Build From Here
Build From Here
Recounting an Epic Goose and Duck Hunt | Colin Berry
#073 Every dog owner remembers the moment everything clicked, but few journeys are as transformative as watching a nervous college student evolve into a confident hunting partner alongside his retriever. Colin Berry takes us through five incredible years with Milo, from that fateful puppy pickup day when flip-flops and non-toe-biting behavior sealed the deal, to their recent epic Kansas waterfowl hunt that showcased the power of patience and proper foundation training.
We dive deep into the real challenges first-time retriever owners face - the overwhelming stress of potentially ruining a dog with excellent genetics, the comparison trap of social media training posts, and the crucial realization that steadiness trumps flashy retrieving skills every single time. Through candid storytelling, we explore how Milo taught invaluable lessons about patience that extended far beyond training sessions into every aspect of life.
The conversation reveals why true hunting dog excellence isn't measured by complex retrieves but by the ability to sit steady while hundreds of birds circle overhead. We discuss integrating working dogs into daily routines, the power of community connections through retriever training, and how shared hunting experiences create bonds that last a lifetime. Whether you're considering your first retriever or looking to deepen your understanding of the training journey, this episode offers honest insights and practical wisdom. Subscribe now and discover why the best hunting partnerships are built on trust, patience, and countless shared memories in the blind.
Cornerstone Gundog Academy Online resources to help you train your retriever.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Build From here podcast. We are in Retriever Training Supply and, as I've said on videos before, anytime I'm with this guy. This is just a good time. We've already had a big lunch. It was fantastic. Some good old barbecue Jim and Nick's A great lunch. It was fantastic. Some good old barbecue, Jim and Nick's A great lunch. It's fantastic. And you made the trek up here. Mr Milo's beside us chilling in his kennel and, man, this is going to be a fun episode. I'm really excited to have you here.
Speaker 3:I'm excited to be here and thank you guys for having me. It was a fun journey up here and hopefully Milo's not too loud just sitting next to us. He loves to be center of attention sometimes, that's for sure. Yeah, don't we all?
Speaker 2:So this episode. I'm really excited about this episode because we're going to really talk about another release that we're about to do the YouTube release from the Hunt from this past season with you and Milo and really a series of stories, and we kind of get into that into the episode a little bit. So we'll kind of bounce around. We'll talk a little bit about your story too, because you've been on the Built From here podcast before. It's been a while. It's been a while since we've had you on, so a lot has changed since then. So I would love to kind of dive into some of that. But what I'm really excited about is to let everyone know you guys that are out there on YouTube and y'all are getting ready. We've got an episode that's going to release here very soon and it's incredible. This was I mean, it looked like the Mecca of waterfowl. It was about as good as it gets and it doesn't really get much better. It was incredible.
Speaker 3:It was a fascinating hunt. I mean, just even watching the video right before we came back on and everything, it's just like living it back through your mind. You're like, wow, I can't believe we got to experience that and just do that, and our dogs got to experience it as well. It was just once in a lifetime opportunity. I feel like they were just all over us.
Speaker 2:It is, it's world-class. Once in a lifetime, I mean, when you've hunted enough, you've gone to enough places. It's just, it doesn't always pan out this way. But and also the shooting in this blind was spot on. I mean, birds were falling left and right.
Speaker 2:You know, sometimes I've been in big groups like that we're hunting and you know we're doing a good job, but we're not like not many birds were getting out, like there were some sharp shooters. So when all that comes together into one hunt, it's just, it's incredible. And then you've got a guy like you that has a dog. You've done a lot of good work with it and Milo was in heat at the time, so it was just you and Milo doing the dog work. So Milo had ample opportunity to really stretch his legs and do some work. Yeah, he had.
Speaker 3:I would say more than ample opportunity. That day it was literally birds falling left and right and it was, like you were saying, big groups coming in, and you can have that sometimes, where you have a big group and maybe only one or two birds fall, and we very rarely had that, I think we had mostly like at least four to six birds falling, every single group. It just made it so exciting, and literally all the times that those birds were falling and literally they were just circling right back, coming back, we just had to stay down and we didn't have to retrieve them. Sometimes we had to wait for them to circle back, put six more down and then we'd go back out there and retrieve. It was, it was exciting and it was.
Speaker 3:It was very good for the dog to see and then even all the other people that we got to hunt with as well, for everyone to experience that I mean to go out there and kill as many birds as we did, which it's not always about killing the birds and everything. It was the memories that we got to make. And now we get to sit here and then in 10 years, 15 years, we get to look back on all those memories and say man, remember that one time when we were freezing it was 15 degrees outside, but, man, it was a lifetime experience.
Speaker 2:Oh, dude, and that's what it's about is making those memories and, like, I mean, your dad is there, your cousin's there, we're all there and we also, and we talked about this in the episode. But if we rewind, let's see, a couple of years before there was I forget why we couldn't end up making it work the next year, but it was Milo's first season, I think. You had a baby, was that? No, what? No, I mean, we had a baby. That was it, that's right. Well, she was in the NICU, so that's why we just couldn't get away. That's right, okay, okay, how did y'all do that?
Speaker 3:let me think back.
Speaker 2:So it was because the first year is when we ran into the challenges. Yeah, but then we had to leave early and it worked out good for you yeah, it worked out.
