Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Puppies | Bluestem Kennels

Mae’s litter has all gone home and I’m boarding a pup of Sue’s for one more week. We’ve really become attached to “Reagan”, the name that her new owners have chosen for her. Maybe they’ll chicken out at the last minute and we can keep her;) She still has accidents in the house, but I’d say she’s 3/4 housebroken. She comes when her name is called 90% of the time and even when she doesn’t come, she knows that you are talking to her, but she’s just trying to opt out of obeying. I’ve seen her chase tweety birds in the yard and she picks things up on her own to carry around in her mouth like a good little retriever. She keeps up with the big dogs running the property. I sure hope her new family is ready for her, because she has lots of juice! She does really well in the crate and I can keep her in there without protest for 5 hours or so and can handle about the same time in the outdoor kennel/run with BB.

11 week old Reagan striking a pose

Reagan and I on Mother’s Day

Phone pic when Reagan was carrying the bumper

More beautiful puppy families! Danny flew in from Austin, TX on the 8th to pick up “Flora” who will now be known as “Fern” and took her home as a carry-on. That is how we brought BB home from Quebec, so I know that can be a challenge. Danny just sent me an update today and it said:

I know this note is a little late, but I just wanted to update you on Fern. She is awesome! She’s fitting in to her family well. Our Airedale, Alli, seems to accept her alright. I do think that having a puppy around makes her nervous, though. Puppies have a lot of energy for a 10 year old dog to handle! When I got her home, I think she was shellshocked…the airplane ride was a little traumatic for her. Her personality is about 180 degrees from when I picked her up at your house. She is very outgoing and loves being by her family. I think she loves the kids a little too much! Very nippy. Poor kids don’t know when they can pet her safely without getting bit! So far she seems very eager to please. She likes to play fetch with just about any object. Her favorite thing to play with is frozen duck wings. Fern just goes bonkers for these things. Potty training is going pretty well. She has adapted to the kennel and doesn’t really whine but for about a minute, then just curls up with her little toy and sleeps. We’ve had a day or two of no accidents. Most of her accidents have been our fault, not paying attention to her when she goes to the door. I’ve been working with her on “here,” “sit,” and “down.” She will do anything for a treat.

Anyway, I just wanted to keep you up to date with Fern’s new family and her progress. So far, she has been a great addition to our family. Also, it seems like she is going to shape up to be a serious hunter.

Thanks,

Danny

Danny and family in Austin, TX

Chris and Elysia in Ohio had “Frieda” flown out to them in Dayton, Ohio. Chris is a dog handler with the US Army, so I know that she is in good hands! Elysia sent me a note and photo too, “She’s beautiful! And doing great. She loves the kids, gets very excited when she sees them. She’s pretty calm with us though. We’re missing one kid in our picture because he wasn’t being cooperative. They’ll be plenty more pictures though. Happy Mother’s day, we hope you had a great weekend! And thank you again for everything!”

Chris and Elysia’s family in Dayton, Ohio

“Fern” also flew out on Friday the 10th and is now living in Helena, Montana with our friends Louie and Lindsay. Lou is a childhood friend of Charles from back in upstate New York, they belonged to the same deer hunting camp back in the day. Fern is now known as “Midge” and has a 7-year old male griff friend, Murf. He’s fixed, so there will be no Murf/Midge progeny, but we hope that Midge turns out and we can tap into the great studs in Montana.

Lindsay, Frannie, Lou and the dogs

Gabe practices stacking Midge

Last weekend was the Heartland NAVHDA Chapter spring test. BB and Sam were tested in the Utility Preparatory Test. Even though she had the higher score of 164, BB did not prize because of lack of water search. She was in the middle of her heat and come to find out she had a nasty case of worms (courtesy of a dead squirrel she gnawed on in our woods), so we felt bad that it was sort of our fault that she bombed. It was really too bad because she aced the field work and even if she had given a III performance in the water, she would have had a prize I overall. It was just sort of a strange deal, because she had no sign of being ill until that day. She had been staying in the house full-time to help me babysit Reagan and to keep Sam from freaking out about her heat and we had seen nothing wrong until that day. I’m just thankful that nobody else got sick and we were able to get it treated.

Charles giving BB the release command (file photo from her NA test)

Sam’s field and track were okay, but he was the star of the day in the water, taking home a Prize II with a score of 163.

Sam and Charles (file photo from AKC test in March)

I’ve had folks asking me about what I’m writing for Lion Country Supply http://www.lcsupply.com/. I have been updating their product descriptions and will be branching out into blogging and product reviews once I get through the catalog. I am so excited to be connected with such a great company and look forward to having a long career of dog writing ahead of me.

