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Breeding season update and more hunting

November 14, 2023

Charity Upchurch AKC Hunt Tests, Hunting Tales, Kennel Update, NAVHDA, Upland Hunting Trips, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

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 roosters
They ended day one with a limit of roosters and two sharptailed grouse
On 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 pheasant
Obi, Sally, Ruth and Duke with the North Dakota harvest

North Dakota produces but does so with great effort. A person has to root pheasants out of little cattail patches in harvested fields, walk the rolling hills for sharptails and check scattered ponds for ducks. But it is always a fun hunt and we love checking in on the people that we’ve now seen almost annually for about 10 years.

Charles stopped back in the Nebraska Sandhills to work remotely for a few days and was able to get in a couple of more days of hunting. The first day was photographed with Duke getting in on a few ducks.

Duke with three Nebraska Sandhills ducks

We’re not sure what the rest of the hunting season holds for us, Charles may sneak in one more trip out west, there’s talk of looking for some North Carolina ruffed grouse, around the New Year there should be some woodcock moving through down here, we’ll just take it all as it comes. As much as we love the mild winters down here, we really have our sights set on Charles working remotely out of Nebraska once Caleb graduates high school in 2027. The hunting out west just cannot be beat.

I have a new friend who I would like to introduce you to. I bought back one of my “S” Litter pups since we won’t be repeating the Obi x Ruth cross again. She is just over a year old and I have her ready to NAVHDA Natural Ability test, but there are no test openings before she turns 16 months old. So my current plan is to use the AKC Junior Hunter as her puppy test this spring. What is really crazy is how much she looks like our foundation female, Sue. So here is little Briar getting a treat from Charles last night:

AKC/NAVHDA Bluestem’s Carolina Briar Thicket

Here is our foundation female Sue:

Sweetgrass Sandhill Sioux “Sue” our first female Griffon

Looking at Ruth and Obi, you never would have imagined that they would produce a pup with that coat, but it happened. Genetics are an interesting thing. Sue is Briar’s Great-Great Grandmother.

It is time to get on with the day, I will be sure to keep you posted with the breeding developments and any new hunting adventures that come about. Happy hunting to everyone out there in the fields!

Our son’s first Sandhills hunt

October 25, 2023

Charity Upchurch AWPGA, Hunting Tales, Kennel Update, Sire and Dam Ability, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Our son’s fall break coincided with the perfect time of year to do some sharptailed grouse and duck hunting back in my homeland of the Nebraska Sandhills, so we took the opportunity to do it. Caleb has been pretty fit his entire childhood participating in various sports clubs in elementary and middle school, and now AFJROTC in high school. The Sandhills demand considerable athleticism, therefore this was a bit of a forge for him.

It was a comeback for myself after battling a few years of orthopedic issues, starting with a bad flare-up of high school sports generated osteoarthritis about five years ago, followed by a horrible case of plantar fasciitis in my feet right around the plague times. I went through a long period where I really wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to walk any sort of distance again, let alone go hunting. I switched to low support shoes to get my feet in shape while walking, then took up swimming to work out the bugs in my knees (I swam 100 miles last year). Even with all of that work, there is nothing that gets you in shape for hunting like just doing it.

We spent more days in the car driving from South Carolina and back than we did hunting, but it was totally worth it. We also got to see our two adult children living in Omaha, then my mom and extended family in Valentine.

On our way up (Caleb and I were in a seperate vehicle), Charles surprised me and stopped off at our old NAVHDA chapter, Heartland, in the Lincoln, Nebraska area and re-qualified Obi for NAVHDA Invitational. So Obi now has two Utility Prize I awards and is going to Invitational 2024 in Iowa to try again for the Versatile Champion. He had more points than some of the dogs who won the 2023 VC but was just knocked out by his break on the shot on the double mark.

Charles and Obi (UT I again) with our old friend Pam Robinson of Robingun Kennels Small Munsterlanders

But back to the Sandhills: I like to hunt by myself there with a dog or two. I know where I am, I know the lay of the land, it doesn’t bother me to be alone. I am also low tech in that I don’t use a bunch of GPS stuff, so I can only get away with being low tech and alone on my home turf. The first day, Caleb and Charles took the boys (Obi and Duke) and didn’t manage to see anything.

