Remi and Belle

Remi and Belle are doing great as you can see from the picture it wont be long until she catches her momma in size. Remi has been a great pup and is coming along quite nicely. She is extremely smart!! She watches me work with Belle everyday and she has picked up on a lot of commands just by watching. It was pretty funny b/c last week I was working on whistle training Belle to sit on the whistle and never had Remi in mind. Now it doesnt matter where Remi is in the yard. When she hears that whistle, she sits! She has really started to pick up her desire to retrieve in the last week. Before, she would do it occasionally when she felt like it, but in the last week, she has shown a much greater desire. This is another thing I think she has learned from wathching. She really loves to retrieve out of the water, and her marking ability is even better than I think Belle's is. She is very observant of where the dummy is going, where as Belle is so high-strung she tries to beat the dummy to where it is going and sometimes doesn't see it land. Remi always knows where the dummy is whether its 100 yds across the pond or 50 feet in the weeds! However, just cuz she knows where it is, doesn't mean she goes and gets it. She'll run the bank of the pond and look at the dummy far off in the distance and whine, but she's kinda a chicken when it comes to getting it that far away. Or she'll jump in and swim about 10 feet out and then turn back b/c its too far away!! All in all she is coming along great, and I look forward to getting her on some Geese next month in South Dakota for the early Goose season. So if anyone is interested in tagging along, my brother lives up by Watertown and we'd be more than willing to take you along. I hope all is well with all of your pups, and I will be emailing everyone here in the near future to see how your pups are coming along and then I can update the blog once again!!

A couple more of Remi

Remi in the tall grass!!

We went for a walk through some taller grass tonite. It was fun watching Remi romp through and try keep up with Belle. Here she is doing her best to try find where Belle went. She could here her coming and she pointed b/c she didn't exactly what was coming.

Remi thinks she's big stuff!

Here's Remi looking cute and thinking she's pretty big stuff!

Belle and Remi after some excerise

Remi thinks she's pretty big stuff when she rides in the pick-up. She usually doesn't get to go on such long rides yet, bc I don't trust that shes going to stay in. She loves taggin along with her mom and is very content sitting and watching her work. Whether its retrieving bumpers on water or land, Remi is sitting contently taking it all in and learning how mom does it. Once in a while she'll wait for Belle to get back and try her best to grab ahold of some part of the dummy and when she does, she usually goes for a ride! She has been a great puppy so far and is growing like a weed. I think she looks more and more like Belle every day. It is fun to watch her grow, and see the tendencies her and Belle share. Sometimes its scary, (but in a very good way) From the way she runs, to the way she starts to whine when we get close to Sandy Hollow (the swimming hole), her never ending energy, etc...

Remi chasin her squeaky toy

Here's a short video of Remi polishing up on her retrieving skills so she can be just like mom. As you can see we still have a lot of work to do. She enjoys it, but has perfected retrieving every time and bringing it to hand!!

Belle Launch

Belle is getting back into her old form. She loves to swim and jump in the water. It's hard to tell from my camera and angle b/c I am recording and throwing the dummy at the same time, but it is literally a 10 foot drop into the water, and she's getting out there about 30 feet.

Regal makes a new home in Iowa City

Greyson and Shelby Dumont of Iowa City drove down last Friday morning from Iowa City to pick up Regal. I met the Dumont's in Sioux City at Scheels Sporting Goods (a convenient excuse for me to buy some more hunting stuff) and they absolutely adored her. I talked to Jason (the father) and he is very pleased with Regal. He said she is extremely intelligent and full of piss and vinegar! The girls have been asking him everyday when their picture would be on the blog, and I apologize for not getting it up sooner. The last week has been busy!! The Dumont's welcome her into their family of six with open arms, and they are already loving her like one of their own. Jason hunts upland primarily and has some ground in the Pheasant program by Iowa City which he plans to hunt Regal hard in. Jason also keeps busy chasing the big bucks around Iowa City in the fall. He's got a 192 non-typical on the wall, and told me if I ever get down in the area that he would put me up in a treestand and take Belle, Remi, and I out to do some pheasant hunting. (I am sure he was just being nice, and he doesn't know that I'll probably take him up on that offer haha!! It would be fun to get out there this fall so see how Regal is doing, and I also enjoy seeing one of Belle's pups so that they can reunite! Regal was big buddies with Remi and Gus that was picked up on saturday, and they were missing her when she left. I am glad that Regal found such a loving home with lots of kids to play with and keep her busy. I will look forward to seeing how they all bond together, and how Regal grows into a great hunter just like her parents.

