Wirehaired Pointing Griffons | Bluestem Kennels

Pupdate: Homegoing!

August 6, 2012

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update Dog Training, Puppies, Quail, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

The last of the puppies went home on Saturday, August 4th. There was a mad rush on Sunday, July 28th, three puppies went home in two hours! Hence amidst that chaos, I forgot to take pictures of two out of three families. Darryl went home to Illinois with Kyle and Jenna, who will be married in September. Then David went home with Brian, Mindy and their two boys to south central Nebraska. If you guys can send me pictures, I would greatly appreciate it!!

Dottie stays in the Omaha metro with Rick’s family

Doris will make her home in northwestern Iowa with Shane and family

Don went to northwestern Missouri with Dustin’s family

Daisy will live with Rob’s family in Illinois

Aaron’s family drove all the way from Ohio to collect Derry

The day before the puppies started going home, I worked with them individually on exposing them to a live quail: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URwusELauGw

Yesterday was spent devoting our attention to the adult dogs. Charles has been working quite a bit with training BB and Sam for the AKC Senior Hunter test, but it had been a long while since all four dogs were out on a run. So we loaded the kids and dogs up yesterday and marched them around. Then we came back for a dog spa day, everyone was groomed and bathed. Tonight Cordelia and I will take BB and Mae to conformation handling (dog show) practice. It will be Mae’s first time practicing, so it should be interesting to see how it goes.

Of course, we are busy planning our hunting season, which begins in 25 days!

Good luck to all of the new owners with their puppies and do not hesitate to ask any questions if you have any! I will be focused on writing about the basics of griffon care for the next couple of weeks and need to get Charles motivated to start posting on Versatile Hunter.

Here’s some cute pictures of TracHer in North Dakota, a puppy from our “C” litter earlier in the year. Susan and Tom are doing such a great job with her!

TracHer with flowers, female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon at 4 months

TracHer on the training table, female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon at 5 months

Pupdate: Seven Weeks!

July 26, 2012

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update Korthals Griffon, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons 2 Comments

Today the puppies were given their final health examinations prior to homegoing and they all received perfect scores from Dr. Kliewer! We are getting prepared for departures, our first one being this Sunday. I couldn’t be more pleased with how they have all turned out and quite surprised that we were totally victorious in our battle against this heatwave. It feels like over the last month we’ve hit highs between 97-107F every day, with the exception of a handful of days. I’ve been spending hours a day back in the woods with the puppies, letting them dig themselves wallowing holes in the deep shade midday and soaking them down in cold water afterwards, in addition to their typical morning and evening run/playtime. Here is a video of the kids and pups in the woods on a morning runabout: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nb3jyStko4

Last Friday we ended up down at a pond that we have access to south of town. At least two, maybe 3 puppies swam on their own. You don’t see it in the video, but the rest I carried out a little ways and set them down in the water and let them swim back to shore. Everyone made it back in on their own steam, so we’re good there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjDGsJ80rrg

This week we’ve been starting individual crate conditioning and socialization. It has been too hot to drive them around in the van and run errands with them, so we had to take that part out of the routine (they got plenty of driving in the crate during pair conditioning, coming and going with vet needs and going down to the pond). So the individual routine has been to pick a pup each day to bring in the house individually, crate the pup for 1.5-2 hours, take it out in the front yard on a leash for 5-10 minutes to potty, then bring it back into the house for the kids to play with for another couple of hours.

Caleb messes with the pup while Cordelia squeaks a toy, with friend Allena waiting her turn to play

Really all there is left to do with the pups at this point is finish up individual crate conditioning and socialization, then do their brief introduction to a live bird. Aside from that I need to get my office work on and get all of the invoices, guarantees, health documents and transfer forms completed and bundled up.

“Doris”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Dottie”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Derry”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Daisy”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Don”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

“Darryl”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

“David”, seven week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

The kids and I have big plans for the last couple of weeks of summer post-puppy and pre-beginning of school. I have a few griffon “how-to” items up my sleeve for this blog before we get ready to fire up the hunting blog for the season. Charles and I collaborate on the hunting blog, it has a bit of a different voice and structure than this, the kennel blog. Check out some of our posts from last year if you like by clicking the “Hunting Blog” button on the top navigation bar of this site.