I was with Ruth and our “training aid” rescue English Pointer, Dolly. Luckily within the first 15 minutes I stumbled across a single at about 25 yards and was able to take it down with a right-to-left pull through as it flew across my line of sight. Ruth fetched it right up for me and brought it to hand.

Dolly is hard for me to keep up with, English Pointers like to move a bit faster than I can. Dolly and Ruth busted up another group of about eight or so an hour later, but they were way out of range for me.

My single sharptailed grouse was the only bird that we took that day, the boys didn’t see a single thing. But I was back on the board after a six year drought and was extremely happy about it. Especially to have done it with my female who’d had pups go home just a few weeks before.

The old mama squad: Charity and Bluestem Peaches En Regalia NA I, UPT II, UT III “Ruth” and a sharpie

The second day we opted for walking one of our favorite creeks with Duke and Sally to see if we could jump hunt some ducks, but it became apparent to us right away that someone had recently beaten us to the punch, with human footprints and dog prints visible. We walked it anyway, seeing (and missing) mostly snipe. In my twenty years of hunting I had yet to take a snipe, but always take shots even though they are hard to hit. So we shot after snipe and shot after snipe and missed. Of course, right when Charles and I are talking loudly and yelling across the creek at each other we finally jumped a pair of teal out of range.

The teal went back down further up the creek and I had it marked. As we approached a wide spot, I could see them ahead and warned Caleb and Charles by giving them the old “pointing at the eyes” hand symbol. Yet even though we knew they were there and were able to get close, we still didn’t knock them down as we all three emptied both barrels. But the ducks were starting to tire and went down again up the creek.

Caleb switched to my side of the creek, so now he and I were walking together. This time it was Charles who spotted the ducks on the water ahead and sent Caleb and I in for the flush. Charles was able to pinpoint them and had Caleb walk right up on them. Caleb flushed the ducks but missed them both. We both tucked down and I hid my face under my hat as the ducks circled behind our backs. I waited and hid, crouched down and I turned towards them with my face to the ground until I knew they were flying in range. At just the right moment I stood up and let it rip with both barrels, taking the second one down on to dry land. It took awhile but young Duke found the teal under Charles’s direction and retrieved it to him since he was handling.

The boys decided to continue on a little ways farther down the creek to see if they could find some snipe or anything other ducks. I opted to sit in this grove of dead trees next to the creek where a beaver had conveniently knocked down the trunks, making for some comfortable benches. I was just sitting there enjoying the nice day and out of nowhere three snipe landed around me within five yards. Two of them took off when I looked up at them, but I knew that there was a third. So I stood up. And as he flushed to fly away, I finally harvested my first snipe. After twenty years and at least a hundred shots at their fast, zig-zag flying, squeak squawking swamp bird survival skills, I finally had one.

And not fifteen minutes later, I was standing right behind Caleb as he shot his first bird of the Sandhills, also a snipe. Duke was also on the retrieve for him. It is almost never that Charles is the one who walks out of a field with an empty game bag, but it was that run.

Charity with a teal and a snipe, Caleb with his snipe and Duke
You can see Caleb’s face in this photo but Duke’s legs got cut off

(As an aside: I am not wearing the same clothes every day, I have two versions of the same outfit and alternate.)

There was a nice pond our our way out where we had pushed some ducks out of, so we decided to stop at that and let Charles have a shot at not getting skunked on the day.

Charles was able to jump a flock of bufflehead ducks up from the pond and knock a couple down. I wish that I had grabbed my good camera and put the big lens on it to capture the retrieves, but I was tired and hand the phone in my hand, so that is what we got.

Obi going in for the first duck
Obi going in for the second duck
Obi bringing Charles the duck to hand
Obi, Charles and the two bufflehead ducks

Day three was a big push for grouse. Charles was anxious to get some in the bag and I didn’t want to have to run behind the pointer anymore, so Dolly and Sally went with Charles. Ruth and I went off on our own and covered a whole ridgeline. Similar to Charles and Caleb’s first day, we saw absolutely nothing in our hills.

