Build From Here
Build From Here
Starting With a 3-Year Old Dog. Is it Too Late? | Cody Lloyd's Story
When Cody Lloyd brought home his first retriever, he did what most of us do — pieced together training from YouTube, books, and whatever he could find online. He ended up with a “good enough” gun dog… but not the steady, reliable partner he knew was possible.
In this episode, Cody shares how he went from feeling stuck with a 2–3 year–old dog to building the once-in-a-lifetime hunting partner he’d always dreamed of — without sending Bo off to a pro trainer. You’ll hear about generational hunting roots, the chaos of a pit blind with a breaking dog, the duck no one could find, and the one-whistle cast that changed everything.
We also dive into why he restarted with Cornerstone’s 52+ from day one, how the community helped him solve specific problems (like picking up giant honkers), and why it’s not too late if you feel behind with your dog.
If you’ve ever wondered, “Can my dog really get to that next level?” this conversation will fire you up and give you hope.
Want to learn how to train your hunting dog with confidence?
Visit: Cornerstone Gundog Academy
Need gear for training your retriever, like collars, dog training dummies, and more?
Visit: Retriever Training Supply
Interested in sponsoring the BuildFromHere Podcast?
Fill out this form and tell us more about promoting your product, service, or brand.
Welcome to the Build from Here podcast. On this episode, it is my great honor to be bringing to you and introducing you to Cornerstone member Cody Lloyd. He's a really great guy. And honestly, I'm really just impressed with him and his passion for his retrievers and just training in general. He's uh really getting after it. In fact, he's uh volunteered and is leading the PA chapter, and it's just been incredible to see that start to blossom as we've started the chapters and people like Cody are jumping in, taking charge, and hope, helping see that vision through. And it's just been incredible. So uh without any more further ado, welcome aboard, Cody. How are you?
SPEAKER_02:Doing fantastic. Thanks, Josh. Really stoked to be here.
SPEAKER_01:Man, I'm really glad that you're on here. I'm excited to be, there's all kinds of stories I'm sure we'll share, getting your history and your background. I know uh I'm really excited about a short uh story you're gonna share here in a little bit, maybe one of those big highlight moments, but we'll get there. Uh before we get there, Cody, man, let's uh just tell tell us a little bit about you. Where do you live? Where are you from? Um, and we'll go from there.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I am from a basically a nowhere town in Northeast PA. It's uh close to like the Bloomsburg Wolf Bay area. And I am actually a technical writer. So I get to work from home half my days, and then I'm in flight half my days. Um it's fantastic. Some of the lunch times I get to go out and do minor 20, 30 minute lunch session, and then it seems to be working out perfectly for me.
SPEAKER_01:Man, that's great. Sounds like you got a good setup. That way you can do what you're really passionate about. Um that's so cool. Where did uh, you know, what's um when did you get kind of into the hunting game? Is is hunting has that always been something that's part of your life? Has hunting been something that's newer? You know, where did uh where did hunting you know come into your to your life?
SPEAKER_02:Hunting has always been a part of my life, and it is I don't remember a time when we never did. I know I first went with my dad out and down my grandfather out on the river when I was my first memory was eight. And I took a time off during college and then jumping back in. Um I know it's been it's been ducks and deer up until after college, and then we added new geese to the mix, and it's been it's been fantastic.
SPEAKER_01:That's awesome. So you said your first memory was at eight. What um you mind sharing that?
SPEAKER_02:No, not at all. Uh we went out on a unfortunately it was a full foot fast boat with a pop-up line, PVC pop-up line, and throwing out all the decoys, had giant waiters on and we went out and just kept hanging out, and you know, there was a giant yellow lad beside me, and wouldn't we retrieve everything but the duck? Um great dog, we retrieved everything but the duck, and it's fantastic. But eight, and like it's like everybody's story. It was slow one time, and dad looks over, hey, you want to shoot? There's not a bird in the sky all day. It's like, sure, why not? He hands me a 10 gauge. Um it's the earliest memory I can remember, and it was just fantastic. Wow.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that uh I've never actually shot a 10 gauge. How did that feel at eight years at eight years old?
