Our friends at Rooster Valley Pheasants had a litter of healthy hunting puppies this past week. Max loves to sit right down and watch the puppies nurse. The momma pup named “Polly” was very good natured about the intrusion. Their were 3 males and 6 females in the litter and should be some dang good hunting dogs. They are all mostly white with liver heads and will have very light ticking like their father Duke. It will be fun to watch these puppies grow and develop. If all goes well, we will have a litter of our own next year at this time.
Annie is growing up and getting to be quite a spunky little brittany pup. This week we took her on our run up the mountain with the ATVs. She did well and stayed right with the pack for the first mile or so. Then she got a little tired so I let her ride in her kennel on the four-wheeler with me. She had a little scuffle with my female GSP Abby. They are both very strong-willed and will eventually have to duke it out to see who’s boss. She will be one-year old next fall when hunting season comes and I hope to enjoy a great first season with her. The trainer says he likes her boldness and thinks she will be a good hunter.
Annie is just over four months old now and seems to be doing well with her training. She is having a fun time at her trainers house and loves to be involved as part of the family pack. She is well-fed and seems to have grown a few inches every time we see her. She is kept on a lead when they take her in the backyard as she likes to wander off and explore the world. I think it is good that she is both brave and curious enough to venture out. She likes to go on runs with the other dogs but mostly she likes people. She will sit still for anyone to scratch her ears or pet her. Chris did get her out on some wild chukar before the season ended and she did well with introduction to gun fire. I am sure that obedience training will be the focus for the next little while.
This past week my brother-in-law Phil got to bring home his two littermate yellow lab puppies. I think he will have his work cut out for him. There is much debate about whether or not it is a good idea to raise two puppies instead of one. Many argue that the two pups can help entertain each other and keep each other out of trouble. Others will say that two puppies equals no puppy at all – a recipe for trouble in dog training. While the pros often have many dogs in thier kennels and claim it makes training easier. They say that If one pup is off his game, short-tie him and move on to the next puppy. I will keep in contact with Phil and see how this arrangement works out.
Phil did a lot of working creating a safe environment in his fenced-in backyard for the pups to learn and grow in. He built this custom puppy chalet with a dog door and room for two. He sent me a picture of him climbing inside the doghouse with the pups on their first night at home. The dog house really is quite large. He also fenced off a puppy-proof separate play area for the pups to stay in where they will be safe while Phil is at work during the day.
My neighbor ended up getting this male roan pup from the Taylormade litter that I had the pick of the litter on. This little male shorthair named “Ridge” may turn out to be a heck of a gun dog for my neighbor. The female that I had picked got stepped on by its mother and broke a bone in its leg so I opted to get my deposit back even though the pup healed and only had a slight limp. They found her a good companion home with an older gentleman. I hope to give it another try and get a dog from Taylormade Kennels sometime in the future because I think they have a great breeding program. I like how they are mixing show and field champions in their pedigrees. Meanwhile, I still get to watch this pup “a littermate” grow and develop since he just lives up the street.
My Sister Jana sent me this picture of her husband Phil holding there new yellow lab puppy. I guess they decided to buy two little male puppies from this litter of yellow labs. Phil has been hard at work building a kennel in their backyard and a dog mansion. My sister and her husband live in Spring, Texas in the Houston area. They briefly had a golden retriever until they discovered that Jana was allergic to dogs. This time they are hoping that keeping the dogs in the backyard will not bother Jans’s allergies.
This past month or so I have been reading another great book by Bill Tarrant. This one is titled “Hey Pup, Fetch it Up!: The Complete Retriever Training Manual” and it is a real gem. There are many great lessons in training dogs and in understanding the relationship between dog and man. His personal preference for retrievers oozes forth in this gun dog training masterpiece. I’m only halfway through the book and I am already convinced that my next dog is gonna have to be a labrador retriever. Now I just have to convince my wife that I need one more hunting dog.