Speaker 1:Anytime we leave early, it's just so first day.
Speaker 2:It's good and it worked out good for you. Yeah, it worked out in our favor.
Speaker 3:Anytime we leave early, it's just not good for everybody else, not good for us. So the first day with you guys, we caught a few birds and everything, which is a good hunt. Milo got his first retrieve that day. Second day, we actually upland pheasant hunted. We walked like 14 or 15 miles and my buddy Noah that you saw, he was having to drag his right leg because he was chafing so bad it was miserable. Then the next day we woke up and it was below freezing. There were snow flurries on the ground and this cattle pond was freezing over as the morning was going on and we had our limit within an hour and 30 minutes.
Speaker 3:Those birds wanted to be there that day, man, and then the next year, when we were back at Wade's, we had a very good first day and then a good second day, but, you know, not every day.
Speaker 2:Y'all had to get down the river, I believe.
Speaker 3:Yes, oh yeah, we smacked them on the river the first day. I mean, we smacked them on the river, that was a. That was a fun day. And then the second day we went to a field. Um, we did not fire a shot that day, but that's just just how it goes. Sometimes they were all in the sky, we just could not get them to come down. And then the third day, which was the final day of season, that's when Milo broke his foot on like the eighth bird that morning, went out, came back, got in his mow marsh, got his foot stuck in the mow marsh when he was twisting around and his toe just broke, I guess. And that's how we ended that season that year.
Speaker 3:So, but it was it was still a very good time going there and then following up to this year, where we are right now, which you can't beat. It, I mean, every time in Kansas is just, it gets better and better every year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the people are great. Wade is fantastic. Oh yeah, danny. Danny is awesome. He really took care of us. Danny really did, oh yeah, and he would go out of his way too. We'd be over there, we're having a good time. He'd go out of his way and just check in on you, just making sure that you're taken care of. I mean, it doesn't get any better than that. Oh, if you leave hungry.
Speaker 3:that is your own fault. Right there there, chef Danny is going to make sure that you're full, and it's an arraignment of food, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:It was fantastic. I mean I'm ready to go back right now.
Speaker 3:I am too, just to get out of this heat. If I can get out of this heat, I would that is for sure.
Speaker 2:But it's, yeah, it's hot right now. The August heat it's just or July, almost August, we're almost there and it's. It's crazy. So I want to rewind a little bit and then we'll kind of dive in and talk a little more about this episode, because I believe when people see this episode I mean just forewarning you, but when you watch this episode you're going to really have bird fever. I think you're going to be in trouble. You're really going to be wanting to.
Speaker 3:I've got it again. Just from watching about 10 minutes of it, I'm like, wow, when, how many days till the season now? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it gets to you. So it's uh, we we had to cut it off. We're getting too excited here. We're trying to figure out how we're going to like speed up time to get out there and kill birds, but, um, I kind of want to go back and just get back to the roots. It's been a while since you've been on the build from here podcast.
Speaker 2:I want to go back to, maybe, puppy pickup day and let's go back through. We didn't even talk about going through this. I want to get back through how you were feeling on puppy pickup day, because so often as we get further into this and we get dogs, we sometimes forget what it's like when we're first getting into this. But I want to go back and see if you can remember what it was like and then we'll kind of talk about how that journey you went on led you to. To me, I would just say, a defining moment was it was really that weekend where we hunted and it was all Milo. He was out there just crushing, doing the birds. So I really am excited to get to that. But let's go back to puppy pickup day. If you remember, were you on puppy pickup day, or?
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, so it was COVID, it was 2020. Actually, milo will be turning five like in two weeks, in August, oh my gosh. So we picked him up in October, october 25th or 28th, I can't remember the exact date. My mom will probably be mad that I can't, but it was COVID. So we went up to Mississippi it actually was at a different location than headquarters because Barton was sick at the time. So we had COVID and I remember I was being I was a little nervous because I mean puppies, a lot of responsibility and I remember like going back and forth of like, do I want this puppy, do I not want this puppy?
Speaker 3:Because I was still in college and everything like that. And then I got there that day and I was like excited at the same time, like I was like this is gonna be a lot of responsibility and I really ended up picking up Milo because he was the only dog at the time that didn't bite my toes. I was wearing flip-flops in October in Mississippi and it was very, very cold and I was like you know, this dog didn't bite my toes.
Speaker 3:He's super cute Florida boy, by the way, you know down in Florida and I was like you know what I'm going to get Milo? And I actually had the name picked out before I even had the dog picked out, wow and got him home and then really ever since then it's been my best friend. He's been there for me to finishing out college to all the tour I am right now. We've had a great journey together, that's for sure. Lots of ups and downs together, but it's exciting that I've done that journey, picked him up and we are here where we are now. I mean I don't know where I would be without Milo. To be honest, I was thinking about that driving up here. I was just looking next to him. I'm like, dang, you're getting some white furs on that chin, dude. I'm like you're getting too old too fast and it really made me think back. I'm kind of glad you asked that question. I'm like, dang, like you've been in a lot of life moments for me. I'm like this is very cool and I'm like, but I've also been there a lot for you. I'm like this is so exciting to see that we've got to do so much together.
