes at this time, but email bluestemkennels@gmail.com to be on the contact list in the event that someone backs out at the last minute.
The puppies chose not to wait until I was done teaching school for the semester and arrived during the last week. Briar and Duke’s “W” Litter arrived on Wednesday, June 4th. Luckily Caleb was home to watch over the process. He is not the first one of my children to whelp a litter of puppies, Cordelia helped BB whelp a litter 8 years ago to the month. There are five boys and one girl in the litter of six.
Sally and Obi’s “X” Litter pups arrived on Sunday, June 8th. Puppies started arriving about 10:30 AM and we were done by 3:30 PM. There are three boys and five girls in the litter of eight. No stillborns in either of the two litters. They both have their whelping boxes and kennels in the basement until the pups are four weeks old, when they get too stinky to be inside and they are able to regulate their body temperature.
So that brings us to a total of eight boys and six girls between the two litters, for a total of fourteen puppies. I need to reach out to folks with 2025 reservations to see if they are confirmed, then check in with the people who have reservations for 2026 to see if they want to move up a year. Then I would be open to taking new deposits.
My females absolutely hate the camera at this point, so I try to limit the exposure. At around two weeks when the puppies’ eyes are open, we can start taking individual pictures.
Here are the Briar and Duke pups at one week old:
Six snugglers of Briar and DukeBriar and the pupsCloseup on a yawnerFaces
Here are the photos of the three day old litter between Sally and Obi:
Nursing babiesSally and the pupsCloseup of nursing pups
So like I say, right now my priority is getting in touch with my folks with deposits down and figuring things out from there. Briar and Duke’s litter will be 8 weeks old on July 30th, so that is when they can start going home. The weekend following is August 2nd and 3rd. Sally and Obi’s pups will be 8 weeks old Sunday, August 3rd, so that is the first day that they can go home. The following weekend is August 9th and 10th. All puppies need to go home by Sunday, August 10th due to my school schedule next year.
Thanks for reading and I’ll post again a week from today when the “W” litter is two weeks old!
All of these pups are spoken for, but feel free to reach out to bluestemkennels@gmail.com about our future plans.
The “V” Litter is getting downright crazy these days. Their teeth are coming in, they love to run and fight with each other, they are attacking my fan palm tree, biting my pants and shoes, you name it, they are up to it. We’ve made it through picks and so here are the pups and where they are heading.
Males:
Male, Vance, face. He’s going to New Jersey.Male, Vance, side profileMale, Vaughn, face. He’s going to North Carolina.Male, Vaughn, side profile.Male, Vincent, face. He’s staying in South Carolina.Male, Vincent, side profile.Male, Valentino, face. He’s going to Arkansas.Male, Valentino, side profile.
Female:
Female, Victoria, face. She’s going to Kentucky.Female, Victoria, side profile.
I almost forgot to add the YouTube video for the week!
We also pulled out the kiddie pool today since it was 75 degrees out and let the pups splash around in there. This week I start with cap gun fire while they run and play. They get their first vaccinations and microchips on Saturday, then Sunday they’ll get to meet some live and dead birds. Next Sunday will be our last blog post update before the puppies go home! Talk at you then.
