Build From Here
Build From Here
"Give This Dog Some Wins" | Blair Badham
#071 What happens when perfectionism meets a headstrong Labrador? Blair Badham shares his transformative journey from frustrated dog owner to confident trainer through perseverance, community support, and a crucial mindset shift.
Blair's story begins with his childhood love of the outdoors, fishing with his father and eventually discovering hunting. Despite having no family background in dog training, Blair took on the challenge of training his British Black Lab, Gus, as both a family companion and hunting retriever. The early days were marked by frustration – Blair's perfectionist tendencies clashed with Gus's high-energy personality, creating a strained relationship rather than the bond he hoped for.
A chance encounter with a neighbor walking his well-trained retriever introduced Blair to Cornerstone Gundog Academy, providing the structured approach he desperately needed. "I needed a plan," Blair explains. "Give me the play, coach, and I'll go execute it." With this clear roadmap, training sessions became more productive and enjoyable for both Blair and Gus, though challenges remained – particularly with the critical fetch-hold-release sequence that left Gus confused and Blair discouraged.
The breakthrough came when Blair learned to prioritize "wins" over perfection. This simple yet profound shift – celebrating progress rather than fixating on flaws – transformed their training relationship. Equally important was finding community through training events where Blair could gain perspective on Gus's abilities and connect with others facing similar challenges. "Being surrounded by a community of people who highlight their imperfections in the process is very important," Blair shares. "You can tell somebody it's okay not to be perfect, but for somebody to sit next to you and tell you a story about how imperfect their dog was is a whole different dynamic."
Whether you're struggling with a specific training challenge, balancing dog training with family responsibilities, or simply looking for encouragement in your journey, Blair's story offers valuable insights about patience, community, and the joy of watching your retriever discover their purpose. As he prepares for Gus's first hunting season, his advice rings true for any dog owner: focus on the wins, chill out, and trust the process.
Cornerstone Gundog Academy Online resources to help you train your retriever.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Build From here podcast. On this episode, I'm extremely excited to have Blair Battum on and, more than anything, I'm just excited because of seeing your journey with your dog, gus. It's been a really cool journey to see and kind of a unique situation. You live really right down the street from us, so whenever you had reached out to us and you were going through some challenges, I noticed the area code was my area code. I was like man, I wonder where he lives, and so I started looking. I was like, wow, 20 minutes down the road. So we were able to actually go in person and do some training together and I thought that was just so cool. So, but outside of that, I'm just excited to see.
Speaker 2:What I want to honor you on is your ability to you know, really pursue this. You're right. You're pursuing career, you've got family, you're doing all of these things, but you're still making your dog a priority. Really, you're fitting it in, like we talked about before we got on this podcast. You're fitting in the dog training into your family right, the dog adapts to your family rather than making you know your other things are priorities and they're the highest priorities right, because they should be your family, your job and all that. But you're still able to do the dog thing and you're passionate about it and it's evident and it's pretty cool to see your connection with Gus.
Speaker 2:Y'all's bonds y'all have. It's very noticeable, especially as you've gone on through the training. We'll talk about member weekend here in a bit but, as you, even at member weekend it was just so evident to see like the progress y'all had made from the first time I had seen y'all and it's just, it's so cool to see that and I feel like you've just done an outstanding job and I know there's a lot more to come and you're excited about all that. But I just want to just congratulate you on what you've done thus far and just welcome you to the podcast as we get to celebrate your success, man.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. I'm honored to be here and thankful for all of your work and help, and really not just with me, but what you've created here has allowed for all of that success. So just super excited to be here and grateful for everything you've done.
Speaker 2:Well, we appreciate that so much. There's one reason we do it to see people have a better experience with a retriever, and we want to hopefully inspire future generations to do the same too. When your kids see you doing this, this might be something they think about in the future. Absolutely, and even if not just still, inspiring other generations to the same is pretty cool. So how did you get into? Let's just give you some background on who you are, where you're from, that way everybody knows, and then we'll kind of dive into your journey of how did you end up training your own duck hunting dog. We'll get there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure, no, happy to give the story. I mean, look, I grew up right here in Birmingham and, you know, met a great girl in college and moved right back and started our lives together and you know, 20 something years ago, wow, and you know, hunting wasn't always a part of my life. My dad also grew up in Birmingham, but kind of what is now like suburbia, but then was the woods, yeah, and so while he wasn't a city kid, you know, he was kind of rummaging around in the woods his whole life. And when I grew up it was a totally normal kind of suburban upbringing. He went to work, mom stayed home, and I've got a great family but didn't grow up in a rural area or on a farm or anything.
Speaker 3:But my dad and his dad loved fishing. That was their passion, and so that's what we did. Man, like you know, bass fishing every weekend, nice, you know, on whatever boat my dad could afford at the time, you know, and it was great. We caught a. You know, beating the banks, you know, just rattle trap fishing or whatever, whatever we could do, and but we didn't, neither of them really loved hunting. They liked to bird hunt a little bit, but but when I got to be, I don't know, you know, junior high, high school, my friends were going deer hunting and duck hunting and turkey hunting. I mentioned it to my dad, probably a lot, and, being the great dad that he was and is, he went and found a place for us to hunt and I think I could get this wrong, but I think he found it in the classified ads in the newspaper.
Speaker 3:I swear and it was down in South Alabama and we went down there and visited and turns out we knew some people who were involved and and and he, um, he joined. They did have a bass pond, so that he liked that that sealed the deal.
