Build From Here
Build From Here
Time with Your Hunting Dog Can Change Your Life | Kevin Wright
Dive into a heartfelt conversation with Kevin on building a memorable bond with his hunting dog, Mabel. We explore Kevin's journey from a novice hunter to a dedicated retriever trainer, shedding light on the challenges and triumphs along the way. From learning how to handle Mabel’s exuberance to celebrating remarkable hunting successes, this episode captures the essence of what it means to train a dog and form a partnership in the field.
Listeners will appreciate Kevin’s candid reflections on his training process, his initial struggles, and how Cornerstone Gundog Academy offered the guidance and support he needed. Kevin emphasizes the significant role of foundational work and the value of community, offering practical tips on how aspiring trainers can navigate their own journeys.
The excitement builds as Kevin recounts memorable moments from hunting season including Mabel’s impressive retrieves, showcasing her transformation into a competent hunting companion. His advice resonates deeply, reminding all dog owners that patience is key, and that the struggles faced during training are part of an invaluable learning experience.
Ready to step into your own journey with a hunting dog? Subscribe today and join us in the pursuit of creating strong, meaningful connections with our dogs in the world of hunting!
cornerstone gundog academy online resources to help you train your retriever welcome to the build from here podcast.
Speaker 2:On this episode we have a cga member, kevin right, so excited you're here, man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, me too I'm looking forward to it and it's an honor to have you here.
Speaker 2:I know we were just chatting about dogs and life and everything in between, and just I like to just honor everyone when they first come on and just seeing you since you've become a Cornerstone member and come to the member weekends and seeing how you've just really invested your time. I know this has become a passion for you, but this is something that you know that you've really invested in as far as time goes and just your passion goes, and also connecting with other CGA members. Y'all have got an amazing community up there in Tennessee where you guys gather together which is just hopefully inspiring for all Cornerstone members. So it's a real honor to have you on. It's also an honor to have you on the first episode of 2025.
Speaker 2:So welcome aboard and I'm excited man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, me too. Yeah, let's get to it.
Speaker 2:Well, so let's just start where we always like to start. Let's get your background.
Speaker 3:Let's go way back way back to it is a long time again.
Speaker 2:Not that far, but let's go way back compared to where we normally would start, and that's how did you get into hunting. Did you start this as a kid? What is your journey with the outdoors? When did it begin?
Speaker 3:It began as a kid. My dad was a big-time hunter and fisherman. He didn't water, he waterfowl. He duck hunted a little bit when I was real young, but he preferred deer hunting and fishing and turkey hunting, okay. So in Tennessee, where we lived, when the deer season lasted longer, he stopped duck hunting because, in his words, he didn't want to get out there breaking ice. Yeah, what part of Tennessee? Chattanooga, tennessee is where I was born and raised, with a short stint just a little way up from here in Alabaster, but I don't remember much about it. I was pretty young.
Speaker 2:So Chattanooga, If that makes sense. I would feel like if it was on the west side of Tennessee he probably would have been more on the duck hunting, but on that, east side.
Speaker 3:Knowing him, no, he still would have been.
Speaker 2:He's just big on the deer, yeah, deer, and bass fishing yeah, it and bass fishing yeah, it's fun too though.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, love it all, oh yeah. So deer hunting, what was um your first hunting? Memory, my very first hunt was squirrel hunting, really yeah.
Speaker 3:So we uh, he took me out not far from the house because we lived in north of chattanooga about 30 minutes north of chattanooga okay, pretty rural and we went out and looking for a squirrel. Didn't find one. We come back. There's two of them running across the road. You know it's wooded area there in the neighborhood. So I had a little 410 single shot. Oh wow, I shot. There were two of them. They both fell, but got one of them.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 3:Well, one of them was on top of okay, yeah, okay, one of them shielded the other one.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, that's a crazy first experience. Oh yeah, how old were you?
Speaker 3:oh goodness, that I was what.
Speaker 2:Maybe nine or ten, something like that I bet you talked about that for a while, oh yeah yeah, so you were, was that like, did that hook you or you're still just kind?
Speaker 3:of like, well, dad hunted. So I mean, I grew up watching, yeah, so it was yeah, so anticipation, oh yeah, I understand yeah, what was your first? Uh big game big game was a little seven point buck. Wow, yeah, we uh. I was on a the year before we'd went on a juvenile hunt and didn't shoot anything, slipped walking down the mountain, broke the stock on my gun.
Speaker 2:Really oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Still have that gun, but you've got the stock fixed.
Speaker 3:That's crazy. And then the next year we went hunting and we were in this spot. It's so funny because the way I remember it was, it was kind of in the corner of a cedar thicket. It's almost like a blind. Yeah, um, but the way I remember it, but then the way he remembers it, which is the correct way, I'm sure. But I was sitting there and the deer come out and he said, oh, shoot that big buck. And I hopped up and shot it and it and it did drop and then, but what he said happened was I was falling asleep there in the chair and he said that. And he said I pulled the gun up and I'm doing this, so, but yeah, so, yeah, yeah, the first one was and it's, it's mounted, it's at the house right now so yeah, it was, it was, uh.
Speaker 3:It was a lot of fun, so yep that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:What now? How was hunting? So you said, coming down the mounting I get mountain. I guess it's a little bit different hunting over there. So, like in alabama, obviously we're not hunting on mountains, do you have? Like what does that look like?
Speaker 3:well, the one up first. One shot was near. That was not far the house in chattanooga. Dad ended up getting on a lease in middle Tennessee, southern middle Tennessee, okay, in the mountains there, and so it's basically a little cove there and I mean you go straight up the mountain, wow. I mean there's little benches and things like that it's a bit steep.
Speaker 3:I mean, yeah, I mean it's walkable, yeah, but it's still steep and you're going up the mountain, walking up there. So this was before four-wheelers and all that. So you walked up and you would drag your deer down.
Speaker 2:Luckily you're dragging them down. Yeah, not up. Ooh, that would be rough. I would pack that out and then carry it up.
Speaker 3:And the tree stands were a lot heavier back then You're carrying those with you, luckily. When stands were a lot heavier back, then you're carrying those with you. Yeah, I lucky. When I got a little bit older we got four wheelers, so I didn't I didn't when I was really too young to carry one of those when before we got to four wheelers and but then when we got to four wheeler didn't matter. So because just ride the four wheeler up there and just go out and set up your tree stands.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so you said. You said he was into bass fishing too. Did you do a lot of that with him?