SPEAKER_02:Basically, I put the put the gun through the blind, pulled the trigger, and then went back four feet.
SPEAKER_01:It was fantastic. I was not ready for it. Man, that is wild. That that's hilarious. I mean, that's clearly a defining moment, though. It's kind of like a ride of passage. Like I bet you felt pretty big going back to school later and kind of telling your buddies, yeah, I shot a big old 10 gauge.
SPEAKER_02:It was definitely fantastic.
SPEAKER_01:Wow. So no birds on that. Um, was it your dad that introduced you to hunting?
SPEAKER_02:It was, I must have my dad and my grandfather. It was from the earliest memory. My grandfather had a buck on the wall. My dad and grandfather went out to uh um Canada to go hunt there. And it was just wow, it's been intertwined the entire time between uh hunting and fishing. It was mostly the three of us, no matter what.
SPEAKER_01:So that's so you've got kind of generational legacy of hunting. That's pretty awesome. Yeah, for me, for me and my my dad is who got me into hunting. Um my granddad on my mom's side was into hunting too. Um, so we kind of all hunted together uh for a while, and but it was really my dad that got me into hunting personally. Uh his dad wasn't really big into hunting, so we we never really hunted together, but it's uh it's definitely a legacy. I know something I hope to pass down. Uh, and hopefully, you know, my kids enjoy it to some degree, at least maybe something outdoors, whether it's fishing, something in the in the sporting world of the outdoors.
SPEAKER_02:I know just my uh father-in-law saw the buck on the other side of the field and you know, jumped automatically jumped in the ranger, drove down, drove down to see it. And last year it's fantastic. My kid actually helped me um dress the snow goose last year that he was really up when I got home. Oh, it was fantastic. He just pretended and pointed at everything, but it was either way, it was fantastic.
SPEAKER_01:He was he was directing? Yeah, you have a son?
SPEAKER_02:Uh he's two, so he didn't do very much.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he was just like, Yep, you do this, you do that. He was doing the the that's hilarious, man. That's so cool. Oh wow, that's not gonna be long. And uh, yeah, just a few more years, it won't be long, and he'll be he'll be out there with you.
SPEAKER_02:I'm planning on throwing headphones on him this year and putting them behind me. So it's gonna be fun. Does he uh help with the dog training? Oh, he he helps a lot with steadiness. Um it's hilarious. I'll throw the ball first one's bow, and then he'll yell, my turn. So I'll throw it again if you'll run and get it, and then I'll throw like two at a time, send him for one, dog for the other. He helped he helps out a lot. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, the kids always bring uh a whole nother aspect to the dog training. They add a lot of steadiness for sure.
SPEAKER_02:And it is fantastic.
SPEAKER_01:So uh go, we're gonna get back into hunting again. I I do want to kind of take a step back. Um, I want to talk a little more about what you do for a career because I know some may not, I didn't know this before talking with you uh for the first time, but you said you're you're a you said you're a technical writer. What while I was involved with that, what does that look like? So it sounds like you do get to work from home, but what does the job entail?
SPEAKER_02:It's writing documents. That's unfortunately it's a lot of meetings and writing documents. So I have a lot of time to listen to podcasts, and it is it's very boring, but it gives me enough time to be able to be home at least at my eight hours, be home, be able to hang out with the kid and train the dog and hunt, and take time off, can miss an early morning to go out for some gates and then come out and just knock on my hours. As long as I get my aid in, no one really cares, and it's fantastic.
SPEAKER_01:Wow. Wow. That's an American dream right there. A job that fits into your family, does what you need it to do, helps you pay the bills, lets you spend time hunting and with the family. That's the American dream, no doubt. That's why I still have it. That's cool. Well, let's uh so a legacy of hunting has been in your family. Now tell me about this dog. He said this dog uh at eight years old, you got this yellow lab sitting next to you. What's up with that? Who who trained the dog? Was your dad the dog trainer or your granddad? Or did y'all just have a dog and bring it along and hope it was gonna pick up some dogs?