Speaker 3:That sealed the deal, um, but it was really. I was probably about about 10 or 12 years old and I just fell in love with it and from from then on, uh like, my entire focus in outdoors shifted from fishing, which is what I had always known, to hunting, and I've never been one of these obsessive hunters Like I'm not. I don't have a wall full of trophies, I don't. I could barely call up a turkey to save my life, but like it to me is just being outside.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Like it to me is just being outside. Yeah, and I don't like going on a hike for the sake of being outside. I need an activity and that, for me, is the activity and I love everything about it. I love both nature and the camaraderie of being around other hunters. I love the wildlife, I love the tools in the trucks, in the four-wheelers, you know, I just love everything about it. But dogs have always been a part of that and I've always had a special love for dogs, like a lot of people do. But, like my high school job growing up was working for a veterinarian. Really. Nice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just kind of. We always had pets but it wasn't until I think my senior year of college my dad got a black lab and trained it using the old water dog book, which was great. I mean, he was essentially an empty nester and he went down to the soccer field every day and just you know, the dog wasn't perfect but she would go get a duck and we did. You know Alabama duck hunting. You know nothing special. You know you go where there's ducks and you might kill five, you might kill 15. But the whole point was to be outside and watching him do that with that dog and hunting with that dog was kind of ingrained in me and it's something I always wanted to do. You know you fast forward to how we got to today. You know, one of my mentors told me one time to not get a dog until I had a wife and two kids and I thought that was good advice and I did that. So she was the best dog I ever had. No offense to Gus, he's a good dog, but Bebe was perfect, but at that time we had small kids and there was no real— I did a little bit of water dog training but really no opportunity for me to actually get her to the point where she was ready to hunt. But she was a great pet and and and um. And that first dog, uh, went to dog heaven a few years ago and it was time to get the next one. And the kids. We've got three kids. They're in high school, middle school and elementary school. And my wife knows, you know, that being outside and being active is what clears my head, makes me a happy person and a better husband and father. And she encouraged me to find a dog that I could train. Oh, that's good, yeah, and so that's how we found Gus. He's a one-and-a-half-year-old, I guess British, you know, black lab, and we wanted a male because we had had a female. We didn't want to be always comparing Gus to the perfect dog and that wouldn't have been fair to him. So we got a male and buddy, did we ever? You know, the female was quiet and sweet and calm and Gus is completely wide open, you know, chewing the doorframe off the side of the house kind of guy. But he's a total sweetheart and we love him.
Speaker 3:But I tried the water dog technique, like my dad used, and I just didn't have the consistency, the opportunity he had because we kids were basically out of the house. So I was struggling with it and I was walking my dog one day and ran into my friend Bo Flurry the real hero of this story who had trained a dog using Cornerstone. And he was walking his dog, I was walking mine. He said how's it going? I said not great, and he turned me on to Cornerstone. Wow, he was walking his dog, I was walking mine. He said how's it going? I said not great, and he turned me on to Cornerstone and he was kind of my Sherpa through the onboarding process and just really understanding how it would work and how I could fit it into my schedule. And that was a little over a year ago.
Speaker 2:Wow yeah, so y'all just yeah. And Bo, he's local too, so y'all just were on a trail and ran into each other, just talking dogs.
Speaker 3:We had. We were actually just on a neighborhood street, we each had a kid and a dog, and I think it was just a kind of cold, dreary day and we were getting out of the house on a Saturday, both walking our dogs, yeah.
Speaker 2:Man, that's crazy how those pivotal moments just alter a course it really is, so just alter a course it really is. So that's how you found yourself with a dog and with Cornerstone Did now kind of rewind just a little bit for hunting. Obviously the fishing was there. It sounds like your dad got the land for you guys to go hunt. Did you go on a hunt with him for the first time? Or was it a friend that took you on a hunt for the first time? Or do you remember kind of your first hunt, whether it's a duck hunt or a deer hunt? That kind of got you down the trajectory of, hey, there's more than fishing, I want to do these other things too.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So my dad and I would go dove hunting on like a friend's property a couple times a year. It was his way to just get out of the house. And I think, honestly, now that you ask, I don't remember my first deer hunt, I must have been young. Yeah, yeah, I do remember my first good duck hunt. My neighbors had some property in North Alabama and it was a snowy day Really and we, you know, first time I'd ever I was probably, you know, 14 or 15, and we shot ducks and our dog went and got the ducks. I thought it was the coolest thing ever, wow, yeah.
Speaker 3:But yeah, we joined this club and it was a club where there were probably 30 members on a big track, yeah, but there were no ducks. We tried, but there were no ducks, but those 30 members were probably only like 10. That went every weekend and that's where, through this community of men who kind of came together through, you know, it was really more of a deer club than anything that I just kind of became a sponge and soaked up all this knowledge and information about hunting and the outdoors. And, you know, not to get too philosophical on you, but like, to me, it's all about experiences and I wanted to learn about those people and their lives.
Speaker 3:And this property had like you could go dig up nautilus shells, you know, like there was, just there, was. There was so much more to it than hunting an animal. For me, that, um, that kept drawing me back and and wanting me to be able to recreate that for my kids. Wow, um, and, and have been lucky enough to find a club full of great men who had the same same passion but also were interesting people that come together and we can share our lives together.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, that's pretty cool. I love what you said about experiences. It's all about those experiences and I feel like the whole dog training journey is really that, and if you're not careful you can get the burden of when you're training your dog. Just focus on the end goal. The end goal, that's right. But honestly, the success and the win is today. It's what you're doing today that matters. It's that. Are you making the connection? Are you connecting with your dog today? Are you moving the ball forward? But also, are you enjoying today? Because it's easy to be somewhere in the middle of training and think, man, some dogs are way better than mine or we're not near where I want to be, but in reality, like you are exactly where you want to be. You're training a dog. That's right, you're having fun.
Speaker 2:So I love what you said about that, about the experiences, and I think that's so valuable. I kind of share that same sentiment to you. I think a lot about where I want to invest just my time and resources with my family, and it comes down to, you know, let's make sure they're getting experiences, cause that's what you'll you'll remember right, versus just things and stuff like that. Just it's not not the same, but those moments, like you, you shared something about that moment that you remember your first. You remember your first duck hunt and your dad's dog went and got that. I mean, that's something you can't, it's irreplaceable. Such a valuable moment in time and to see that happen obviously sets you up for where you are now and maybe even aspiring for more right, aspiring to take your dog to another another level.
Speaker 3:That's right. That's right. Yeah, that's like a foundation of memories and you know that when we, when we think about what we want our lives to become, it all comes from there.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And, as a dad, I just hope to be able to create a rich enough life for my kids, with varied experiences, so that they can choose their path and feel confident and supported to go and pursue, you know, whatever it is that interests them.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. So getting into training. So you found so it doesn't sound like training was going great. That's when you ran into Bo, that's right. What was going on just didn't have the direction you felt like you needed. Yeah, what was the challenges you were facing at the time that made you you know whatever? And what was it about Bo were facing at the time that made you you know whenever? And what was it about Bo and his dog that kind of made you think, hmm, maybe I should do what they're doing or maybe I should go down that path.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure, I think the challenge you know in some of those older materials is you don't. What's really hard to take away is the amount of repetitiveness that is needed. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And there's no plan in that book. It explains what to do. But I think that when you read those books, they're written for an audience that had already a community around them, right, and you know, I think about, like my grandfather's generation, like all of his friends hunted, and they all you know, or they all fished, and they all they had this shared knowledge. There was no internet, so they all met regularly and talked about it and, yeah sure, the pool of information that they were pulling from was pretty small, right, but they were all very, very well-versed in that information and they shared the wins and losses together.