D Litter: Six Weeks!

July 19, 2012

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update Korthals Griffon, Puppies, Puppy Guarantee, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

Wow, the pups are really starting to keep me busy! They love attention and running around the woods. In this week’s first video, my favorite part is right at 1:28 when Caleb is running up the hill, the last puppy in the line stops and points his siblings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f7KfMe1ic0

Between Sue and the pups, they are eating two big coffee cans full of food a day. I’ll find out their exact weights when we go to the veterinarian for first shots a week from today, but they are big and stout.

Charles used some live quail for training on Saturday, so Sunday the puppies had some little bird carcasses to investigate and carry around: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDhvHOCd-LY

“Doris” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Dottie” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Derry” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Daisy” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Don” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

“Darryl” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

“David” 6 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

Here is a shopping list for traveling by car with a puppy:

1) Crate (he/she will probably get held a lot on the way home, but it is good practice)

2) Small food/water dishes

3) Bottled water and a small supply of dry dog food

4) Collar and leash. Today I just upgraded them to the Medium (5/8 inch wide, 10-16 inch length), but I keep ahold of these collars for future litters.

5) Paper towels and baby wipes, in case of any messes.

6) Plastic bags for waste clean-up if you stop. I like to recycle my newspaper bags for this.

I know there are some super excited kids and adults out there ready to give these puppies some fabulous homes! These puppies are getting to be almost more than I can handle on my own, so I know that means that they are ready for their own people.

The puppies will be missed, but looking at my 2012, I’ve been working on something to do with breeding constantly since January, whether it was getting them mated, watching over a pregnant female or whelping and raising puppies. It is so fun and rewarding, but I’ll be ready for my few weeks off between this litter going home and the opening day of hunting season on Sunday, September 1st.

For those of you joining us in the heatwave, stay cool until next time! If you are getting drenched with rain over in Europe, stay dry!

Pupdate: Five weeks!

July 13, 2012

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update Korthals Griffon, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons 4 Comments

Kallie holding a 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppy Sunday

Last weekend brought a few kennel visits from some families considering puppies from future litters. The “D” litter pups had a good time with their visitors!

Rick and his daughter pose with a 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppy last Friday

Most notable is that the puppies have starting exploring the area outside of the kennel, which is the subject of this week’s YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGncSlePLvI (I realized as I was posting this video that I accidentally left last week’s video where the pups are messing with the pigeon carcasses locked as private, so if you would like to go back and watch it, it is now available). At this point I’m just opening the door and letting them check out the area just surrounding, but later this week I will take them to the back of the property and have them follow me back to the kennel, so that they can start learning the layout of the area. They also finished their 20 lb. bag of dry puppy kibble, so now they are on “big dog” food with everyone else (Diamond Performance).

This week will also be the beginning of crate conditioning and individual work with the wing. They have grown and changed so much in the past week, here are their updated photos:

“Doris” 5 week old female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

“Dottie” 5 week old female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

“Derry” 5 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppy

“Daisy” 5 week old female Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

“Don” 5 week old male Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

“Darryl” 5 week old male Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

“David” 5 week old male Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

I also received a few photo updates from some of the “C” litter puppies who are now 4 months old:

TracHer in North Dakota playing with toys, 4 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

TracHer in North Dakota attacking the camera, 4 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Belle in Oklahoma checking out a trapped armadillo, 4 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Belle in Oklahoma playing lap dog on her owner, Cliff. 4 month old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

So now that the temperatures in the triple digits are gone, things are pretty well back to normal around here. Not having to soak down the kennel every couple of hours and enjoying our time outside. Three more weeks until the puppies go to their very excited new owners!!