SPEAKER_02:So the dog did, for what I remember, um, Magnum was an amazing dog. He was one of the dogs that we had a pen outside, and that's where he stayed. He hated indoors anything with four walls, he hated. So even the truck, he'd have a cow to get to get out of the cab, and it was a full-size truck, full-size cab. He'd have a cow, he'd want to get out, so we would have threw him in the back, tied him off him, he just sat there the whole ride. It was like negative 10 at the house the one time, and we tried to bring him in and he'd shoot through the drywall of the garage to get outside. And then he just laid in the snuff. He was one of the ones that, like, oh hey, you're here to do a job, you're going to work. But we wanted to bring him in, he hated it. Um he would do everything. He would sit, stay, heal. An amazing dog. He'd ride in the boat perfectly, not a problem in the world. Nicest dog ever, around kids. There'd be a duck out there. There'd be a duck out there, my dad would throw a rock, hit the duck, the dog would bring back the duck. Bring back the rock. Like you bring the decoys, everything you could think of. Just never a duck. But also, like, I was eight, so I got to hang out with the dog all day. So that was cool. Yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely. Wow.
SPEAKER_01:Makes sense. I mean, that's pretty cool. I mean, even though the dog the dog was still fulfilling that purpose, he was your buddy. And uh, you know, kind of got you into that. So that seems like where dogs kind of came into the the picture. Let's fast forward a little. So you cut you grew up, you continued hunting, uh, then you took a break during college. What got you back? Well, you're just taking a break just because of time and all that, just didn't have the time to to hunt, or just weren't interested anymore, or what what's the deal there?
SPEAKER_02:So no matter what, I took it I took time off of birds. No matter what, second week of December, second finals were done, I went out deer hunting. Um, that that never stopped. But a lot of my friends in college, I um attempted to play two sports, didn't work out very well. But then I tried to double major and that was really hard. So my friends in college didn't didn't really like hunting. And I I got one into hunting actually, which is funny. Really? I worked basically a full-time job throughout college to try and like help pay for college and everything. I didn't have time to go out on weekends. I was working at 10.
SPEAKER_01:Wow. What um well that's I want to hear the story about your friend. How'd you get your friend into hunting?
SPEAKER_02:So we were for um for deer, his grandfather had a his grandfather basically has 10 acres. And we went camping every winter. And you know, my smart decision, it was like January, so it's bow season. So we went, we went out and I brought my I brought my compound bow out, he brought his grandfather's crossbow, we just shot targets the entire time. Just screwing around hanging out by a fire, and ended up seeing a deer, and he's like, I wonder if I can hit that. Give your license? No. Well, then we need we need to get it. So we actually left camping, got our license, or he got his license, and then we sat there and for the rest of the day he's like, catch you that squirrel. No. So like every time after that, like we went out and I I went to scout his grandfather's property with him, and we did everything under the sun about hey, I taught the next year. We taught him, like, hey, here's how to correctly shoot a crossbow, and try to give him a compound bow, try to give him in the rifle, and just work him working our way through. And actually, it's funny if he sent me a picture of what opening day of archery about him and his son shot a deer. And it was just it's just fantastic to see how like trickles down and everything.
SPEAKER_01:Man, that's so cool. So he wasn't big into hunting before, he's just hanging out with you. He's like he was out there as a man, yeah. I'm shooting this target, and this could be fun. I could see how this could work.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, definitely. He his father didn't hunt, his mother didn't hunt. Like no one in his family hunted really. Like his grandfather had land. His grandfather was one of those guys where you could walk out your front porch and shoot a deer. And he saw his grandfather do it, and we ended it on that. I I still go out at least once a year and hang out with him and his grandfather, and wow. Now we don't hunt anymore, but it's still super fun.