Next up is the German Wirehaired Pointer Club of Central Iowa and the German Wirehaired Pointer Club of Eastern Nebraska’s double/double AKC Hunt Test Memorial Day weekend at Yankee Hill WMA near Lincoln. We’ll see if we can get a pass in SH for Sam or BB, it has been eluding us at this point, but we’ll keep trying. Call me or shoot me an e-mail if you would like to participate and I can forward on the premiums, it closes on Tuesday so you might have to overnight them!

I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend, but don’t forget about the sacrifices made by the armed forces. I’ll be thinking of my Dad who passed away in 1998 at the age of 49 as a result of complications from Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam. I know that he looks down on all of this dog craziness and smiles.

We are pleased to announce that our first breeding of the year is complete between our 3 year old male, Sam, and our new 5 year old female, Mae. Sue was anticipated to come into season first, but Mae surprised us. Mae and Sam bred from January 9-11, therefore pups are expected March 13-15. Hey game birds, “Beware of the Ides of March!”, new hunting puppies will be here!

Hunting photos of Sam can be found on our “About Us” page (I have yet to load this season’s, but they can be found on the individual blog posts containing the hunting tales on bluestemkennels.com [pre-10/01/2011] and versatilehunter.com [10/01/2011-present]). His pedigree is a link at the bottom of the “About Us” page.

Mae came into our home on December 3, 2011 from That’s My Point Kennels in Wheatland, ND where she had successfully whelped and nursed 3 previous litters and was known as “Aspen” http://www.tmpkennels.com/ As you can see from the previous owner’s website, she was raised with young children. At the age of one, she successfully scored a Prize II on her Natural Ability Test from the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVHDA).

Mae’s Natural Ability Test Results

Her AKC/NAVHDA pedigrees also spoke of her potential for us. Her sire, Marquis Georgeous George hails from French import blood and the prestigious Herrenhausen kennel. Barbara Young of Herrenhausen is an AKC and International Conformation Judge, therefore she knows and breeds good dogs. The dam, Full of Grace, is out of the famed Fireside blood. Fireside’s Spontaneous Combustion won 3rd place in the sporting group at Westminster last year and was the first Wirehaired Pointing Griffon ever to place at WKC.

Mae’s AKC Pedigree

The hunt testing results and the strong conformation background in the pedigree drew me to “Aspen”. She was the Butcher family’s companion in the home and field, therefore even though I was nervous about bringing a new member into our pack, I thought that these things put together boded well for “Aspen” being a good match for us and our breeding program.

I made the following YouTube video this morning of all my dogs running in the yard, just as a visual reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSb7jdZXPz8

Mae has thrived in our home and in the field. Not even a week after bringing her home, we had her out on planted hen pheasants for training:

(Click on any of the photos to see a larger version)

Mae working the field on December 9, 2011

One of Mae’s points 12/09/2011

Another point on 12/09/2011

Charles walks into Mae’s point

Mae retrieves on 12/09/2011

After our first training day with planted birds in a controlled environment, we felt comfortable enough to use Mae to assist in guiding at Pheasant Haven right before Christmas.

Sam (front) and Mae (back) with the hunters on 12/22/2011

Sam, myself and Mae guided a hunt on 12/23/2011 also

The afternoon following the December 23rd preserve hunt, we were on the road for the Sandhills where we busted up some cattails with the whole gang, Mae included, on Christmas Eve:

Mae on the left, with the rest of the pack, Charles, and the Christmas Eve Sandhills pheasant

Charles and all four dogs on the dunes

We spent a couple of hours on Christmas Day chasing grouse with Mae and the rest of the pack, but didn’t find any. We’ll be back for them in September!

Our last outing was on January 2nd with some chukar and quail from a game farm that we had never used before and wanted to try out. It is important for newer dogs to get individual training attention when they are usually braced (in pairs) or ran as a pack.

One of Mae’s points on 01/02/2012

Charles shoots one of the chukars over Mae on 01/02/2012

Charles walking into one of Mae’s points 01/02/2012

Closeup of Mae’s point that Charles was walking into

Double chukar flush over Mae and Charles 01/02/2012

Mae had more than one retrieve on 01/02/2012, but this was the only photo that turned out well

Even though we’ve only had Mae a limited time, we are confident in her ability to produce quality puppies for our kennel and contribute to our development of the breed.

I will close with a picture of the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon breed’s founder Edward Korthals. This was taken in 1891 when he was presented the German Kaiser’s award for breeding. I use this photograph as guide for the dogs that I will continue working to create. Mae fits into this perfectly.

Korthals and his prize specimens

To reserve a puppy from one of our spring 2012 litters, please call (402) 682-9802 or e-mail bluestemkennels@cox.net

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