Speaker 3:And so, as just a standalone person, I had, you know, that book and a handful of other books that I was trying to kind of patch together and the end goal was not like a, you know, a dog that could go win a field trial, it was a dog that you know. A dog that could go win a field trial is a dog that you know could literally just go get the duck for me, right, and I could have that fun experience and, you know, eat a duck, right. And so I think we were struggling just to move past, like the beginning stages, you know, the sit and heal and come and anything related with it, with a dummy. And so when I ran into Bo and he said he asked me if I, if I'd heard of this, and I had not, and and he had his.
Speaker 3:You know, I've got this six month old puppy that can do nothing, and he's got this two year old dog, um, and of course I asked like, well, how's it going? You know like he said, man, we just wrapped up a great season. You know, here's how many good retrieves he had. You know he had this success story just laid out in front of me, Wow, and you know. So when I thought about, you know what does success look like? I just had this human and dog form of it, just walk into my life.
Speaker 2:It was amazing. It's pretty unique, that's amazing.
Speaker 3:And then so of course I went and looked it up and I went back last night and read my text thread with Bo and I was asking him when do you do it? Because he's a busy guy, he's got kids, and he, his answers were were dead on. It's like you can work it into your schedule, you know, you can take time off, you can come back to it. He, he also told me the places near our house, our houses where he that he trains, which was helped me visualize what it might look like to to undertake and and and of course, you know again, supportive wife kind of, was there through the whole thing and she, she's like, yeah, this is a no brainer, that's cool, yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 2:It's good to have that support. It's amazing. And now you got a better dog because of it, which I'm sure she's even more, even more happy about. She is Wow. So when you so you decided to pull the trigger. What was it like? Stepping into that? Right Cause, obviously there's some apprehension even before, even if it seems like it sounds like a good thing. Even with Bo, it's like, okay, what about for me and my family? At least, that's probably what I would be asking, but obviously you believe it was the right choice. How was it stepping into that? How did you navigate the? Maybe the apprehension or maybe I wouldn't, even if it's not that maybe just uncertainty of the journey you were embarking on?
Speaker 3:Sure, no, I think there was. There was some uncertainty mainly because Gus was six or seven months old at the time. There was some uncertainty mainly because Gus was six or seven months old at the time and you know, I felt like I was like the question in my mind was am I starting over? And you know a lot of the onboarding content and cornerstones about. You know when you get your dog home and what to do with the dog, which all would have been great information, you know, and I, you know I was kind of watching these videos going what like, is this the right call? Because I've already done this stuff or I've missed this stuff.
Speaker 3:But very quickly, you know, you get, you get through the first few videos and you realize, okay, there's some things here already, even though he's six months old and he knows, you know the basic commands. Could you know? Is there a way that you know I could start building some of this methodology into what we're doing? And it was, you know, a week later and I'm using your methods versus the old methods to you know, bring the dummy back to me or whatever it was. So the apprehension was very short-lived, but also, being a busy person, but really just my nature. I need a plan. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And especially on things that I don't know much about or haven't done before. You know, it's just like give me the play coach and I'll go execute it right, and I just needed the playbook, and so whatever apprehension I had going in a few weeks in, or maybe just a weekend, once I understood what the method was and had the playbook, it disappeared. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:How did that feel, walking in with the actual step-by-step hey, this is what you do day one, day two, day three, day four, and then start the next week. How was that for you? I guess come into contrast. Did it change how you trained? Obviously it changed how you trained, but did it change, like your, your schedule, or was your setup different? Were you starting to do a little bit of study time now and then less trying to process how you're actually going to implement what you're learning? Or maybe I don't know, just from what first comes to mind, as you hear, those thoughts.
Speaker 3:I think honestly having that playbook and understanding just how small the improvements are day to day.
Speaker 3:Yes, often unnoticeable, right. It's kind of like we have this saying that we use at work where, like, growth comes in steps, there's not, there's never a line, right, yes, you go, you go flat, and then you, and then you grow, like this interesting and um and and that, knowing that you know I needed to go back again tomorrow and the next day, even though I saw no improvement today. Or maybe it was a bad day, you know, maybe he was just totally uninterested, knowing that you know there was progress right around the corner. That motivated me to train a lot more. I think I probably increased training by 50, maybe 80% on a regular basis once I dove into the content. I think it also made it way more fun.
Speaker 2:That's good, that's good.
Speaker 3:I tend to be a perfectionist, I tend to hold myself and others to high standards, and Gus unfortunately got the wrong end of that stick the first six months of his life and I was just unhappy with the results. And so I was unhappy with him and it showed we didn't have the relationship, the bond that we have now. I mean, he couldn't understand what I was asking from him and he didn't see. He never saw me happy about it. So he was, he was thoroughly confused and I was. I was very frustrated. So I think it increased the amount of time I spent training, but it also made it a lot more fun for both of us. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Build From here is brought to you by Retriever Training Supply. Build unforgettable moments with your retriever and equip yourself with the tools to create a lifetime of joy and discovery with your dog. Retriever Training Supply offers the tools you need to train your retriever with confidence To shop now, visit RetrieverTrainingSupplycom so that you can strengthen your bond, inspire new adventures and train with confidence, knowing you have the right tools for your retriever. When, as you're embarking on this journey, you know a lot of people, they face the fear of, you know, failure or not, and I would say the right term for failure would be it's not just failure as the person, but failure of the dog. Right, am I going to let my dog down? Yeah for sure. Is that something that kind of went away fairly quick as you went in, or is that something you even faced? Or was it another? Obviously, we kind of talked about a little apprehension going away quickly, but I don't know if one of those thoughts was kind of lingering in the back of your mind.
Speaker 3:That's the dark side of the perfectionism is, you know, you can picture failure pretty easily when you're wired that way. And no, it was there. I mean I think you know it went away. If you just think about, sort of the last year of training, which is, I think, about how far, well, a year and a quarter or so and we are, you know, the summer months, spring and summer months have tended to go quickly and go well, because my schedule is freer from a work perspective and the winter has kind of dragged, yeah, and so going in in the spring was great. We had a ton of motivation, motivation or, excuse me, a ton of progress early on. Um, and you know, the, the work travel slowed down, the, the, the kid, kid, sports stuff slowed down in the summer and we, we absolutely got after it. So, yes, it was that thought of a failure, but then it, you know, went away pretty quickly. But but, man, as soon as things slowed down again in the fall and the winter because of my, my lack of consistency, they came right back.