Speaker 3:I did. I mean, I say bass fishing, it's everything Bass, brim and crappie, you know, depending on the season, you know with crappie, but yeah, we did a lot of it and I grew up along the lake too, so I could just go out fishing anytime. Oh that's incredible oh yeah, I had it. I had it made as a kid. I really didn't appreciate it at the time, but yeah, my brothers and I talked about it was like man, we really had some, some good times, good times that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Right on the lake did you fish a lot?
Speaker 3:yeah, by yourself, I guess, when you're kind of yeah I'd be bored there a little bit older, yeah, and I'd just walk down there and, you know, walk along the bank and the docks, yeah. Yeah, I had a little path I'd take, I'd probably go. You know, at times I'd go out there, you know, I don't know how many times a day, I mean especially during the summertime, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh man. So yeah, I love that. That's fond memories. So where did waterfowling come in?
Speaker 3:So about five. I actually got out of hunting after I graduated high school, got into college.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I understand that.
Speaker 3:Just drifted away from it. And then about five or six years ago, a friend of mine in Nashville. He got some property that's seven acres. He got a house with seven acres, but you've got core engineer's land here. There's 200 acres here that somebody has a lease on that hardly ever hunts. And then there's these other people that have a lot of property here, so his property is like a super highway for deer and turkey, turkey. So uh, and he's from south dakota. So who got me back in hunting with him? That's cool. So I started thinking well, you know, I've gotten, you know, and I grew up with dogs, yeah what kind of dogs did y'all have growing?
Speaker 3:up, uh. So we had like beagles much. But then my oldest brother for a period took up waterfowl hunting, okay, and he got a golden retriever and that dog was amazing, but Jamie wasn't much, he didn't stick with it. Yeah, the dog was Nick, he just became a family pet. Yeah, you know, great dog, he really was just a great dog.
Speaker 3:But so I wanted a dog, but you know, with my work schedule not being from home, it was working away, you know, not working from home. I just didn't. Yeah, I didn't want to have a dog that sat there in the house all day, yeah, you know. Um, so then, uh, I started you know, our work started transitioning, having us work from home. I work in IT, okay. So then I was like, well, I'm working from home the majority of the time, I'm home enough, get a dog. You know, it's gotten back into hunting. I was like, you know, I'm just going to get me a. My original plan was to get a golden retriever. I'm just going to get one and take up duck hunting. So that's how it started.
Speaker 2:Nice, that's pretty cool, so you just you wanted. Where was the attraction to duck hunting, though? So you just decided to take it up, or there was just something like you had seen some duck hunting, the?
Speaker 3:dog side of it. Okay, because I love dogs, you know, and I'm like well, if I'm going to get a retriever, whether golden or whatever, that's what they're bred for, that's what they're made for. So I want the dog to have an outlet and so I felt like if I'm getting one of those, it's my responsibility to provide that for them. So the dog didn't choose me, I chose the dog. So that's where that started.
Speaker 2:Okay, man, that's cool. Were you watching like duck hunting shows to get fired up?
Speaker 3:I started to, but then I was like, okay, well, first off, I've got to train. I'm not going to send this dog off, I want to train it myself. What made you decide that you just had this desire? Probably an ego, to be honest, I can do this. It's probably that I have been humbled plenty of times, as you've seen. But yeah that was kind of the thought behind that.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you decided to do it. Let's talk about your dog, the story there, finding your dog, because that's you know, a lot of people listening to this are probably on that journey. They're thinking about getting a dog, and what was that like for?
Speaker 3:you. Well, you know, I said originally I was looking at, I was thinking about getting a golden retriever, yeah, but then as I started researching and looking into it, um, to be honest, I didn't want to deal with the hair trying to hunt.
Speaker 3:You know, get the matted stuff yeah so I was like, and I we had, we had a couple of labs, or you know, there were neighborhood labs that were basically you know at, you know the neighbor's lab, but they'd hang out that you know. Yeah, so you know I love labs, love, love them too, so decided to get a lab. So as I was searching then I found a cornerstone online and I watched the uh, the trial period, you know that I was like okay, that makes sense to me, so I'm gonna do that. Then I'm starting, you know, trying to research.
Speaker 2:You know, I didn't know anybody that duck hunted nobody, so you were really coming into this, oh, fresh and yeah, yeah wow, yeah, I was nothing.
Speaker 3:So well, I say nobody. I had some friends back in chattanooga but, um, you know, we didn't talk that often and yeah, I don't think any of them have dogs, to be honest. So so I started looking and found cornerstone, and then I'm looking for dogs, you know, trying to figure out all right, how do you get one. And then I found the relationship between Cornerstone and Southern Oak Kennels. So I'm like, okay, you know, and I looked through and then ended up going with Southern Oak Kennels.
Speaker 3:And got Mabel. And what's funny is I put a deposit on a different litter and that litter didn't take. And so Barton reached out and said, hey, this didn't take and I had wanted a female, decided I'd wanted a female. He says I've got a couple of litters here and there's these available. And so that was one female. Out of her litter, she was the last one available. Nice, out of her litter, she was the last one available. Wow so, and it was miles up in.
Speaker 1:Madison yeah.
Speaker 3:So Just perfect timing. Yeah, and you know that's two hours from the house, oh, wow.
Speaker 2:So it was easy to drive up there.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, it worked out perfectly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, that's cool. So you found Cornerstone before you even got your dog, and then you found the dog. That's pretty cool I had never, duck hunted. You were coming, you never duck hunted, no, so you had not even been on a duck hunt First member's weekend.
Speaker 3:I still hadn't duck hunted yet. That was my first season hunting.
Speaker 2:Wow, how did you so? We'll get off track here. We'll get back on in a minute, but that's cool. So what did you think about the mock hunting experience then at Member Weekend?
Speaker 3:Well, I know this has been a few years ago. I mean, it was a little bit of a train wreck with her.
Speaker 1:Yeah with Mabel.
Speaker 3:Yeah because I mean she's similar to Violet, she's a fireball and as a new handler. I mean, it was rough for me.
Speaker 2:I remember you were. You remained calm, you kept your composure. Mabel was just super excited.
Speaker 3:I mean she had never been around that and it was so much stimulation for her. And you know it doesn't take much to get her excited because she's a very social dog so she wants to see and play. I mean there's not an aggressive bone in her body except for ducks and moles.