Speaker 3:But it was a scary journey, I mean because you're getting a good dog, I mean a very dog with good genetics and everything, my first ever retriever. I mean I've had dogs before, but not like a working dog and I got him home and it was an exciting journey but a stressful journey at the same time. I mean, as you know, milo and the people that have seen Milo before and then they know he's a we could say high strung could be the word I would say. So I'm kind of shocked. He's not painting right now, he's crushing right now. He probably will be now that I've said that. But, um, he was a lot to handle, especially for my first working dog, and I was so thankful to have cga in the community and everything. It helped me along that journey.
Speaker 3:But it was stressful, yeah, so, so stressful because I had a dog that was so high driven and I'm sitting here as a young, not only say teenager, but a young adult I was 21 at the time Like what do I do with this thing? Like holy cow. But it's helped me grow so much because, as you know, on the first time I mean I was pulling my hair out with that dog. Now I've grown so much more in my maturity and my patience because of Milo and going on this journey. So I feel like if I didn't do that then I would probably still be where I was. You know what I mean. Now I'm so much more even cool and chill in life, I feel like because that dog can test my patience and it's helped me grow.
Speaker 3:And now with the new dog we have, he tests my patience as well. But I'm like all right, like you're nothing, like Milo, like it's a different thing I've got to deal with. It's a different test of my patience. I'm like Milo is the high strung, like all right, how do I deal with this? This other one's going to be, how do I think, more methodical like he does. So it was. It was a fun journey of having Milo and that's for sure. Man Don't ever want to, don't ever want to not have a puppy, I think now, oh, no, yeah, I think it's crazy.
Speaker 2:We just you said so many good things there. But like you, you, you've been through a lot of ups and downs together and so like, when you get this dog, like every dog you get is really a part of your life and those are the memories you're going to have. Is that part of your life, right? So 21, you're going on now we're five years later and like that's a huge part of that life and then, as you go with this next dog and then the next dog you're really able to, you can almost measure your life by the dogs you've had. If you think back, you can almost think about the seasons of life you've had and the different seasons, like the dogs we've got now, with kids and everything. It's just a different experience than when you're just on your own and you're just out there trying to hunt and kill as many birds as you can. It's just really amazing, those connections.
Speaker 2:You said another thing that I would like to kind of hit on. You said it was stressful, and that's understandable. What do you think the greatest stress was? Was it the fear of messing up?
Speaker 3:Milo? 110% stress was it? Was it the? The fear of messing up Milo 110? It was the fear of messing him up and me not being in his experience of a trainer, as I felt like I should be, and like, okay, am I doing this right? Am I doing this wrong? Like coming to the pressure because some dogs are different. Some dogs need more pressure, some dogs don't. Some dogs are super soft, some dogs are not. Some dogs need more pressure, some dogs don't. Some dogs are super soft, some dogs are not. And it's just a whole learning experience. And I just was sitting here like, okay, like I've put work into this dog. I'm putting work into this dog. I don't want to make the wrong step. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:And you go on social media now you see all these other trainers in the Cornerstone Facebook group A lot of positive, great things are happening and you see a range of dogs' ages. I mean I remember I got Milo and I remember a pro trainer. He actually breeds dogs and everything. He had a six-month-old puppy, same age as Milo but doing a thousand times better than Milo. But I'm sitting here thinking it was making me upset, so upset. But then now I go look at those posts and I'm like dude, that guy does that every day for his job. I'm not. I was a 21-year-old college like learning my first dog, so like it's it's a lot, because you, you hold high expectations for yourself and for your dog, because you want to. I mean it's kind of messed up, but you want to have an impressive dog. You want people to say like that's a very good dog.
Speaker 2:Not even the contrary. Hey, you should leave that dog at home.
Speaker 3:not even the retrieving, the contrary, hey, you should leave that dog at home, yeah, and it's not even, not even in the retrieving aspect, but like even having friends over to the house, like you want a good dog, yeah, that's calm, cool, will listen to you, and like even in the house. Milo is a very high strung dog and that is where, like the place board, I always could go back to that because that's where I knew I was not messing up my dog. Yes, I could. Whenever I was stressed out, I didn't know what to do. Milo was making me mad. Milo couldn't calm down.
Speaker 3:Go to the place board, yeah, and like that is what made me feel good, it makes me feel more comfortable. Even nowadays I don't know what to do. Now you're, you're making me frustrated. Just place, place, place and it just that makes him calm down, because I mean, it's a lot like these. They're your friend for life and you don't want to mess up that dog in its early ages to where you can't go, experience everything you want to do with that puppy and that dog.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 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. So now back to the podcast. So that kind of gets my mind going down this path.
Speaker 2:I think we should talk about this for a second. You know, like what makes a good hunting dog? Like what's going to make a dog that someone's not going to say, hey, you should leave that at home. What's going to make a dog that's like that's dog I want to hunt with, like that's the type of dog I want and there's really. It's really pretty simple. I mean, you got the first things first. Your dog's got to sit there, wait until told to go, go, be obedient, listen to you. The next thing is after birds are shot, and when you say the dog's name or you tell it to go back. It needs to run in a straight line and even tell it either steps on the bird or unless you tell it to stop and if needs to be able to take a hand signal and a direction and then from there it should take that line, pick up the bird, return promptly back to you and then deliver to hand. Now, all of that stuff out there is minus the hand signals and all that, just the general running out there picking up birds, like typically that's going to be very natural, like that's already in the dog. But what a lot of people focus on is all of that out there. But they forget the first thing we talked about the dog needs to sit there and wait until it's old to go and listen to and be obedient.
