We are half way through the early puppyhood journey of the “U” Litter prior to their departure to their new families. I am going to be honest, I am struggling with my email traffic right now. Normally I can turn around responses in 24 hours, but between keeping in touch with these new families, trying to stay on top of my breed parent club responsibilities and responding to new contacts, it is taking me a few days to get back to folks via email. So if you are patient with me and want to talk Griffs at some point in the future, feel free to shoot me an email at bluestemkennels@gmail.com.
Here is this week’s video. It was shot in the twilight of a long day of getting the kennel and the puppies moved outside, then cleaning up the whole mess inside. So the puppies are acting in this video how I feel!
I feed them canned food twice per day, but now that they are outside and around kibble, that transition to kibble-only just happens naturally. They will also nurse when Sally lets them. Now that they are outside with more space, they will get stronger and more sure on their feet. They will go from hardly being comfortable outside of the dog house to wanting to bust out of the kennel as much as possible within the next week.
Here are their individual pictures. Once again, they were done at the end of a long day, so some of their poses are awkward and less than ideal.
Females:
Unique
Unique, female, faceUnique, female, backUnique, female, side
Unity
Unity, female, faceUnity, female, backUnity, female, side
Ursula
Ursula, female, faceUrsula, female, backUrsula, female, side
Uma
Uma, female, faceUma, female, backUma, female, side
Uschi
Uschi, female, faceUschi, female, backUschi, female, back
Males
Ulysses
Ulysses, male, faceUlysses, male, backUlysses, male, side
Uriah
Uriah, male, faceUriah, male, backUriah, male, side
Upman
Upman, male, faceUpman, male, backUpman, male, side
Well that is all of the puppy news for this week. On Saturday, Duke earned his NAVHDA Utility Prize III at the Carolinas Chapter test with Charles as handler. I don’t know if anyone got any photos, but we don’t have any as of yet. It isn’t a bad prize for a dog who just turned two. They will have another go at it at the end of April.
I’ll be back here next week with another update. Take care until then.
All of these cute little ones have homes and it takes me a few days to respond to emails these days, but if you want to reach out, I’m at bluestemkennels@gmail.com.
Here’s this week’s video. It was a little cool for outside today, so we are inside in the whelping box.
They started food today with much fanfare and excitement. I didn’t want to try and get them started on food and run the video camera at the same time, so you just get a still photo of that. All I do is take canned puppy food and mix it with prepared puppy milk replacer to make a soft puppy mush. If there were a larger litter or some puppies who were small, I may have started them on food sooner, but where they were getting plenty fat from mom I didn’t feel the need to rush this year.
The “U” Litter with some puppy mush
It was really warm earlier this week, like 80 degrees, so they got to go outside on the lawn one day. They squirm around and get back into a pile at this point, not a really big excitement.
“U” Litter puppies squirming on the lawnThey made it back into their puppy pile in the sun
Here are there individual photos. There still really isn’t a lot going on personality wise, they are just busy being puppies. They will move into the outdoor kennel on the back patio a week from today so that they quit stinking up my basement and get lots of fresh air and room to run around.
Females:
Unique
Female, Unique, faceFemale, Unique, back
Unity
Female, Unity, faceFemale, Unity, back
Ursula:
Female, Ursula, faceFemale, Ursula, back
Uma:
Female, Uma, faceFemale, Uma, back
Uschi:
Female, Uschi, faceFemale, Uschi, back
Males
Male, Ulysses, faceMale, Ulysses, back
Uriah:
Male, Uriah, faceMale, Uriah, back
Upman:
Male, Upman, faceMale, Upman, back
Charles and Duke run in the NAVHDA Utility Test at the Carolinas Chapter this weekend and I’m hoping the best for them. The duck search is always such a pain, we’ll see where it all comes out. I’ll check back in with you all next week.
All of these puppies have homes, but if you’d like to talk about the future here, feel free to email me at bluestemkennels@gmail.com.
Here’s the two week old video, not very exciting just yet!
They are all fat and happy
Puppies getting attention from our son Caleb and his friend.
All of their eyes are open and they are starting to get up and walk. There are five females and three males for a total of eight puppies for Sally and Obi. Here they are:
Females
Unique:
Unique, female, faceUnique, female, back
Unity:
Unity, female, faceUnity, female, back
Ursula:
Ursula, female, faceUrsula, female, back
Uma:
Uma, female, faceUma, female, back
Uschi:
Uschi, female, faceUschi, female, back
Males:
Ulysses:
Ulysses, male, faceUlysses, male, back
Uriah:
Uriah, male, faceUriah, male, back
Upman:
Upman, male, faceUpman, male, back
As you can see, they are pretty floppy looking at this point. They will liven up as they get older. One more shot of them all together and then I’m going to sign off for the night and hope that I can get the video posted in the morning.
