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!
It’s tough to believe that I have only two weeks left with these guys. This is the toughest part of this process aside from the whelping. There is a lot of poop to clean up. You have to schedule time to do the different exposures that you’re wanting to do now that they are ready. You’re really attached to them and wish that you could keep them.
But they are also super fun and I love seeing them start to venture out into the world.
And then here are the individual photos of the pups.
Male pup, Tobin, frontMale pup, Tobin, sideMale pup, Tobin, running
Here’s this week’s YouTube video:
In other news, Obi and Charles finally get their big day next weekend in Ohio at NAVHDA Invitational 2023. Send good vibes their way for a successful VC pass!!
As of right now, all of the NAVHDA chapters in the Carolinas are in North Carolina. There is a South Carolina chapter making grumblings to form, so look for more information on that in the future.
It looks like the East Region AWPGA National Specialty 2024 is between North Carolina or Pennsylvania. Both areas are finishing up their bids and looking for the board to make an announcement of the decision at the 2023 National Specialty in Montana in less than two weeks. Should any of my puppy owners want to join the AWPGA and receive the quarterly Griffonnier magazine, feel free to put me down as your sponsor: https://www.awpga.com/2023-member-application-form.html
After Invitational we have some hunting plans coming together, so we’re looking forward to finally getting out for that. Having our son Caleb join us for his first wild bird season is pretty exciting.
If you have any questions about NAVHDA, the AWPGA, future litters, or anything griffy email bluestemkennels@gmail.com and we can find a time to connect on the phone if you’d like. I quit publishing a phone number after I was harassed non-stop by overseas robocallers, scammers and telemarketers when I did have a phone number published, so I took it all down and use email as my “are you a robot?” screening tool.
Good luck to everyone in the field and everyone headed to Montana for AWPGA National Specialty 2023.
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, faceFemale pup, Tabitha, side profile
Male pup, Tobin:
Male pup, Tobin, faceMale 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 dishCloseup of eating from the dishCloseup of Tabitha eatingCloseup 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.
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, faceMale pup, Tobin, back
Female pup, Tabitha:
Female pup, Tabitha, faceFemale 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 retrieveObi on his way back from the retrieveObi on the right of the photo, making his way back to Charles on leftDuke with a water retrieve, Sally in foregroundSally 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.
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!
Pending AKC approval, Sally is now Bluestem Sally Forth SH, NA II! She and I got our last AKC Senior Hunter pass at the Rappahannock Brittany Club AKC Pointing Dog Hunt Test in Dillwyn, Virginia on Saturday, April 29th. Since we did not title her in Junior Hunter, it took five passing runs for the title. The first four we received at the AWPGA Eastern Regional Specialty in March. We went five passing runs in a row, which was very exciting.
I appreciate all of the judges assistance in guiding me through my first hunt test title. I’ve been in the gallery for 10 years now and it was finally time to step up to the plate. I have to give the most credit to Charles for training her; all I did was go in and drive a truck that he built. This is not going to be a common event for me until I get my last child out of the house in four years. Even then, I expect it to be infrequent since I enjoy wild bird hunting more.
This photo was taken right after we jumped out of the truck at our AirBnB at the end of the day, so my jaeger lead is not on correctly. Also, I am in sneakers instead of my boots. Of course it bothers me now looking at the picture, but I was too excited and tired at the time to care.
Charity and Sally with their last SH pass ribbon in Virginia
Our second new title comes is one that has been a long time in the making! Plus it was the same weekend that Sally finished Senior Hunter. At eleven years-old Bluestem TracHer became an AKC Master Hunter at the North Dakota Pointing Dog Club/Montana Brittany Club joint AKC Pointing Dog Hunt Test. TracHer is from our “C” Litter between Sam and Mae (both of whom have crossed the rainbow bridge). Congratulations Susan on a job well done and staying with the dream for so long!