Speaker 2:And so you know, as you were going through Cornerstone, I love how you're talking about how like it seemed like that dog was doing a lot more things. Especially when you're a first-time trainer, you're thinking about all the big things you're going to do. But what you were doing at that time with Milo was probably placeboard work. You were probably doing a little bit of hill work, a little bit of sitting and all that type of stuff and if you fast forward, if you could have saw yourself to where we were on this last hunt. I mean, milo was just chill.
Speaker 2:You were like the level of relaxation that you had as you're sitting there holding like your gun, like I was looking over at you and like you know there's probably legitimately 500 to a thousand I don't know a lot of birds, hundreds of birds coming in, and you're just sitting there cool as a cucumber and Milo is like just looking at him, like okay, versus, a lot of people focus on all the retrieving stuff. And if you do that and fail to have the sitting like I mean a dog, if Milo would have ran out too early right there like number one, the birds would have flared and we wouldn't have been killed as many. But number two, could you imagine the stress that you'd be feeling, with 10 other guys in the blind thinking, oh man, he just messed up the hunt. But we weren't like that. Milo didn't go. Like, like you said, sometimes we'd shoot six, they would fall and then we'd wait for the next volley to come back in and Milo would see these birds like flopping around out there waiting for more birds to come back in and that steadiness is what is absolutely imperative for what I would say high-level retrievers, and I feel like you did a good job with that.
Speaker 2:I mean, the hunt that we were on like showed that, and so I find it interesting that you know at the time that was your experience. You're like man, look at these other and I thought this is a common experience for people out there Like you're on social media or maybe even in person like you. Like you hear people talk about man. Your dog should be doing so much more, but what they don't realize is what you're doing is like it's like the whole iceberg concept. You know there's the tip out of the water, then there's all the stuff you can't even see. Yeah, and the stuff that you're doing the day in and day out is what paid off to give you that dog. That I mean, I feel like you could go anywhere with him, hunt confidently and not have to worry about your dog.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which has been incredible to see.
Speaker 3:I mean he definitely has his flaws still and everything Like it's where I know, it's like all right, I know he's going to go mark a bird. Very well, there's going to be some times he's not going to take the best line, take the best hand cast, probably going to blow me off here and there, we don't train as much as we should. You know what I mean To be top of the line.
Speaker 3:He does what I need him to do, because I know it's in his bloodline to go mark the bird, go out there and find it and bring it back to me. So I was like, hey, man, the best thing I can do is just make sure that my dog is steady and ready for his name to be called. And that's what I focused on, because I'm like, all right, let's focus on something. I don't want to say simple and don't want to say small, but it sounds small, people think.
Speaker 2:It sounds small, but it's really not.
Speaker 3:It's truly like the basic of having a good hunt. I remember my first hunt I was worried about is Milo going to break? Do I have to tie Milo up? Now I'm like, oh cool, I could take a nap or I could eat. I'm not worried about what is Milo doing and it makes it a better hunt for everybody involved, especially you, and they feed off of you. I like, especially at the start, their first time, your first hunter, even the first year, you know, I mean it's, it's it's high, stressful, especially if you're sharing the blind with people you don't know and stuff like that. Yeah so it's in.
Speaker 2:It's incredible and like, yeah, you know it does seem small, like especially if your dog's sitting on a play stand, like over time and stuff that's. But you're getting your dog to do hunting stuff, but that is hunting stuff and there's so many dogs that are just out. You just they're not steady, they're not calm, they're not obedient, and then that creates challenges. But I was really proud of how you handled too that. You know the chaos of how many birds were on the ground and like how y'all's ability to communicate. I felt it was very good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like you said, there was a couple of times, but I think any well-trained dog might would have struggled in that situation because of when you have birds landing a hundred yards over there and 70 yards over there and you've got birds all in between, then it's really challenging to differentiate, especially when you've got birds flopping around and all that. Like you were able to communicate to him and he was like locked in with you. You're able to line him and send him on his way. He'd go pick him up and bring him back and you can't ask for much more than that. And there's a couple of little blinds you did there. I say little. Some of those were 50, 60 yards and when you consider how many decoys are out there, that's a challenging blind and everything looks the same and everything looks like a bird out there when you look at all those little stobs of stuff.
Speaker 3:I mean, there's a few of them that I know I couldn't even see you guys had to line me up.
Speaker 1:I'm like what are you?
Speaker 3:talking about. I don't even see what you're talking about out there. So that's why I kind of just tried to keep him on the simple birds and the ones that I could see that knew we'd set up for success. And then, with so many out there, I was like, all right, we'll just have the guys come pick up the rest If he can't find them, or we'll just set them up and make it simple once there's less birds around. So we just tried to make the best hunt for Milo, which is nice because you can't do that every time. But thankfully we were with people that you know didn't mind and we set it up to hunt just night and everything for them. It was fantastic it was. So we made sure he got the simple marks and if there was a hard blind then we would actually break it down and make it easier for him to succeed and stuff like that. So we made it a learning experience at the same time. So that was awesome.