Speaker 1:And moles. Oh man, that's cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but it was a really cool experience. You know that's the first time I met seth um and I had already not, did you know that seth lived up near you you met him there, we met there because his wife was with him too.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, we got talking and exchanged numbers and been when we're friends. Ben and I had met before we got together and trained one time up there up around us, and then, of course, chad, chad and I bonded, you know, from having the same letters because we were in Cornerstone 2. He reached out and goes hey, I've got a sister. So he and I I mean to this day we chat every day. I mean we're texting. That is so cool. Yeah, I mean his, his wife and some friends came to nashville this weekend. I went and hung out with them, met him downtown. You know that's letting sight. See, you know we've, we, we did a hunt, uh this year together and we're, we're gonna. I'm. He lives up in indiana, yeah, and I've already, we already talked about, you know, going up and doing some training uh at his place, because he does have some decent, some pretty good property to train on where he lives.
Speaker 2:So yeah, man, that's cool. So you've got a whole community right there around you and you met him at Member Weekend. And now you all realize you're all close yeah.
Speaker 3:I've met a lot of people, I mean Mills, foster.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he comes down and runs.
Speaker 3:Oh, he's a great guy, great guy.
Speaker 2:You know he runs hunt tests there and I've seen him all the time there. Yeah, so, yeah, man, that's cool. So got your dog, you got cornerstone, then you got a dog and then now you still haven't been duck hunting yet. So you're training your. This is a cool perspective. So you're going through cornerstone and I do know you're not the only one. There's actually a lot of members that have done this but so you're going through this process not even knowing what hunting with a dog looks like. Oh yeah, but you're just trusting the process. So what was going through the the course like for you? Let's talk through that. When you got your puppy, let's go to puppy pickup day and let's pick up from there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I drive up and as I pull up, you know, miles is there, miles and his wife, and they're super, super nice people, great people. Of course, she's the last dog there, I'm the last one, so I go up and he goes oh, there's your girl, and I'd already picked her up. Well, her name's Mabel, you know, and took her picture, you know. So talked to him for a while and I told him I had bought Cornerstone and you know. So we were talking about that a little bit and you know, talking about my plans. So then we went home, got her home. I stopped at a friend's house show in there, you know, and got her home. Neighbors had heard about it, so they come over, so I let her out there. She's running around, loving, getting, you know, seeing everybody, and so we go in there and then we just we jump straight into training.
Speaker 2:So I love it. I love that. Let's just jump straight in. Yeah, full board, that's cool well, end of the process.
Speaker 3:You know you've got the. You know opening week. Yeah, just get them comfortable women.
Speaker 2:You're already socializing on the way home.
Speaker 3:You can't beat that well you know, that was one of the things that, to be fair, that I wasn't as great about, because this was at the end of covid okay, you know um, so there's still some some stuff with that plus there's I got hyper scared about parvo oh yeah, understandable and so I was really leery about taking her to different places.
Speaker 3:You know, you hear all these horror stories. You know, name the vet and you're like, oh yeah, that'd be great for him. And I was like, well, I'm like you're contradicting yourself, you're telling me to take them there but then don't take them there because of it. But I didn't know anybody you know around me with dogs, you know. Well, I mean mean there were some with. You know some pets, but, um, but you know so. So that did affect the socialization a little bit, um, but she's such a sweet dog, it's really not a. I mean, she's not scared of anybody or anything and she's not aggressive. The only thing is she just gets real excited. Yeah, and she's, she's maturing now she's, I say, getting better, but you know she's still, hannah, how old is she right now?
Speaker 2:She's three Okay, three, yeah, so she should be. You should be turning the corner a little bit as far as maturity goes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it definitely is, and she still has the puppy in her. She still loves to play and get excited, but it's fun, you know.
Speaker 2:Man. So then you jumped in the cornerstone. What was the first few weeks like, as you were going through it and then going through the? I guess you went 52 plus.
Speaker 3:So you're going through 52 plus the first few weeks, the first, you know, few weeks to month, were great. I mean, you know, when you introduce the clicker and the treats, you know you feel like you're the greatest trainer on the planet because everything's going so smoothly. I mean you pick up place very well, you know. Sit, oh, it's going great, you know and you know. But then you know, reality comes in because as they get, as they get a little bit more confidence and independence, sometimes it becomes a fight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's hilarious. So let's talk about that moment, because this is a shared moment, I would say, for many. When you're at that stage week three, week four, so coming through this for the first time, did that give you this expectation? You kind of thought the rest of training was just going to be as smooth as that, oh, 100%, give you this expectation.
Speaker 3:You kind of thought the rest of training was just going to be as smooth as that 100. Yeah, I was like man, this, this is going to be the greatest, most well-behaved dog in the history of the world. I mean, oh man, oh yeah, I was. My confidence went through the roof because I was. You know, I'm like man, this is not hard. You know, i'm'm like it's fool's gold definitely.
Speaker 2:Yeah it gets. It can be challenging. There there's this. You know, as a puppy, it's kind of like you have the toddler phase. You know everything's great, they listen, they do what you want them to do, and then, all of a sudden, they get this realization that they have their own free will and they can start thinking, well, I might want to do this instead, and when you run into that, that, it's like that's where you really learn to be a good trainer, though, so I like to look at everything as those opportunities. Um well, there's always more than one way to see things, there's more than one perspective, but, uh, I kind of like to go from the, the, the challenge, the perspective of you know, things don't happen to me, they happen for me, and the same thing.
Speaker 2:Okay, this dog is doing great, we're on top of the world. Then when you hit that dip, it's like you know this is a good thing, because that's where I feel like that's where a big, big part of the bond is built with the dog. You know, it's one thing when you first do your your stuff, everything's going good. But when you and this dog running into some resistance and you guys learn how to work that out together, you come out on the other side of that as a team. Before you got you know you're doing your thing, the dog's doing its thing and it's great, but then you come out on the other side of that as a team. Let's talk through some of that for you. So resistance, let's hit some of that. Your first resistance with Miss Mabel let's, let's hit some of that.
Speaker 3:Your first resistance with miss mabel? Uh, it was trying the first resistance was really trying to teach heel. Okay, um, she's, she's a very independent dog in a lot of ways. Um, so when that started, um, you know, and the initial teaching heel you know from you know, walking the box in the backyard, part of it started off. Even the initial teaching heel you know from you know, walking the box in the backyard yeah, part of it was it started off, even the initial heel, you were running the challenges.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because I mean she, you know, and part of it, part of this, was just my inexperience, yeah, of not having realistic expectations. Because everything else went perfect, yeah, okay. And now she's, you know, you know, I mean she would do it. And then you know it was just a struggle. And again everything was going flawlessly. And now we're starting to hit hiccups. All right, what am I doing wrong?
Speaker 2:You know it's yeah. So you're questioning yourself. At this point You're thinking because it was going so good. Now you think you're doing something wrong, mm, because it was going so good.
