Where has the time gone? How has it been three months since I’ve written my last blog post? We’re in semi-retirement right now with no firm breeding plans. I appreciate y’all who have been checking in, you never know if an accident could happen with two females and a male on the property.
I also love the pupdates coming through email and text. I have totally neglected re-posting those, I feel terrible. Let’s plan those over Christmas break, since I decided to go back into teaching middle school English this year and it is hectic just keeping up with the dogs and a son in his junior year of high school. My head kennel tech/son Caleb is currently holding straight A’s since freshman year with hopes of going to either Clemson or The Citadel to major in urban planning and civil engineering. Our older son Conrad is getting ready to graduate from Metropolitan Community College Omaha with an Associate’s Degree in Information Technology. Our oldest, daughter Cordelia is the sales manager at an optometrist and is thinking of finally using her finance degree in banking.
Duke was our first dog to go into retirement this year, he went out to Oregon to live the good life with Ben. We really appreciate Ben giving Duke a great home. Duke has put out some nice puppies but we really want to focus on higher level hunting test dogs. A NAVHDA UT III is respectable, but there are enough VCs nearby between our Obi and our friend’s dog Gauge that we think that we have what we want for males here.
Duke and his new GSP buddyDuke with ducks and Ben
Briar has gone to live another fantastic retirement life in Virginia with Priscilla. I absolutely love Briar’s size and she is the sweetest dog, but she just didn’t have what we wanted in the ability to take pressure in training. She was my pick of that litter, we bought her back from someone and love her genetic contribution to the breed, but whatever happened with guns and pressure in training while she was away was not good. She has her Junior Hunter, but we were nervous to try more advanced things with her. So she is a beloved family pet to a couple who spends a lot of time with her along the James River.
Briar’s adventures in retirementMore of Briar’s adventures in retirement
Sandhills Hunting
Charles and the rest of the pack: Obi, age 6, Sally, age 5, and Belle being almost two went out to the Nebraska Sandhills at the beginning of October for grouse and ducks this year and it was rough hunting. Caleb went with him and got skunked. Here is the run down of the game bag:
It was day four of the hunt when he and Belle got on the board with two grouseDay five was one snipe with BelleBelle with a limit of woodducks at an old creek haunt of ours
After a week, Caleb came back home to get back to school after fall break. The dogs and Charles spent a few days of working in Nebraska, then they made their way up to North Dakota. The hunting is never a giveaway up there, but it was more productive in a short amount of time than the Sandhills this year.
Day One North Dakota: Obi and Belle with two roosters and a grouseNorth Dakota Day 3: Sally, Belle and Obi with two ducks (one a nice drake mallard) and three roostersNorth Dakota Day 4: Belle and Sally with three roosters and a grouse
Charles is actually packing up today to go out to South Central Nebraska for pheasants. It is going to be a snowy trip, so it will be interesting to see what comes of it. I will be back sometime over Christmas break, I hope that everyone enjoys their holiday season!
Please email bluestemkennels@gmail.com for inquiries relating to our upcoming or future litters.
I am checking Sally everyday for sign of coming into season, as the boys are starting to act like things are going on and there are some subtle changes occurring. I’m going to be conservative and say that she’ll be bred by Christmas, but once proestrus bleeding starts I’ll know more exactly. That would put puppies being whelped in January or February and going home in March or April. I am not keeping a puppy from this litter with Sally being young enough for me to do that, so that will move folks up the reservation list one slot. It is always tough to tell where everything will shake out owner-wise between a list and a litter. With my deposits being refundable until a puppy whelped is three weeks old and the possibility that some people will want to wait for Ruth’s litter, or have life situations arise where they will wait for the following year, even having a long list doesn’t guarantee folks showing interest now won’t get a puppy. We are all placing bets on a natural process and just pray that it all works out.
The breeding that is coming up soon is AKC/NAVHDA Bluestem Sally Forth SH, NA II “Sally” and Wyo Plainsman Kenobi NA I, UPT III, UT I “Obi”. Obi qualified for NAVHDA Invitational in 2023 and recently re-qualified for 2024. Sally went 5 passes in 5 runs for her AKC Senior Hunter. Her NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize II was with our son Caleb as a junior handler. We’ve tested her in both Utility Preparatory Test and Utility Test and she does all of the skills except picking up the live duck at the end of the duck search. She had a bad run in with a mean duck pecking her in the face and we’re working back into being aggressive on the live duck. I’m hoping to re-test her in the Fall of 2024, she is still young and we have plenty of time. There are so many things that a dog has to do right in the Utility Test and just missing one is not the end of the world. She is phenomenal in the field and is a pretty looking and healthy dog.
