Korthals Griffon | Bluestem Kennels

Welcome “G” Litter 2014!

February 12, 2014

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update, Uncategorized Korthals Griffon, NAVHDA, NAVHDA Natural Ability Test, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Leave a comment

I can’t believe that this is the “G” litter for Bluestem Kennels, coming into our 4th year of breeding. And “H” and “I” should be coming in a month!

The 13 puppies of Sam and BB’s “G” Litter were born on Sunday, February 9th and it literally took the whole day. We were up walking around at 5 AM and went to bed at 10 PM. There are 8 girls and 5 boys. BB has decided that her favorite time to get attention, be fed and go walking outside is between midnight and 2 AM, so I haven’t had the best nights of sleep, so I apologize to the new owners for not getting e-mails or phone calls out yet.

BB with 8 puppies in the whelping box

I thought for sure that with 13 that I would be bottle feeding, but BB has been doing awesome with nursing them well. It really helps that we have them right in front of the wood burning stove, so that they are not having to expend energy keeping warm. With normal-sized litters we’ve been able to keep them in the basement utility room or in the garage with space heaters and heat lamps, but this cold weather and with there being so many of them, they need to be where it is extra warm. It is also nice that my youngest boy, Caleb, will be 5 next month and has finally learned to not mess with the puppies at this age. The weather is supposed to warm up and they will get bigger and able to regulate their body temperature, so I won’t have to have puppies in my living room forever.

First night by the fire

I didn’t have anything set up by the fire after they were born, so I just put them on a blanket and slept next to them that night. I did have to fish a few out of odd places in the middle of the night, but they survived it and stayed warm. They are now set up with the small kiddie pool with a blanket in the bottom, with the x-pen around it to deter kids and other dogs.

They went to the vet Monday morning for their tail docking, dew claw removal and vet check. Dr. Kliewer at Heartland Animal Hospital checked them all over and said that they are perfect! I was sure that with so many of them that there would be a “dud”, but there’s not a single one. These are the individual puppy photos that I store on here for my records and so we can track their development. Try not to get too attached to any of them! They are all spoken for and I will do my best to get them all grown up, but one never knows. I also name them for tracking purposes and don’t expect the new owners to keep these names. They never get called anything other than “puppy” by me:) They are completely in random order and may be taken from different distances which might account for size differences. The coat differences I note only help me to tell them apart as they grow. Photos taken at 1 day old, right before we went to the vet for claws and tails.

Girl: Ginny

Ginny has a white blaze on her forehead and small liver spots on right side, above the tail, then most of the tail is liver.

Girl: Garnet

Garnet has a white dot on her forehead, a white dot on her neck, a tiny liver spot on the left bottom part of her back and a larger liver block on her right belly.

Girl: Gayle

Gayle has a solid liver head and her entire left side is liver. She also has liver spots on her right neck, underarm, belly and above the tail.

Girl: Gertrude

Gertrude has a small white dot on her forehead and is spotted liver heavily all over her body. Liver on most of her right side.

Girl: Gemma

Gemma has a white dot on her forehead and two large liver spots set on a diagonal on her back, the left one higher than the right. Small liver spot on left belly and above tail.

Girl: Gabriella

Gabriella has a think white blaze on her forehead, has a large liver spot on her back that is shoulder to shoulder, a tiny liver spot on her lower left back, then a liver spot above her tail that extends down into the tail.

Girl: Gallixe

Gallixe has a white blaze on her face and an entirely white back with a small spot above the tail. Her neck is 1/2 white and 1/2 liver.

Girl: Gisele

Gisele has a white blaze on her face and and entirely white neck and body except for a small spot above the tail.

Boy: Gene

Gene has a white dot on his forehead, large liver spots set diagonally with the right higher than the left. A tiny liver spot on his right belly and a large liver spot above his tail.

Boy: Gus

Gus has a white blaze on his face with two large diagonal liver spots that do not touch at the back. The right spot is higher than the left. The rest of the body is white.

Boy: George

George has a liver head and white upper back. His lower back has a large liver spot in the center, with a smaller one on the left. Also has a small liver spot above the tail.

Boy: Gascon

Gascon has a white blaze on his face, a white upper back, a small liver spot in the center of his lower back and a liver spot right above his tail.

Boy: Gilbert

Gilbert has a tiny white spot on his forehead, his body is entirely white except for a small liver spot above the tail.

Okay, that is everybody! Here is a shot of them today at 3 days old.

“G” litter 3 days old

I will be sure to get phone calls and e-mails out to the new owners before the end of the weekend. As this was a large litter, I am willing to take a few more deposits for possible 2014 puppies. Right now I have 10 other reservations and 2 more litters on the way, so there is a possibility of having more than 10 puppies yet this year. There are no guarantees, so I just ask that anyone who wants to make a reservation at this point be flexible and open to getting a pup in Spring 2015.

Pupdate

I was just thinking about Gomer from Sue and Sam’s 2012 “D” litter after I saw his NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize I with a Perfect Score of 112 points at the Spoon River Chapter Fall Test in the latest edition of Versatile Hunting Dog magazine. Lo and behold, I just got some new photos of him and his family, with the announcement that he will be a big brother to a human sibling soon. Congrats to Kyle and Jenna!