Speaker 3:Now you think you're doing something wrong, mm-hmm, mm. Yeah, so that was kind of a start of multiple and it was, you know. Looking at the time, I think, oh, this is the end of the world, I'm ruining this dog. You know, there's all these thoughts, all these pressures.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I mean it's a big deal. I mean you invested a lot into this dog and you want it to turn out, but now you're concerned it might not. Is that what you'd say the biggest like pressure point came from was just the fear of it not working?
Speaker 3:out or the fear of failure, the fear of like spending all this money for it to not work out and to not have the dog you want yeah, but both of those things not having the dog you want, you know, and being a failure you know, uh, you know this is too much for me.
Speaker 3:You know, Uh, and there were multiple times where I felt like that, you know, Um, so yeah, that was, that was a big part of it. And you know, when you know, looking back on it, you know, being able, being able, hindsight's always 20-20.
Speaker 3:It probably wasn't as bad as I thought it was, but there's stuff I could have done a lot better. You're only going to be able to do that with experience 100%, and that's it. But it's hard not to be emotionally invested. I mean, these are your babies, you know. She's my baby, you know, and so it gets rough, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's.
Speaker 3:I think that was one of your questions. In one of the videos where you're kind of introducing it, you mentioned something. You go it's going to be one of the hardest things you've ever done, but it's also going to be one of the best things you've ever done. You know it was something to those effect and I'm not saying it's not. You know it's not like. You know, fighting a war, you know, not that hard, definitely not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, relatively. Sometimes, on the days when it might feel like that, there have been battles. That's cool, man, if you don't feel like crying sometimes, if you don't feel like you're failing then you're not doing something right.
Speaker 2:I know it's the most counterintuitive thing, but I'll tell this to members. Sometimes they think there's a problem. They're calling me. I'm like, hey, this is good. They're like, what, what do you mean? This is good.
Speaker 2:I'm like this actually means the dog is learning, because if you don't go through the failure part of the process, then it's really going to happen on a day when you really don't no-transcript allow it to end up there on hunting day. Let's let the hunt become a great experience, let's let that be a celebration for you and the dog, and and let's face these battles in the training. So, man, I feel for that. I know a lot of members that are listening to this right now are feeling that right now because it's or anybody that's trained a dog, for that matter. So, facing these challenges, you know, the good news is you had Cornerstone to guide you, you had the weeks and I'm sure that maybe reassured you at least to some degree. It's like you know, even though I'm facing these challenges, I know I at least have a plan, like I know at least where I need to go.
Speaker 2:And I feel for people out there that are just going at it by taking the internet advice and even calling buddies, it's you know, it's one thing to get advice, but you call someone, it doesn't matter. You can call three different people. People you're going to probably get three different answers, even if they're trustworthy, reputable people and that can be, I don't know, to me. I prefer that. I love the consistency and and the the direction of a plan, because I feel like that helps give you some security, even though you may face the challenges. How do you feel the plan? I mean, do you feel like the plan helped you in that capacity when you did hit those days? Let's talk about some of those rough days and like what did you do so?
Speaker 3:so well, two things to that one. Everybody you know whether they're a cornerstone trainer every good trainer person that I know that I respect that has dogs. You know whether they're using the cornerstone method or american method. Every one of them says just get a plan and stick to it. So if you're starting cornerstone, run through cornerstone. Now, I was not perfect with it. There were times where I'm like, oh, this is gonna let me try this, you know, and I and I did that. And plus, you know, I think you know, with 52 plus, I love that it's called 52 plus. I mean, you know, with that, because my in the back of my mind, even though I know some weeks may take longer, you kind of get in your head saying I've got to finish this in 52 weeks. Yeah, you know, it's like, in my opinion, this is what I tell people. I said if you're doing it by yourself and the first time, I really don't care which method you're using, it's probably going to be a two-year process, 100%, you know.
Speaker 2:When you got holiday. I mean when you divide it out, I mean between vacations, holidays and everything that eats up some time time vacations, holidays and everything that eats up some time, and you're gonna you're gonna get burnt out. You're gonna get burnt out because everybody does the same thing. When they get so excited, yep, and they train too much to begin with, and then they get, they get humbled, okay you know what, maybe I should just train every other day, or maybe I should just make four days a week, and what.
Speaker 2:I think it's funny, you know, sometimes you find that you try so hard, you try too hard, and then sometimes you let go and it's like, oh, wow, like things are clicking now but a good example of that was during, you know, the.
Speaker 3:She did pretty well with the fetch hold release, nice, but uh, you know, but in working through the retrieve in the lane. So one of the big challenges there was, you know shit, this dog has dried. If you throw something she's going to run after. The problem was the return. You know, of course you have her on the lead and she just, I mean I mean I'd have to physically drag her back to get her back, she would just go and she's grabbing it there and she just wanted to play with it.
Speaker 3:And it got so frustrating because this went on for about two weeks. You know we were struggling through it and I got, you know, I was getting aggravated with it and I was like you know what, let's just have a little fun. So we stepped out of the lamb in my backyard and you know, as, as a puppy, we did a couple of, you know, kept it limited, but some little fun, pumpy stuff, you know, and she would come back, you know. So I got the bumper and I get her excited threw it out, she picked it up, come right back, wow. So I did that several times and after that, I mean it clicked for. Oh, I'll bring us back.
Speaker 2:I get another one wow so so yeah, that's all it took for you and Mabel.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just one little thing like that and it clicked for her and she has had times, you know, or she did you know early on. You know where they'd go to retrieve, you know, and they might go run off, but it really wasn't that much. For the most part she's been great at coming back, you know, with the retrieve Not always straight back, she might want to go check and see what that is, take a circle path back. But yeah, she's been pretty solid at that.
Speaker 2:Man, that's cool, I'm glad. It's just crazy how a simple little move like that can make such a difference.
Speaker 3:And I was doing it just out of it wasn't like, hey, let me try this, I was just frustrated. And you of it wasn't like hey, let me try this, I was just frustrated, and you know, it wasn't like I had an epiphany, it was just luck, you know.
Speaker 2:And then you had the epiphany after yeah, and I was like wait a minute, yeah, that happens.
Speaker 3:I'll tell you what that definitely happens. But you mentioned about the whole process of 52 Plus being on the back side of it, because there are times where I'm like man, this seems so tedious. Yeah, you know, and you've got all of this, um, you know, but you know, like like the fetch hold release process, you know how you've got that broken down into all these parts and even at times it seems like parts of it's out of order, but being on the back side of it like okay, this actually makes sense yeah, you know, um, you know, you start to start to see the progression of doing some of these monotonous things, you know, but they all build on each other and so, yeah, it's really, it's really neat to see it on the other side and say, okay, this does make sense you know that's pretty cool and it's.
