Bluestem Kennels

Before you reach out about puppies, just know that I have a long list awaiting this news. My email is bluestemkennels@gmail.com if you want to inquire. It may be 2025 before I have any puppies available, as whoever does not get a pup this year rolls over into next year in the order that their deposit was received. Normally, I can get to emails within 24 hours, but I am trying to get the basic pieces nailed down to the 2024 AWPGA National Specialty dog shows, meetings and field events so it is taking me a few days to respond to kennel emails right now. I appreciate your patience.

If you are on my list and have not yet heard from me yet, you will be hearing from me in the next week. The list did shift up several spots, so you’ll be pleasantly surprised. I was also awaiting these ultrasound results to find out if both females are pregnant before I started saying, “Well there may be a chance…” and having it be unreasonable.

As confirmed by York Veterinary Services in York, South Carolina, both litters of Bluestem Peaches En Regalia NA I, UPT II, UT III “Ruth” x Cedar and Spruce’s Apollo NA III “Duke”, as well as Bluestem Sally Forth SH, NA II x Wyo Plainsman Kenobi NA I, UPT III, UT I (2023 and 2024 NAVHDA Invitational Qualifier) are going to be whelped towards the end of February and the beginning of March. Ruth appears to be farther along. We are keeping a male from the Ruth and Duke cross. The vet is saying that Ruth’s litter will be smaller than Sally’s and probably come a week or so sooner.

We are excited for puppies, but this is always a nervous time. I’ve had friends who have dealt with last minute spontaneous abortions. Females in the breed have died in emergency c-sections and the puppies have had to be bottle fed and raised by hand. Every time someone breeds a litter they are risking the life of their female. Not everything you see in an ultrasound comes out as a puppy that will live a full healthy life. So be happy and hopeful with me, but realize that this is a nervous and stressful time too.

AKC Junior Hunter

On January 20th and 21st, Bluestem’s Carolina Briar Thicket “Briar” (Obi x Ruth) and I went to do some fun runs towards the AKC Junior Hunter title at the double-double AKC Hunting Tests hosted by the Sandhills Pointing Breeds Club in Jackson Springs, North Carolina. Jackson Springs is just a wide spot in the road with a couple of buildings, but it is just a ten minute drive to the Pinehurst golf resort community which is really nice.

It was absolutely freezing that weekend with high winds on Saturday, so there were more entries who scratched than usual. It was also funny to see the menagerie of attire as most folks down here don’t have cold weather hunting gear and just threw on their ski clothes with a hunting vest on top. Our first run was with a nice Bracco Italiano bred by one of my friends who also breeds Griffs, so it was fun to have that connection and we both passed (even though I biffed it in the backfield, I had some bad boots on that were too heavy for the terrain).

The second run was with a huge male Weimaraner who had bullied his last bracemate so badly that she scratched at the starting line and didn’t come back the rest of the weekend. I got mad at the dog and gave him a “heeyaah” as he came over to mess with her for like the third time. I ended up scaring my own dog in the backfield but she recovered. We got into the bird field and there was this giant berm on the edge of it, right next to the woods where all of the previous runs’ birds were hiding. She was locked on point up there, so I climbed the berm to kick it up. There was nothing there, I think she was doing a long nose point into the woods. I wiped out again, managing to roll down the berm on my side. It is a good thing that I have a little extra cushion on my body because it was like a rugby hit, my legs just totally went out from under me and I went on my side and rolled down the hill. We did not pass that run.

I made the mistake of not getting a hotel room in Pinehurst and I’m not doing that again. So there I was all banged up after two falls (the second one being pretty hard) and half frozen driving two hours home, then getting up early the next day to drive two hours back. I knew that I had to be there on time because even though we were down the list a little ways on braces, lots of folks scratched due to it being 15 degrees out. Sure enough we ended up as second brace with all of the folks who scratched. My bracemate was pulling up to park as the first brace was coming back in from the bird field (which I was so happy for, otherwise we would have been stuck with the giant dorky Weim again). Instead it was a nice little GSP whose owner had lived out in Sioux City, Iowa for a time. It was an uneventful run for Briar and I, for only being with me for four months she really listens well. I didn’t even start whistle training her (with a Fox40 whistle, she’s used to my mouth whistle) until the week of the test. Even though the GSP took the bird field from the breakaway instead of going into the backfield like he should have, we both passed. I appreciated the judge’s feedback that I was over handling in the bird field and giving too many commands around the birds instead of letting Briar do her own thing. It came in handy in the last run and it made it fun instead of nerve-wracking.

Our third run was with the hunt test chair and his English Setter. We had an interesting scenario come up in the backfield where I was standing in a spot and all of a sudden both of the dogs are circling and pointing at me. This is at the end of a weekend where probably a hundred birds had been planted at that point. I look down at my feet and there are two quail running away from me. I see that both dogs are on point, so I decided to make it a find for them and kicked up the quail to fly and fired my starter pistol. Not a minute later, the other handler finds where the bird bag with birds in it had fallen off of the ATV not two feet from where I had kicked up the quail. It was just a funny scenario that I had never experienced before. Both dogs and handlers got a pass on that run.

We’ll be back at it in a couple of weeks to try to finish out our last run for the title.

Hunting season is over for Charles and Caleb. They did not find any woodcock this year in South Carolina. Our old training dummy dog and South Carolina rescue pointer Dolly is having a grand life in Nebraska with our buddy Aaron and Chewy the Griff.

Ruth and Sally’s mom Fire (now Bella) had a grand time this year out in Arizona chasing quail too.

I better wrap it up here and get to dog farm chores, but we’re about a month away from pups on the ground so you’ll hear from me then if not before (maybe Briar will get the JH title soon). The AWPGA National Specialty 2024 is slowly coming together for November 7-12 in North Carolina, here is our tentative schedule of events: https://www.awpga.com/2024-natl-specialty-schedule.html . You don’t have to be a member to participate in the specialty, you just can’t attend the annual meeting if you are not a member. I’ll get the sign up page posted once we have it all put together later this year. It takes a lot of people to run a breed and I hope that all of the Griffon breeders out there with litters planned or on the ground this spring have good whelping and healthy puppies.