Gus goes home to Minneapolis, MN

Eric and Sue Stabnow came last week saturday to pick up Gus and bring him home with their lab Huey. They came out a couple weeks prior to see all the pups and they had their eyes set on Gus the whole time. Gus was the calmest and most laid back of all the males, and probably the most easy to love, and that makes him a great fit with Huey since he is so laid back. Although Gus was the most laid back of all the males, he still has a lot of energy and I am certain he will get the job done when its time to go to work. Eric plans to hunt Gus this fall on primarily upland, and he and Huey should make a great team. Huey already has his Junior leg of the AKC hunt tests, and hopefully Gus will be following in his footsteps. Eric and Sue absolutely love dogs, and Gus's laid back temperament will be a great fit since he will be an inside dog. Gus has found a great family, and a great home, and I look forward to watching him grow into a hunting machine, and wonderful companion.

Ellie May goes home to her Newlywed parents.

Tyler and Christina Hill of Ankeny, IA took Ellie May home yesterday. Tyler and Christina were married a couple of weeks ago, and literally got home from their honeymoon in St. Thomas the night before. They spent all day Wednesday in and out of airports, delayed flights, and even lost luggage, but that didn't stop them from spending all day Thursday on the rode enroute to get their newest member of the family! Tyler works for the Game & Parks department at the reservoir by Ankeny (can't remember the name) and Christina has the luxury of having the summers off. She's one of those people that only works nine months out of the year (Teachers) and if I had to guess, I bet I know which one of the two will be getting up with Ellie in the middle of the night. They were very excited to take Ellie home with them, and finally get some time to relax at home ( I didn't want to break the news to them, but I doubt Ellie is going to allow too much of that) She is what I considered the bigger twin sister to my "Remi" and she has a lot of spunk and energy. Not one that is going to want to sit around and do nothing all day. It was fun to watch her and Remi the last few weeks b/c they always seemed to be together wherever they went, and were always wrestli ng, playing, and getting into mischief together. Remi seemed kinda sad last night that her bigger twin sister was gone, but all was well today since she got to swim and go for a few rides in the pickup with me. She even got pretty tuckered out by nights end, and on the ride home fell asleep on a towel on top of the console of my pickup. Tyler plans to hunt Ellie hard this fall, and is looking forward to getting in his dad's CRP and on some serious birds. He also does a lot of waterfowl hunting on the reservoir, and if any of you know anything about the game and parks guys, they work hard during the summer so they can take time off when the birds are flying in the fall. They will make a great home for Ellie May, and I want to thank them for giving Ellie May the ideal home where she will get lots of love, and lots of birds!!!!

Rock Solid's Lady Remington

"Remi" as we call her is pictured here. She will be joining her mother Belle in a quest to find birds, birds, and more birds. My daughter Maddy had her eyes set on this little girl the whole time, and she is one that has always stuck out in the litter. Not because she is better than the other dogs, but because she has always been the smallest and darkest of the group. She is absolutely gorgeous and is the one that most reminds us of Belle. If she only turns out to be half as good as her mother and father, she will still be better than most of the other dogs out there!!!

Bella greets her new family!

Bella has a pretty nice ring to it!!! I guess maybe I am partial since it is a pretty close resemblence of her mother's name but it seems very fitting. The Derifield's picture left to right (Logan, Spencer, Lucas, and Ashley greeted Bella with open arms. Spencer pictured holding Bella has a birthday at the end of this week and this was his birthday suprise. Spencer will be out of town while mom is at home getting Bella accustomed to her new surroundings wrestling in Indianapolis. (Lucky for him he won't have to worry about those first sleepless nights b/c of puppy cries every 45 min or so). He is one of a select group chosen to participate in freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling event that could possibly lead to being part of a Junior USA wrestling team so best of luck to him! His mother assurred me that when he is home it will be his job to to take care of Bella's first sleepless nights! It sounded like Bella was going to spend her first night in Spencer's bedroom, so hopefully tomorrow he's still as excited about his new birthday present as he was today. Bella was the most calm of all the pups having a great temperament, and is the one I talked about that would just hang out on the steps when the other 9 were busy playing. She is full of energy and has a willingness to please! The Derifield's live on acreage outside of Waverly, IA so Bella will have plenty of room to run and will spend her first couple of months trying to keep up with the families chocolate lab. Todd and his boys do a majority of waterfowl hunting, and I am sure Bella will be quick to impress. She is a perfect waterfowl dog being so laid back, but having the drive and energy to make those long retrieves. I would say after meetin the first 6 families that I have done pretty well in finding homes for my pups. All of them are getting the love and attention they deserve and I look forward to seeing how Spencer and Bella's friendship grows!

