Unexpected Griff Ability

We heard from Walter’s family today.  He’s 7 months old and has been ice fishing with them.  Evidently Griffs (or at least this Griff) is as good in the fish house as he is in the field or in a duck blind. Here’s the story as they shared it with us…

“We finally got out for our first [ice] fishing trip of the season.  One thing I have learned about Walter is that he will love anything if we are there, but he absolutely loved fishing! Any time he heard someone set the hook or a rattle reel go off he would jump at the chance to assist with pulling the fish in. His favorite spot was under my legs with his face near a hole so he wouldn’t miss a thing. If he was sitting next to dad and he would start jigging, Walter would put his paw on the rod trying to help dad with jigging. Anytime he went outside the first thing he would do when he came back in was check each and every hole to make sure nothing happened while he was gone.
I was also completely surprised at how calm he was in the fish house, we got up there on Thursday and headed back Monday, but maybe it was because we had a space dedicated for the boys?  Either way, he absolutely loved fishing and we realized not only will he be a great hunting buddy, but he will be a great fishing buddy too! We still love this dog so much and it truly makes my heart melt to see how he loves [our daughter] and how they have become buds. He is just an overall perfect dog for us and we sometimes forget he’s only 7 months old because he is so well behaved and loving.”
Walter watching hole Walter and Gus ice house
Thanks to Walter’s family for the photos.
(Walter was #9 from Chev and Reine’s summer 2015 litter.  He lives in Minnesota with his family, a family that knows how to get the most out of every season of the year.)

Happy Birthday Chev (and Biff)

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Happy Birthday to Chev!  He turned 7 years old.  We love him so much – our calm, loving, amazing hunter who was our first Griff.  He’s fathered 62 puppies to date!

He shares his birthday with Biff, who is pushing 9 in “dog years.”  They also share a passion for ginger.  So Biff got his traditional gingerbread birthday cake and Chev got a dog-healthy ginger pancake.

Gingerbread cake

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Happy New Year from Norling Rise

Norling sunset

The pheasant hunting season ended in Minnesota today at sundown.  These past three days Biff drove about an hour west of us to Wildlife Management Areas that he’s previously hunted and/or scouted out and mapped. He and the dogs saw tracks in some places and popped up the occasional hen or rooster but they were in tough-to-shoot-at-cattail marshes, and he came home with only stories to tell. Meanwhile, here at home we had pheasants eating corn at our feeder and I counted 19 roosters and hens pecking around in a farm field a very short distance from our property. I’ve never seen that many pheasants together in the wild. Those birds, assuming they survive the coyotes and the coldest part of the winter ahead, will be the moms and dads of next spring’s chicks.