Bluestem TracHer MH with owner-handler Susan and Wirehaired Vizsla, Condi, and her first Senior Hunter ribbonBluestem TracHer MH, the spitting image of her dam Little Lady Aspen, NA I “Mae”
Also at the Rappahannock Brittany Club test, Charles and Obi got their first AKC Master Hunter pass. AKC Master Hunter takes six passing runs for the title, so we’ve got some miles to travel before that is done.
Charles and I both had some fashion faux pas in our photos. He’s already changed out of his hunt test hat and boots in the photo. Do not try to handle dogs in Crocs:)
Obi and Charles with the first AKC Master Hunter pass ribbon.
Before we worry about finishing Obi’s AKC Master Hunter, we have to get through NAVHDA Invitational in September. Charles traveled with some dog training buddies out to Moberly, Missouri this past weekend for some in-depth training.
Obi with Charles backing Tracy Johnson’s Vizsla way off in the distance at Missouri Valley OutfittersA liver German Shorthaired Pointer backing Obi’s point
The perspective of the following photo is interesting since it was taken by the person who planted the duck for blind retrieve practice on the bank of the pond opposite Charles as the handler. So Obi was sent from the far side of the pond to swim across and retrieve the duck on the bank that is in the foreground of the picture.
Obi retrieving a duck to Charles, in orange on the far bank.
I wish that I could give credit to the folks who took the photos out in Missouri, but Charles didn’t give me any names. He seemed very pleased with the results of the weekend training in Missouri after being a little disappointed in not getting more passing runs in Virginia the weekend prior.
Duke is a year and a half old and is currently zero for eight runs in AKC Senior Hunter. He is a young, stubborn pup with a lot of prey drive. He does not want to hold still when that bird is getting kicked up, even with commands. We have a long road ahead and he is doing many things right, it only takes one mistake to get pulled from an AKC test. Here he is looking cute at the vet office for his rabies shot.
Duke is cute at a year and a half and 62 pounds
Ruth has become my dedicated canicross dog. Canicross is a sport that is more popular in Scandinavia and Canada, where the handler wears a hip harness with a bungeed dog lead attached to it and you go hiking. Right now we are exploring the trails of Kings Mountain National Military Park, where the American Revolutionary War Battle of Kings Mountain took place. It is a good way for two old moms to get out, plus I take our fourteen year old son Caleb too.
Ruth on the canicross harness back at the beginning of April, it is much greener here now.
One of our “P” Litter puppies from our surprise litter between Ruth and Stonyridge Zoro got out preserve hunting with her girl in Kansas at the end of March. Great job Madilynn and Rose!
Rose and Madilynn excited about their first rooster together!
I don’t have whole lot to say about the Westminster Kennel Club dog show this year since I was teaching swimming lessons and busy around the dog farm here. One thing that stood out to a lot of us long time followers is that the stands were completely empty. I hope that in the future the club is able to move it back into Manhattan at Madison Square Garden in February for the experience that we all miss. The last MSG show was in 2019 before COVID. I just feel blessed that our daughter Cordelia and I were able to go in 2018 since there is a chance that it may never happen again in Manhattan. The Piers where the benched show and breed judging happened are completely falling apart into the Hudson River, so we all may be stuck going to the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Queens in the future.
Empty stands at WKC 2023, I stole this screenshot out of someone’s Facebook video.
Charles will keep plugging along here with training for Invitational and I’ll be prepping for breeding season here in a couple of months. I’m expecting Ruth to come into season late July with pups whelped in September and going home around Thanksgiving.
I currently have thirteen reservations with deposit for our Fall 2023 litter. As my deposits are fully refundable until the puppy is three weeks old, this list often shakes up at the last minute with folks having life events that lead them to hold off until the following year. If anyone is reaching out at this point looking for a pup, they need to be comfortable with the fact that it could be Spring 2024 before I have any puppies available. But it is all up to the good Lord and Mother Nature, so we’ll see what is provided to us. Email bluestemkennels@gmail.com for inquiries.