Speaker 3:And it was and it's even worse then, because then it's like man, all my friends know I'm doing this, my neighbors watch me in my backyard every day and I'm going to be this, be this. You know this fool who thought he could take on one more thing and and failed at it. Um, and so, yeah, it was there, and um, constant battle, yeah, constant battle. But but I, but you know the which makes the progress all all the all rewarding.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's pretty neat, early on what's been one of your most fun moments, kind of as a let's incorporate the family too like aspect, because obviously what we're talking about here is a family dog that can hunt. That's right. How was the? Or, before we even go there, let's dive into the family dynamic. What does it look like in your home? How do you incorporate Gus into the home? Sure, what is y'all's family dynamic? Because everybody's different. There's no right way to do it. It's just is he like? Is he chill on the couch? Does he have his own place? Does he stay in a crate and then go on walks? What does your guys' day-to-day look like with Gus?
Speaker 3:Sure, so it's. It can be very different. Um, every day. He's got a little side yard. Um, that's a perfect, you know, dog run area.
Speaker 3:Um, our house, I would say, while we've we're, we're, we're busy, um, we got lots of people coming and going. Our setup, the house itself, is not a great dog house. It's an old house, a bunch of small rooms, so for a puppy you can't really keep eyeballs on him and he loves to like sneak up the back stairs and go find something to chew on or something like that, and so it's relatively controlled in the house. We've got a kennel right, like in the dining room right next to the kitchen house. We've got a kennel right in the dining room right next to the kitchen I try to.
Speaker 3:One of the things I'm focused on right now is him spending more time in the house with us, not in the kennel, but that's been a very slow process, so I would say he sleeps in there. In the mornings. He and I go get the newspaper every morning that's part of our morning routine and then he sits with me while I eat breakfast and then pretty much when the house wakes up and kids are going around, running around like crazy, is when he goes outside, yeah, and that could be until I train him in the afternoon. But it could be for until he eats dinner that night and goes to bed, right, and especially when I'm traveling for work, that could be five days in a row where he gets almost no attention, yeah, but so he's sitting, he's hanging out outside. There's, you know, lots to look at, but all training and family life kind of pauses while I'm on the road.
Speaker 2:That's good. I love what you're talking about there because and it is different for everybody, you know I like what you're talking about the control aspect, right, you don't want to give your dog too much freedom. Too much freedom is 100% a bad thing, especially with a Labrador retriever, golden retriever, it doesn't matter, they will destroy. They will destroy, that's just, it's in their nature they will. But also that structure that you've got him even you know going to get the newspaper, then he knows when the kids do their thing, he goes here, he hangs out. So that consistency of structure is good for him and then he kind of knows okay, now it's work time, we're going on a travel schedule here, so now this is what it's going to look like. You know that consistency goes a long way to help them stay stable for the dog. So I think the structure idea that you've got going on is awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like last night was a great night on that front. We grilled out and I just made him follow me to the kitchen and to the grill and back and forth, so he didn't slip away and he did pretty good. But yeah, that's something we've been focused on a lot lately. But you know the old dog I said she was perfect man. She never chewed up a shoe, she never. I know it was amazing. It was a real blessing, considering the kids were little, that we didn't have a typical lab. But Gus is a typical lab and so we keep eyeballs on him and he spends a lot of time outside. That's good.
Speaker 2:So, training as you're digging in, what was one of your first wins that you started to realize? Oh wow, this is pretty cool, Like I could see myself really diving in and doing this, or this is really starting to work. What was the first win on that?
Speaker 3:You know, I think when we went from the backyard to a new place yeah, backyard to a new place and you know the basic obedience, he was about as bored with it as I was. You know, I know it's important, but doing heel work in the driveway, I mean, both of us were just like man, let's get moving on this. But he does fine with it, or he did fine with it, but I feel like, and to this day, send a Place is like our sort of when we're struggling with something. I just set those place boards up and he just loves it. You know, and and and so, and I remember going to a church down the street, you know, at daybreak, and him really nailing the hand signals and thinking like this is this is different. You know, this is different than like teaching your family dog to to sit and stay yeah um, and he really, he really gets it.
Speaker 3:And um, yeah, I'm feeding him little hot dogs, but like he would do it without that right now, and so, um, that for me and then you kind of expand that out to um extended place and on the hunting stand and doing things that look and feel like hunting is um, was, I think, the first real kind of aha moment, like I think this is going to work and we really really had started having a lot of fun with it.
Speaker 2:Man, that's one of my favorite parts of the training is that and especially you're not, I don't think you're quite there yet, but you'll get there in some of the later weeks. So what you did in those early weeks of the hand signals, when you get to the later weeks we reintroduce hand signals for for real. For real, like on retrieves, and it typically is immediate.
Speaker 2:Is that right, like there's no delay, they get it. And like all of a sudden they're doing hand signals with retrieves and it's like wow, all that work, it really does show all the foundation you do really does make the house come together instantly. The foundation is so crucial. So all the work, like you said, the front-loaded work where you're starting to think, man, it's time to move on, that work pays off dividends for years coming. I know you've already seen it from Member Weekend and some of the other stuff. I think we should just dive in head-on real quick to a challenge you face real quick, because right now it sounds like everything was good, but we know everything's not always good when we're training and so it sounds like you had the moment of success. You're thinking, great, this is different. I don't think it was too long after that that you started running into maybe this ain't going to work.
Speaker 3:Yeah, good old fetch. Yeah, Came and got us. But maybe this ain't going to work. Yeah, good old fetch. Yeah, Came and got us. And you know to describe, I think, Gus. He's a super excited, high-energy dog, and I mentioned he's a Brit earlier, just because he's not like your typical, you know American lab that is so high energy that you've got to calm him down right Right right, he's a big baby.
Speaker 3:And when we started working on Fetch in the backyard, my corrections were too strong and you know, I wanted him to get the details of it and he was reading into my corrections even though I was just saying no, or even just not giving him a treat. He just would shut down. And I got to a point where, you know, we had moved from the hunting stand to the place, to the place board on fetch, and every time I tried to to to make him incrementally better and and and expect one more you know thing out of him that he couldn't do yesterday or last week, he just would shut down on me and he would drop the dummy, he would bob his head back, he would even throw it over his shoulder. Yeah, you know, that frustrated me significantly. And you know, and I like to be honest with you, like all the content that's on the Facebook group is so valuable, but I just like didn't have the motivation to go dig through it. All Right, fine, I knew the answer was out there, but you know, I just I didn't really go dig and dig and dig and I finally, and I'm not a like, it's not in my nature to go to go, even go post in one of those things. Right, yeah, but that's when I posted a video of him doing just that bob in his head, and I can't remember if he tossed it in the video or not, but you know the response was man, that dog is fired up. You know, I know he's. This is in the comments, I know. You know you just stick with it, you're going to get it, which was, which was helpful.