Sunny makes a new home in North Dakota

Sunny greeted his new family Saturday afternoon. Howard, Martha, and Tyler Bjorgaard came saturday afternoon to get the last remaining male and headed back to Jamestown, ND. Tyler was pretty excited, they first stopped in Mason City, IA to get a waverunner for their home on the reservoir then got to pick up his new pup! I would say he had a pretty good weekend!!!! Sunny will get plenty of time on the water, and Howard looks forward to getting back into hunting now that his son Tyler is getting old enough and he has Sunny to do the dirty work for him. Sunny was what I called the twin of Ryder (the first male that went home with Carstens) They were very similar in size, temperament, and abilities, the only difference was a little variation in coloring. Sunny will bring a lot of joy to the Bjorgaard home, and I could tell that Tyler was excited about having a pup of his own that he could grow up with. It will be fun to watch how the two of them bond, and how Sunny grows into great family dog, and hunting partner.

Dakota finds her new home in Texas

Dakota is probably the luckiest of all the pups going where its warm and not having to fight the freezing cold winters that her brothers and sisters in Iowa, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Nebraska will have to face. She went home Saturday morning to Colleen, Texas with Lon and Gail Hibbard. She will be greeted by another Lab (Kansas) who already has some tournaments under her belt. Lon has served in the army for over 20 years and served 8 years in Korea, 3 years in the Middle East, and just recently a year in Iraq. Lon arrived home this past Monday made it home for a homecoming ceremony and then drove straight to Iowa with his wife to pick up Dakota. Lon will spend the next couple of years in the states and plans on getting Dakota ready to hunt tournaments like her big sister Kansas. We are forever grateful for Lon's service in the Army, and he is a man truly dedicated to preserving the freedoms of this great country. Any man that is willing to serve his country as long as Lon has will make a great home for one of my pups. Dakota was one of the most energetic and rambunctuous of the group. Always playing, chasing, and wrestling with her siblings. She has the energy and drive that will make her a great tournament hunting dog, and I look forward to following her progress as she grows into a hunting machine!

Sugar goes to her new home with Alan and Amanda

Alan and Mandi came Friday afternoon to take "Sugar" home with them to Springfield, NE. Its been a long wait for Mandi, but I think the wait was well worth it. Judging by the name you can all guess who got to pick, but Alan said he doesn't care as long "Sugar" hunts hard! I am sure Sugar won't dissapoint Alan when she's out duck hunting. Sugar has already gotten lots of love and attention in her new home, and is the life of the party. She has gotten to know a lot of her new family, been swimming (which she already loves, and pretty much has what the say is a dogs life. I don't know that any of my past litters pups have been spoiled to the extent that Sugar has already, which says alot about Alan and Mandi b/c all of my pups have all gone to great homes! I thought I was doing pretty decent with updating my blog about the pups, but when Mandi gave me the address to hers and I checked it out she had posted about 20 pictures of Sugar in only 2 days time. Alan hunts waterfowl extensively, and looks forward to getting Sugar out to show his buddies what she can do. Sugar was my little escape artist and is very athletic. She was the pup that when no one was watching would climb the wall, eat all of her mama's food, then climb back over only to leave little pieces of evidence behind! (pee and poop) The other pups could get over, but would always get caught red-handed b/c when I went outside to check on them they would still be on the wrong side of the fence!!! I am grateful that Sugar has found such a loving home and I look forward to seeing how she sizes up in the field next to Alan's buddies dogs!