Happy New Year from Bluestem Kennels, the South Carolina home of hunting AKC and NAVHDA Wirehaired Pointing Griffons!
We are still awaiting Ruth’s winter heat cycle, but it looks like it will be any day now. We are taking a break from breeding this cycle, but that will drive when she comes into season this summer for our Fall 2023 litter with Obi. We still have spots left on the 2023 reservation list and then we’ll also go for one last litter from Ruth in Spring 2024 before she retires from breeding. Most likely we’ll also do a first litter of Duke and Sally for Spring 2024. Contact us at bluestemkennels@gmail.com if you’re interested in a pup from us in the future.
Puppy Brag!
While I was busy with puppies in the fall, I missed an accomplishment announcement for the first Ruth and Obi pup to NAVHDA test Natural Ability. Congratulations to Clint and Bluestem Ramble on Rosalind “Rosie” on their NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize II, 101 points at seven months-old! They tested on September 10, 2022 with the Keystone Chapter in Central Pennsylvania. That is an amazing accomplishment for a first-time handler and young pup, we couldn’t be more proud!
Congratulations to Clint and Rosie on a NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize II at seven months-old!
Duke’s Health Scans
Then right after the pups went home at the end of October, I got Duke over to Steele Creek Animal Hospital in Charlotte for his hip and elbow x-rays and advanced bloodwork. We are so happy that everything came back looking good! It is only through close work with our veterinarians that we keep our dogs and puppies healthy for hard hunting.
If you look at the graph on this report, the square represents that average of the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon breed. Duke’s chances of developing hip issues are significantly lower than the average. Obi’s are slightly lower, but both are perfect for stud dog purposes.
Also his elbows show no sign of problems, which is another good thing. We had extensive bloodwork completed on his thyroid, liver and kidneys and that all came back normal. The reason that we tested the liver and kidneys even though it is not required by any breed clubs is that there are starting to be problems in certain bloodlines in the Upper Midwest where the pups are getting liver and kidney problems at young ages. We have a friend with a pup (not from us) who is battling it now and it is not something that we want to bring into our breeding program.
East Coast Griffon Event Announcement
I almost forgot this! The AWPGA is hosting a regional specialty event in York and Wellsville, Pennsylvania from Thursday, March 16 through Sunday, March 20th. Thursday is a field training day, Friday is the regional specialty dog show in York, Saturday and Sunday are AKC Hunt Tests in Wellsville. I will be driving up on Thursday so I’ll miss the field day, but I will be hanging around at the show on Friday, then running Sally and Duke in AKC Senior Hunter on Saturday and Sunday. After spending ten years in the gallery and helping out at hunt tests, I’m finally going to handle myself. I don’t know that I’ll get any passes, but we’ll have fun running anyway. There is a Facebook group called “AWPGA Eastern Regional Events 2023” that has all of the details. https://www.facebook.com/groups/375079241463081
Our Training
Charles has been working with training Obi for NAVHDA Invitational, Duke and Sally for UPT or AKC SH, and Ruth just to keep her active. Here’s just a couple of random training photos from the last couple of months where he is working with our Griffons and the English Pointers of the neighbors’.
Ruth with the green collar on backing the Pointers in December.Obi on the right backing one of the Pointers yesterday.
We hope that every one of our puppy owners and followers had a blessed holiday season. We were lucky to have our two adult children come back to us in South Carolina from Nebraska. Here is a photo of the five of us at the harbor in Charleston: Charles, Conrad is 18 and an Information Technology student at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, Cordelia is 21 and a senior in Agribusiness at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, Caleb is 13 and is in eighth grade here in SC and then me.
I’ll get back on the blog once Ruth comes in to heat here in the next few of weeks, then we’ll know a little bit more about our puppy making schedule this summer and fall. Stay warm until then, especially my poor people up in North Central Nebraska and South Central South Dakota who have snow drifts up to ten feet tall and are still getting roads and driveways cleared for travel. They have my prayers daily.