The second breeding probably won’t happen until between Christmas and Valentine’s Day, that will be between our older female Bluestem Peaches En Regalia NA I, UPT II, UT III “Ruth” and our young male, Cedar and Spruce’s Apollo NA III “Duke”. Ruth is beautiful and one of our best bird-finders, just off-the-charts prey drive. Duke is our young male who was also handled in NAVHDA Natural Ability by our son as a junior handler. This is Ruth’s last litter and we really want a pup between her and Duke so we are going ahead with the pairing before he even utility tests. His hips are phenomenal, his prelim elbows were good, his eyes are normal and we’re waiting for his two year birthday in a couple of weeks to do his final elbows and thyroid test.
All of the dogs pedigrees and health clearances are on the “About Our Dogs” page. They are not only hunting dogs and breeding stock, but also our family pets. Everyone is crate trained, housebroken, good with kids and other dogs (free range chickens and cats are a no). You can train a Griffon to be friendly with a cat, like when we go to the vet there are loose cats and they don’t eat them, but my dogs want to torment cats. We have a barn cat that gets chased up trees. You have to have chickens or any birds in a coop.
Hunting Wirehaired Pointing Griffons
Speaking of birds, after Caleb and I returned to South Carolina last month, Charles continued his adventures with the dogs, leaving my mom’s house in Nebraska and headed up to our usual old haunts in North Dakota. He did bring home German kuchen and sausages like I always ask for. It looks like the young dogs Sally and Duke got in on most of the action. He got excited and took the first picture in the morning before he had finished his harvest.
Sally and Duke with a couple of morning roostersThey ended day one with a limit of roosters and two sharptailed grouseOn the camp chain gang, from left to right: Duke, Sally, Ruth and Obi
On the second day, Ruth and Obi harvested three ducks and a pheasant, but there was no photo.
Day three Duke and Sally were back on duty and took two ducks and a pheasant.
Duke and Sally with two ducks and a pheasantObi, Sally, Ruth and Duke with the North Dakota harvest
North Dakota produces but does so with great effort. A person has to root pheasants out of little cattail patches in harvested fields, walk the rolling hills for sharptails and check scattered ponds for ducks. But it is always a fun hunt and we love checking in on the people that we’ve now seen almost annually for about 10 years.
Charles stopped back in the Nebraska Sandhills to work remotely for a few days and was able to get in a couple of more days of hunting. The first day was photographed with Duke getting in on a few ducks.
Duke with three Nebraska Sandhills ducks
We’re not sure what the rest of the hunting season holds for us, Charles may sneak in one more trip out west, there’s talk of looking for some North Carolina ruffed grouse, around the New Year there should be some woodcock moving through down here, we’ll just take it all as it comes. As much as we love the mild winters down here, we really have our sights set on Charles working remotely out of Nebraska once Caleb graduates high school in 2027. The hunting out west just cannot be beat.
I have a new friend who I would like to introduce you to. I bought back one of my “S” Litter pups since we won’t be repeating the Obi x Ruth cross again. She is just over a year old and I have her ready to NAVHDA Natural Ability test, but there are no test openings before she turns 16 months old. So my current plan is to use the AKC Junior Hunter as her puppy test this spring. What is really crazy is how much she looks like our foundation female, Sue. So here is little Briar getting a treat from Charles last night:
AKC/NAVHDA Bluestem’s Carolina Briar Thicket
Here is our foundation female Sue:
Sweetgrass Sandhill Sioux “Sue” our first female Griffon
Looking at Ruth and Obi, you never would have imagined that they would produce a pup with that coat, but it happened. Genetics are an interesting thing. Sue is Briar’s Great-Great Grandmother.
It is time to get on with the day, I will be sure to keep you posted with the breeding developments and any new hunting adventures that come about. Happy hunting to everyone out there in the fields!
Bluestem Kennels 