Speaker 2:It is monotonous the way we do it intentionally. It is because what we're doing is we're trying to create foolproof meaning when you go, we want you to be ready to hunt anywhere, anytime. We want you to be ready for any situation you face. And you know this is something I had to learn the hard way and you know some people. Sometimes you just gotta learn it the hard way and sometimes people do that right, like sometimes your dog is better than it appears it. You think your dog's better than it is at the time, but there's a little gap right there and that little gap is the, the monotony of little repetition. When you hit that repetition, which is, you feel like it's overkill and you feel, man, we definitely can move on because it's just. You know. You hear the. You know practice makes perfect. We've also heard the saying you know perfect practice makes perfect, and that's 100% true. But the only way to get to where you can practice perfectly is to get to where the dog is perfect or excellent. I prefer the word excellent, that would be a good word to use. Perfection may not be the best word to use, but excellent. But there's a gap there because once you first overcome, and now your dog's performing hey, if my dog does it four or five times in a row, we're good. Right, it feels like we're good because that's just the way we are right. Once we get the hang of it, okay, now we're good, we are right. Once we get the hang of it, okay now, now we're good. But that's under those variables, the variables of pressure um, from a hunt duck calls ducks coming in guns going off, going to hunt test, uh, going to member weekends when there's more dogs than your dogs ever experienced, and the honestly, let's just be real the anticipation, the excitement yourself, the nervousness yourself, because you are, you know, especially if you're coming to it the first time, you may think everybody's got champion gun dogs that are like tier one, you know d1 athletes that are perfect just at the peaking and like you're worried, that is my dog, what's it going to look like? You know all these things. The dog can sense all that. So if you've just practiced to the place and you've trained to the place, where my dog has done it a few times, well, and they look good and I feel like they've got it, but you haven't added a multitude of variables and then trained it to the same standard all the way through. There's going to be a day when you're going to go out and you're going to realize that's why we need to do more reps. So I definitely feel you, because I feel like that too. Honestly, as the person who made the course, I definitely felt like man.
Speaker 2:This is definitely tedious at times, but I definitely know why we do it. And now you know being on, like you said, the backside. We know why we do it. There's science behind it, there's a method to the madness and it does pay off. It does pay off. So that's cool that you noticed that, being on the backside of it. So what's some other notable things that you know being on the backside? You've gone through it with Mabel.
Speaker 3:Well, a couple of things there. It really gets into. You know the repetition and it's not just repetition for repetition's sake. 100% there's got to be. You know you emphasize a lot and even to this day I'd have to work on it more because you know I mentioned before. You know we've got, of course all dogs get loose after the season One hundred percent, but you know we've got to.
Speaker 3:I really see, and I've known it, but I really see it after my first season hunting with her, how important just basic obedience really is. She's and she's, she does pretty good. I mean I, I, she, she does, I mean the guys I hunt with man. She was great, yeah, she was great, and of course I can. There are some things I can nitpick on, you know, with that, but that's, it's just some. You know some things that I know they're not going to understand. Plus, we do run some hunt tests, you know, and some of the hunt test stuff, to be completely honest, is and you know I run them and love them, but some of it is a little nitpicky to be. To be fair.
Speaker 3:But I understand the reason why, yeah, so, but the generalization, the repetitions. With generalization trying to find ways because it is hard to replicate a member's weekend, oh yeah. Or a hunt test, or hunting, I mean her first hunt, I mean when they started blowing those goose calls, for you know inspect season. She was losing her mind.
Speaker 1:Wow and she got pretty.
Speaker 3:She'd get pretty vocal Really. Yeah, it was because she gets really anxious and really excited. Yeah, just excited, but it got better. Okay, I mean, part of that is with her.
Speaker 2:You handled it well, it sounds like because, man, if you didn't handle it well and you would reinforce it, it would have got worse.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it sounds like you handled that well. Well, and to be honest, there was a lot of calling and no birds, so she had to get it. We didn't shoot a lot the first. We didn't shoot any of the first two hunts for it.
Speaker 2:That actually probably worked out for her, honestly, because if she would have whined and all of a sudden shot a bird and then went and picked it up, oh, that's reinforced and that the level of stimulation they get on that oh, anything that's reinforced on a hunt may really cause a lot of work for you, so it's important that it's done right.
Speaker 3:Your first few hunts have to be right well, and I did mess this up early on, but as I was going on, because you know we had some videos, you know, of her and she's had a couple of instagram videos go viral of her retrieves. But nice, you know I was, you know we'd shoot. Of course I had her only, but I would just unhook her and just let her go immediately. Yeah, and I'm like you're messing up there. So I started all right, sit and and she where she stays, locked in on the mark, good, you know, and you know, make her sit there for a minute and then send her. You know, just that little thing, when I started doing that, she got better she got better.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because she, she learned, okay, I have to sit still there. Now, she wasn't always.
Speaker 2:Still wasn't always, you know that's a dog's first real season out there too.
Speaker 3:And that's the stuff you're working through to make sure that it's right, which is awesome. Well, and there's some changes that I'm going to make to her blinds because, like so, the panels where she is is right up in her face, so it's hard for her to see out, and there's nothing over it. So, and there's nothing over it, so that added to her anxiety. All right, these guys are calling, they're looking up, I can't really see. So she started figuring out.
Speaker 3:Of course she had knocked the panel down sometimes on her own, but I'm going to build something that hangs over so that she can look out and see the birds, because that will help her being able to put that intentionality out there and know that's coming. That'll be a lot better for.
Speaker 2:Hey, I hope you're enjoying the episode so far. I just want to stop and ask a favor of you real quick. If you are enjoying this episode, let me know, like subscribe, hit that notification bell, that way you can be aware of any new content that we release. And also just let me know of what you're thinking. Maybe there's something that stands out to you, or maybe you just have a thought and you'd love to comment. I can't wait to see what you put in the comments and I can't wait for you to subscribe. So now back to the podcast. That's awesome, and the first season, too, is a good learning opportunity for them. For you, yes, and I definitely recommend honestly, for at least your first, like three to five hunts having your dog on lead, Because the worst thing that can happen is the dog break on a hunt and then learn. And then I mean because if a dog breaks on a hunt, you're stuck in a blind.
Speaker 1:You're not going to be able to stop them.