SPEAKER_01:Man, that's cool. So that kind of goes on through college here, getting people into the outdoors. Then you get your job, you're out of college. When does when does the waterfowl game pick back up? What as soon as you got out of college, when did you kind of get back heavy into the waterfowling game?
SPEAKER_02:Pretty much right after college. I mean, I graduated in May, and then we went down to I got a hey, help me with this pit I just joined. So my dad joined a pit with a couple of his work buddies and went down. I helped, I did all the groundwork. We were helped with corn, helped build it, help it like brush it in and everything. And I got a hey, if you help out enough, you'll be allowed to hunt here sometime. Cool works for me. And the main guy at the pit had a dog, or has a dog still, and a great dog just isn't steady. But you know, I didn't know a dog could be steady at that time. So I know we this dog picked up the birds. Oh, he picked them up. It's as long as he saw him go down, he picked them up. Didn't matter. You know, when you threw a blind open, he jumped out. Oh, you just don't shoot that way. So, like half the blinds cut off. It's wasn't a huge fan of it, but you know, I didn't shoot sometimes because I was wanting to hang out with the dog half the time, and I was there partially for the dog. Um, but it helped me fall back in love with it. The dog is great, he's he's getting a little older now, but it's the dog partially brought me back in, as a lot of people do.
SPEAKER_01:Really? Wow. Well, like going from age, so is that why you decided to get a dog? Where did where did your dog come into the picture here?
SPEAKER_02:So what's really funny is as my buddy's dog was getting older, I get a, well, you know, someone's gonna have to pick up a torch. I can't get another dog. And I'm like, okay, well, where'd you get your dog from? And I know he could hunt. I know he was a good house dog. I know he was good like around kids and everything. So I'm like, where'd you get your dog from? And talking with him, I met his breeder, and um I actually started talking with their breeder about stuff and started looking a little bit into dog training and everything, and I actually got my put bow from his breeder. Oh, really? Wow. And you know, it's talking for a while. I know the dog was good, it was like around like 120, 130 pound dog. I'm like, okay, he can pick up the big dogers. I got duped. Um he's a big dog. He like took he like was perfectly fine with cripples. I'm like, okay, this is the dog I know it can hunt, I know it's good with a family, so we're good. So I talked to the breeder, was like, hey, I want a good hunting dog. I want to go out hunting with them. So after the one hunt, she's like, okay, come by and see these dogs. They're like six weeks, it was during COVID time. She's like, you can't touch the dogs. You gotta stay on the other side of the fence, but you can look at the dogs and see them play and everything. So like, how about this goose wing? Like introduced them all to the goose wing, and I'm like, okay, I know what color I want. Thanks. We'll go forth from there. And I've never turned back from there. It's I got the dog I wanted, and I'm super happy that I got it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's so cool. What did your buddy so your buddy is pretty excited you're getting a dog from the same breeder, I imagine.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, he was stoked. It was funny.
SPEAKER_01:Were they the were they similar lineage as in like were any shared parents uh or just similar breeding?
SPEAKER_02:Similar breeding, I think. Okay. I ha I think Bo's mom is that dog's litter mate.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, cool. That's cool.
SPEAKER_02:Pretty sure, yeah. It was honestly amazing to see, like, oh hey, I got your s I got what your nephew or whatever it is. And it was it's funny because the fur we have pictures of them hunting together every time. I don't like pile pictures, except for when it's only dogs. Have the dog take the picture. I don't want to be in it. And we have a couple of them where they're sitting next to each other and both 75 pounds, 80 pounds, and he just looks half the size of the other one. And it's it's quite funny because you can see some of the resemblances, and it's we never had a bad we never had a bad day hunting both of them at the same time.
SPEAKER_01:That's awesome, man. Uh so you had never trained a dog before up until this point, I imagine? Not hunting.
SPEAKER_02:Um just buddy dogs. My buddy had a dog uh after college growing up, and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna train him to heal. I trained him to run with me a couple miles and heal. He wouldn't come back worth a worth anything, and but he'd retrieve a ball. So taught that one. I taught a couple aussies how to heal, but that was I didn't get into mainly dog training until I really got bow. Wow.