Speaker 3:But I needed to know like, what do I do today? What do I? How do I? How do I get him know? Like, what do I do today? What do I? How do I? How do I get him to like hold this dummy, which is still not? It's kind of like back to the you know the heel work in the driveway. He's still. When I say hold the dummy or hold it, you know he's like, really, you know, let's go play, let's go run, let's go do something fun. So it's that, it's that mixture. It's different with every dog, of course, but it's that mixture of what's the right amount of discipline and the right amount of excitement for that exact moment, for this thing. I could get it on all the big stuff, like in the field, but I could not find the mixture on fetch. Find the mixture on Fetch, yeah, and that was, that was, is and still has been. You know that that was the the, the biggest challenge we faced.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I remember kind of going back and seeing that post. I don't really remember how we ended up coming in contact. I don't know if you had made another post or someone had commented or you were following up and giving some more perspective. I don't really remember, I just remember finding out, hey, you're actually local and we kind of started talking about that. And I remember when I was able to show up because, again, you're 20 minutes down the road Gus was actually doing good, we kind of walked. You walked me through what we just talked through. You'd walk me through the obedience and you started showing me what he was doing. And sometimes you just get you get yourself dug in a hole and this is anybody. You dig a little bit of a hole and then sometimes you panic and you start digging the hole deeper.
Speaker 3:That's right for sure.
Speaker 2:I feel like that's what had happened when I got there and it became some. There's this, this concept, at least this mental block. Okay, if you start to run into the challenge this is why I see a lot of people start to think, man, it becomes worse and worse and worse in your mind than it really is. And when I started looking at you and Gus, we just started trying some stuff, watching what you guys were doing, and overall Gus was responsive, he was obedient, he was engaged with you, which is all good signs. And if he would have been not looking at you, not giving you eye contact or any of that, that's where you start to see, okay, those are challenges.
Speaker 2:But what I noticed with Gus is he was excited about it. He just seemed like he, you know he was. Basically what he found is that it was fun if he grabbed the bumper, he could throw it up and then drop it down. And then we started talking about being more dynamic, if I remember correctly but again, I'm just doing this off the top of my head, so I'm just trying to rewind in my mind but what I remember is, yeah, he was throwing it up and what we started talking about was adding movement, getting a little more dynamic, and that first session we saw a little bit of improvement. I felt like. So we kind of went through a couple of sessions and then Gus started improving, I believe, if I remember correctly, he definitely started to improve. He started making progress and then there was kind of a gap or a period in there, if I'm not mistaken, and then maybe could help fill in some of the gaps. Were we on the right track? Is?
Speaker 3:it. Yeah, no, you're on the right track. This was we'd been at Fetch for a few weeks, or Fetch Hold Release, and I remember your takeaway, or your directive that day, which was such a relief to me. You said it with a big smile on your face. I remember the moment you said, man, this dog just needs some wins, this dog needs some momentum. And because you could see where, when he wasn't perfect, I was trying to get him, I was trying to clean up the details, and his reaction to that was to shut down. So he went from this happy dog who's super engaged, to like all right, you know dad's not happy with me, that's right, I'm going to stop doing what makes him unhappy. And so you know, the example that rings in my head was he would when I, when I'd hold the dummy, and he's on the place where he would jump up for it. Yeah, and and if you in you, you offered that unfortunate oh, it's a little bit unfortunate that violet in the, in the, in the videos, she just nailed this part so perfectly right.
Speaker 3:And so I'm watching Violet and I'm like man, she's so calm, she doesn't move and that's what we need. And when I tried to correct Gus make him sit or whatever he just interpreted it incorrectly and your encouragement was like all right, if that's how he wants to fetch right now, that's fine, we can work on that as a part of this whole process. Don't try to stop that, because that's in his nature. Make that a part of the whole process. And so we did and that went fine. And then, honestly, it was the hold. It was. It was when I came back to you a month or so later. He just would not hold that dummy.
Speaker 2:That's right. Yeah, you got the fence started going good, but then we're dropping.
Speaker 3:Yeah, then we're dropping and again, wave after wave.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, you've made one progress and then boom back in the hole again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I would try to like I would throw it in the lane that I'd built in the backyard or whatever. And after I'd made him do a fair amount of reps on fetch hole release. If I would throw it, it was a cigar hold every time Right, and whereas when he was excited about it he would come in and grab the middle of the dummy. And and I'd also there, there was a I think I'd started on too big of a dummy, yes, and I didn't have, as I didn't have a lot of creativity around it and you encouraged me to, I took a smaller dummy I made. I put towels on the end of it and wrapped them in duct tape. I called it the dumbbell dummy so he knew where to grab. I would only reward him for grabbing right in the middle. And so those you know your encouragement to be a little bit more creative in that process was helpful. And then again, what you saw in both those times that we spent together was you saw improvement in him that I wasn't seeing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you were very close to it. Obviously, you were doing it every day, yeah, and I came back later.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And that second time you were like man, this dog's got it, like you're just right around the corner. And you gave me like basically truncated versions of what's in the manual. You just said, just take. Or in the content you said, just take this and do this for the next four days. And it wasn't anything different than what's in the videos. It was just I needed, or we needed, to focus on a piece of it for longer. And that again gave us the playbook, gave us the momentum, and he's still not perfect on it, but it helped us get to a point where we could advance out of it, get into the field, start doing some lining memories and things that are more fun. And you even said, like man, you send that dog, this excited, out to go get it. He's going to grab the middle of it. Yeah, 100%. And he did. You know, if he were sitting right here and we did fetch work, it probably wouldn't be perfect, but if you send him to go get one, he'd probably grab the middle of it, yeah.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't be perfect, but if you send him to go get one he'd probably grab the middle of it. Yeah, I like what we were talking about earlier, just kind of like an artist. You're the artist, your dog is the canvas. You know every detail of the canvas because you're so close to it. You're there with it every single day, you're constantly chiseling away at that sculpture and you can see every imperfection. But from the outside in we don't see those imperfections as much right, especially if you're not. You know, if your friends see your dog, you see your dog. The reason we are so precise in training our dogs and this counts for me too I see the same on my own dogs. I can easily see their imperfections because I'm so close to it.