Kyle, Gomer and Jenna

Gomer and Jenna in the pool last summer

Gomer says, “Who needs a dog box, I get to ride in the front?!”

Thanks to Kyle for the update and his great work with Gomer towards the Natural Ability Prize.

Well, it is time for me to go to my son’s Valentine’s Day party at school. I will be sure to keep you posted with the new puppies and the upcoming litters. Oh and Happy Valentine’s Day!!

A Day in the Snow

February 5, 2014

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update Korthals Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Leave a comment

This has been a cold and dry winter, but we did get a nice batch of snow last night that let the kids stay home and play in it with the dogs!

Tor gets after Mae

Tor blazes a trail down the hill

Sam shows Tor how the boys play

Sam tries to jump on the sled with Cordelia while Tor follows

All boys on deck: Sam, Conrad, Caleb and Tor

All boys on deck: Tor, Conrad, Sam and Caleb

BB is too big for the fun, but is keeping warm by the fire

BB is too big for the fun, but keeps warm by the fire

Stay warm and safe, everyone!!

Yard Play Photos

January 30, 2014

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Uncategorized Korthals Griffon, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Leave a comment

I just took the camera out for our daily backyard run and I wanted to share the pictures. BB is huge and will be having her puppies around Valentine’s Day. Mae is a heavier set dog anyway, but I can see that her nipples are already dropping 2 weeks post-breeding. This is Mae’s last litter and BB’s first, so their bodies change at different rates.

BB the pregosaurus

Old mama Mae

Tor is doing well at 12 weeks old now. He loves to play with the big dogs and his kids. He is generally pretty spoiled, but listens when he is called, is almost housebroken, retrieves dummies, likes to run in the woods, sleeps in his crate at night and when we are away, and will hang out in the outdoor kennel with BB for a few hours without bawling his head off.

Handsome Tor striking a pose.

About a week ago, Charles pulled a quail out of the freezer and was playing fetch with Tor using it. I hadn’t used my big camera in quite some time, so I was pretty out of practice and the camera was a little slow to respond. Here was the best shot I got, which isn’t great, but will have to do.

Tor with a frozen quail

Boys will be boys: Tor gives Sam a pounce

Sam is just being big friendly Sam. He and Charles went out hunting these last few weekends, but only saw one rooster or so and didn’t bag anything. After a busy hunting season full of travel, we are all happy to stay home with the new puppies on their way!

Sam nosing around

I need to get down towards Lincoln to get some photos of Sam and Sue’s 3 year old son, Ben, who is the sire of my co-owned female, Velma’s, puppies. Aaron said that Velma is doing well and is showing some changes in eating habits, so we assume that the breeding is going ahead for puppies to whelp mid-March, at the same time as Mae does here.

Pupdate

Lindsey in Montana shared this photo of 10 month old Midge, on right. She is hanging out on the farm with her big brother Murf, who is not from our kennel but is also a griffon. Midge is from our 2013 “F” litter between Mae and Sam. We hope that she turns out well, as she is a part of our future breeding program if so. There are many quality up-and-coming studs in Montana that we are evaluating for potential future use.

Murph and Midge

I know that there are many folks out there looking for griffon puppies right now and I just want to give them a quick message. Although I have 3 litters planned for this spring, I have 23 reservations. With 2 first litter females (BB and Velma), there is a possibility that I will have more than enough puppies, but there are no guarantees and it is likely that some folks may have to wait until 2015 for a puppy from us.

The whelping area is all set up and the countdown to BB’s puppies is on. With the end of hunting season tomorrow, it is doubtful that I will have any news until her puppies are whelped. Send us good thoughts for a smooth whelping and I will keep you posted!

Puppies on the way and pupdates!

January 20, 2014

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update, Uncategorized, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons chukar hunting, Duck Hunting, Elevage du Bourg-Royal, Hunting Nevada, Korthals Griffon, NAVHDA, Nebraska Pheasant Hunting, North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association, Puppies, Quebec, Water Retrieve, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon 2 Comments

Sue’s retirement

Sue out on the South Dakota prairie

12 year old Trey gave me an update on how 10 year old Sue is doing up in South Dakota. He says that he is finally licensed and has a shotgun and is ready to shoot some birds over her. We miss Sue and my youngest boy Caleb (age 4 1/2) asks about her at least once a week. We want to keep our dog numbers at 4 here at the house, so that we can hunt them regularly and give them personal attention, so retirement and re-homing is a necessary sadness. But we are so happy to give folks an opportunity to experience the griffon who might not be able to afford or have no desire to raise a puppy. I can’t wait to see pics of Trey and Sue with some birds in the fall!!

Sue’s sweet face

Pupdates

I really appreciate all of my puppy owners who contribute photographs and stories of their dogs as they grow up. It is truly the reason why we do this.

Pete, Whiskey, Andi and chukars in NV

Great job to sharpshooter Andi and our oldest boy Whiskey, who will be four years old soon! He is from our first, or “A” litter in 2010 with Sue and Sam. Andi and Whiskey really tore it up in the chukar field and we couldn’t be more proud!! Thanks to Pete, Deborah and Andi for giving him such a great life out in Nevada!!

Sal and 2 year old Chester

We received a lovely Christmas card with photos of Chester from Sal and family out in New York! When Chester isn’t out with Steve “Hoss” Anker training or out with the Hudson Valley NAVHDA Chapter, he’s having a good time at home on Long Island. He is from our 2012 “C” litter from Sam and Mae. Sal has done a great job working with this dog and he has a bright future ahead!