SPEAKER_01:What made you well, let me ask this. Were you planning to send your dog to a trainer? Were you planning to train your dog yourself? What were you thinking at this time? You know, kind of thinking back as you're first getting into this, you've been doing this for a few years now. Um, what what was your thought process? What were what was going through your mind?
SPEAKER_02:So I wanted to prove a point.
SPEAKER_01:Um what was this point that you wanted to prove?
SPEAKER_02:So my dad was like, okay, if you really want to go hunting with them, you're gonna need to find a trainer, maybe set him to a trainer. My dad grew up with pointers for upland, and he's like, I bought my own, I bought I got my dogs from trainers, sent them to trainers. That's what you do. That's just the thing you do. And I'm like, nope, I don't want to do it. I don't want to lose that. I don't want to lose that time with my dog. Like I want Yeah, that's fair. I want I mean that's hard. I want that uh relationship with them. They go everywhere with me, there's not a problem at all in the world. And um it's funny because my father-in-law was like, okay, you want to train a dog up to what level? And started finding videos from like um a lot of big name channels, and it's like I want that. And that's when I realized after I got the dog, like, oh hey, dogs are supposed to be steady. I never knew they could do that. No one ever introduced all the dogs, and my dad didn't even know they they could be steady.
SPEAKER_01:Like, that was just like So you were kind of wandering into this a little bit, you were thinking, Oh, I just Need my dog to just go pick up the ducks. I don't care if it breaks initially. And then as you start figuring out, hey, I could do this, all of a sudden your eyes are being opened. Like, wow, there's more out there.
SPEAKER_02:100%. Like I had I had no idea a dog could be steady.
SPEAKER_01:Did this re- did this make you rethink your idea to train your dog yourself, or you had kind of already gone out of the limb, so you pretty much had to had to do it?
SPEAKER_02:I dug my own grave on that one. I I was no matter what, I was training this dog myself. And I winged it through the first year on like random YouTube videos, and I had a dog that was somewhat steady. He could retreat. Um his reward wasn't food anymore, it was retrieves. You deal with a certain amount, you get a retrieve. You sit stay long enough, you get a retrieve. And it was just all based on the retrieve and his immediate love for it. Um going off from bad.
SPEAKER_01:That's some good stuff. I mean, that sounds like good things you learned right there, right? The internet is definitely full of some good things and full of some challenging things at times, maybe some bad advice, but there's always some good stuff out there.
SPEAKER_02:And I didn't, it was um I wanted, I didn't want to use, I went off of a well-known person, but they trained GSPs. I couldn't really find a good lab one that I agreed with their values.
SPEAKER_01:Um, it's fair.
SPEAKER_02:Everybody was like super hard on um the collar, and I use a collar. I can't lie, I still do. Um now it's mainly for the light that's on it, which is a lightsaber. Um yeah. But like I didn't I didn't go along with people because I didn't agree with their values, I think it was super heavy. I found a couple bridges.
SPEAKER_01:Where did that come from? Were you just the way you felt about it in general, or was there like a defining moment where you said you saw something and you're like, I don't like this at all? Or it just kind of happened like you just genuinely saw stuff, you're like, I don't want to do that.
SPEAKER_02:In all honesty, dog's my best friend. So I actually, I'm like, okay, every level on this collar, I'm gonna try and do. I put the collar on my arm and I have a garment and it goes up to 10. I'm like, okay, collar on my arm, I'm gonna stop when I can't handle it anymore, look down and then see what number I'm at. And I just went up every tick. I'm like, okay, this sucks. I don't want to put my dog above a four, let alone any higher. Like, I went up to 10 on my arm, and it was just like, I've done stim in college. Like, at the highest stim I did was like a seven or a seven. I'm like, this is no, we're not doing this. So I tried my best to get away from the collar, and I made a point where I'm gonna do everything, I'm gonna try and do everything without collar and to totally have and a totally naked, no no collar, no vest popcalysis, the best beside you in the blind. 100%. So try my best way to do it, and the more I got into training, the more I found different villager realms.