Speaker 2:But when you, it helps to sometimes get some outside perspective, because sometimes you're doing better than we think we are, because sometimes we focus so much on the imperfection we're failing to see the beauty of the whole thing. And same with our dogs. And the last time you come out it was kind of one of those things I think with your dog, like he was doing good and we were trying to put all the pieces together. And when we worked in the driveway there. Um, you ended up coming to my house that time. I started we worked with him for like five minutes. I said, hey, man, this dog's good, he's good, he's ready to move on. And then you just started doing it. What it was is you were aiming for that, any imperfection, you were trying to get perfect.
Speaker 2:But that progress over perfection, saying we have, is a, it's a. It's a hard balance, right? Because I think sometimes we're afraid and myself included analysis, paralysis. I was talking to somebody yesterday about this on the phone. Sometimes we're afraid to take the next step because we're afraid we're going to miss something and it's going to be detrimental or it's going to, like we said, not do justice. The dog deserves, it's got the capability, it deserves to be here. But if we take that next step, what if I miss something? But the beauty of it is is you can always take a next step. And if you did miss something.
Speaker 1:You can always clean it up later, but you know the art the art of it is is there, and that's a.
Speaker 2:That's a hard thing to be the artist, right, because we're so critical of our own art, but in in the end, when you look at it, it's like man. That's actually pretty cool what they're able to do.
Speaker 3:You're right. And as a person that is so involved in it, not only can you see those imperfections, we internalize those as weaknesses of our own. That's right. And to be and you say it in the videos that's right. You say it in the videos. But to be surrounded by a community of people who highlight their imperfections in the process, I think is very important. It's hard to pull from the Facebook group. The member weekend was really great for a lot of reasons, but that too, you can tell somebody. It's okay to not be perfect, but for somebody to sit next to you and tell you a story about how imperfect their dog was is a whole different dynamic.
Speaker 2:Wow, well, yeah, let's talk about Member Weekend for a second. So you came out to Member Weekend. This was. You know what was it like getting into that, thinking about saying yes to it and saying yes, and then what was your experience like when you were there? Because I know a lot of people and we're going to hit on community a little more too. We'll talk about, uh. Yeah, I guess, while we're on this episode, we might just mention the, the chapters and all that's coming. Yeah, uh, since we're so close to releasing that, we might as well just go ahead and make it uh, make it live for the world to see.
Speaker 3:Absolutely yeah, um, yeah, so you know, we're just for context. On timing, we're about a year into, you know, training at this point, um, gus, would you know, was was about a year and a half, which he's this. This wasn't that long ago, remember, weekend yeah um and uh.
Speaker 3:I think you'd send some emails or somehow I'd caught word of it. And again I went back to my Sherpa, bo flurry, and said what do you think about this? Have you done it? Am I ready for it? And he had a conflict so he couldn't make it, but he strongly encouraged me to attend, despite, whatever you know, hesitancies I had about our ability and you know, not coming from a family of dog trainers, not having done this before being, you know in my mind, like way behind schedule, which doesn't matter right and generally just, you know, worried about you know, showing up and embarrassing myself to be honest with you.
Speaker 2:I understand that.
Speaker 3:Um, I needed, I needed that encouragement, um and uh and yeah. So we, you know, and, and it was also a busy time of year Um, I think you know I had uh, I it's a, it's a Friday to Sunday thing and I had family activities Friday night and Saturday night. So I was, you know, burning up the road, driving back and forth all weekend. But you know, when we've talked about breakthroughs, you know, at different times through the training, nothing compared to member weekend, it was an absolute, absolute game changer.
Speaker 2:Wow.
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 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.
Speaker 2:So now back to the podcast. You came at a good time too, I'd say, especially that far in training you can really see the pieces come together. It's good to come at any time of the training, right because you're up in elbows. But obviously you had, you haven't enough experience at that point to really make that count and to start to maybe have some eye-opening experiences. So like, okay, maybe we are in a pretty good spot. You know, obviously there's, you can always see where we can improve.
Speaker 2:But starting to recognize hopefully gave you some context on wow, this is actually we actually have have come further than I thought we would have, because member weekend is a very challenging experience for a dog, especially the first day, when they're around 50 other dogs and it's like they've never done that before and they're all dogs that are high, strong, that are go-getters, that want to retrieve.
Speaker 2:So, being in that tense environment and the and as a trainer, you, you said it right we're all nervous, maybe a bit apprehensive, afraid that our dog yeah, I I've heard this before that the experience coming into, you think everybody's going to have a tier one dog and they're all going to be the best trained and, like you know, just so much better. But in reality, uh, like I said, you know we're all critical of our own art, but as you, you realize, wow, okay, my dog is further than it, that it is. But also you get those experiences when you're there. And uh, it was pretty cool from what my perspective, just seeing you and gus out there. Yeah, it looks like. Uh, y'all had a pretty good time and gus made some some good headway.
Speaker 3:He really did. I mean, I you know, um, just for context, I guess, for people that haven't done it, there's different stations that simulate different hunting environments, all of which would be hard to recreate on your own. You would need a group of people to recreate this and the perfect property to do it. So it was the combination of those things, plus the other folks there, who know other folks there, um, who a lot of folks had traveled from a long way away, and I'm lucky to to to be, you know, just right down the road, but, um, yeah, I mean that experience, um, not only did, did he learn a lot, um, and did you know I was? I was able to talk to other people and stuff, but what I the real game changer for me was watching him perform imperfectly, but way above, you know, blair and Gus and a couple of dummies in a field. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:To watch him like and we had, just while I introduced him to gunfire, long long before this, it hadn't, it hadn't been associated with a retrieve yet, yeah. And so things like watching him, you know, associate those two things and get excited about it, yeah, and our challenge I mean really the only challenge we had that entire weekend was he was too excited, you know, to watch another dog. He'd never seen another dog retrieve before. Wow.
Speaker 2:Wow, what a big weekend for him.
Speaker 3:It was a big weekend and so it's funny, the first exercise we did, or you know, the first training we did, was over by the lake and he's watching other dogs go. He's sitting at heel and he's kind of watching. He's cool. He eventually just laid down and chilled out, which is not typical for him. I was like okay, then he went. Not only did he get it, you know, like he connected the gunfire to the dummy, he jumped in the lake, he brought it back. That was great. But then for the rest of the weekend now he's tuned in to like what he gets to do and what exciting thing was was to come that for the rest of the weekend he was so amped up that he was like whining and even barking. I've never heard this dog bark before that weekend.