These pups are all spoken for and then some. I am pretty sure that my top eight folks are locked in for the long haul, so if you are further down the list I’ll be sure to reach out this week and figure out next steps. Sometimes folks have emergencies and have to drop out at the last minute, so I hate to say that it is all figured out. I’ve learned that it isn’t all done until I put a puppy into someone’s hands. I am pretty swamped for the next week, but if you are new to my world and want to touch base a little ways out to talk Griffs, shoot me an email at bluestemkennels@gmail.com.
Sally and the eight puppies of the “U” Litter
The pups got their vet checks, tails docked and dew claws removed at York Veterinary Services on Friday. Everyone looks great, they confirmed my five females and three males. Sally is taking good care of them and they don’t like it when I mess with them too much, but I still do a little.
“U” Litter puppies close-up while mom is on a potty break
That wood isn’t directly on the floor, it has a tarp underneath, then a horse stall mat underneath of it, then laminate flooring under it, then the concrete. I’ve been able to taper off supplemental heat. It is just in my basement, so they are at 66 degrees just like the rest of us. It was up to 70 today, so I was able to open the back door and let all of the puppy farts out.
Sally seems to be having fun being a mom. She is a little skinny, but I keep a full bowl of food in the kennel at all times so she can eat as much as she wants.
Mama Sally hanging out with me on the patio
I am late to my desk today, so I’m going to wrap it up for now. Charles and Duke are working on getting ready for Duke’s Utility Tests coming up in a month or so. I think that he has him signed up for two. I watched them work on walking on heel today, but forgot to take any pictures.
Next week we’ll wait to see if the puppies eyes start to open. I’ll probably go ahead and take individual photos at that point since they are all so big and healthy. I hope that everyone is enjoying the hints of spring that are coming around and I’ll catch up with you next week.
Just as a warning if you are trying to reach out to me these days, I am still recovering from a week of little sleep and am not ready to crank on the email responses just yet. Feel free to contact me at bluestemkennels@gmail.com, but it may be mid next week before I respond. All of these puppies are spoken for, but I don’t mind talking about the future here or just Griffons in general. I use my email account as my robocall filter so that my phone doesn’t ring all day.
I’m just going to write all of what I have to say in chronological order like I usually do, I’m not good at putting lipstick on pigs or hiding from reality. I took all of the dogs for a walk down the power line cut on Monday, February 19th. When I got everyone back to the house, Ruth was whining pretty loudly. I brought her in the house with me and by the time we got to potty breaks before bed, she was trying to dig dens in the side pasture next to the house and barn.
I laid down in the bed next to the whelping box in the basement and she had the first pup, it was very small but alive. Four more came out dead (I am not going to describe in detail what they looked like) in the next couple of hours. They did not die during the birth, they had been gone for at least a few days if not longer. They were not properly formed and probably didn’t attach to the uterus correctly.
Ruth and the tiny pup that was lost
My hope going into this breeding was that my prior fertility issues with Ruth had been either genetic with Obi as the stud or the fact that we had been traveling during the mating and early pregnancy with the two small litters of two that we had with her. This time we used both a different stud and barely left the house during mating a pregnancy. It will be interesting to see what her uterus looks like when they take it out in her spay, I know of females in the breed who have their uteruses break down over time and this may be that situation.
The little puppy that Ruth had never warmed up and slowly lost its ability to latch on. As much as we fought, I came into the room at around the 36 hour mark and it was gone. Ruth cried almost nonstop for two days afterward, but she is now healthy and in good spirits. Later this year, she will go to live with our friend Ron and her mom Fire (now Bella) and travel between Minnesota and Arizona hunting birds and being a pet.
But there’s good news at the end of this! At 3 AM on Monday the 26th, Sally woke me up with a big howl. We walked in the yard on a checkcord with a flashlight for about an hour with lots of grunting, then we went to the whelping box and had a big healthy pup. An hour later, another followed, also big and healthy. I figured that she was doing her mom instincts well, cleaning up the puppies and positioning them to nurse, so I laid down for a little more sleep. When I woke up at 6:30 AM there were five puppies and by the time 10 AM rolled around there were eight. All big and healthy, nursing on their own without any assistance, no stillborns. It was such a relief after I’ve struggled with Ruth and her pups over the last few years. Ruth is my first struggle with a dam, I’ve had all blue hens with Sue, BB, Mae and Fire. I’m glad to be back in the good graces of Mother Nature.