Speaker 2:And they're going to pick the bird and they're going to be reinforced.
Speaker 3:So making sure that those details are covered, can go a long way it's um, and we got to hunt with another dog a couple of times and she did? She struggled with honoring, but she was on lead and she didn't. You know, let her get the bird. I mean she got a little she should whimper a little bit.
Speaker 3:Uh, I mean she's, but she hasn't been exposed enough to that. Now I mentioned, I think, when we were talking earlier. It's one of the things you know, trying to get together with some of the guys and do a lot of group training with that, Because that's one of the downsides of you know, with the guys in the Retriever Club and the hunt test and it's just impractical the way to train because they're training for the hunt test.
Speaker 2:Right, we have one dog on the line and the honor is not a real honor like for hunting.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we don't practice the honor enough. Yeah, because we're all out. We're not using wingers, so we'll be out there throwing birds for each other and then we'll go back and give them. You might sit and hold them blind for a minute while you're waiting to go to the line, but that's different from sitting down and doing this.
Speaker 3:But, my buddy, greg Grant, who's the president of the club. He's got a couple of dogs and I had his dog and my dog in the yard of the clubhouse so I had them both sitting next to me and I was throwing for both of them and they both sat. I mean, his dog has been a. I think she's one pass from a master hunter. Nice, she's a really good dog. But Mabel did well too. She set, and I'd send them one at a time, so it's just a matter of doing it 100%.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, that's pretty cool. What's been your biggest success point, like the greatest moment you've had thus far with Mabel on the journey, whether it was training or a hunt or something like that. What's been like kind of where it's like, you know, because we're all training, we're all going to this point, we have this goal, but there's a certain point in time where you're like, wow, okay, we're doing this. Now, you know, I feel like, especially in the early phases, the early weeks, in the early phase, even the first couple of phases, there's the question marks on the back of your mind Is this going to work? Is my dog going to turn out? And at a certain point you turn a corner and it's like I can start to see it. And then there's basically this epiphany moment in time. It's like this is working, this is what I was looking for. Do you remember that moment or do you have a specific moment?
Speaker 3:So there's two moments that come to mind, but they're kind of for different reasons. One was earlier on, when teaching recall, and this was just such a cool moment. And I've seen other moments like this, but this is the first one that really stuck in my mind. So, you know, I let her out, you know, and I call her back, and we'd already taught her the recall, but I was transitioning into sitting, you know, to just come because she would run and jump, and so you know, the first couple of times, you know, of course I wouldn't treat her until she said well, she ran up and you could see her mind where she was about to and it's like, oh, I won't get it unless I sit. So you saw her make the choice.
Speaker 2:And it was so awesome. Wow for herself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so she made the choice to sit. And you know, seeing, you know, and there's been other moments since then- that's so cool yeah. But one of my favorite retrieves so far of the year was during goose season, um which there's been some awesome ones that are fun to watch, but this is my favorite, favorite one. It was a blind.
Speaker 2:It was about 175 yards oh wow, yeah, that's, that's a hall of a blind right there and it took two casts to get her there.
Speaker 3:Two casts, that's it yeah, yeah, I was wow. Yeah, now we practice blinds a lot. That's not all the time. We've got a lot of work to do there. But yeah, I was like, oh, that was. I mean, I was a proud papa with that.
Speaker 2:Wow, and that was so. Talk me through what. Let's talk to the retrieve. Let's talk through bird coming in. I want to get everything on this. Contacts.
Speaker 3:So this was during speckle belly season. We weren't able to get them to decoy. We didn't have a large spread because they're big feeds around.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:So what we were getting were passing shots. So as they get up and they're passing over, so that's what we get. So they'd be high shots and so sometimes they would sell, so dropped one that landed pretty close into the decoys and another one sailed out about 75 yards, of course, and it went down and it was crippled but it wasn't going anywhere. Yeah, yeah, so she gets the first one.
Speaker 2:So this is a double retrieve? Yes, she marked the first one, yeah, so she picks that.
Speaker 3:Well, this was early on. She struggled with marking just because of the the panels up being able to basically double blind. So a lot of times it was. But or you know, or she'd just go out and hunt the decoys real quick, you know, because to see if they were there. But uh, so did that. Then I, you know, I got down there and you back.
Speaker 2:And she went out, did she have to go through the old fall area too? Man Yep, first season. This was her first hunting season right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this was like first couple of hunts, yeah.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's insane. So and we got her out there. Now there have been other blind retrieves this year. There has been fights, yeah, but you know, know that one right there, I was like oh man this is awesome. Yeah, man, I mean it. And that's a long way out there.
Speaker 2:You know 175 yards yeah, for a young dog, first season, first couple of hunts, and some of that you know. The later fighting stuff is where you know, like we talked about the puppy stage, you come out of week four, week five. They don't know a lot yet, they still are trusting you, and then they decide to have their own will. Well, sometimes your first hunting season there becomes your first couple hunts, super solid. Then you run into this, the battle of the wheels again, and you have to kind of go through that season together. You have to work through that and then you come out on the other side better. But man, that's an incredible retrieve you don't see that a lot with a young dog to be able to do. Basically a double blind. You pick a short one, then you go back through the area of a fall, not check down, and take two casts or 175. That's incredible. Yeah, she's. Is it on video that one?
Speaker 3:no, no, I wish it was, it's in the memory, though it's in the oh yeah, that one I'll I will never forget. Uh, we didn't get. We didn't get much video over during goose season hard to.
Speaker 2:I mean, you got to stay focused on the dog, you know.
Speaker 3:Well, I didn't take much of the videos. It's one of the buddies did, but during duck season he started taking some of them with his phone, nice, and there's one of them that was out about that far that she got and it was, and that one was a double too and it was a duck. That was out there.
Speaker 2:It's crippled, I mean there's a couple of them where she's I mean, she's chased down some cripples. That's amazing. It's cool to see the dog really gets fired up and I love the you know the moment. And we we just did a hunt that we are going to release soon here on YouTube. But we did a hunt with Colin Berry and like there's a lot of birds that ended up being crippled and his dog was going after and get them and it's just, it just shows like the drive, like it's one like you see the drive on regular hunts.
Speaker 2:But when they see a bird like that, like something else just kicks in, like there's like this extra gear that's only there for the cripples and it's pretty cool to watch them and honestly, I don't know what we would do without a dog, like some of those birds like, oh I mean, because then you, the dog, is so fast that you and the bird is still so fast if you run out to try to get it, it still can outpace you, even with a shotgun to be able to shoot it.