Speaker 3:And um, and you know, and I was, I was having to kind of heal him away from the excitement just to so other people could train, and it wasn't a, you know, it wasn't a bad thing to have a dog that's excited, you know for that. But to it was like when you talk about a light bulb moment. He went from laying down, you know kind of kind of bored, you know, looking around to like jumping out of his skin every time another dog was going to get the chance to retrieve. And for me it was not just like we, gus and I, advanced. You know, if you think about, you know your 52 weeks, I feel like we advanced six weeks that weekend, not so much in skills learned, but just confidence gained. That's important. It was very important. Just confidence gained, that's important. It was very important. And I could see that like all of the instincts needed were in this dog before I got there. Wow, and I mean he just took to it so easily that it was obvious that like we're going to make it. Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know like this dog is going to be able to hunt. Wow, and it wasn't so obvious to me before that that's pivotal right there, I mean that's huge.
Speaker 3:It was huge, man. And then you know, all of the different stations were great, but like especially the one where we're walking in a line and the dummy is shot from the dummy launcher, like to watch. You know, your dog, that you've been, you know, session after session, day after day, for a year in your backyard or at a park with go and do the thing that you have envisioned him doing the entire time. Man, I'd slept so well that night.
Speaker 2:It was a game changer for both of us. Man, that is so cool, especially like seeing the dream come to fruition and, like you said, seeing that hope, that light at the end of the tunnel, like, wow, all the work you've done actually wasn't in vain, it has paid off. And we've hit on a couple of themes here that we'll kind of tie in together and then we'll kind of talk a little bit about community, since that's what we're chatting about here. Some of the themes are sometimes you're so close to it you can't really see the progress. So then if you're not careful you'll start to feel discouraged. You're like man, maybe this isn't working like it needs to, and then if you dig a hole, then you start getting frustrated. Then it starts to compound and spiral. And as you kind of get out of that spiral by refocusing and focusing on the things that matter, which is just making small wins and progress that's what we talk about, just getting a win Then you start to see that progress. I'd say one of the greatest things anyone could ever do is just document their journey as far as notes go, and specifically document the wins. And when you start seeing, you know, my dog started from here and here's where I'm at now, that right there alone will help you recognize, wow, my dog is actually making that big progress. But those are some of the themes that I feel like that we're seeing.
Speaker 2:But then the realization of, like you said at Member Weekend, all this work even though you couldn't really see that what you're doing, it was working but it didn't feel like it was working like you wanted it to you're doing it was working but it didn't feel like it was working like you wanted it to and then to see it all come together on a big moment, like that helps you realize, wow, the journey that I walked did pay off.
Speaker 2:It did work, like the stuff I've actually done counted, the work I've done actually counts, like a dog is getting it. That's huge to see and I hope that people that are listening to this start to recognize that maybe, as they see those tendencies of where they're at, maybe that'll encourage them to realize, oh, you know, maybe what, even though I can't see it right now, I can listen to what these guys are saying here and like this will pay off. All I got to do is just keep being consistent, put in the work and then the outcome will come in due time, at the right moment, you'll see it come to fruition. No, at the right moment, you'll see it come to fruition.
Speaker 3:No, that's exactly right. And in finding ways to gain that perspective, I think it's a challenge, especially to work into your daily life. But it not only helps you move through the challenges, but it makes the time with your dog more enjoyable, because when you have the perspective of we're going to make it, it's going to be, fine, when you have the bad day you can say you know what bud, let's just go play, let's go to the creek, we don't have to get it right today.
Speaker 3:And that's just not my nature. My nature is like I'm going to map out my. I got seven days this week and I'm going to do these four days with the dog and these three days with the family and, if one goes wrong, the whole thing. You know.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of pressure to carry.
Speaker 3:It's a lot of pressure to put on yourself, and the dog can feel it. And you're just never going to have success when the dog is, when we're putting that much pressure on them.
Speaker 2:Right, right. Well, speaking of context, of being able to right, finding ways to find that context, to realize, wow, it is going to be okay. You know, obviously member weekend is a great way to do that.
Speaker 2:But what kind of the grassroots thing we were mentioning earlier, or the thing that we're going to let the world hear about right now, whenever this podcast airs, they'll know, is the Cornerstone chapters. I'm super excited about chapters. You're part of the Birmingham chapter, we've got the Birmingham chapter, we've got the Nashville chapter and we've got a handful of others that are. That are the pre chapters, the grassroots chapters to get started. But once this releases and goes live and the chapters become available, I mean a chapter can be anywhere. But basically a chapter is the opportunity to be close to those that are around you. Right, you happen to be close to those that are around you. Right, you happen to be in Birmingham. I'm in Birmingham, we're part of the Birmingham chapter.
Speaker 2:It just makes sense. If you're in Nashville, it makes sense to be part of the Nashville chapter, but being able to simulate, kind of what we do there at Member Weekend on a smaller scale and with your really close friends In fact, we need to talk to Bo, get him involved here with this as well, especially for the first chapter event. I'm really excited about that concept and you know you've been helping develop that, just as from the beginning. Right, you jumped in and I said, hey, do you want to be part of this and see what it's all about? So it's any thoughts on chapters and or anything you want to share for those out there? I know it's kind of building on what we're talking about there, but I'd love to hear some thoughts from you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, I mean you know, talking about how you know, member weekend was such a game changer for us. I'm lucky enough to live down the road. There were a handful of people, actually more than that, a lot of people that drove, you know, 12 hours plus to be here. Yeah, and I was amazed. I didn't expect that and if you had held member weekend in Minnesota I wouldn't have been there. But it's just not feasible for my lifestyle right now, but I would have missed that opportunity.
Speaker 3:But then I think about a chapter and how. What we did on member weekend is yeah, it was three days straight and it'd be a lot to do that with a group of folks, but you could do one day very easily and you could recreate that opportunity and just for your dog to be around other dogs, see them, um, see them be successful, no, not so much what they're supposed to do, but what their place in the puzzle is, um, and just a new experience for your, for the dog, and to have and to have help right Like it's. It can be work, um, and and you need you need other people's tools and time and expertise. What you've made available through Member Weekend could be created at scale with small groups, and I think people could get just as much benefit from it without having to drive 12 hours. And it excites me to think about a whole country of chapters, of people creating it and especially think about all the different ways that we can train these dogs for different terrains and different game.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So you know your Minnesota chapter is going to have a different focus than your Florida chapter and they're going to train differently and that's even better.