Today I took delivery of a beautiful new Brittany puppy from a local gun dog breeder here in Utah. The litter of Brittany puppies was born on October 15th just 60 miles from our home in Central Utah. She has a respectable pedigree on both sides with a few of the right acronyms like DC, NFC, FC, CH, MH and JH. Mostly though she comes from good pheasant farm working stock and family companion hunters. She seems to have a bright and eager personality – she loves people and has just the right amount of spunk. Her freckled face reminded me of little orphan annie so I decided to name her Annabella’s Dreamboat Annie. The call name “Annie” seems to fit her and best of all she responds to it already.
We were hoping to purchase another female german shorthaired pointer this winter but our pick of the litter puppy fell ill and we opted not to pursue any litter mates. When we found this Brittany puppy available from a local breeder it seemed like a good fit. Since my first dog was a Brittany I have always wanted to have another. Hopefully with some proper training she can be molded into the close working gun dog that suits the terrain and hunting conditions in our area.
When choosing a new puppy from a litter of healthy german shorthairs it is often hard to decide on a color. When they are first born they are distinctly white or liver in color and more often a combination of the two colors. After a few weeks the puppies true colors and markings start to show up. A primarily white puppy at two weeks old can easily turn to a heavily ticked or almost roan in a matter of a few weeks. It is amazing the changes that the puppy goes through during the first 6-8 weeks of life, not just mentally but physically as well.
In the Southwest and high desert country many hunters prefer dogs that are mostly white simply because they are less likely to overheat when hunting in the late Summer. Some people avoid all liver or dark colors because they seem to disappear in the shadows and are difficult to spot when they are on point. Largely it is a matter of personal preference and has less impact than factors like pedigree and temperment. But, this dog will be apart of your life for 12-16 years so it is important that you like how she looks.
The picture above is the Sire to the puppy I am purchasing at the end of December. The male is heavily ticked with a liver head and white-tipped tail. On the other side of the coin the Dam of the litter is a solid liver color with very little white markings. I am waiting to see if the mostly white female in the picture below will morph into a more ticked dog or will stay heavily white. I am also curious to see how the white on her muzzle will turn out. I will go for another visit at 6 weeks old where I will be able to get a pretty good idea of where her color and markings are headed.
A new litter of German Shorthaired Pointer puppies was born on Halloween to Taylormade GSP in American Fork, Utah. Bart and Cindee were kind enough to hold my deposit on a previous litter for a few months so I could get pick of the litter. At this point I am leaning toward the white and liver female with the blaze on her face. I think she will probably have some good ticking like her father “Taylormades Out of the West” a Utah product sired by Rock Hard’s Mr Destiny. It will be fun to have a new puppy around christmas time. TaylorMade seems to have some nice dual potential dogs combining show lines and proven hunting lines.
Since I spend a lot of time online surfing for cool sites about gun dogs and training, I thought I would share a few of my favorites. The first site I stumbled across when I started my search for a new puppy last year was GunDogsOnline.com. They have one of the busiest classified ads systems I have found with a variety of dog breeds available. I usually like to surf through the Premium Ads because they usually have pictures and pedigree info. I am surprised everytime I visit their site by how many new listings there are.
Another cool site that I stumbled across is Field Trial News. Now I am a foot hunter and I have never competed in a field trial but there are usually some good dogs available for sale on this site. The breeds definitely are more of the pointing breeds and more specifically English Pointers but there are other breeds advertised there also. Now you can also find stuff like started dogs and equipment for sale on their site. The site design is a little clunky and outdated but the classifieds are great.
This past year my buddy and I have been creating our own puppy for sale classifieds system. It is part of a site that we have developed to help potential buyers find quality dog breeders in their area. Part of our focus was the fact that you may have a great dog breeder in your area but not even know they exist. When buying a new puppy it is far better to be able to visit the kennel and meet the breeder in person rather than ship a puppy across the country. You can take a look at our work in progress at GunDogBreeders.com. We welcome any feedback on how to make it easier for buyers to find puppies for sale in their area.