Speaker 2:And that's a huge contrast. We won't get too much in the episode, so they'll get to see that when they watch the episode. But you know, now we've kind of talked about some of that too. That kind of gets me back to, like you know, I think a lot of people are in your shoes, right, like you said, hey, I'm not training every day like a pro trainer, right, I'm not. This isn't all like. This isn't the thing I do for fun, this is the thing I love to do, so like. So what does a normal day look like to you outside of training? Does Milo get to be involved with any of your day-to-day stuff? What does a normal day look like to you? And then let's kind of talk about some of that.
Speaker 3:Just the family side, the family aspect of having Milo and right now, with it being so, so hot, we definitely are not training. We're touching triple digits where we are in Florida right now, and then humidity and everything. But I would say like a normal day right now wake up around six o'clock, I go out taking Milo on his normal walk and everything that we do. Then Milo will either usually ride and work with me or he's going to go to my mom's office because we have another puppy as well, and so Milo will then hang out with that puppy and then also it's on nine acres, so like my mom can let them out, they run during the day and everything like that, and then he'll just come back home with me and then we'll either days we can train, we'll train and stuff like that, but, as I was saying, it's too hot for that.
Speaker 3:But I try to keep him involved as much as possible. I mean, we go and do daily tasks when the weather is better, like go to farmer's markets and stuff like that. But you know how high strung he is. People, even though he's panting the whole time and I know he's fine people look at you weird in public like, oh, you're hurting your dog, he's panting. No, just trust me, he's just high strung.
Speaker 2:This is how he is some of it has to do with heat too. Yeah, he is. He is an extra bit of a panter.
Speaker 3:He seems to like to pant, he does and so it's just um, I just try to keep him as involved as possible because I feel like if I don't, then that's like where he's going to slack some on his basic obedience, and that's what I've noticed with having this younger puppy. It's like when I had Milo as a puppy. Milo went everywhere, anywhere with me, I mean every location, every store, and I feel like that helped him really grow up a lot of confidence and stuff like that, compared to this younger dog. We try to take him as many places as well. We're slacking a little bit, but he's a little more, I want to say has a little more fear in him, and so more.
Speaker 3:I want to say, has a little more fear in him, and so you want your dog. I feel like to be involved in your daily life, if you can. Not everyone's schedule allows it. Thankfully my schedule does allow it and I'm so grateful for that because it's so cool to be like all right, milo's working with me this morning. He's going to go either to his kennel or go to the office in the middle of the day and then I can come pick Milo up for two hours and he comes back to work with me. And that's kind of what I wanted when I got Milo. It's like all right, I want a good dog that will hunt with me. I can go hunt with my friends, hunt with other people like guide services or stuff like that Strangers, you don't know, because not everyone wants some random dog hunting with them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely that can be concerning, like we talked about earlier, people don't focus. That can be concerning, like we talked about earlier. We have to build up focus on the most important, and so that gives everybody else a bad rap out there when you see some dog that's just acting like a nut, like ripping the blind down.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's a scary thought. So I was just like you know, I want my dog to hunt good enough to do that not some crazy, you know far awesome retrieves. I just want him to have fun and enjoy life with me, and then, when he's not hunting, we just go to work and he lives a good life. Yeah, because, like we, he doesn't have as long of a life as we do. So I'm, like you know, got to let him enjoy it while he can.
Speaker 1:That's what I've figured out and learned.
Speaker 3:So he does well enough for me for whenever we do hunt those days.
Speaker 2:It's like you know, when you're not hunting now, like enjoy, enjoy life man. So I got a good question I was thinking about for you here and that and that's all cool. But I'm kind of getting like a theme of something of, like you know, this connection that you have with Milo, as we're, as I'm hearing you talk, and it just got me thinking, you know, if we think about retrievers and we kind of talked about this a minute ago, but, like you know, you learn a lot of lessons, like when you get a dog. Because I was thinking like, well, could you even imagine a life without milo or without a dog?
Speaker 3:probably not. I mean I'd have a lot more free time. But no, probably not I would. I don't think I could imagine my life without milo. I mean it's crazy thing to think about because it was so nerve-wracking for puppy pickup day. I mean it was nerve, it was nerve-wracking.
Speaker 2:I even want a dog like can I even handle this? Yeah, it was so nerve-wracking for puppy pickup day. I mean it was nerve-wracking. Do I even want a dog? Can I even handle this? It was nerve-wracking.
Speaker 3:I mean I remember when I first told Bart I was like, yeah, I want on that litter. I mean there are so many multiple times from that day to puppy pickup where I almost backed out. And I mean there is days in my mind like I would never have done this but I'm like I'm not doing Milo justice, like I just need to give him to somebody that's a better trainer, knows what they're doing. Now to this day, like I'm ashamed that I'd say that because he's my best friend, like we have gone through so much together, so much, and like to where I hate going on vacations or going out of town anywhere, that he cannot go.
Speaker 3:That's why I don't really go anywhere. Because I'm like I don't really go anywhere Because I'm like I don't want to leave this guy. He gets on my nerves Because he always wants to do something, he wants to retrieve. He can't just not have a job. So that kind of gets annoying sometimes. So I'm like, buddy, just be a dog, be a dog. But at the same time I'm like I'm not leaving you. I don't want to go 24 hours without seeing you, like you're. It's exciting when I could come home from at lunch or at the end of the day and I get to see one good smile. You know what I mean. Some fluffy years. I'm like that's my boy right there. You know what I mean. It makes it all worth it.