Feel free to email bluestemkennels@gmail.com to be placed on the backup contact list in the event of anyone backing out on this litter at the last minute. I will start doing interviews for our Fall 2023 litter once our 2022 litter goes home, so you can reach out about that too.
Duke’s NAVHDA Natural Ability Test
You cannot put the pressure of your breeding kennel on a junior handler and our 13 year-old son Caleb had fun handling Cedar and Spruce’s Apollo “Duke” to a NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize III, so that is really all we can ask for. They tested at the Foothills NAVHDA Chapter in Hickory, NC on Saturday. The pheasant track was spot on and he did great in the water, but it took him 15 of the 20 allotted minutes to get started in the field search. To his credit, he was the last dog in the field and it reeked of bird stench after nine other dogs ran ahead of him, so I could tell that it made Duke a bit confused and timid, wanting to point every place a bird had been planted. I’ve seen pro trainer/handlers come up with a “No Prize” on Natural Ability, so we are not disappointed. At nine months old Duke is still young enough to Natural Ability test again, but we won’t and just continue on to prepare for the Utility Preparatory Test. But the most important thing for him and for Sally is to get out west into the wild bird fields this fall.
Caleb and Duke ready to runDuke in the fieldWaiting for the waterChecking of the attributes
“S” Litter at Five Weeks Old
The pups are growing like weeds and are large enough to run the yard. We’ll do that a couple of times a day going forward. They have their first collars on and are picking up and carrying around toys. They love to chew on each other and their toys. Caleb is also my puppy assistant and I catch him doing the silliest things sometimes, like getting in their dog house.
Caleb has turned into a puppy
Here are their individual pics. Keep in mind that this is just a snapshot of this puppy. This doesn’t show their personality, size or conformation very well at all. They are just now starting to develop their different coats and I’m getting a better idea of who will fit well where.:
Male pup, Sebastian:
Male pup, Sebastian faceMale pup, Sebastian body
Male pup, Simon:
Male pup, Simon faceMale pup, Simon body
Male pup, Samson:
Male pup, Samson faceMale pup, Samson body
Female pup, Simi:
Female pup, Simi faceFemale pup, Simi body
Female pup, Spokanne:
Female pup, Spokanne faceFemale pup, Spokanne body
I need to go ahead and sign off for now, the day is getting away from me and I need to start talking to folks about travel plans and puppy picks. I’ll be back next week on Tuesday, Monday has just become too crazy for me with kid activities and so the weekly updates will shift a day for the rest of their time with us. Good luck to everyone in the field with hunting and testing.
Now that our oldest son has finally completed his schoolwork for his senior year of high school, I feel like I can breathe! He finished on Friday and will walk across the stage in about a week and a half.
A quick update on our breeding plans: it looks like I’m full on reservations for Fall 2022 Obi x Ruth, but folks can and do back out. Feel free to email bluestemkennels@gmail.com to get on my contact list for litters. The next planned breeding(s?) after that will be Fall 2023 since our daughter is graduating from college back in Nebraska in the spring of 2023. But accidents can and do happen, so I can’t totally count that season out even if I try.
In the meantime, Charles, Obi and Sally will be heading up to the Hudson Valley (NY) NAVHDA Spring Test this weekend. It will be Obi’s second and final UT run. He was a very high scoring Prize II at the Carolinas Chapter Test and Charles wants to see if he can get a Prize I. Sally will be running her UPT Test, the practice test for the UT.
Obi, Duke, Sally and Ruth in the kennels
When we’re not working with them in the yard or socializing with them in the house, the dogs spend their time in their kennels. They are crated indoors at night.
Charles, Obi and Sally have been putting in lots of training hours at various grounds in the area, but I hardly ever leave “Tiny Farm of Bethel, SC” since there is so much to do here! I managed to catch some pics of them working in the yard yesterday.
Sally on the trackSally with the duckObi with the duckObi retrieving to hand
I hope that they have fun in New York and give it their best shot! Charles grew up right near where the test is being held and so he is going to get to visit his dad while he is there too.