Chester taking a rest

Chester’s “C” litter sister TracHer is having a good season up in North Dakota. She has a new brother, a 10-month old German Wirehaired Pointer named Max. Thanks to Susan and Tom for the lovely Christmas card with photos. Tom had surgery is on crutches from a knee injury incurred while hunting, so we send prayers for a speedy recovery.

TracHer and Susan in the ND snow

Chester and TracHer’s little sister Zoey, from our “F” litter in 2013 also from Mae and Sam, is having a blast down in Oklahoma with Jimmy and Sandi. Here’s what Jimmy had to say:

This girl is the best thing that every happened to Sandi and me. Here some updated photos. She is now 10 mos old and weighs 55 lbs. We just bought some land in the badlands of SW Oklahoma and she loves it. Here is some photos of her expeditions so far. She loves hunting antlers and when go into the shop she will go to the gun safe and sit there until I either get a gun out or tell her we aren’t going hunting.

Jimmy and Zoey

Zoey on point

Zoey water retrieving a stick

Zoey retrieving an antler

Zoey patiently waiting for the ducks

Zoey and her mallard haul!

Thank you so much again to all of my owners for contributing to this and keeping me up to date on how their dogs are doing. It is really important for us to see their success, it keeps us going during the times that we find the pressures of breeding overwhelming. Watching the gun dog lifestyle continue in our pups is one of our greatest joys.

I will be sure to keep everyone posted on the upcoming litters. BB is already heavy and I need to get some pictures of her, along with updated shots of the rest of the dogs. I’d also like to do video of Tor. Now that I’ve recovered from travel, the holidays and a major plumbing project, I will do a better job of keeping the blog updated. Charles and Matt are out right now trying to spook up some pheasants, all of the chaos lately has really cut into their time in the field. Until then, stay warm and don’t blow away in these winds!

Hunting season slowing down and puppy season upon us

December 17, 2013

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update, Uncategorized Bird Hunting, Hunting Colorado, Hunting Dogs, Hunting Nebraska, Hunting North Dakota, Korthals Griffon, Nebraska Pheasant Hunting, Puppies, Quebec City, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Leave a comment

With all of the holiday and end-of-year activity, Charles has only had a chance to get out hunting once on November 30th, for the first time since my birthday hunt. They did manage to bag a few birds and we all hope to get out for a few more before the season ends at the end of January.

Charles and Matt each bagged a rooster on November 30th

Breeding season is upon us! Sam and BB mated on Friday and Saturday, so we are looking at puppy whelping around Valentine’s Day (February 14) and homegoing in mid-April as long as everything goes as planned. I am checking Mae every few days and we are getting closer, pro-estrous (bleeding) could be any day now, or it could be a few weeks out. Having some space between the two litters is a good thing! We are also waiting on Velma, but she has until mid-March to cycle within our cutoff time.

Right now I have 18 reservations for this breeding season and have already have a reservation for 2015. I am really flattered by all of the attention and positive feedback that we are getting on our puppies. We have so much fun raising them and love sending them to great families!

Speaking of our breeding program, our new male is just over 6 weeks old and looks like a fat little dude! Renee says that he is very active and inquisitive. We can’t wait to meet him. It sounds like his registered name might be Bourg-Royal FC Hector and we would call him “Tor”. A tor is a medieval pagan/early Christian holy hill in England. Here he is with his littermates

Tor at 6 weeks up at the very top of this photo on the left

Cordelia and I will be flying up to Quebec City on the Friday after Christmas and will bring him back on the Monday before New Year’s Eve. Of course, we will enjoy lots of great food, sightseeing and good friends while we are there.

Pupdate time. Roxy is from our 2011 “B” litter from Sam/Sue and lives out in Utah with Randy and Pam. Sounds like Roxy and Randy had a great time in North Dakota. Randy said:

Wanted to send a few photo’s of the results in North Dakota this year with some of my buddies. Bird counts were a little over the limit with what the picture shows but it took more people to run the cameras so they couldn’t all be in the picture. Over all another excellent trip in the Dakota’s even though the bird numbers were down.

Roxy done an amazing job and has lived up to everything an owner could ever expect. Again,,thanks for the ability for me to experience life like this with her by giving me the opportunity to get her as a pup from you. Griffs forever.

Randy and Roxy on the left

Another great day for Roxy and Randy in ND with the gang

Frankie from our Sam/Mae 2012 “C” litter is having a great life out in Colorado too. Her owner Mike said:

Frankie had a great year last year with several good wild hunts and a LOT of preserve training (82 successful points last year ). Not as many preserve hunts preseason but my oldest helped me gear her up a few times with some planted chukar. Opening day in Kansas we limited out. And we took a Wednesday last week into eastern Colorado. Very few birds and It took all day but me and a buddy both got our birds. Fetching is really coming in this year, was sketchy last year.

She is doing great, just thought I would say hi.