I’d like for you all to check out my latest project called Griffon Gear. I’ll be adding more to it, like shirts, books, cards, stationary and training supplies, but right now I have some nice home decor items available from some talented American artists across the country (including TracHer’s mom, Susan, who is a potter in North Dakota!). I’ll let you know as I get more “gear” available, but as of right now I’m just happy to have the site built and fully functional as well as having some great partners in the art world on this! http://www.wirehairedpointinggriffongear.com For future reference, the link is also available to access through the “Store” button on the top navigation bar of this site.

Pupdate: Four weeks old!

July 5, 2012

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update Dog Training with Pigeons, Korthals Griffon, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons 1 Comment

The puppies are getting quite lively at 4 weeks old, it’s hard to believe that we are half way through our journey before sending them off to their forever families. The puppy formula/soft canned dog food mush was transitioned to straight soft canned puppy food and they’ve since moved on to dry puppy kibble mixed in with their soft canned puppy food. They are now wearing collars and are almost ready to start playing in the woods.

“Doris” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Dottie” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Derry” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Daisy” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon female

“Don” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

“Darryl” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male in the dog house

“David” 4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon male

When they are awake and not eating, they spend most of their time barking at and chewing on each other. They aren’t quite steady enough on their feet yet to run after each other too much, but they are able to manage the steps in and out of the dog house.

Charles took Sam and BB out for some training with live pigeons over the weekend and brought the carcasses back so that I could show them to the puppies, as you can see in this week’s video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEexjh0p7Hc

Puppies and pigeons

4 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppies sniff a dead pigeon

We’ve been battling 100 degree heat over the last week and it doesn’t appear we’ll get a break until Saturday. I make sure I’m getting out to the kennel every couple of hours to soak the puppies down and cool the stone floor with a few gallons of cold water. Even though they are in the shade, there’s no way to get around the fact that it is hot!

The puppies’ first outside visitors were my grandparents from California, who had flown into Omaha to attend my grandmother’s 70th high school reunion in Valentine, Nebraska.

Hope (age 86) and Ken (age 91) enjoying 3.5 week old Wirehaired Pointing Griffon puppies

The kennel beckons for dog and puppy cool down time, so I’ll catch up with you all next week! The dog days of summer!!

Week old puppies and BB’s Reserve Winners

June 15, 2012

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update, Puppy Update Korthals Griffons, Lake Minnetonka Kennel Club Dog Show, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Puppies One Week Old

Sue tends to some of the brood as they nurse

The puppies were a week old yesterday, hooray! Things started look like they were going to happen on Wednesday (the 6th) when Sue got very whiny, which is totally not her personality. I took her ear temperature and it was only 100 degrees, which is a little low for a dog (base temp is 101.5) and a known sign of upcoming whelping, typically within 24 hours. We thought that it was going to happen Wednesday night, but when I woke up and went to the whelping area Thursday morning, still nothing. I took her out for a walk with the rest of the pack first thing Thursday morning and she went in and “nested up” every single dog house, plus a pile of straw in the woods. Her next trip out of the whelping area, there was a lot of whining, she refused to eat pork scraps (that’s when I really knew it was coming because she’s a total soup hound) and lots of squatting in the yard. About 1 PM I let her out again, once again lots of squatting and this time started seeing definite contractions. So, I put her up in the whelping area and 45 minutes later, we had our first pup. She had a pup an hour up until about 7:30 PM, when we were up to 6. I checked again at 11 PM and we were still at 6. When I got up at 5 AM the next morning, we had 7: 3 boys, 4 girls. I left her whelping box undisturbed until midday to make sure that she was finished before cleaning it out and adding new chips.

We went to Heartland Animal Hospital first thing Monday morning to dock tails and remove dew claws. Dr. Andrew Kliewer told me that they were all fat and healthy.

Asleep

Sniffing out a teat

Madonna of the cedar chips (no blasphemy intended)

Chowing down!

A unique approach

Here is the video taken on days 5 and 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww3h-6t99IY

Right now the biggest challenge for me is keeping up with letting Sue out, I’m having to let her out of the whelping area once every hour to hour and a half unless I want to clean up a mess in the whelping room outside of the box with the pups in it. It doesn’t happen for all females, but Sue has consistently abandoned housebreaking the first few weeks post-whelp with her other litters (Mae did not).