Congratulations to the Carstens

John and Claire Carstens came today and took home the first of the three boys this afternoon. Ryder as they call him is going home to Eden Prairie, MN to be with his dad Baker (The sire of this great litter)! Ryder was the darker of the 3 males and Claire fell in love with him 2 weeks ago when they were down making a visit to see the pups. Ryder will start watching how his dad does next week already as John and Baker train 3 days a week at Holzingers and I am sure it won't take him long to figure out how its done. Ryder is going to be Baker's wing man for the next few years, but it will be fun to see John take him to the top of the APLA and AKC hunt tests and follow in Baker's footsteps. I really look forward to watching how Ryder progresses, and I am pretty sure I will be one of the first to brag about when Ryder earns his first titles all the way thru the Grand Masters. John had taken a quail along from training and the boys just loved it. Below is a picture of Ryder and his first quail experience. Ryder was the first to catch on to the quail scent, but when the other two figured it out it was a true game of hide and seek. It ended up in a tug of war (we'll have to work on the honor system and the soft mouth thing a little more) and in the end I'll just say the quail was on the losing side of things. Ryder has truly found a great home, and I could not ask for better people to take him home, and it is a definate added bonus that he gets to spend quality time with his dad everyday! Thanks to the Carstens for choosing my pups out of all the phenomenal litters out there sired by Baker, and I consider it a true honor!

Congratulations to the Brockhouse Family

Brad Brockhouse and his 3 boys and took the first little girl home with them today! Brad runs Turkey Creek Labradors out of Lake Benton, MN and has chosen the female that went by the name of "Big Mama" or "Sumo" to add to his arsenal of high class dogs. It was great watching the boys as they loved running and playing with the pups. It was fun to see how excited they were about the pup even though a new pup at their household is a regular occurance. The youngest was pretty adament that this pup was "his" but the older two boys didn't necessarily agree. I thought "Eva" as they are going to call her would be a good fit with the youngest's personality b/c he was most definately the most strong willed of the boysjust as Eva was with the rest of the litter. Eva was the biggest female and the alpha of the litter as I posted in my prior blogs. I am honored to see that Eva is going to such a great home where she is going to get hunted hard but loved equally as much. Thanks to the Brockhouses for choosing Rock Solid Pointing Labs and I look forward to seeing where Brad and the boys take Eva in her quest to become the next great bird dog at Turkey Creek Labs!

June 10

Here are a few pictures from last night. We loaded up all 10 puppies and took them on a little rode trip to my cousins house so their twins could play with them all one last time before they start going to their new homes. They loved the puppies (well except for the time one of them grabbed Noah's shirt and wouldn't let go. You can tell by his facial expression that he wasn't to happy about the whole deal. They have become extremely active and playful the last couple days. I let them out this morning while I was cleaning the kennel, and in a matter of 30 seconds I looked up and noticed two were missing. They had run all the way around to the front of the house! We tried getting a picture of just the boys and just the girls as you can see from the blog below. The 3 boys was pretty easy, but 2 little girls had a tough time keeping all 7 girls straight and still enough to get a good picture. I am sure going to miss the pups, but it is time they start going to their new homes! I have a tough time keeping up with all ten when I'm by myself. This will be the last night they will all be together so I am going to let them play extra long together tonite and tomorrow morning. I look forward to seeing all of those that our coming this weekend, and throughout the next week!

7 Females

3 Males

Puppy

June 5

I feel like I am slipping a little bit with the blog, this week has been extremely busy and I have had these pictures since Monday and I haven't had a chance to post them yet. Monday the pups had their 5 week puppy checks. They are all doing very well and we gave them their shots, kennel cough, and third round of dewormer. The vet is always amazed at the size of Belle's litters and how well each pup is doing whenever they come for their check-ups. She commented on how beatiful and well put together they are! The littlest puppy weighed 4.8 pounds (female) and the biggest weighed in at 6.2 (also a female) a couple of the males were close weighing around 5.8/5.9 pounds, but they can't quite keep up with "The Big Mama" as my daughter calls her. She is definately the alpha of the litter but is also very loveable and cuddly. She is big, but she is just a horse! She's put together very well, and probably the most athletic of the group. She can pretty much climb anything and will go anywhere when she decides she wants to get at something. They are all starting to show their personalities and are so much fun. As you can see from the pictures they love to sleep on the patio step. I went from letting them roam the patio because their whelping box couldnt contain them anymore to having to put up a wall in about a few days time because they were leaving pretty good messes behind all the time. Some of them occasionally still manage to get on the other side of the wall once in a while, but they enjoy having their own space on the step and in a portion of the patio and an outside kennel during the day. The renters that live in our basement have to use a different entrance to the house b/c the puppies have pretty much claimed the patio as their space for now! On Wednesday night they got their first taste of a pheasant and the scent it leaves behind. It was pretty cool to watch how when I drug it around the yard their noses immediately hit the ground. It was just so natural to them and almost like something they've done before. It's amazing how that instinct is just naturally there! Their little tails would wag, and they'd sniff the ground wherever the pheasant scent was in search of a bird! Some lost interest and others never quit until I finally put the bird away, but the ones that lost interest were in search of Belle. I can't believe that in less than a week some of the little guys will be going to their new homes. Although we're excited for them to meet their new families, they will be missed greatly in our home. I won't miss cleaning up all the poop and pee left behind and the extra large dog food bill (man they can eat) but they are a lot of fun to have around. Last night we put finger nail polish on some of the girls to help tell them apart. I can keep all of the males seperate, and a few of the females, but with 10 yellow dogs running around it gets to be pretty hard telling the 7 females apart. I look forward to meeting all of you in the next week or two, and am honored that they are all going to such great homes.