Speaker 3:It does, it truly does. I'm like going from the little puppy stage Now you're seeing white furs on their chin it's like, it's like wow. It's like this is crazy. And it's like just think, hopefully in five more years like you know what I mean Like everything that we've got to do together.
Speaker 2:Oh dude, yeah, and then yeah it's. It's just incredible, man. You usually think about all that like five years ago, it was my quick way too quick, really really quick, Especially when you got a dog.
Speaker 3:Wow, like it doesn't feel like it at the same time that it doesn't go by. Then, like I was just saying, I was thinking about wow, Milo, you're about to turn five. I'm like, wow, Like that's five years and if you really think about it, like labs don't have like too long of a life, I'm like dangling, you're almost a half of your lifetime. I'm like that is just crazy to think about, but it does not feel like he's been with me for five years because of how fast time's gone.
Speaker 2:And what's crazy is how you know when you first get your dog, a lot of people are rushing I'm ready to get my dog out there hunting, I'm ready to rush. They're rushing to that one and a half, two year mark, one year mark depending on when you're going to hunt your dog.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you're trying to. We gotta slow this thing down. We gotta slow this thing down. You know, big time. It's like all right, can we hit, pause and then extend hunting seasons so they can get more trees? Because I mean, all right, you're on your, he didn't hunt till he was two, so he's gone on his. What third season now? Yeah, it's like man, hopefully you have like eight more. You know what I mean it's like. How many more do you have? Because it's like it's no fun if there's, if you don't have your dog with you. In my opinion, like if someone asked me to go hunt, my first question is going to be can I bring milo? Oh, 100, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:And if not and I'm just more than likely I'm going to politely decline yeah you know what I mean, because it's like I mean, it's just not worth it if you can't bring your dog yeah, I, I totally agree, cause that's they are what make hunting fun, in my opinion, like the camaraderie, the connections, all that is great. But like seeing your dog go from literally an eight week old puppy to riding in the kennel by the first time, sitting on the play sport, to their first retrieve, first double mark, to now just sitting on the couch. And you come home and you're like that's awesome, you're like that's just the greatest thing ever.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean, that is, man 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. What would you say and this is going to be a challenging question, I think if you think about it what has been one of the greatest lessons you feel like Milo has taught you? I mean, because I know there's got to be a lot.
Speaker 3:Well, I've said it earlier, it's probably, I know everybody's like well, it's too easy and too quick of an answer. Patience, yeah, seriously, I mean that dog has taught me so much patience, even still to now, where I'm like I want to get frustrated to her. When I first had him, you know what I mean. But I'm like that and frustrated, going to do in this situation 100%. It's not good, it's not going to do anything. I think it's really then carried over to my life as well, about business, friendships, just daily routine in life.
Speaker 3:It's like, hey, I mean, if you're frustrated, who cares? Just go calm down. You got to get patience because everything is going to work its way out. It's like all right, milo, you retrieved this mark literally five minutes ago. I have it in this. Do it in the same exact spot. Why are you missing it? Why are you not stopping right now? You're like he's making me frustrated, who cares? It's well, we're going to stop this, we're going to start over. Compared to like me, I would have gotten mad and be like you know this. You know what I mean. It's like because it's like we treat them like we treat ourselves.
Speaker 3:I feel, like I treat him, like I treat myself. It's like all right, we've done this before. Why are we? Why are we not doing this right? They have bad days, we have bad days, so it's like you can't get frustrated with them, just like you can't get frustrated with people in your life, like you just got to be even keel, I feel like, and that dog has taught me a lot of patience compared to where, back in the day, I had no patience.
Speaker 3:Now I'm like, hey, we'll be all right, we will be all right, we will be all right.
Speaker 2:Dude, that goes a long way of you know patience and that's also like you're essentially. In some ways you give up control. I found what's interesting is the dog training thing is in a lot of ways counterintuitive to the culture here in America. You know we try to control what's always. Do this, do this. You've got to be on time, You've got to do all this stuff. But sometimes when you try to force the issue so much, that's when you actually hit a roadblock. But it isn't until you've learned patience, like you're talking about that. You're like you know what it's going to be. Okay, it's almost like the door's open to you when you're no longer battling and you're more of like it's more of just like we're going to get past this, like I don't even need to force the issue here.
Speaker 3:I totally agree with you. And let's go back to say the starting of CGA and like how, now, with this new dog, I'm like you know what Week two or week three we're not going so well. Compared to back in the other day, I'm like we've already done week three so well with Milo. I'm like it makes me frustrated. Well, why are we not doing week three well now? Now I'm like who cares? He's not doing well today. We are going to come back tomorrow and start over. There's no reason to rush things because you think week one, all right, now it's week two. I need to be on week two. It's week five. Why am I not on week five? Why is my dog not mastering week five? Have patience.