SPEAKER_01:So I heard a cornerstone early, and I'm like, okay, this is uh Did someone tell you about it, or did you see it on the internet? What where did where did that? When you say you heard about it, did you just see an ad or did you just hear about it from like a friend or something?
SPEAKER_02:So I was actually watching a dog training video. The one guy went through every day training his dog up to a year. And it actually popped up on his ads a couple times, which was hilarious. And then after like the fourth or fifth time, it showed up on Facebook. I started looking into it, looking into it, and I'm like, I can't put this money down right now. Yeah. Because it was only the one, it was only the one at that point of time. And I'm like, okay, let's look into it more. So I you guys had a trial that you put out a couple videos just to like tease the program a little bit. And after a while, after the program was done, uh Sarah messaged me and then I'm like, okay, my dog is here. When I started looking into CGA, you could sit, stay, calm, heal. But the steadiness was like 70%. If I stood beside him, it was 100%, but the second I moved like two feet away, it wasn't there. Yeah. Um there was no gun shy, but we couldn't pick up honkers. The the really big, and I mean like 13, 15 pound honkers, we had we had trouble picking them up. We had just I I can't at that point in time we didn't do casting, we didn't do angle backs. Like it was I just had a good dog at that point in time. And I'm like, I want more. I need more. I saw the SRS and I'm like, I I want more. So after talking with Sarah, she's like, okay, yeah, it does 52 plus was from the start to the end. And it'll give you everything to tell you how to make a fantastic hunting dog. And I talked to her, I think three months. I'm not gonna lie, it was a while. I racked her brain almost every day, and I'm like, you know what? I don't care anymore. I'm doing it. I don't want to have a mediocre dog. I am doing this, and it was amazing. It's I did I did something that I'd somewhat recommend to people is if you come in, not immediately, start from scratch. And I mean, we did the sit videos. I I I started from week one, day one, the entire way up.
SPEAKER_01:And it's what made you decide to do that? You just thought, you know, hey, if I'm gonna do this, I might as I've already invested, I might as well just be thorough and make sure the dog becomes all that it can be. 100%.
SPEAKER_02:I went, I don't want to use color anymore. I'm not missing any gaps. I know there were gaps in my training. I did it all myself, I winged it all myself. I'm like, I know I'm not a great trainer. So, you know what? We're doing everything from the start, not missing any gaps. We're doing day by day everything. If we skip days, we can skip days because we're already gravely proficient. At that point of time, we were I was having him carry his only shit loads in a heel for like two hours. Like it was we were mostly good by myself. It's just I needed that advanced stuff that I needed major help with. But walk through the program, I realized our relationship got better. It was more positive, it was more I taught him how to my break command is just I say break, and the only expectation is to come back, bring the ball back together. That's all I care about. And it was hilarious because I could do that and just instantly go play time, and I say heal and heal just whip into heal and be steady. And I'm like, we couldn't do that before. This is amazing. I love this. And it was definitely a it's definitely a time commitment, but it is 1000% worth it. We walk through the program, start to finish again, coming in late. It was like I think we were two and a half, three years in. And it was by four the gravest change that we've had.
SPEAKER_01:So your dog was two or three before you jumped into the course.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. And I was I was completely stuck on I was stuck, and I almost I'm like, okay, I'm gonna have this level of dog. And it's okay. He was a great dog. He was mostly steady if he was beside me. I'd still tied him off every hunt. Like I I did what I could to get to that point, but I'm like, I need some somewhere to get me over that hook, get me over that edge to make him a great dog. And hey, CGA, help. It's going off the stories, the story later on. CGA, the CGA definitely did it for me.
SPEAKER_01:Man, that's so cool. And I think that's encouraging because I I talked to I mean, I'm glad you said this, because I do talk to a lot of people that you know do wait um and they're curious, is it too late? You know, is it too late for my dog to be you know what I want it to be? Or do I need to start over where two or three years old? But so you would recommend, hey, look, if you're gonna do it, you might as well go back through. And like you said, if you if you get to the skill and your dog's already there, great, move on. But what by doing it the way you're talking about, you're making sure you're not missing anything.