Mike and 20 month old Frankie with CO roosters

18-month old Abby is from our Sam/Sue 2012 “D” litter and lives with Rob down in Western Illinois. Rob said:

Abby was wonderfully today. Took her by herself for a few hours today trying to get more range. She was stretching out farther and covering ground methodically leaving nothing untouched. She worked for over an hour with no bird contact. Then she got birdie and tracked for about 150 yards. Then stopped on a dime. I was not sure she had it the it erupted from the switch grass a rooster. One shot later it was in her mouth and on its way back to my hand. She dropped it out about twenty yards and started tracking and up came number two. Hit it but not real hard she was on it and caught up to it. Two roosters in less than five minutes. She was great.

Thanks

Rob, 18 mo old Abby and roosters

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and most prosperous New Year! I will be sure to post a report when I get back from Canada with Tor and hopefully we’ll have some breeding news on Mae too. Sorry, I don’t get the dogs dressed up in elf garb or make them sit in front of the Christmas tree. May your days be filled with family, friends and some late season hunting too!

Mid-season hunting update

November 20, 2013

Charity Upchurch Hunting Tales, Kennel Update, Puppy Update, Uncategorized Bird Hunting, Dog Training, Gun Dog, Hunting Dogs, Hunting Nebraska, Hunting North Dakota, Korthals Griffon, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, Nebraska Pheasant Hunting, Nebraska Sandhills, Puppies, Quebec, Southeastern Nebraska, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Leave a comment

I think I’ll start off on telling you all what is happening with this blog. It is blowing up on me a bit. Right now I’m getting between 60-100 individual viewers everyday, each reading between 5-10 items. If you search anything online about Wirehaired Pointing Griffons and hunting, we are the top kennel name that pops up. I’m getting phone calls and e-mails every day about puppies, which is great! But if you have to leave a voice mail, get me on the phone and I sound stressed and frazzled, or send me an e-mail and it takes me a week to respond, please try to understand. We are not a big farm with lots of kennel hands or anything. We are just a busy family that loves hunting with our dogs, which takes us on the road this time of year quite a bit too. I respond to everyone.

If I had to wager, I would bet that my females are getting ready to cycle in December. They are both showing about the same amounts of changes and Sam’s interest is high in both of them. Mae might be a little ahead of BB. So, I’m thinking that they’ll have puppies in February that go home in April. But it is Mother Nature after all, so we’ll just wait and see.

My birthday was on November 9th, so we went and chased some birds. Charles got 2 pheasant and a quail. I missed the shots that I had. But it was fun to get out on a beautiful fall day anyway.

Birthday girl Charity, your loyal narrator

BB, Sam and Charles with my birthday presents

Last weekend, we took time away from bird hunting for Charles to go after his annual mule deer in the Nebraska Sandhills. I was able to stay back in town and visit my family. He took this bad boy opening morning. It is a tie with his muley from 1999 for personal best deer antler rack.

Charles’s mule deer buck and rifle out on the prairie

Up close with Charles and his deer

I’ve been all amped up about trying to shoot a goose. There is a pond along the Platte River that I have access to and I went out to it for a couple of hours the day before yesterday. Saw lots of geese on an adjacent pond that is property of the gravel mine, so I’m hoping that if I get in some morning in the dark and set up, I might be able to get them flying into the mining pond. But we’ll see, it is a work in progress.

Charles will take the weekend off from pheasants due to it being the last weekend of rifle deer season. We don’t want one of the dogs to get shot on accident.

I am also getting ready to go to Quebec the weekend between Christmas and New Years Eve (God willing!). The puppies are three weeks old now and have their eyes open. I’m not sure which one of these three is mine, but I plan on calling up there tonight and I’ll find out. Renee and Gilbert have very busy jobs on top of having way more dogs than I do, so I completely understand.

Cristal and Fortis puppies at 3 weeks old.

I am so thankful for all of my owners who take such great pictures and write such nice e-mails to keep us up to date our our pups. 8 month old “Ed” is out of Sue and Sam’s 2013 “E” Litter. Here is what owner, Bob, had to say about their trip to North Dakota:

We had a great hunt in North Dakota this year. We had 5 hunters and got our limits 2 of the 3 days we hunted. It rained all day on our second day so the hunting was pretty short. Ed figured out the game and has picked up the art of pointing just like I hoped he would. He also has shown his desire to retrieve with no hesitation. Very successful first North Dakota hunt for Ed! It is awesome what a good dog can do. And at only 8 months old is unbelievable!

Bob and Ed had a great time in ND!

Ed’s stack of ND pheasants

And as always, year and a half old TracHer, from Sam and Mae’s “C” Litter is having a great time living in North Dakota! Susan and Tom are so generous to share their photos with us. On this day, Susan got the first bird of the day, but missed for the rest of the day (I know that feeling!!), but Tom got his limit.

Here comes TracHer with a pheasant!

TracHer retrieving another pheasant

TracHer is excited about the bird that she brought to Tom

Everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving. We all have so much to be thankful for! Hopefully we’ll get out to chase some pheasants around then. Take care.