Congratulations to Gunner and Jeremy

Congratulations to Jeremy and Gunner on passing their APLA Certified Pointer test yesterday in Okoboji. Gunner is out of Belle's 1st litter and is a senstational hunter. Most of my close followers have probably already heard stories about him, but he is fun to watch out in field! This is an old picture of Gunner in his younger years at about 5-6 months of age when he got his first taste of waterfowl hunting. (Hopefully I'll get a picture of Gunner and his 1st of many ribbons to come when he is here for the week) He was already retrieving goose and ducks out of the water at 5 months age and holding a steady point on wild birds. From then on my brother knew he had a special dog! Anyway I'll get back to the subject, Gunner passed his CP on his very first attempt in some very tough conditions. Yesterday was dry, windy, and hot, but he was definately up to the challenge. The waterfowl portion of the test was extremely tough becuase of the windy conditions and a lot of other dogs were fooled by the decoys floating in the pond, but Gunner is used to this type of a set-up and did exactly what he was supposed to do. I went along to watch and once I saw the whole process was wishing I was there with Belle. It was fun to sit back and watch as a bystander and hear all the positive comments from other people in the gallery talking about how great a looking dog Gunner is and how well he worked in his water retrieves! This was the first time my brother and I had seen the APLA set-up and was a great learning experience for us to see how the other levels (Advanced, Senior, and Master Pointing Retriever) are run for future tests. Jeremy strongly considered running Gunner in the Advanced this weekend as well, but decided to wait until next fall. Gunner just turned 2 years old on May 2 and is off to a good start in his young career. Hopefully this weekend I will be running Gunner in his first NAHRA hunt test set-up if everything works out!

Swimming Lessons

The puppies got their first taste of the water this afternoon and they seemed to enjoy it. It was hot and windy today so we took them all out to a pond near our house to see how they enjoyed the water. They watched from the ledge as Belle chased her dummy in and out of the water and eventually a couple took the leap and landed in the water. It didn't take them long to figure out they could stand. Eventually the girls took some of them out away from shore and let them go so they could swim a little ways. It was pretty fun to watch and something I really enjoy doing and exposing them to at a young age. It seems like they aren't afraid of anything whether its climbing up and down steps, or playing in the water. It does take some longer to make that leap of faith, but eventually they think through the best strategies to attempt a ledge or set of stairs and end up getting where they want to. Its fun to watch them run around the yard and see how they have stretched their boundaries from a week ago. They used to stick pretty close to the house and if Belle ventured out more than 15-20 yards they would sit down and just watch. Now they are pretty much following her wherever she goes and it takes a more watchful eye because they get out pretty far and move pretty quickly now. They were supposed to have the puppy checks on friday but the vet called me and went home sick, so they will go in tomorrow afternoon instead. More and more are starting to "flash point" and show those tendencies as well and it is really fun to see them growing in all aspects and into great dogs.

Puppy Video

May 27

The pups will be 5 weeks old tomorrow and the time is just flying by. It has been a fun five weeks, and they are getting to be a handful! Every time I go outside, I find about half of them have escaped the whelping box and are either roaming around the patio leaving little messes everywhere, or are snuggled up napping on the steps. It's not too big of a problem because there isn't too much they can get into in the patio. John Carstens and his wife came down Monday to look at the pups. John is the owner of Baker the male I bred to, and is getting another male out of this litter. He took Baker along, and once again we were amazed at the striking resemblence Belle and Baker have to each other. It was fun getting to know John and his wife Clare and I really look forward to getting to know the rest of you when you come out and see the pups. They were both impressed at how well the pups were doing. The pups are really starting to show their personalities and it is fun to watch them as they grow. I really look forward to the next couple of weeks when they really start to show who they are as pups and their future capabilities.