SPEAKER_02:100%, especially if you just watch random YouTube videos. I mean, not every dog is different. Every dog is different, but you adapt it. That's why the that's why uh 52 Plus is so great. You adapt your dog off of the videos, and it might not be the exact same thing. You might have to tweak it a little bit, but walking through it, it was fantastic.
SPEAKER_01:I I want to ask you that question there too, because I I have seen people you know wonder like, hey, you know, you follow the same dog through the videos. You know, how is that better than having multiple dogs through the videos? I would love to hear for you. So, because that's a big thing. And we encourage that, right? We're encouraging you, you have to train the dog in front of you. And so just because Violet does it this way doesn't mean your dog's gonna do it a different way. But I think that leaves a question is okay, well, if my dog does it a different way, what do I do? How do I work through that? So, my question for you is you know, how did you navigate that and what um how do how did you work through that? Was it easy? Did the course kind of lay it out? What made sense to you?
SPEAKER_02:So what was gravely different about this course and anything else was you saw Violet fail. And that's the thing, you never see a dog fail. And every other training video I've I've watched, it's always perfect. It's always every time they take a dog that's already completed to run a single work. They don't take, oh hey, I'm gonna, I'm actually gonna have why I'm gonna show you guys how the dog grows up with the program, following it and everything. It's you see her fail. Sometimes it's you see her fail like your dog would, and then you see you change in real you change to her in real time. So it's like, okay, how do I tweak this enough? Like prime example angle backs. I gave up angle backs last year, just straight up gave it up. I'm like, I am not ruining this, I will do with overs and backs, and it worked. 100% worked all year. I passed it over, passed it back, no problem. But I'm like, okay, I'm getting angle backs this year. I don't care, I'm getting angle backs this year. So watching the videos, I'm like, this isn't perfect. And my mind went, pull everything in close. Pull everything in close. And I mean the bumpers were 20 feet out to the right, left back, I made basically wagging wheel with it. And then which the community is by far amazing because I jumped on one of our calls and was like, hey, here's my problem. Prime example, you came up and was like, spread it out. I think it was you and Martin. We're like, spread it out. It's the exact opposite of what you're thinking. Yeah, yeah. And and I mean, we had the new member orientation call, I think the next day. We did, I remember, yeah. The lunchtime, the lunchtime I got the train. I walked outside, I'm like, okay, we're doing this. I'm putting um right and left over. I have a back and then I have angle backs. And I over-exaggerated my cast, and I'm like, wait, he went to the correct one. I'm like, did the other side of it? Wait, he went to the correct one. I I never would have thought that one little thing, especially you guys, you guys made it so simple, so easy that like a lot of groups, people are bashing you because you don't know something, something like that. One little change changed the entire thing for me. You put it in another group, you get bashed for it. Instead, I get hey, let me know how it goes, hey, let me know how how you do. Let me know how it goes. And like it the very next, I know I we were on the call very next day, and I'm like, hey, it worked out fantastic. No issues. And what two months later, I did it at the uh PA live stream, and it was perfect.
SPEAKER_03:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:That's incredible. That's uh yeah, thank you for sharing that. And I think that's one thing I'm pretty passionate about too, is people like you and the community. Because, you know, when you do face challenges, you like we we don't believe that we need to show 50 different dogs or 10 different dogs going through the exact same process because the goal isn't for someone to robotically follow that dog exactly. And we we don't need to match our dog up with your dog perfectly because that doesn't matter. What matters is that you learn how things work, while they work, and how to approach them and how to change and adapt based on what you're seeing. So when we really try to take that approach, is we show you, and we did show you the real authentic way. We are gonna show you when this dog screws up because we show you the dog's first session. But we also want to teach you the why and how why behind all that. Um, and then sometimes it's necessary the community aspect is when you're when you're on this call, like there's just gonna be times you're gonna get stuck. That's the reality of it. Uh, we we want to be transparent on that. You're gonna face that, right? We do believe that we help you know exactly where to start, what to do next, and how to solve problems. But how to solve problems is key. We do help you learn how to solve problems in the community, for sure. But why do we help you do that? Because you're gonna find a problem and you're gonna you're gonna get stuck at times. And so we want to help you get unstuck. But man, that's so cool. And I remember you telling me on that in the memory oriented, I was actually surprised that it happened so quickly. Like the next day, you're like, yeah, the dog's doing great now. I was like, wow, that's pretty quick.