Duke is almost six months old and is turning out nicely! His teeth all seem to be in their correct places, he is learning his commands, we’re working on getting his fitness built up, he has a nice coat and he isn’t too large. When we weighed him a few weeks back he was 30 lbs., so we are hoping that he tops out in the 50-55 lb. range but we will see. Dukes lineage is a combination of Coppershot, Des Battures and Stonyridge, so I am expecting great things from him!
Duke on the moveDuke in the fieldDuke pointing me and being cute
I look forward to our trip to the Nebraska Sandhills this summer so that he can get a big long run in behind the truck! And do lots of swimming at the lake too.
Ruth has really bounced back from the puppies and now it is just a matter of watching and waiting for her next cycle. I suspect that it is going to be in July or August, but I will keep you posted. I normally do not do back-to-back litters with females, but it took us three attempts to get an outside male raised and turned out properly to breed with her. A female pup from this fall’s litter is going to a breeder, then we will keep an Obi x Ruth female for our program in 2023.
Ruth running the hillsRuth creeping through a low spot
We are so blessed to have our place here where we can work with the dogs right in the yard. I’ve been busy planting domesticated flowerbeds and trying to keep the wild woods at bay as much as possible. My vegetable garden is already exploding with lettuce, spinach and collards. I hope to add chickens for eggs and meat goats next year. Charles keeps a funny collection of birds for training.
Domestic mallards and a rooster pheasant
He has a whole other quail house on the back hill that I’ll have to get pictures of later.
Good luck to everyone at their spring tests, may we all savor the thrills of victory and withstand the stings of defeat.
The Bluestem Kennels “R” Litter was confirmed by ultrasound today! Please see the earlier breeding announcement blog post for additional photos of the parents and our “About Our Dogs” page for pedigrees and health clearances. Right now, we have 11 reservations with deposits. This is going to be a large litter so there is a possibility that if you put down a deposit and made a reservation now, that there could be a puppy available. We are also repeating this breeding in the fall, so if you get on the list and don’t get a spring pup, you could get a fall pup: bluestemkennels@gmail.com.
Why do back-to-back litters? Ruth is young, in her prime breeding years at age 5 and we are finally in a place where we can expand our breeding kennel. She is the great-great granddaughter of Am/Can CH Duchasseur Moustache, UT I, an AWPGA Hall of Famer from Quebec, Canada. The Quebecois bloodline was joined with our strong foundation blood from the upper Midwest US. A fantastic combination of health, hunt drive and family companion.
Obi is a new start for us, coming out of a small breeder in Wyoming. He has hips in the top 10% for the breed recorded by Penn-HIP. He is the most silly, gentle male we have ever owned as a family dog. He also has great biddability and is easy to train. We have high hopes to eventually take him to NAVHDA Utility Prize I in his life.
So this is the beginning of the next chapter.
I had to stay outside during the ultrasound due to COVID restrictions. York Vet in York, South CarolinaUltrasound photo taken by the vet techRuth resting with her little sister Sally a couple of nights ago
As we read test scores and judges evaluations in NAVHDA’s Versatile Hunting Dog magazine, as well as talk to other owners and breeders, it is tough for us to decide where to go next with bringing in outside blood again. We are keeping a male from this litter, so our backs are a little against the wall to come up with a mate for him somewhere. Now that I’m within halfway decent driving distance of Quebec, my eyes wander up there (also because I love the food and hanging around Vieux Quebec “est tres bien”). But I need to do my research on any new paperwork and veterinary requirements. But that is not where we are right now!
We need to focus on getting ready for the puppies. They are taking over the guest bedroom from the guests. I will finally have a whelping box with a bed next to it, like I’ve always wanted. So now it is just time to watch and wait! I will post more pictures of Ruth as she gets bigger and some of Obi training and just playing in the yard (once this rain goes away).
Happy New Year from Bluestem Kennels! Going into our twelfth year of puppies in style!
