Feel free to email bluestemkennels@gmail.com if you wish to enquire about our 2022 litter plans. I am hoping to get through the 2022 interest emails by the old tax filing deadline of April 15th.
Over the last couple of weekends the Q Litter has gone to their new homes. They are really a handful at 8 weeks old and I am so glad that they are with their new owners getting into a routine and having plenty of individual attention. We still have Sally here (her litter name was Quarry) and she is very sweet but obviously does normal puppy annoying behavior, like chewing stuff that she is not supposed to and having potty accidents. I am not going to try and sugar-coat housebreaking a Griff. They are really one of the toughest breeds to get through in my experience. Where I can have an English breed fully broken by 12-16 weeks, I’m honest with myself in knowing that I’m still going to be struggling at that point and not to expect to be accident-free until 20 weeks with a Griff.
The only thing that I can think of to account for the longer period of time is that they have so much to learn as a versatile breed that it just takes them longer to get everything down. And they are just a slower maturing breed anyway; Obi is 17 months-old and still has some very puppy behavior.
Let’s do photos first, then I’ll talk about what we’re working on with Sally. I’m just going in the order of pickup for simplicity’s sake.
Joe and family, with Qbert going to Iowa
We are excited to have Joe and Qbert (he will be called something else, but I always forget to write down their new call names and so I’ll just refer to their litter names, sorry) just across the river in Iowa and hope we get to train with them soon.
Ricardo and Quartz are off to Colorado
Ricardo has an older Griff who will be showing Quartz the way on pheasants in Colorado. They have a population of white ptarmigan out there that I hope that we get to chase someday, so maybe we’ll meet again.
Cliff’s family and Queen on their way to Oklahoma
Cliff also has Belle from our “C” Litter between Sam and Mae, so this is their second Bluestem puppy. They had just come up from taking their granddaughters to show their pigs. Belle and the pup are still figuring out their relationship but it is going well so far.
Greg and his wife with Quince going to North Dakota
Greg also has Epsilon from our J Litter between Sam and BB, so yet another two Bluestem puppy family. He will be getting spoiled since both Greg and his wife work independently and someone always has the dogs with them. And of course North Dakota is one of our favorite places to visit during hunting season, hopefully the bird population up there bounces back in the next few years.
Jim and his family with Qiana
Jim and his family lives out on an acreage in central Nebraska. This is their first Griff, so they are in for an adventure. But Jim has had hunting dogs his whole life and his dad was a trainer of Labarador Retrievers so they’re ready for action.
Aaron and his wife heading back to Ohio with Quest
Aaron has a Bluestem pup that goes by Pepper from our D Litter between our original breeding pair Sue and Sam. He says that Quest and Pepper are getting along splendidly and she is really fitting in with the family. Aaron also wins the “traveled farthest” award for coming almost 800 miles one way to pick up his puppy.
Quentin going to Michigan with Paul and Deb
Second in the “traveled farthest” award is Paul and Deb, flying out from Michigan to rent a car and drive back home with Quentin. They also own a pup by the name of Fielding from our O Litter between Fire and Chief with their daughter Galen and her fiancee. Galen works in IT for a major Detroit auto manufacturer and her fiancee is a police officer, so all four of them take turns raising the dogs with schedules all over the place.
Travis and family with Quetzal going to Kansas
Travis and I have been in contact about getting his family a puppy for a long time, but being active duty in the Army with consistent deployment and his wife home with three kids, there was no way she was going to let him get a puppy until he retired! So happy military retirement, Travis and thank you for your service! Bird numbers in Kansas have been good lately, so I’m sure you’ll get a chance to chase some of them around.
I suppose I should set up a tripod and take a family picture of us with Sally, but it has not happened yet, so here are just a few candids from around the house.
Sally and I taking a selfie
Sally on top of her big sister Ruth, who is almost exactly four years older
On Good Friday, Charles took Caleb and mama Fire out for some preserve hunting. Caleb shot a rooster and a few of the chukar, with Charles harvesting the rest. The most important to me was that Caleb and Fire had a good time.
Caleb trying to pose with Fire
Caleb showing off his rooster and his smile
As fas as what we are working on with Sally, I focus on the housebreaking and crate training. If someone isn’t watching her to catch accidents, she is in a crate near the rest of us so that she can still interact and hear what we are doing. Charles is working on whoa and heel using treats in the morning.
When we started out working with dogs twenty years ago, we didn’t do much other than housebreaking the first year and letting them on to wild birds. This was sort of the old field trialer dog training mentality. But as we’ve matured as dog owners, we’ve found that the sooner we work with them the better. Not overtraining or hacking on the pup, but just fun basic command learning and general obedience.
Especially with Griffons, if they are not exposed to a little pressure to behave right away, because they are so sensitive it is extremely difficult to impossible to break bad habits since their feelings get hurt so easily. It’s better to get them used to being trained early so that when you get to the more advanced steps they are not as difficult to handle.
Speaking of advanced steps, Charles is taking Obi and Ruth down to Lincoln for AKC Senior Hunter runs this weekend, so we’ll see how those go. I had forgotten about the tests and am scheduled to lifeguard, so I am a little bummed that I won’t get to do some field photography. We’ve also got them signed up to do the Utility Preparatory Test for NAVHDA in May, so I need to make sure to keep my calendar open that weekend to get some good photos.
Good luck to everyone with their Bluestem puppies, we are all in this challenging and joyous situation together so don’t hesitate to shoot me an email with questions. And of course don’t be afraid to turn to your local NAVHDA chapter members for help and advice.
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