Speaker 3:So and trying to shoot a cripple on the water. No, is hard. It is, especially when they lay flat and they're trying to go away from it. I mean, you don't? You don't have much surface area to hit no, no, it's so yeah, she's, and it's funny when they dive on her. I mean she gets, oh, she gets mad, it's mad, it's so funny wow, how many birds did she pick this season? She got, including geese, 92 birds wow, 92 first season.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that is an amazing first season yep, and the last day we had a, she got 27 birds. We had a five-man limit and had a goose and she picked up 27 of them, so yeah, man, was that the day you were telling me about the teal?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, let's talk through that. Let's talk through that real quick.
Speaker 3:That was, that was. I mean, that's so cool. So we're sitting there and and you know there's five of us in there and this is getting. We've been hunting kind of all day and so you know they've been just trickling through. This was this was probably about one or two in the afternoon. Um so, and you know I'm sitting down for a minute, you know, while they're doing it and my buddy goes, and you know I'm sitting down for a minute, you know, while I was doing it and my buddy goes, there's a wad of teal coming.
Speaker 3:So you know they're calling, so I come in. The guy makes the call, and I didn't see him until I knocked my panel down. Oh, no way. So I come up and I just see a wall of birds, and so we all shoot, and you just see birds raining down everywhere, oh man. And so down everywhere, man. And so you know, have mabel there, and so I unhooked her.
Speaker 2:You know, there's just birds ever actually just go get them. At a certain point you're like what do I do now?
Speaker 3:just go, just go I mean, it took us a minute to figure, you know, to count how many we had. So you know, as she's picking up, we're counting, and so she, she kept going and going and and the water had gotten pretty deep in that field at that point, so it stopped being running water. She gets out a little bit, it's swimming water, wow. So she would have to swim, you know, for some of it. So she had some. Of course they were pretty. There weren't many. I think there was. One of them was a cripple and that's why one of the guys got, because he went and he just got out on the other side to get it real quick S Mabel was picking them up, but yeah, she got seven of them and she just kept going.
Speaker 2:I'd send her out Seven bird, wow, seven retrieves of basically bat to bat to bat.
Speaker 3:She was tired after that day.
Speaker 2:I bet she was yeah Wow.
Speaker 3:And so y'all killed after that day. I bet she was, yeah, wow, and she all killed 27 birds that day. That, yeah, we well, no, we got, so we shot. So we shot 32. Um, so there were two geese. We lost one geese because behind us there's a levee. It landed in there. Uh, one of the I think one of the ducks landed in there too. It just sailed over the back and yeah, and that, that was a. There was a lot of rain had come and that was fast run.
Speaker 1:I was not going to send her into that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, um, and we, uh, we lost one teal that was wounded and I had. It goes way out the field like 200 yards. A little levee goes into another field and I sent Mabel out there, but when you got out there it was swimming. So she was swimming out there and it was diving on her and got away from her. So I called her back and we walked out there and we couldn't find it. So we lost a couple.
Speaker 3:Sometimes they do that They'll just swim down and grab onto something and then they just Well, on the other side, there was a lot of matted stuff there, so it could have been buried in there 100%. I let her run around trying to sniff it up, see if she could, but she didn't find it.
Speaker 2:Hey, I did all you could. You did your best to get them all, but I mean, that's incredible. Oh yeah, you've got many notable any other notable retrieves from the hunting season. I mean already the blinds and then the seven teal. I mean that's awesome.
Speaker 3:I mean her first triple. Remember that.
Speaker 1:It was perfect First triple. I love that.
Speaker 3:Because they all landed right at the brown six spot. So she went got it, boom got it, boom got it.
Speaker 2:I mean just that's good too. I mean, that's huge for a young dog too, and I think that's where some of the pile work we do and all that and the ladder drills and all that that we do really pays off, because I mean young dogs and even for it to translate over to hunt. Clearly you did the right amount of work, because just because you do it in training doesn't mean a dog needs to know hey, there's another bird out. That's pretty cool that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she. I mean she had a great season. She did great. Yeah, like I said, you know I can nitpick over some things. I'd like to be better, but to be honest, I mean as it stands right now, she's a great hunting dog in my opinion, yeah, 100, and that's where the net.
Speaker 2:You know, that's what this next year is for is to get better for next season by you'll. This next hunting season. You're gonna be like, wow, well, your dog is seasoned and that is what it's doing. It's different and I'm seasoned as a handler so you know it.
Speaker 3:It took me a while to kind of you know, to figure out now.
Speaker 2:Is this your first season hunting too, or no, it's my first season with a dog.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I've my first time in the club but I hunted. I've hunted several times, you know I. You know my first time duck hunting was the fall after, after that first member's weekend. Yeah, and so I've hunted several times because I met some guys through Ducks Unlimited and that's who took me hunting for the first time. So one of my buddies, a guy named Clayton Moore he's got a club out in Arkansas. He took me there a couple of times. Wow, I mean my first hunt. I hunted Thorny Cypress, which is a WMA in Tennessee, just on the Mississippi border, and in Arkansas on the rice fields.
Speaker 3:So I got spooled on my first couple of hunts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it sounds like it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I have experienced the bad sides of that. You know where. You don't see any, you're just sitting out there grinding it out. But my first, my first couple of hunts ruined me.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it's always good If anybody's listening. If you're going to take someone hunting, make sure make sure you ruin them on the first hunt. Don't take them on those slow hunts. I took my wife on a hunt and we were dating at the time. She's going to go back, but I made the mistake and the birds just weren't there. And so it was just cold. Not a good, not a good thing. So make sure you make sure the birds are there, Cause then you got someone like this.
Speaker 3:he's going to be hooked for the rest of their life, like this he's going to be hooked for the rest of their life.
Speaker 2:Ruined. You're ruined, oh man. Well, man, this has just been. This is just incredible to hear. I'm just so excited to get to celebrate with you your success. Is there anything in particular you want to tell anybody listening that you came with? And if not, then we can dive into a couple of things. You know what's? You know. I would like to dive into a little more on, like, your mindset now, now that you're seasoned, you have experience. Um, you know, looking back on it, if you had to start over, would you do anything differently? Would you think differently?
Speaker 3:uh, things like that um, so would I do anything? I mean, there's a lot I would do differently because I would do it better. You know um, you know looking back on it. You know, because I get I've gotten exposed to a lot of different training methodologies. You know whether you know most other people use, you know, the american style. You know that within the hunt test circles.
Speaker 1:You know that you you know the.