The eight puppies of the “U” Litter at 24 hours with mom Sally“U” Litter puppies, photo taken today while Sally was on a potty break
The gender count is five females and three males. I won’t be keeping one from this litter and those of you who are on my reservation list will be contacted within in the next week.
My biggest job right now is keeping the room warmer than normal and keeping Sally fed and hydrated. We go in for tail docking and dew claw removal tomorrow morning at York Vet, I’ll also ask them when I should bring Ruth in for her spay.
I’ll post here weekly with photos and videos from here on out, I typically don’t identify them individually until after their eyes open. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, I’ll be back soon.
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!
It’s tough to believe that I have only two weeks left with these guys. This is the toughest part of this process aside from the whelping. There is a lot of poop to clean up. You have to schedule time to do the different exposures that you’re wanting to do now that they are ready. You’re really attached to them and wish that you could keep them.
But they are also super fun and I love seeing them start to venture out into the world.
And then here are the individual photos of the pups.
Male pup, Tobin, frontMale pup, Tobin, sideMale pup, Tobin, running
Here’s this week’s YouTube video:
In other news, Obi and Charles finally get their big day next weekend in Ohio at NAVHDA Invitational 2023. Send good vibes their way for a successful VC pass!!
As of right now, all of the NAVHDA chapters in the Carolinas are in North Carolina. There is a South Carolina chapter making grumblings to form, so look for more information on that in the future.
It looks like the East Region AWPGA National Specialty 2024 is between North Carolina or Pennsylvania. Both areas are finishing up their bids and looking for the board to make an announcement of the decision at the 2023 National Specialty in Montana in less than two weeks. Should any of my puppy owners want to join the AWPGA and receive the quarterly Griffonnier magazine, feel free to put me down as your sponsor: https://www.awpga.com/2023-member-application-form.html
After Invitational we have some hunting plans coming together, so we’re looking forward to finally getting out for that. Having our son Caleb join us for his first wild bird season is pretty exciting.
If you have any questions about NAVHDA, the AWPGA, future litters, or anything griffy email bluestemkennels@gmail.com and we can find a time to connect on the phone if you’d like. I quit publishing a phone number after I was harassed non-stop by overseas robocallers, scammers and telemarketers when I did have a phone number published, so I took it all down and use email as my “are you a robot?” screening tool.
Good luck to everyone in the field and everyone headed to Montana for AWPGA National Specialty 2023.
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!
We’ve grown! The “T” Litter turned one week old yesterday. They’ve tripled in size, scoot around the box, bark and nurse.
Mama Ruth with the milk bar going
In the first few days of life, I’m really having to fuss over making sure that the pups are finding their way to to teats to get the colostrum from the mother. Now I am able to focus on Ruth being fed and happy so that she’s there for her pups when they need her. They are able to get what they need on their own.
The puppies eyes and ears are still closed for another week. I’m starting to feel out of the woods on having losses, but I always say that I wait until two weeks old to call it. Next week, I’ll do individual pictures and take a video. Once their eyes are open I start supplementing nursing with puppy mush of canned puppy food and milk replacer. It is mainly to get them used to eating something other than mother’s milk. With so few pups I could probably wait to introduce food, but I like to stay in my routine that has worked for me for thirteen years.
I make sure Ruth gets at least one can of puppy food a day still until the pups are starting to eat other things. She is also getting meat scraps, bones and has free feed of dry dog food.
Here are some close up shots of the pups nursing:
Nursing one week old “T” Litter puppiesOne week old puppies getting fed
On Wednesday we took a road trip to York Vet for a checkup for Ruth and the pups, as well as to get their tails docked and their dew claws removed.
Puppies on a roadtrip in the laundry basketRuth getting checked out while keeping her eye on the puppiesRuth had to feed her pups before we got back on the road
Everyone checked out healthy and Ruth was cleared for future breeding. My observation of nothing being retained in the uterus and no infection present was confirmed. It was all such a relief.
So I’m praying that the scary and sad part of this is over and that we get through this critical week to reach important two week milestones. Keep thinking about us and we’ll keep working.
