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!
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, faceTabitha, 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!
The “T” Litter of 2023 between Wyo Plainsman Kenobi NA I, UPT III, UT I “Obi” and Bluestem Peaches En Regalia NA I, UPT II, UT III arrived the morning of Saturday, July 29th. We had three live births and a few angel puppies. The live births were two boys and a girl.
On Sunday afternoon it became apparant that Ruth was rejecting one of the boys. He was cold to the touch no matter how much I tried to incubate him and whenever I tried to get him to latch, Ruth was pushing him away, even going so far as to pick him up and move him away from the others. I attempted to bottle feed him and keep him warm, but eventually let nature take its course and put him back with mom. I’ve seen other breeders attempt to hand raise rejected puppies, only to have to put them down for internal defects at 5-7 weeks old.
As much as we try for large, perfect litters (and I’ve been blessed with many in the past) we don’t always get those. I had a breeder friend this spring lose an entire litter to spontaneous abortion a week before the puppies were due, with no explanation.
So here’s the two “T” puppies today. It is difficult to get photos when they are young like this, where the mom is constantly cleaning and fussing over them.
Boy and girl puppies nursingRuth cleaning the girlThis is the majority of what goes on at this age: nursing and cleaning
We were scheduled to go to the vet this morning to have everyone looked over, but they pushed us back to tomorrow morning. Ruth will be examined for breeding clearance one more time prior to retirement. This time she’ll be paired with our young male from Iowa, Duke, who comes out of Coppershot bloodlines, to see if we get higher productivity. There is also a litter planned between Ruth’s younger sister, Sally, and Obi. But that’s to talk about another time, back to puppies.
I’ve had questions about the wood chips in the past. It is just what has always worked for me. They are absorbant, sanitary and easy to clean up a spot if they get soiled. Any time I have tried any sort of pads or fabric, the dam digs all around and ends up burying the pups and they get all tangled, which is unsafe. The female wants to spend most of the time quiet and alone with the pups, so if I’m worried about pups in fabric it is counterproductive.
That is not to say that I don’t spend a ton of time with the pups. I go down about every hour to make sure everyone is warm and where they are supposed to be. And of course Ruth needs feedings and potty breaks. Right now I have Ruth mostly eating canned puppy food since it is high nutrition and supplements the moisture from her drinking water so that she can produce milk.
She has plenty of good milk and her teats are all working. While the struggling third boy was alive she was pretty fussy, but now that is resolved she has settled down into the routine of being a mom. I’m not seeing any off-color discharge or feeling anything retained in her uterus, so I’m hoping for smooth sailing from here on out. Once the puppies hit the two-week mark on August 12 I will feel in the clear.
I’m going to be totally frank, having angel puppies and losing ones born alive completely sucks. I cry and pout. That’s why you’re just hearing from me now, I had to get all that out of my system and get Ruth, the puppies and I in a good place before I sat down to write. But these are the fires that forge animal breeders. At this point, we’re one of the longest consistent breeders of Wirehaired Pointing Griffons. In order to produce what we want in hunting dogs and to continue this passion project of ours, we have to push through the sorrow and aggravation.
In other news, Charles continues to train Obi for Invitational and Sally is signed up for a Utility Test in Virginia at the end of this month. We just did all of Sally’s health clearances and are waiting for the results to come back, Obi goes in for elbows and thyroid in a week, then everyone gets their eyes looked at by an ophthamologist in the middle of the month for the OFA certification. I have Duke’s K-Locus DNA coat test sitting on the dining room table. Never a dull moment around here.
So, I’ll check back in on the blog when the puppies are a week old, please keep us in your prayers for everyone’s continued health. Best wishes to everyone else out there with pups and training for tests. Email bluestemkennels@gmail.com with any questions.
Bluestem Kennels 