North Dakota Trip, AWPGA Nationals, Nebraska Pheasants and other news…

November 6, 2013

Charity Upchurch Hunting Tales, Kennel Update, Puppy Update, Uncategorized AKC Hunt Tests, Bird Hunting, Dog Training, Duck Hunting, Ducks, grouse hunting, Hunting Dogs, Hunting Nebraska, Hunting Nevada, Hunting North Dakota, Korthals Griffon, NAVHDA, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, Nebraska Pheasant Hunting, North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association, Pheasant Hunting, Pheasants Forever, Puppies, Quail, Sharp-tailed Grouse Hunting, Southeastern Nebraska, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon 2 Comments

When you go three weeks without blogging, stuff piles up, so I apologize if this seems a bit like a random barrage. What most people come to my website for is to find out about new litters, so I suppose I will start there. Mae is starting to have changes and Sam wants to be in the kennel with her, so by the looks of things we will have a breeding between them within the next month. So, let’s project that they breed at the beginning of December; that would have puppies being whelped at the beginning of February and going home at the beginning of April. This is all just my somewhat educated guesstimation and by no means guaranteed. Mae is 6, so I suspect that she will have a litter around the same size as last year, which was 4. BB (who lives with us) and Velma (who lives with a friend) are set to have their first litters this year. They should come into season anytime between now and April. I will not breed after late March because any pups after that would interfere with being able to take a summer vacation before school starts for the kids and hunting season starts for us. Right now I have 12 reservations with deposit and other folks trying to decide. I could have anywhere from 12-30 pups if all goes as I plan, but it isn’t up to me.

October 19-24 Charles, BB and Sam met up with Lou, Murph and Midge in North Dakota for a pheasant/duck hunt combo. Also along was deer camp friend, Ozzie, and Lou’s father, Lew (AKA Lou Senior or Old Lou). They saw some stuff. They shot at some stuff. They stayed in a cabin and cooked on a Coleman stove. I’ll spare you the second-hand details and get down to the bird totals and photos.

Saturday, October 19, 2013: Charles and Young Lou got 3 sharp-tailed grouse.

Sam brings in the sharpie retrive with BB on backup. Photo courtesy of Oscar Hollenbeck

Sam brings in the sharpie retrieve with BB on backup. Photo courtesy of Oscar Hollenbeck

Sam bringing the sharpie into Charles. Photo courtesy of Oscar Hollenbeck

Young Lou, Murf, Sam, BB, Midge, Old Lou, Charles and the sharpie. Photo courtesy of Oscar Hollenbeck

The day’s stringer of sharpies back at camp. Photo by Charles

Sunday, October 20, 2013 – skunked

Monday, October 21, 2013: Charles got 2 roosters

Charles and the first pheasant of the trip. Photo courtesy of Oscar Hollenbeck

Tuesday, October 22, 2013: Charles got a rooster pheasant and a mallard hen late in the day.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013: Charles got one rooster

Thursday, October 24, 2013: Young Lou got two roosters (no photo available)

Random pic of Lou cooking since there is no pheasant pic. It snowed Saturday night, so this must be Sunday morning.

The trip was more about the memories and the time spent together than the bird totals anyway. I hope that the guys enjoyed themselves even without game bags overflowing.

The griffon masters

As Charles was driving home from North Dakota, Cordelia and I were on the road to the American Wirehaired Pointing Griffon National Specialty in Greeley, Colorado. We missed the fun hunt, specialty show and annual meeting, but managed to see the supported entry show on Saturday and go to the banquet. We also had an awesome sojourn into Boulder to shop and eat on Pearl St. and do some hiking in Boulder Canyon and at the Flatirons.

Cordelia and Charity in Colorado for AWPGA Nationals

It was great to catch up with some griffoniers and talk dog nerd talk freely. AWPGA National Specialty 2014 is on for Kennebunk and Union, Maine from August 25-31. In addition to the events held this year in Colorado, they’ve got the Korthals Cup back on and there will be AKC and NAVHDA hunt testing opportunities available (in place of the fun hunt), and an interesting grooming and handling seminar. I hope to make it out, but it is cutting it awfully close to the opening of dove and grouse Sept. 1. I encourage any and all griffon enthusiasts to join the AWPGA and attend a specialty, so much fun! Here are Susan Edginton’s photos of this year’s specialty dog show, if you want to check those out:

http://sedgintonphotos.photoreflect.com/store/ThumbPage.aspx?e=9111641&g=1ZZR001G02

Last weekend also had plenty of excitement! Charles and Matt went out on Saturday in search of rooster pheasants and actually found some! Nebraska Game and Parks planted 4000 pheasants this year on public land across Eastern Nebraska (finally). If you’ve read my blog during pheasant season over the past few years, you know how much I like to whine about the decline of pheasants in our part of the state and how much NGPC needed to stock. Well they have heard the desperate pleas of the hunters and “did us a solid” (as my kids would say). The Pheasants Forever Rooster Road Trip party took 17 pheasant out of Northeastern Nebraska in one day off of public land. We are very excited for this pheasant season in Eastern Nebraska, now that we know that we actually have a chance. Both Matt and Charles took their limits and Charles got a quail too. In total he said that they saw 20 pheasants and 50 quail.

Mid-day bag in Southeastern Nebraska

End of day bag. One of Matt’s roosters somehow got away.

By the time they pulled into the driveway, it was dark and the kids and I were in the middle of dinner, so no great photography went down. Sorry.

On the same day we found out that our new male was born!! He will be coming from Bourg-Royal Kennel in St. Lambert-de-Lauzon, Quebec, Canada, the same kennel as BB. Different parents, both French imports. We are very excited to bring him home around the first of the year!