Speaker 3:Not every dog is the same. Some dogs are going to be faster than others, some are going to be slower, and that's what I had to figure out is because you, as a human being, I feel like want your dog to proceed as fast or faster than what you really want, because you want these big goals and all these things, but it's like just have the patience, or those things are not going to happen, and it kind of goes back to like you feel like you need to be on schedule with the weeks to where it's like don't be like it's okay, like you can be on, technically, eight weeks of 52, but you're still only on week five.
Speaker 3:That is okay. And that took a lot for me to realize like that it's okay, cause when I was younger and I had Milo, I was like no, that's, that's not okay.
Speaker 2:Like why am I I need to be on? When I was younger and I had Milo, I was like no, that's not okay. Like why am I? I need to be on? Yeah, you think it's going to be a linear progression? Oh, yeah, you do, but it's not and you feel like it should.
Speaker 3:It's not, and it's not and that's where, like roadblocks to go through. Yeah, Like I've been through them like all right challenge on week five. Okay, that's fine, Compared to where I'd have been pulling my hair out.
Speaker 2:Like is this even going to work out?
Speaker 3:You know now, you know, you've been there, you've made it expectations. Like I want this dog to hunt by the first year. You know what I mean? The second dog I'm like he hunts by his two Cool. Like I want him to wait longer because I think the maturity is better and I, like you, wouldn't. I wouldn't have thought that, but that it taught me all that. Like, hey, everything is so different, just take time, don't rush anything.
Speaker 2:Reminds me of being like a kid, like when your mom's like cooking something and like a dessert or something. You're sitting there like looking at the cake, like this has got to be done. You know, if you were to take that out right then and just start scooping into it, it's going to be all gooey. It's not going to be complete. You got to let. It's the same process. You can't rush it. It's just like good. You just can't rush it. It'll get done when it's going to get done and if you wait to the right time, it's going to be fantastic.
Speaker 3:It's going to be fantastic. You're going to be a thousand times happier that you waited, instead of rushing things and all of that. You're going to look back and be like that was totally worth it. I see why I waited. It's going to give you so many more life lessons, I feel like, instead of just rushing into things and then having to backtrack.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I hope the listeners are listening to that piece of advice Like if I could tell you to hold on to anything, it'd be what he just said. Hold on to that. Like do not rush this. You can cause yourself more problems than you would have ever had by trying to bulldoze or rush through. There's an ebb and flow and that's the interesting thing. If you hit a slowdown, it's not always going to be slow, it's going to open up and then boom, you're going to make— momentum is going to be on your side. Momentum is the biggest thing is when you have that on your side you're really rolling. But that's a good lesson, man, on patience. Where do things go from here? For you, I, where do things go for from here? For you, and obviously right now for us, it's pretty much too hot to train, and for you it's too hot to train, definitely. I mean, it's a little bit warmer down there, not by much, I mean only four hours away.
Speaker 3:As I said, it feels like the same up here.
Speaker 2:It is down there, so kind of got a little off season here for a little bit, but it won't be long and after watching that video I'm I'm getting the itch ready to go.
Speaker 3:yeah, it kind of makes me want to go run Milo today, but my hat's a little too hot. Yeah, so hopefully you know here in the next like few weeks we can get some cooler mornings or evenings. I'd love to get him out there stretch his legs. Dove season is coming up. We've actually never dove hunted before just because, everything, like you and Barton have always said, like a dog. That's very, you know mouthy which Milo is very, very mouthy.
Speaker 3:That's a flaw of Milo's, but you know it's okay, they get stuck in their mouth or they'll swallow it. But I was like you know nothing wrong with going once or twice, as long as I'm precautious with the heat and all that.
Speaker 2:At his stage now too, with him already hunting. Yeah, I don't know how many birds y'all picked up now, but I know that one weekend, in that video that everybody's going to get to see, he picked up a lot of birds. So once you pick up a lot of birds and you have experience, it's easier for the dog to do the dove thing. Not to say you couldn't do it to begin with.
Speaker 3:It's just not wise if you're going for that great hunting retriever. So we're going to go back to Wade's this year, nice, hopefully you guys can come back out as always.
Speaker 2:We'll try to. I'm sure we will.
Speaker 3:I mean, we can't miss out on that, and then I'll always try to do one SOK Society hunt and then, as you know my cousin try to hunt with him as much as possible as well. But I mean right now, probably in the next few weeks, I'm just going to be chilling inside. He's going to be swimming as much as possible to help keep him in shape without being too hot.
Speaker 2:That's good man. Well y'all got. I'm excited to see this season too. I mean I felt like he crushed this last hunt. Now really it'll be that you're looking at fine-tuning details. Especially by the time you get to the out in Kansas again the hunts or the retrieves can be big. You're really just looking at fine tuning details which thankfully in the South here we've got really late September through, like if we're doing that hunt in January, we've got three, four months right there. We can really hammer down and tune up our dogs and have them peaking by the time. So mellow ought to be, I think. The blind retrieves they went good last year but I think those longer epic blind retrieves this year are more than within reach.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I agree, and it's kind of like you have to find your goals. It's like, all right, last year we knew my goal this year for Mylar 2024 of last year's hunt was just have him sit there and be steady, because he had the surgeries and all that, so we really couldn't train much. I was like just sit there and be steady. I feel like he knocked that out of the park. So it's like this year it's like let's set up another goal.