Speaker 3:American style. You know that within the hunt test circles, you know that, you know, you know like, you know Clark and Lyle, you know, you know, you know that style. So all of the guys that I train with in the club, that's what they use. But I, you know, and it's sometimes that's, you know, sometimes that can be bad because it's like, oh, should I be using this or that? Um, and I've, I kind of take them. Okay, there are aspects or there are things that they do. There's techniques that they use or drills that they use.
Speaker 3:I can incorporate this into what I'm doing, you know. But there's stuff I'm like, hey, guys, you really should do this, you know. I, yeah, you know they call it the british honor. I don't understand. I mean, I understand, you know they've got like, you know, if they're pro trainers and they've got like 50 dogs, yeah, I get that. But you know, I think you know some of them call it the british honor, where the dogs are just sitting out there watching everything. I think that is such a powerful to to to start them early on doing that 100%.
Speaker 3:You know, I wish I had had opportunities like that with Mabel. I didn't, and that would have helped her tremendously.
Speaker 2:but Especially starting it early, if you can, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and, and she gets some of it. Now, you know, of course, at the members weekend, you know I, I carry that Mo Marsh around everywhere and she's, you know she'll still get a little excited. You know part of that is lack of, you know, generalization that we have to work through. Part of it is obedience that I still need to improve on, and then it's just exposure. You know it gets better over time. 100% With her, it gets better over time. I mean, 100 with her, it gets better. I know there are some dogs that are just naturally vocal and you can't deal with it. And she's I, I keep saying vocal, it's not. I mean, I might hear her whimper for a minute over here. No one else can hear and I'm like no you know, yeah, it's, it's not that bad yeah, but she's improving it.
Speaker 2:She definitely had some whining to begin with, but you handled it well, which is the right thing. I think a lot of people you know mishandle that Not on purpose. Just you're not. It's honestly a shock. The first time you hear it, especially if it's your first dog, you're like what was that? You know it's like that's a surprise. I mean the second member's weekend.
Speaker 3:You know we were over doing the wide drill over the big pond, yeah, yeah. So I have her over there and I mean she's going nuts, sounding like a monkey over there. I mean I was like, oh my goodness, you know, and I talked to your, you know, chatted with you about it, I talked with your dad about it for an hour, talked with Barton, you know, it was a little discouraging. And then I, just on my way home, I was like you know, we're just we're going to figure this out. I mean we have to.
Speaker 3:We don't have a choice, that's awesome and talked with a couple of guys in the club and you know, getting into the honoring and everything, we started working. You know one of the guys he and I with his dog because she wasn't vocal but she dealt with breaking a lot. But we did a lot of group training with them where we're throwing bumpers and whoever was the steadiest would get it. And that helped tremendously Just doing those types of things and doing as best you can, increasing the stimulus.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, that's the biggest thing that I take away from myself. I was a little too cautious.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, with her obedience and taking her places and trying to expose her and stuff. You know, you say don't test your dog, but at the same time you've got to challenge your dog 100%. You know. So, being able to get her and opportunities to to learn, you know, and that's you know, to this day, that's still, you know, things that I, you know, I think about and I'm trying to, especially, you know, now I'm really trying to look for those opportunities to uh, to work with her on that.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and that's cool well, I'm I'm just so happy for you guys and I look forward to just seeing, uh, how next hunting season goes and seeing how this training season goes, with you guys especially, you remember, we can coming up and then we got all, uh, the other events that could be coming up and you guys gathering to train. This will be. You know, this is a a year that maybe what's going to flourish, it's going to be really amazing.
Speaker 3:Oh see, oh yeah because you know one of the things that you know I've thought about. You know because I've been working on, kind of my training plan for the summer and what I'm working on and one of the things that and it's one of the reasons why I go on. You know the coaches call I go on the basic one a lot Really.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Because I like hearing people, you know, not hearing people's struggles, but hearing people work through it, because every dog needs basic obedience, 100%, and I you know Mabel needs it more and more. She's gotten a lot better. It needs to be better, but she's gotten a lot better, you know. And so that's going to be a, you know, on top of the advanced skills we'll be working on. You know, that's going to be a large portion of what I'm trying to work with her on is her obedience to, because, you know, everything begins with that, everything, everything, yeah, and you know, it's great having an obedient dog you know it really is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't want a dog. That's uh, that's not obedient, that kind of makes everything else a challenge. Man. Well, what, um? What would be your advice to someone? I always love asking this question as we kind of wrap up. What would be your advice to someone in your shoes that's getting into it again, getting into it for the first time. They've maybe never hunted, never had a dog before. If you had like two or three things, just bullet points, you could say, hey, these are the things, keep this at the focus point and you'll be okay.
Speaker 3:Don't worry about it, relax, it's going to be, I mean, and you can say this, but you're not going to hear it, but I, but yeah, it's going to be fun.
Speaker 2:Man, that's solid.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Just stick with the process, it's going to work out. Yes, it's going to suck at times. You know when it gets monotonous. It gets boring at times because you just want to get out and do the fun stuff. That's right. But if you focus on those foundations, it makes your life and the dog's life so much easier, so much easier.
Speaker 2:Take that advice, because if you don't you will learn.
Speaker 1:You'll be like you know. These words are gonna be ringing in the back of my man. He was right.
Speaker 2:I shouldn't have worried and I should have done the foundations and just have fun with it.
Speaker 3:I mean it is fun. It's fun watching them learn. I, I don't know it's it's been. Look, there have been times I've wanted to ring her neck. Don't get me wrong, she's a great dog, she's a sweet dog and I love her death. Wouldn't trade her for anything.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, man. Well, it's been such an honor to have you on and I'm sure we'll have you on again, especially Maybe we should do a follow-up after next season or something like that. Yeah, that'd be awesome hear how she's crushing.
Speaker 1:First of 2026.
Speaker 2:That's right, maybe we'll just get you slotted in the schedule First of 2026. It's been a pleasure and again I just want to say thank you and just how we're honored to have people like you, you know, be willing to come on to this and tell your story in a real authentic way and just tell the real struggles and the real successes that you've had, because you know, at the end of the day, the world that we're in now, there's just not a lot of that, and that's what we always want to do is just be totally authentic, and that's what you've. Been here today. You shared some amazing things and for me it's encouraging to hear, inspiring, to hear. It gives me. You know, as you're sharing all these things, I'm training and I know there's other members that are listening to this and they're like, wow, you know that makes sense, or maybe they're having these epiphany moments. So just to be able to have you on here is an honor. So we appreciate you and it's been a pleasure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's my pleasure, man. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Build From here podcast. To learn more about retriever training or our podcast, visit cornerstonegundogacademycom slash podcast.