Cristal and the 4 puppies: 1 male and 3 females

Announcement in the last Griffonnier with the parents’ credentials

And the blog post wouldn’t be complete without some pupdates. Here’s Midge (who went on the North Dakota trip), from Sam and Mae’s 2013 “F” litter with a big haul of pheasants from Montana. Charles said she is a hard charging little dog with a great coat and lots of prey drive.

Midge and Montana Pheasants

Midge’s older sister TracHer from Sam and Mae’s 2012 “C” litter has been having a great season up in North Dakota and is showing off all her skills. According to Susan, “Gorgeous day today….we limited out 50 miles from home. TracHer retrieved 4 of the six birds, one in water with cattails.”

18 month old TracHer on retrieve of a North Dakota rooster

TracHer on left with Tom, Susan with Zepher (griff unrelated to my dogs) and their friends, the week prior to the close-up photo

And one of my first dog babies, Whiskey from Sam and Sue’s “A” litter 2010, took his girl Andi out on her first duck hunt out in Nevada. They did so awesome and I love how much Whiskey is Sam Jr!

Andi, Whiskey and some ducks

Well, that pretty much wraps it up for right now. Charles and I are heading out on Saturday in hopes of some pheasants and ducks. We are still debating about where, but it will be pretty close to home. I’ll keep you posted. Until then, stay warm, winter is coming!

Duck Hunting the Atlas Blizzard, BB’s NAVHDA UT and more news…

October 14, 2013

Charity Upchurch Hunting Tales, Kennel Update, Puppy Update, Uncategorized Bird Hunting, Dog Training, Duck Hunting, Ducks, Heartland NAVHDA Chapter, Hunting Dogs, Hunting Nebraska, Hunting North Dakota, Korthals Griffon, Nebraska Sandhills, Puppies, Sioux Falls South Dakota, Snipe Hunt, Teal, Water Retrieve, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Leave a comment

Charles has been on the road during the week for his corporate job 3 weeks in a row now, then we’ve been traveling on the weekends for hunting, testing and training. I’m currently taking care of the 3 dogs and 3 kids, working as a substitute teacher in middle school and high school English, writing for Lion Country Supply and finishing my master’s degree in secondary education. So sometimes the wheels just come off the bus and not everything gets done as it should. I did manage to get my introductory blog post on to the Lion Country Supply site: http://blog.lcsupply.com/2013/09/postcards-from-the-great-plains-first-post/ It is different than writing for here, where I just sort of talk to you like I would if you were sitting here at my kitchen table with me.

But what did get done as it should was our duck hunt in the Nebraska Sandhills on opening day. It was extremely cold and windy, as we caught the southeastern corner of what is being called the Atlas Blizzard that devestated the cattle industry in southwestern South Dakota (I’ve been following on another blog: Just a Ranch Wife http://www.justaranchwife.com/). It definitely pushed the ducks south and right to us that day. We both got our limits by midday and it’s a good thing because I had cotton pants on that just got completely soaked by the flying snow and I was locking up with some pre-hypothermia symptoms. Our favorite method is jump hunting, so we were taking the action to the ducks. I managed to catch a duck double that I shot on GoPro video and I posted it on our YouTube channel:

And the final shot on the day. Let me tell you a bit about these end of the day shots. I have my camera on a tripod and use the 10 second timer to take these. I don’t look into the mirror before we take them. I line everyone else up, hit the timer, then run into the picture. I will never look like one of those cool, sexy huntresses in one of these pictures. Like this one, I look like I have a damn chef’s hat on.

Charity and Charles with BB on 2013 opener of duck season

The following day was completely blue sky and right when we get ready to hunt, I realize that my license must have fallen out of my pocket the day before. No hunting license, duck stamp or HIP number anywhere. So I just carried the camera instead (after a good cry, of course).

Charles and BB started Sunday with a wood dock drake

Charles and BB leave the wooded pond

The head of a wood duck drake is one of the most beautiful gifts of nature

Charles and BB back in the open looking for snipe

I call this one “Anticipation”. This is Sam having to let BB go as lead duck dog for the first time.

Charles and BB creep into a wet spot

Snipe way up in the air

Charles and BB also got a snipe on Sunday

A week later, BB received her NAVHDA Utility Prize III at the Heartland Chapter Fall Test in Thurman, Iowa. Although I had planned on attending and helping out with the test, my kids all caught colds and we just really needed to stay home and recouperate. We had considered pulling out of the test the weekend prior just because of having too much going on, but we had already paid our fee, so off Charles went. BB had a “no-pass” in Sioux Falls in August due to not doing the duck retrieve, so we have been focused on water work in both our training and hunting. She did what needed to get done with the duck search, steady by blind, and duck retrieve. She aced the track, as always. She was the last dog to run in the field and she was false pointing piles of feathers and breaking on the flush, which she hasn’t done in awhile. But we’ve been so focused on getting over the water hump that she hasn’t been on upland birds since hunting sharp-tailed grouse at the beginning of September. But we’ll take it! So BB is now officially Bourg-Royal’s CB Bluestem JH, NA I, UT III.

Our co-owned female, Velma (De Jac’s Zip A Dee Doo Dah NA I) who is the same age as BB, is now dual registered with the AKC and NAVHDA, which was the final step in preparing to hopefully breed her within the next few months, in addition to the females who live with us. I paid her a visit a month or so ago in order to take pictures that the AKC needed for registration.