I could hear shotguns going off on the other side of the valley, so I was hoping that Charles and Caleb were having good success and I was right. After I had wrapped my walk up and was sitting in the truck eating lunch, they even pushed a few right over the top of my head as I had a mouth full of food. But they soared another 500 yards off into the distance never to be seen again (I tried to find them with no luck).

But Charles had a limit of sharptails so all was right with the world. It had been a long three days marching the dunes and we were ready to go back to town and visit family.

Charles, Dolly and Sally with a limit of sharptailed grouse

Dolly is naturally a bag of bones. We have had her almost a year and have tried feeding her as much as she can eat and she just does not put on condition. Just poops it all out and looks neglected. The nicest dog you will ever meet though, just loves all of the people. I like how she pushes our Griffons to not be lazy bootlickers.

Charles continued on to North Dakota from the Sandhills, then back to Nebraska before coming home to South Carolina. Those are photos and stories for another day.

I really need to get back to finishing my Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Photos gallery, I am almost done adding all of the pictures and then I just need to add captions. The AWPGA is keeping me busy lately organizing the 2024 National Specialty and doing secretary duties, but once I get the locations booked for the specialty and meet with the host kennel club at the beginning of November things should calm down a bit.

We have two litters planned for the spring, Duke and Ruth, then Obi and Sally. The girls won’t come into heat until around Christmas, I will keep everyone posted on that. I do have a reservation list for the litters, but feel free to email bluestemkennels@gmail.com to inquire. Stay safe out there in the fields until next time.

“T” Litter Homegoings

September 25, 2023

Charity Upchurch AKC Hunt Tests, AWPGA, Kennel Update, NAVHDA, Puppy Update, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The last week with the puppies is always fun and bittersweet. I love to see them start to show off their natural abilities and fun personalities.

Little brother bringing me a leaf down the stairs.

They did really well with my new cap gun, I upgraded from the Walmart plastic model to the Cabela’s metal version and it so so much louder. But after being exposed to loud noises their entire puppyhood it was no big deal.

I used to also take them swimming at this age, which they can do, but I’ve stopped doing that for fear of exposure to toxic algae or nasty wildlife diseases. I figure that the new owners have plenty of time for that once the pups are fully vaccinated and have built up their adult immune systems. So I’ve substituted that with the kiddie pool.

Puppies in the kiddie pool

Putting them on a leash for the first time is always a rodeo, they really like to thrash around and fight it for the first five minutes or so and then just settle down into the fact that now they have to follow the person around.

Bird exposure is my absolute favorite, seeing them get excited about the live bird, then pick up the dead bird is what it is all about. All of these actions are just first exposures to set the new owner for successful gun dog training, they are by no means training at all.

So the sequence that I do here is: take the pup out of the kennel and put it on the leash. Let it fight out the leash then walk 15 yards to the live bird in the wire crate. Once the pup acknowledges the bird and gets to check it out awhile as I say “good puppy” in my cute baby-talk voice, we walk on the leash to the ex-pen with the dead quail on a string. Take the pup off the leash and place in the ex-pen. I pull the string on the dead quail to get the pup’s attention. I’ll let the pup chew and play with it a little bit. I do not ever yank the bird out of the pup’s mouth, only pulling the string once the pup has put the bird down. I’m really wanting to get the pup to pick that bird up, then once again give positive verbal feedback once the bird is picked up.

Here’s Tabitha with the birds:

Tabitha showing interest in the chukar
Tabitha picking up the dead quail

Now here is Tobin with the same sequence:

Tobin inspecting the chukar
Tobin picking up the dead quail

Caleb was about 15 months old when we had our first litter in 2010 and has become an important helper at 14. Here he is with our first litter and now:

We also went to the vet for our final health inspections, first shots and microchips in the last week. Everyone came out with a clean bill of health: no umbilical hernias, no heart murmurs, no base narrow canines, the boy has both testicles. Everything perfect.

Then on Saturday and Sunday they went to their new homes:

Tabitha going with Lisa, David and boys to Charlotte
Andy with his second Bluestem pup going all the way to Minnesota

Andy’s 8 1/2 year old boy Foley is from our “I” Litter in 2015 between Ben and Velma. That would make Foley the brother of Ruth’s (the dam of the puppies) sire Chief. So that would make Foley his new puppy’s great-uncle. Here are some photos of Foley that Andy shared with me:

Speaking of our puppies, our “S” Litter puppy Chase ran his Natural Ability Test this weekend at the Foothills NAVHDA Chapter up in Harmony, North Carolina. He received a Prize II with 102 points. You can follow him on Instagram @griffins.griffon. Great job Ian and Chase!

