Of course every new Griffon owner wants to expose their Griffon puppy to all manner of experiences  in preparation for hunting season.  Thistle came to Canada in December, which is a very cold time of the year.  During the chinooks (rapid rises in air temperature that occur along the Rocky Mountains), I would have our new puppy outdoors in the melting snow -  looking for birds.  She astounded me, on her first exposures at only a few months of age, she was not only incredibly intense on her points, but she was naturally steady, would stop to flush, and would retrieve to hand.  I remember phoning Ralph and commenting that if I didn't know better, that I would think that he had trained her before he sent her to me.... he assured me that it was all in the breeding.

     Thistle added a new level of cooperativeness to our breeding program.  She is a dog that will quickly figure things out for herself and she truly understood from an early age that she was a partner in the hunt.   She learned that in order to make it easy for us to hunt pheasant together  that things went smoother when she hooked around and blocked the pheasant from running. The running pheasant, when faced with a cunning Griffonne normally sets down and hides, and can be flushed into the air by the gunner while the dog holds steady and marks the fall.   Of course not all pheasant run to this degree, and those she will put enough pressure on the bird so it sits, but not so much pressure that it flushes, and this gives us the opportunity to get a good shot.

     Thistle may be a gentle and cooperative Griffonne, but she also has the heart of a Lioness.  When it comes to bravery, she opened my eyes to the courage of a Griffon.  I decided to put Thistle into a "Temperament Test" which is basically a series of situations that a dog is put into while being evaluated by a Canine Behaviourist.  The reactions of the dog are noted, and the dog must have acceptable reactions in all circumstances in order to have a "TT" title added to their name.  Thistle breezed through the situations, encounters with strangers, dogs, gunfire, strange things on the ground to walk over.  The part of this test that was a concern to me was the "encounter with a threatening stranger" as Thistle has always been a very gentle and sweet Griffonne.  The australian heeler that had been tested before us had paniced and tried to escape his collar when he was approached by the threatening stranger, so this made me even more unsure about how stressful this part of the test would be for my dog, after all, the dogs do not know that it is not a real situation, they think there is truly a threat and there is danger.

     So it was our turn for this part of the behaviour evaluation, and I stood still while the behaviourist made notes and signalled the "threatening stranger" to come out from behind a building.  The fellow was clad in a dark rain slicker, and carried a whip.  He staggered, and Thistle did not seem concerned.  Then the stranger started towards us, staggering even more, and Thistle became intent on him, not taking her eyes off of this unusual person.  The last part of the test was where the stranger would actually threaten me and my dog, he staggered towards us and started shouting at us and hitting the ground with his whip.  At this point, Thistle took two steps forward and stood between me and this stranger, then she puffed herself up so she looked twice as big and let out the most ferocious sounding bark that I had ever heard.  She didn't move from in front of me, she was protecting me.  The behaviourist signalled the threatening stranger to go back behind the building, and once he was out of sight, Thistle took her eyes off the spot and became attentive to me like she was checking me all over to see if I was okay.  She was her sweet, gentle self, though she did keep a watchful eye out for a while.    

     Thistle has had three litters.  We see her strengths, her natural talents, cooperativeness and courage in her offspring, Griffonpoints Great Karma (Karma) and Griffonpoints Hasta Not Snow (Blizzard)   even though both of these breedings were produced by outcrossing (the sire being unrelated to the dam).   Griffonpoint In Time for Valor and Griffonpoint in Tune were produced from a light line breeding, as Duckpond Princeton is the sire and related to Thistle, and as expected, Valor and Freya are showing the strengths of Ralph Nodine's Duckpond bloodline.

Breeding History:

• 1997: Griffonpoint Wiley Edge
• 1998: Tucker's Georgie
• 1999: Duckpond Princeton

Offspring of Note:

• Griffonpoint In Tune
  Duckpond Princeton X Duckpond Roquebluft
  NAVHDA Natural Ability Prize II  101/112
  Judges: Jeff Funke, Bob Farris, Gary Whitman
• Griffonpoint Myra's It
  Duckpond Princeton X Duckpond Roquebluft
  NAVHDA Natural Ability Evaluation Only  97/112   16m2w  
  Judges: Phil Swain, Greg Wentz, Tim Nemeth
  Owner:  Harris Dvorkin