Velma at 2.5 years

I had originally capped my reservations at 10 but there were more folks really wanting to get on the list, so it looks like I’m at 13 now after 3 verbal commitments yesterday and in the process of finalizing with deposit. As we are trying for 3 litters, I have high hopes that we will have enough puppies!

Speaking of puppies, we have our fingers crossed that Sam’s stud successor will be born around Halloween! He is coming from the same kennel that we acquired BB, Bourg-Royal Kennel in St. Lambert-de-Lauzon, Quebec, Canada. Should he be born and it isn’t a litter of all girls, he will be parented by two French imports: sire GCH Fortis des Sonnailles du Haut Davy FD NA I and dam Crystal D’O des Roches de Vouise.

Fortis on point. Photo by Amy Caswell

Crystal on point and posed. Photos by Claudette Blackburn

We are so very excited and hope that all goes well for human mom, Renee, mama Crystal and the babies!

Last but not least it is time for some pupdates. We got word from Kyle in Illinois within the last couple of weeks that Gomer got his NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize I with a perfect score of 112 points. I don’t have the name of the chapter, but will keep my eyes out for it in Versatile Hunting Dog magazine. He is from 2012 “D” Litter from Sam and Sue.

TracHer from 2012 “C” Litter from Sam and Mae took a limit of sharp-tailed grouse with owner, Susan, a week ago. TracHer and Susan live up in North Dakota. Susan said, “It is so rare that I hunt alone with just one dog, and very nice to go my own pace. TracHer did great. Ranged a bit, but would come back in. It is also rare that I get my limit!! TracHer found and retrieved to hand all 3 birds. ”

Susan and TracHer with a limit of sharp-tailed grouse.

TracHer’s sister (but not littermate), Midge, is from Sam and Mae’s 2013 “F” Litter and is really looking nice! I hear that she’s had some pheasants shot over her in Montana within the last couple of days.

Midge at 7 months old

Hearing lots of good reports from other owners as the season kicks off and I can’t wait to see the hunting pics!! Kyle from across town here said that he got Gomer’s brother Duke out on ducks, “I had the chance to get Duke out duck hunting a couple times this weekend. He did awesome. I didn’t get any pictures, but we got into the teal and wood ducks. ” Duke is also taking after his mama Sue, Kyle said, “I saw a while ago that you posted a picture of Sue with socks and toys in her mouth. That must be where Duke gets it from. We can’t keep socks in one place at our house, he finds every dirty pair and carries them around. Haha.” That really made me smile!

Oh this blog post has taken me way too long to write. Thank you owners for keeping me up-to-date with the pups!! What’s next for us? Saturday, Charles, BB and Sam leave for the big North Dakota trip. Charles will be focused mainly on guiding his old friend Ozzie from New York. A week from Friday, I leave for AWPGA National Specialty. If we can just make it through October, we’ll try to have a less insane November. But hunting season is only so long. And you only get so many hunting seasons in your life. So stay tuned for more craziness.

Sharptailed Grouse Hunting Opener and Other News

September 16, 2013

Charity Upchurch Hunting Tales, Kennel Update, Upland Hunting Trips Bird Hunting, Dog Training, Duck Hunting, Ducks, Gun Dog, Korthals Griffon, Missouri Early Teal Season, Missouri River, Nebraska Sandhills, Puppies, Sharptail Grouse Hunting, Sharptailed Grouse Hunting, Teal, Water Retrieve, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Leave a comment

Reservations and Breeding Plans

At this point, I have taken 10 reservations with deposits for my Spring 2014 litters and continue to get interest daily. Even though I am planning three litters (from Mae, BB and Velma), I won’t even start breeding for another three months or so (which puts whelping 5+ months away and homegoing 7+ months away). I just want everyone to know that I am a bit hesitant about taking additional reservations right now. If everything goes as planned, I could have 12-20 puppies in 2014, but I just don’t know right now.

Sharptailed Grouse and Dove Opening Day: September 1, 2013

Charles had a great opening day of grouse in the Nebraska Sandhills on Sunday, September 1st. We set out into the northern dunefield of our usual opening day spot. Our “usual opening day spot” consists of two east-west running dunefields with about a mile wide valley in the middle. I let Charles, Sam and BB head deep into the dunes, while I waited behind at the truck with Mae. Once they were out of sight, I set off eastward into the rising sun. I was probably 100-300 yards south of Charles and clearly heard one shot about 15 minutes into our walk. I had a single bird get up to my left about 5 minutes later, but I missed the shot, which was the only one I had on a grouse all weekend. Not long after I heard another single shot. Charles and I met up at the eastern fenceline of the section about 45 minutes after we had started and talked about what we had seen. He had seen a few large flocks of grouse and had 2 in the bag, so we headed up into the northeastern corner of the section to make sure that we had covered everything, then turned back around to go west towards the truck. Once again, Charles was to the north of me in the higher dunes and I was working the southern edge. Sure enough, not 5 minutes after we parted ways, I heard another single shot. I went over to him and he had his limit of 3.

Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Hunt Sharptailed Grouse

Sam, Charles and BB with their limit of sharptailed grouse on opening day 2013

We worked for another hour walking westward where he had seen the larger groups, but we didn’t see a single grouse. We then set up our decoys at a windmill and sat for doves for an hour and a half or so, each taking one, but it was too hot to sit the whole day, so we headed back to town to spend time with the family.