Speaker 3:I feel like he's a good marking dog. He marks well for what I need him to do. So it's like I want him to get better on hand commands, better on casting, better on the whistle sits. So like that's our knock that in for whenever we do get out there out west and all that to, he is tuned in on that. Because it's like I feel like if you're not advancing them in their mind, then you know they're. It's when they could come a little mischievous because they need to have fun and they need to be tested. You know, I mean, they're smart dogs, they're smart. So if you're not testing them, they're just I feel like you're just wasting them away. You know, I mean like they need to go out there and be challenged, just like we need to be challenged 100%.
Speaker 2:Well, man, I'm excited. I'm excited to have had you on today. Thank you for coming up and sharing these lessons with everyone I mean we and there's some straight gold in this episode, like if you're trying to train a retriever and you pay attention to what we just talked about. Like if you can grasp those nuggets, if you can grasp them ahead of time, those nuggets, if you can grasp them ahead of time sometimes, if you'll, if you'll just keep them in your mind and just trust us. Yeah, like I know, when you're going through for the first time, like it's going to be hard to like understand some of that Cause, you're like, well, should I, you know, I feel like the whole pushing things, like if you'll just trust us on that and just like, literally like we're giving you permission to know it is going to be okay, like you're going to get there. That's typically, I like to say, that means you're on track, especially when you're hitting those walls, like that actually is good. If everything was going perfect, that's when I started to get a little concerned.
Speaker 2:Either you're not pushing hard enough at that point, or something's off.
Speaker 3:It's that phase of everything's so good and then you hit like what's like weeks, week five or six, you're like that's good, it's not supposed to be easy, it's supposed to be a challenging, fun journey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it expands your mind and their minds. So, man, I'm excited. I look forward to getting on some more hunts and anything else you'd like to share with anybody on the build from here, any final, any gold nuggets you got. I know you got plenty of gold nuggets in there, which is I do want to highlight that before we close this off which is kind of cool, cause you said something earlier that you know at one point you were like feeling almost like you were inadequate to give him what he deserved, and I think that's a normal feeling for everybody, especially if you've never trained a dog before, cause it's easy to look out there and think, well, you know, obviously Barton or Josh are a pro trainer out there that clearly they could I know they could get my dog there.
Speaker 2:But when you learn to trust yourself and like the lessons that you've learned, like the amount of training wisdom that you have, just off the cuff here, have told everyone, if that doesn't kind of show you that, oh wow, like you actually will learn as you go through this process, I mean, I don't know what will Like. The stuff you just shared is like valuable information that pretty much only comes through learning and trusting the process, and so I don't know, man, I just want to highlight that in you. I thought that was really cool that you were sharing those nuggets. Just boom, boom, boom right after the other.
Speaker 3:Thank you, and those are little nuggets. I mean, you see, milo, we are not good at all, but it's just those little things. You just sit back, even at those member weekends getting together with other trainers, sit back, watch those people, like a Marty Hayes or a Charlie there's a lot of people in this group, or Shane Kendrick that you need to reach out to and just sit back, watch what they're doing. What are they reacting to If their dog messes up? Okay, there's times to be upset and there's times not to be, and it's just that's what's really. I feel like grown. My mind is just sitting back reading the post, watching other people that are better than you, just be in the corner. You know what I mean, even though, like I'm not a good trainer at all, like I don't even think I could use the word trainer. I just hang out with my dog for fun and we pick up birds here and there, but like it's sitting there and watching those guys.
Speaker 3:That's where you really, really learn. It's this community, because that's what's going to teach you all of those lessons and that's what's going to make you the better trainer Not the dog Watching those people that are better than you, that you want to learn from.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean you can't beat that the community. And if you're in the Panhandle area, I mean you're part of the Cornerstone Gun Dog Academy Panhandle chapter, so you know we've got chapters now rolling, so that's a lot happening on a much more frequent basis than it used to. It used to be just big member weekend or member weekend through a couple times a year. Now it's happening all the time. Events are popping up in different parts of I mean it spans from east to west.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we'll be getting an event coming up here soon in the Panhandle we need to from Tallahassee all the way to Pensacola or even Jacksonville or if you're down in central Florida. We'd love to all get together and we plan some events throughout the year. I think it's crazy the people you meet and the connections you have through dogs, and you would never have thought that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's what I think. That's the final thing that makes it man is those connections Like. I mean, you just think about us, like we're going to be hunting together soon, we'll probably be fishing together soon.
Speaker 3:You just build relationships, it's just part of it for five years now and I still remember coming to my first members weekend with Milo, meeting you for the first time in person. It was nerve wracking. I mean, cause you're there's what probably 30, 40 people there. They're all dogs, but it's just like wow, like it's a lot, and just think where we are now. That's crazy. We've hunted together, shared the blind many times. Fishing always hang out Like it's great and that's what this community and everything is about. It's like cool getting the birds and all that watching our dogs work, but it's the connection of everyone inside the community that's going to help us all grow 100%.
Speaker 2:I don't think I could have said it a better way. Well, I've enjoyed this episode. Thank you for popping on. I've enjoyed sharing it with you guys as well.
Speaker 1:And it's uh, it's been a good one, Sweet. Thank you guys for having me. Everybody Thanks for listening to the build from here podcast. To learn more about retriever training or our podcast, visit cornerstone gundogacademycom slash podcast.