We’ll pretty much keep on the same track with the pups for the next couple of weeks and wait for their eyes and ears to open sometime towards the end of that.

Not but a few hours after I finished cleaning out the whelping box on Friday, Cordelia (my 11 year old daughter), “BB” (our year old female) and I left for the Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota Kennel Club dog show on Saturday and Sunday. It is difficult to get a “major”, or a group of griffons together at a dog show in this part of the country. Our longest traveler drove 6 1/2 hours and the shortest drove 2 hours. It took us about 5 1/2 hours to get there, but the trip was well worth the fabulous griff fellowship!

A gang of griffons! Photo by Cordelia Upchurch

Results-wise, Saturday was kind of a bust because I was so nervous about the show and emotionally overwhelmed about the pups and my two younger boys (ages 3 and 8) at home with dad. Cordelia took some photos of my form and movement on Saturday that allowed me to make corrections for Sunday. Although it isn’t worth any points towards an AKC Championship, we won first place in Open Bitch class and Reserve Winners Bitch on Sunday.

Charity and BB “go around” on Sunday. Photo by Cordelia Upchurch

For those of you who don’t speak dog show (I’m just learning), there were 3 classes of bitches: puppy, 12-18 months and open. Whoever gets first place in those 3 classes goes to the “Winners Bitch” round, where you go through the whole process of stacking your dog and doing whatever movement exercises the judges asks you to do again. There is then awarded “Winners Bitch” who goes on to compete with the other Winners (Winners Dog and any Best of Breed only competitors) for 3 places that are worth points toward the AKC Championship: Best of Winners, Best of Opposite Sex (opposite from BOW) and Best of Breed. It all seems to happen very quickly and it is sometimes confusing to know where you are supposed to be at in the ring and what you are supposed to be doing, but I was lucky to have helpful experienced fellow competitors who shepherded me around.

Another highlight of the trip was meeting the outside audience that the griffons had both days. It is great to see other people’s enthusiasm for the breed! My favorite observer was a surprise visit from a two-year old “A” litter puppy, Winston. He is also a pup of Sue and Sam, just like our current litter. Thank you to Nancy and Kelvin for bringing him out!!

Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Two Years Old

Winston’s face

Winston’s body

I’m really not sure when our next show will be, I’d like to spend the next couple of months at home with the pups and getting ready for hunting season to start September 1st. We have nationals in Sioux Falls in October and I’d like to organize another major here at the Lewis and Clark Cluster Dog Show (co-sponsored by the Nebraska and Council Bluffs Kennel Clubs) at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha in November. I also want to get Mae trained up for Cordelia to use as her Junior Showmanship dog. So we may take a break from the dog show circuit for awhile, but we are not dropping out. Even if we don’t win, it is so much fun to get together with everyone to compete.

I apologize to the pup owners who sent in photos and videos this week that I didn’t get posted because of the dog show news, I promise they will go in next week! Time to get on the dog chores…talk at you then!

Welcome “D” Litter!

June 8, 2012

Charity Upchurch Puppy Update Korthals Griffon, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons 1 Comment

The 7 pups of Sue’s litter, the “D” litter for our kennel, arrived between 2 PM yesterday and 5 AM today. There are 3 boys and 4 girls.

I will write more about the whelping and provide more pictures and video early next week. Right now “BB” and I are packing up the van for the Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota Kennel Club dog show this weekend.

Because of my travel this weekend, I ask that my future owners/those with reservations let us “go dark” over the weekend, which is corporate-speak for being unable to be reached. My daughter Cordelia and I will be focused on the dog show, while Charles will be at home caring for the boys, dogs and puppies. I will be sure to call and e-mail everyone on Monday. Thanks for your patience!

Puppies soon

June 6, 2012

Charity Upchurch Kennel Update Korthals Griffons, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

As I’ve failed to take any pictures of Sue with the good camera this week and they are all on my phone, I thought I would attempt a post from my phone. I apologize if it is low rent.