Charles and Charity with the obligatory one dove each to start the season

The following day we set out into another spot that has been an annual producer for us. I walked for 3 hours and Charles walked for 4 and neither one of us saw a single sharptail, which is very odd. Some folks say it was last year’s drought not leaving enough cover for nesting, others say they were killed in the massive summer hailstorm that hit the area, but all I know is that they have been in this spot for 15 years and they weren’t there on Labor Day. We called it a hunt midday on Monday and headed out to the lake with friends and family.

Charles has spent the last two weekends working with BB on the duck search and retrieve for her second shot at the NAVHDA Utility Test in October. This coming weekend we will be heading down to Missouri to try our hand at the last weekend of their early teal duck season. Sam is usually our main duck dog, so he will have to hang back back at the truck while BB finally gets her chance to be the waterfowl star.

Pupdates

Got a message and photos from Bob in Minnesota about his pup Ed, from Sue and Sam’s 2013 “E” litter. Sounds like he is doing great and has some fun adventures in store for this season:

Ed is a big boy and tipping the scales just shy of 60 pounds on his 6 month bday. He is loving our weekend camping trips to the lake and is a hard charger in his water work. In fact he gets close to the lake and will rip the leash out of your hands to go in while carrying his bumper. Last weekend he pointed 2 grouse sitting in the woods near the lake on one of our walks. Ed is looking real nice on his points but still is breaking so I have some more work to do. He is retrieving to hand and I am hoping that continues when hunting season begins here in MN. I have taken a break the past week on training as we have been having triple digit temps up here and it is just too hot. Ed will be heading out in mid September for official gun introduction and bird and gun association. Out pheasant season starts on October 12 here in MN and then we are headed out to North Dakota on November 6 for our first North Dakota adventure of the fall. Thinking trip number 2 will be in December but that will depend on the weather and how he does this fall on our other outings.

Ed at 6 months chillin’ on the deck

Ed hanging out in the house

Ed and his toy pheasant

16 month old Chester from Sam and Mae’s “C” Litter of 2012 lives out in New York and has been practicing hard for the upcoming season with his owner Sal and trainer Hoss. He’s pictured here at a Hudson Valley NAVHDA Chapter training day.

Chester on point

Another shot of Chester on point

Chester retrieving

And handsome three year old Whiskey out in Nevada from Sue and Sam’s “A” litter of 2010 has been caught by owner Deborah being very silly these days.

Whiskey thinks that crocs make great chew toys

Whiskey peeking out from his blanket

As always, thank you to the puppy owners for taking such fabulous photos and sharing them with us!!

I just talked to my eyes on the sky down in Missouri and he said that with this warm weather there aren’t many teal flying, but this coming weekend is the last one of the season, so it is the only shot we’re going to get on this particular season. Since we’ll have our Missouri license anyway, I see us heading down there for some other waterfowl seasons this year too since it is only an hour and a half away. So wish us luck and we’ll keep you posted!!

Pupdates and Hunting Season in 2 days!

August 30, 2013

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update Bird Hunting, Dove hunting, Gun Dog, Hunting Dogs, Korthals Griffon, Nebraska Sandhills, Prairie Chicken Hunting, Puppies, Sharptail Grouse Hunting, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon 1 Comment

I’m supposed to be packing for the annual trip to the Sandhills for the September 1st dove and grouse opener since we’re leaving tonight, but I just had to get these pictures out before I got too distracted by hunting season!

This is Zoey, she is 6 months old and is out of Sue and Sam’s last litter that was born early this year. Jimmy has been doing great work with her down in Oklahoma and is shown here perfecting her water retrieve. Rumor has it that she’s going off to waterfowl school, but she’s definitely got the basics down!

Zoey water retrieve at 6 months

Another shot of Zoey retrieving a dummy

Zoey also looks cute just laying around the house…

Zoey chilling on the kitchen tiles

Zoey’s sweet face!!

Thank you so much to Jimmy and Sandi for all of those great pictures!!

I swiped this picture off of Facebook, but I didn’t think that Deborah would mind. Whiskey is from Sue and Sam’s “A” Litter from 2010, so he is 3 years old now and lives out in Nevada. Here he is with his little Lab buddy Ruger who is holding him down and giving him a tongue bath. Too funny!!

Whiskey getting a bath from Ruger

Thanks Deborah for capturing such a hilarious moment!

Hunting Blog

For the last couple of years I’ve been posting our hunting stories on to versatilehunter.com, separate from this here kennel blog. I have to talk to Charles this weekend and see if we want to continue on that URL or if we want to consolidate our presence here on the kennel blog. I also used to be active on Twitter under @VersatileHunter, but just really hit a wall with trying to keep everything updated. Then to complicate things, I’m also going to start hunting blogging for Lion Country Supply. So I’ll probably be writing my first draft either here or on versatilehunter.com ( there is also a button to up at the top that says “Hunting Blog”), then write a final draft for LCS. Plus I’d like to start really honing my writing to where I’m submitting articles to magazines. So please bear with me as I decide where I’m steering this whole writing ship. I’ll let you know sometime next week where things are at so that you can keep up to date with my blathering.

So wish us luck up in the Sandhills, I will be wearing my GoPro, so hopefully I’ll actually hit something to show you on YouTube:)

Bluestem Kennels