Ian and “S” Litter puppy Chase with a NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize II

And this is totally random, but I was so proud of myself for getting the crate room really clean that I took a picture of it. Everyone has their different style of housing their dogs: some have a kennel building where their dogs live all of the time, some have all of them as full time housepets, some are like us and do a combination. We have outdoor kennels to keep the dogs out from underfoot during the day, rotate them for socialization one at a time in the house (I have really cool black walnut floors that the original owner of this house custom hewn and installed that I don’t want torn up), then they stay the night in their very own crate room. I don’t have mine decorated all cool like some folks do, it gets really dusty in there so I’d rather not have to mess with that cleaning.

Indoor crate room for night

I will be back on the blog at some point to give the full run down on NAVHDA Invitational once the professional photos come back. I’ll also have some hunting posts upcoming. It probably won’t be every week like it has been with the puppies here. As always, if you are interested in future litters or want to talk dogs, shoot me an email at bluestemkennels@gmail.com and we’ll set up a time to talk.

One last bit of news, it has been ratified by the AWPGA board that 2024 National Specialty will be in North Carolina. The shows, annual meeting and banquet will be November 8-10 with the Furniture City Kennel Club show in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The AKC Hunt Tests will be November 11-12 in Jackson Springs, North Carolina at the Sandhills Pointing Dog Club land. We’ll be lodging and dining in Pinehurst, North Carolina for the hunt test. Please get in touch with me if you would like to be involved with the planning and execution of this fun and important event for our breed.

“T” Litter Seven Weeks and NAVHDA Invitational

September 17, 2023

Charity Upchurch NAVHDA, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons , , , , , Leave a comment

Charles and Obi didn’t get the Versatile Championship today, but they had a good experience at NAVHDA Invitational. I’m glad that they are safe after having a bolt come off of the truck yesterday and having a tie rod come loose in the middle of driving. Luckily Charles was driving slowly and it was only a trip to the repair shop. Rural Ohio and NAVHDA friends saved the day and I didn’t have to do a rescue mission.

But back to the test. Charles said that Obi struggled on the honor of retrieve and broke during a shot on the double mark. They ended up with 188 points, which would have been enough for a VC had Obi not broke on the shot. I will go into the test more when the official results come out and these puppies are home. Obi will retire from hunt testing as a NAVHDA Utility Prize I dog. We will not test over and over looking to requalify for Invitational.

This week was my first AWPGA board meeting, Caleb’s last week of club fencing (with the foils and masks) and helping Charles get ready for his trip, so we didn’t get a lot of structured activities done with the pups this week. Mostly we focused on letting them run the yard twice a day. They go for their microchips and first shots tomorrow, so that will be their first crated car ride. They went up and down stairs today. They’ve been playing inside the basement with the rain, so they know how to explore the house. This week I’ll do indoor crate conditioning, walking on a leash, intro to cap gun fire, and intro to live and dead birds. I’ll take pictures of that and post those with the homegoing photos from next weekend. It is going to be a busy week!

Each of these blocks of photos is a gallery, so you can click on the first image to make it larger and then page through.

Here’s some photos of them running in the field together:

Here’s some individual photos of the female pup, Tabitha:

Here’s the male pup, Tobin:

Here’s the last YouTube for this litter, as I do the rest of the work with them in still photos:

I am looking forward to putting puppies into people’s hands next weekend and starting our hunting season!

“T” Litter Six Weeks Old

September 10, 2023

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, NAVHDA, Puppy Update , , , , , , , Leave a comment

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.

Female pup, Tabitha:

Female pup, Tabitha, front
Female pup, Tabitha, side
Female pup, Tabitha, running

Male pup, Tobin:

Male pup, Tobin, front
Male pup, Tobin, side
Male 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.