It has been in the mid-eighties and low nineties here during the day, which is nice to go fishing and swimming in, but not nice to do too much dog running. Considering that Sue is due to whelp any day, most of our dog time has been spent in the yard sitting in the shade with the kiddie pool out.

Sue was really whiny today, her temperature was 100 degrees (which is low for a dog) and she really slowed down, so I think the time is very near. I put her in the whelping area where the kids can’t bother her. So we’ll keep waiting, it could just be a bump in the road to the finish.

In other excitement, the Nebraska Department of Agriculture inspected us today and approved our license as a commercial breeder. We will be the only licensed Wirehaired Pointing Griffon breeders in the state. The license also grants us the right to own as many dogs as we wish, so of course we are dreaming of our next puppy!

I hope to have news of Sue’s whelping for you soon, so keep your ears on the airwaves!

Random News (including a pup with superpowers!)

May 30, 2012

Charity Upchurch Puppy Update Korthals Griffon, Puppies, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, Wirehaired Pointing Griffons Leave a comment

Be sure to check out the photos from the past year that I’ve added to our “About Us” page. If you want to read the stories behind the hunts, visit our hunting blog at http://versatilehunter.com/

I’ve received a few updated pictures of the “C” litter of Mae and Sam’s that just went home at the beginning of the month. I can’t believe how fast they are growing!!

TracHer in North Dakota at 11 weeks old, looking like her mom!

Wirehaired Pointing Griffon at 11 weeks old

Sal and his girls show off their big guy, Chester, in New York

Super-Pup!

I’ve been receiving some unusual updates from the owner of “Whiskey” out in Nevada, who is two years old and from our “A” litter between Sam and Sue. “Whiskey” is a serious hunting dog and the current star of the “Puppies” page on this site. I will let the e-mails from Deborah tell the story, this one is dated February 17, 2012:

Just wanted to let you know that Whiskey has a very special gift.... He can smell/sense tumors... I have no ideal how, but he knew that our golden retriever had a tumor (we didn't understand his behavior at the time, but understood it after he died) but now he has successfully predicted another tumor in our King Charles Spaniel.... It is truly amazing! He is so incredibly caring and sensitive! I had a episode of low blood pressure a whole ago and passed out... Whiskey wouldn't leave my side for about an hour before it and stayed with me until I felt better...he knows when any of us are sick and he stays with us until we feel better..... Whiskey continues to surpass any of Pete's friend's dogs that Pete hunts with, no matter how old or experienced, and he is the most remarkable family dog.... We could be more thankful and blessed that we made Whiskey part of our family!! Just wanted to let you know what a wonderful pup you created!!! We are forever grateful!!!! Deborah

This is the most recent update I’ve received on his powers is just dated recently, on May 23, 2012:

Whiskey has proven his extra special talent again.... Our daughter Andi loves to raise chickens (which we have been doing for 3 years now)...A couple months ago, she picked out 5 chicks at the local feed store.... One of the chickens seemed to us to be slightly retarded (even for a chicken!) but Andi still loves it... We raised them in our tack room in our barn until last week when they were old enough to go outside in the chicken pens.... We now have a total of 12 chickens and Whiskey has never paid any attention to them (it took a while to train him not to bother the chickens, but he finally gave in and accepted that) until now.... He only pays attention to the one chicken that seems retarded.... He goes to the pen and whines and tries to talk to only that one chicken....He's not aggressive, he seems to be very concerned about it... Every morning, he darts over there to check on that one chicken.... He is sooo awesome! He never ceases to amaze me with his loving, caring personality.... Just thought I would share that with you..

Whiskey at two years on the left, with his old buddy Basco (a fellow griff, but not mine) today

Puppy Watch… Again!!

Sue should be whelping in the next week or two, but she is still up and around and doing well. Time to set up the whelping box again and get ready to start the process all over! Of course, the kids are excited for more puppies!

Another picture of Sue from today

I’m hoping that by this time next week I will have given the good news that the puppies have arrived, but Mother Nature has control over that one. See you next week, same dog time, same dog channel!

Bluestem Kennels