Speaker 2:That's pretty cool. I'm excited about the rubbing elbows aspect, and more so I'm just excited about the connections because I mean, as we're listening to this, what you said is how impactful that was being able to rub elbows, and actually it's one thing to see it on Facebook, right, but it's another thing to be there in person, like you said, just letting them ask down here and someone else tell you about their challenge with their dog and how they ever came that. So I'm very excited about that moving forward. So we're gonna have our first chapter event pretty soon. We'll get with you guys and find out, get that scheduled and then then we'll go from there on it.
Speaker 2:Um, a couple more thoughts I have, or questions I have, for you, as we kind of. You know, wrap up this first episode with you, which has been just phenomenal hearing. You know, wrap up this first episode with you, which has been just phenomenal hearing about your success and Gus's success and the challenges that you face, but also overcoming them. We'd love to know about what you're most excited about moving forward. I don't remember if we talked about it. We probably did, but you know you've been traveling for the past couple of months. You haven't done a lot of training, which I think is great because it shows the reality of life. Like sometimes you can't always do week week, week week, that's right. Like we've got things that come in. So now that travel may be down a little bit. What's your next steps with Gus? What are you most excited about and what are you most looking forward to as you finish out the course? Is there anything that stands out to you thus far that you're just like man?
Speaker 3:this is, this is what I'm fired up about yeah, sure, um, so we're, you know, we're technically halfway through the 52 weeks or you know, maybe we're a little bit, a little bit farther than that. But, um, you know, if I think about, you know, hunting season and in six months or so, um, and how much progress gus and I made last summer. Yeah, as you mentioned, my work, travel, but also, like kids, you know, travel, soccer, all those things are heavy in the spring and the fall and my kids go to summer camp and one's already gone and one's about to go and I'm going to miss them like crazy, but that means it's Gus time is about to go and I'm going to miss him like crazy, but that, that means it's Gus time and uh, so what I think about you know that I'm that I'm looking forward to is, I think back to the, the progress we made last summer and I want to replicate it and expand on it. But you know, obviously, um, you know we, we didn't, we didn't push Gus to be ready for his first hunting season, uh, he just, he just wasn't there, um, and so, getting him out in the blind, um, and you know, listen, I, he'll be, he'll be a two year old dog by the time he gets his first time in, and you know, when he brings that first duck to me, I'll probably cry like a baby.
Speaker 3:You know, that's that's but, but.
Speaker 3:But the best thing about that is that my, you know I'll be surrounded with friends and family.
Speaker 3:You know my, my son, will be there, and he has been as much a part of this process as anybody and and my friends that I, that I hunt with, will be there and they Gus, is known as the camp dog at the place we hunt, the camp dog at the place we hunt, and and so he, you know, they'll be a part of it and really just sharing that.
Speaker 3:You know the the opportunity that I've had to work with him has come because of all the people around me leaning in and supporting me, but, but, but, but also, you know, picking up the other parts of my life being my family and friends that support me in that way and just being able to really fulfill that opportunity that's been created. I'm excited about it and I think maybe at some points in time during this process I wasn't so sure I was going to see that Wow, and so now that I can see the light on it, I wasn't so sure I was going to see that, wow, wow. And so I'm, now that I, now that I can see the light on it, I'm, I'm super excited.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's always great to look forward to and you may, you know, making that right decision. There's two schools of thought, you know. Some want to get the dog out there and get an experience and some want to make sure the dog is ready. You know the cornerstone. We kind of think the school of thought would be lean towards wait till the dog is ready right, because you know the unintended consequences of if it goes wrong are not worth the uh, the experience. You can get them. So I'm confident that gus will do well when hunting season comes, and I can't wait for that.
Speaker 2:This will be a big fall for him and for you as y'all get those first few wins into your belt real birds and see it all come together in fruition.
Speaker 2:We'll have to do a follow-up episode after y'all's first few hunts or something like that, to talk about being on cloud nine and the dream comes to full reality. And what I love about the process here is that you're trusting the process. You see that it's going to work, and that's what I would love to encourage people on too. You don't have to be at the end of training to have a successful dog. You've already got a successful dog. You've already trained successfully, success is imminent. As long as you're willing to be consistent and put in the work over time and, like we said, it doesn't even have if you've got breaks in there, that's perfectly fine. But as long as you're willing to finish the mission, finish the reps over time, you'll get there and seems like y'all are right. What I guess kind of the final question I have for you before I ask that is there anything that you came to the episode wanting to share or that was just on your mind? You felt like you wanted to share with anybody?
Speaker 3:You know I think we've hit on it. But just leaning into that community as much as possible and the Facebook group, I'm sure it works for a lot of people for content. But find people near you that that are that are going through the same process and pick up the phone and call them. It's not this day and age, it's not the easiest thing for people to do, and but pick up the phone, call people and and go spend some time with them at the park and start building those relationships and you just never know where it's going to lead for you and your dog and life.
Speaker 2:That's good advice, especially now, with the chapters being unraveled and everything that'll be an achievable thing. Final question for this episode I always like to ask this If you could tell yourself advice, knowing what you know now, what would you tell yourself day one of starting this journey of training your dog? Would you recommend doing something any different? Would you, or is there one piece of advice per se? Maybe not even doing something different, but is there one like focus point? You'd say you know, blair, this is what you need to focus on right now. This is what you always just need to keep at the front of your mind.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that kernel that you shared the first time you came is give this dog some wins. This dog needs momentum and I remind myself of it every time. I'm training Gus. I remind myself of it every time I'm training Gus. I think that's the you know the dog training knowledge. And then for myself is kind of the same thing my incredible wife. She tells me every day chill out, that's good advice, and if I can combine those two. We usually have a pretty good day, Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I couldn't say it any better myself, might even, you know, just pay attention. You know, for those that are listening to this, you really need to heed that advice because it will, it'll go well for you. So well, blair, I appreciate having you on.
Speaker 2:It's an honor for you to take time to be here and I know it means a lot to everyone that's listening, inspires and encourages them. But again, I just want to applaud you for what you've done thus far and you being willing to face the challenges that you face right. Dog training is a journey that is more than achievable for anyone, but it's not going to come without a cost. It's not going to come without some resistance, and as long as you're willing to meet that resistance, like I said, success is inevitable if you're willing to do what you're doing, and so I want to applaud you for that and thank you. Thank you for being the best part of CGA and just giving it all you got.
Speaker 3:Thank you, josh. It truly is a gift to be a part of this that you've created and given to us, and honored to be here and be a part of it. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the build from here podcast. To learn more about retriever training or our podcast, visit cornerstone gundogacademycom slash podcast.