“T” Litter Five Weeks Old

September 3, 2023

Charity Upchurch AWPGA, Kennel Update, Puppy Update, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

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, face
Male pup, Tobin, side profile (he looks like he is pointing, but he’s really just walking through grass)
Male pup, Tobin, running

Female pup, Tabitha:

Female pup, Tabitha, face
Female pup, Tabitha, side profile
Female pup, Tabitha, 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!

“T” Litter Four Weeks Old

August 27, 2023

Charity Upchurch NAVHDA, Puppy Update , , , , , , Leave a comment

The two puppies of the “T” Litter are four weeks old now and up on all fours. They still prefer to run around their whelping box rather than outside, but that will change in the next week to week-and-a-half. I am so thankful that this is the last day of the summer heat wave, so that they can move out on to the back patio tomorrow.

They are able to regulate their body temperature at four weeks old and I think that it is very important that my puppies grow up like dogs instead of toddlers. They will have access to rope bones and balls to play with in the kennel, but they would rather chew on each other most of the time (as you’ll see in this week’s video). As I’ve said previously, I don’t use a lot of fabric with my puppies due to sanitation and safety issues. I don’t want something that they’ll poop on, then chew on later. Or something they can get wadded up in and suffocate. Any toys that they have with them need to be cleaned twice a day.

These are hunting dogs. They need to be comfortable in the outdoors. If someone goes camping, they will likely be staked out on a chain at night or sitting in a dog box in the back of a truck. Not to say that indoors time isn’t important, puppies need to be crated at night, housebroken and spend tons of time indoors with their people once they go home. And I touch on a little bit of that exposure to the crate and the house during their time here. But outdoors hardiness is important to me at this point in their lives.

I am taking them out into the yard twice a day, but they are not huge fans of it at this point. The big open world is scary to them. Yet even though they whine a bit (normal for this age), they are starting to explore. Their faces are a little grubby from just having eaten.

Female pup, Tabitha:

Female pup, Tabitha, face
Female pup, Tabitha, side profile

Male pup, Tobin:

Male pup, Tobin, face
Male pup, Tobin, side profile

They have just started consistently eating from the dish in the last day or so. Before I was having to encourage them with spoon feeding to bait them into the dish, but now they go for it. They are fed canned puppy food twice a day.

Eating from the dish
Closeup of eating from the dish
Closeup of Tabitha eating
Closeup of Tobin eating

Here is this week’s video of the puppies playing in the whelping box:

So like I say, they leave the indoors for the back patio tomorrow, which will make my house a lot less smelly (puppies fart and poop a lot). Then they’ll really start to run around this week. I’ll also start the transition from canned food to wet kibble. We’re already working on noise conditioning during their feedings, where I’ll bang on a pan while they eat.

In big dog news, Sally and Charles are in Delaware today with the NAVHDA DelMarVa Chapter running the Utility Test. Since he’s been focused on Obi for Invitational, we are really just hoping for a pass today. We’ll see, we already have her signed up for Rappahannock in Virginia at the end of November just in case.

Best wishes to everyone out there with pups, folks training and testing, and especially those getting ready for bird season to open soon! I’ll be back next weekend with more to share.

“T” Litter Three Weeks Old

August 20, 2023

Charity Upchurch Puppy Update , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The two three week old puppies of the “T” Litter are getting pretty active, just today I caught them growling, chewing on and pawing at each other in play. They aren’t terribly steady, but they can push themselves up on all fours and toddle around a bit. Right now their front end is the strongest so that they can push themselves up to get to the teats as needed, but over the next week or two the rear end will catch up and they will be four wheel drive machines.

Although they are still primarily nursing, they are getting some puppy mush each day, which is canned puppy food and milk replacer. Since they aren’t very steady on their feet, I mainly spoon feed it to them. That will all change soon as they transition to a food bowl. When I introduce the food bowl, I also start banging loud pots to condition them to loud noises. I am pretty loud as it is and I was doing some cleaning and running the vacuum near them recently, so I consider that the start of noise conditioning also.

The day before last Ruth found an oppossum in the barn and had it cornered under the (totally unused in South Carolina) snow plow blade. After I got Ruth kenneled back up, I picked it up with a couple of shovels, threw it in a trash can, then pitched it out into the field near the dog kennels. Well it decided to take up residence in the rock and brush pile behind the dog kennels, so Ruth has a toy to torment. I hope that it moves away soon. You hear her locate it at the end of this week’s video:

I didn’t take much for candid pictures of them this week, but here are there individual photos. I’ll be sure to take more this week with them doing so many cute things, like attacking each other in the way that siblings do.

Male pup, Tobin:

Male pup, Tobin, face
Male pup, Tobin, back

Female pup, Tabitha:

Female pup, Tabitha, face
Female pup, Tabitha, back

We got out this morning to practice water work with the dogs. I won’t bore you with all of the details, but here is a gallery of some nice photos. All of the ducks lived. You can click on the first thumbnail photo to se a larger version, then page through the training photo gallery:

Free swim: Duke in front, Obi and Sally behind (and a silly Pointer named Dolly very top)
Obi makes the blind retrieve
Obi on his way back from the retrieve
Obi on the right of the photo, making his way back to Charles on left
Duke with a water retrieve, Sally in foreground
Sally with a duck retrieve

I was late to sit down today with all of the training, then just spending time with the family. So now we are on to homework time with my son and I need to get after it. Post again next week.

“T” Litter Two Weeks Old

August 13, 2023

Charity Upchurch AWPGA, Kennel Update, NAVHDA, Puppy Update , , , , , , , 1 Comment

The two puppies of the “T” Litter turned two weeks old yesterday. They are starting to open their eyes and ears, they are moving around quite a bit more and are huge compared to when they were born. My webhost has changed some of the settings on posting video links so I hope that I have this in correctly:

The puppies are still primarily nursing and sleeping. We’ll start on little spoonfuls of puppy mush, which is canned dog food and milk replacer mixed together, just so that they get a sense of eating something other than mom’s milk.

Ruth really does not like the camera around the pups, so it disturbs her to try to get too many photos or videos. She will become more relaxed with it as the puppies get older and more independent.

Here are their individual photos.

Female pup, Tabitha:

Tabitha, female pup, face
Tabitha, female pup, back

Male pup, Tobin:

Tobin, male pup, face (his eyes are fine, there is just one that hasn’t finished opening, totally normal)
Tobin, male pup, back

I’ll be back next with with another update on the puppies.

In other news…

The big dogs have been keeping busy, Sally’s hip and elbow screenings came back normal and we’re waiting on her thyroid. Obi just had his elbows x-rayed and his thyroid tested. Both of them are with Charles in New Jersey this weekend at a special East Coast NAVHDA Invitational training. Sally is just prepping for UT but we’re closing in on the final weeks before Invitational in September for Obi. Considering the fact that only about 25% of Griffons who make it to Invitational pass the test, the odds are against us, but every effort is certainly being made to be part of that 25%.

I have some news myself that I’ve been keeping under my hat a bit. Over the summer I was nominated to run for the position of secretary for the American Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Association, the national AKC breed parent club. Much to my surprise, I won the election and will take over as AWPGA secretary effective September 1. This is not my first position within the club, I was editor of the Griffonnier magazine from 2014-2018 and most recently was the show trophy chairperson for the Eastern Regional Specialty in Pennsylvania back in March.

I want to thank my fellow candidate, Kendall DeSanto, for running a clean race with me. As we are longtime friends in the breed, there was no mudslinging involved. You may recognize Kendall from his presentation of the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon breed in past years at the National Dog Show that is televised on Thanksgiving (hosted by the Kennel Club of Philadelphia). Here’s a photo that I took of him showing at the 2014 AWPGA National Specialty in Maine.

Kendall DeSanto in 2014 at the AWPGA National Specialty in Maine

Thank you to the membership for having the confidence in me to carry out the duties of secretary for the club. I will devote myself to the cause. Thank you also to outgoing secretary Beth Schweibinz for all of your hard work and guidance that I will need in the coming months during the transition.

So between Invitational, puppies and my new board of directors position, there is a lot going on here! I’ll be back next week with another update on the pups. Everyone keep working hard, hunting season will be here soon for some relaxation and fun!

“T” Litter One Week Old

August 6, 2023

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update , , , , , Leave a comment

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 puppies
One 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 basket
Ruth getting checked out while keeping her eye on the puppies
Ruth 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.

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