SPEAKER_02:It was the dog is half the reason for that. The dog is more than half the reason why we were this far in training. My dad keeps on telling me it was a once-in-a-lifetime dog, and it's super jealous that his dog's gonna turn out like him. I'm like, if it's not me, I promise it's not me.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I find that I want to talk about this because so we've got a we've really got a stark contrast here between two dogs from the same kennel, similar lineage. Uh, and that that's what's interesting is both of them are fired up to retrieve, right? They're passionate about retrieving, but they're different. And maybe I I think it's time to go ahead and share the story, man. Let's just go ahead and share one of your your highlight moments, and then I kind of want to tie that back to what some of the stuff we've already talked about. But I know that this is the moment I've been waiting for, and I and I know others are waiting for this. It's gonna be a good story. So what's yeah, what's one of your greatest highlights with uh with Mr. Beau?
SPEAKER_02:So right now we have a pit, or we had a pit. Um a person, a dog stand, a person, and then it was it was the exact same on the other side. Well, it's not a beautiful pit, but there's enough for two people to sew on either side of a dog. Four guys sitting there, two dogs shooting the bull like we are now, like not quiet, heads out, talking around, just the guy was sitting up on the ledge. And really funny is this duck comes in from overhead, from back to front. Both dogs, uh, bows look behind them, which Boat is hey, that bird's coming off the mountain. I you can't see it for five minutes. Bo's marked it. When that tail stops to stops uh wagging, hey, there's birds coming in. Everybody, every nobody talk. And I'm sitting there staring at the dog, and the bird comes flying over. Bo turns real quick, the other dog jumps out, starts running after it. And I mean, nobody has a gun picked up. We're all struggling, freaking out, getting a gun up, and the bird comes up in front of us, and there's this little ledge that drops in the cornerfield. The duck actually took a hard right turn and instead of being in front of us, it's now out to the right. And dad finally catches it. I can't see it. One drops, and I'm like, I I still had no idea where the duck was. So the other dog's out there where we lost the visual, and he's out 80 yards searching for this duck. And I'm going, I can't do anything about it. Dog's already out there. I'm not sending Bo. We're not having two dogs on one bird. So the guy's like, no, it's over there, it's over there. He's yelling at his dog, trying to get him over, and no good. Guy eventually gets fed up and like, we have to get this duck. So send Bo. So I sent Bo, and it was the exact same thing. He ran out to where he missed the duck, sat him on a whistle, and then straight I stood up on his kennel, one one cast over, and he's like, Okay, that doesn't look right, and just hauled over to it. It was one whistle, beautiful set, one cast over. He runs probably a hundred yards over and does what he does best, just tackles the duck, picks it up, brings it back, and that other dog's still way out searching for it. And I get it back, just rub it up on his face, give him love, taking the duck, and I'm like, hey, this looks cool. And then my dad's like, nah. He goes, How would you do that? Like, I'm all of the guys I home with are like, we've never seen a dog do that before. And like, Bo wasn't leashed. I didn't know the duck was coming. I didn't put I didn't put Bo's tether on, which I usually forget to do now. Um I didn't put it on. We weren't ready. There was so much commotion. We were sitting there, like I was physically pushing myself out of the blind trying to find the duck. Like, we had no idea where it was. Just chaos. Absolute chaos. It was worse than worse than usual, yeah. Um and it's just the one whistle casting out with another dog searching for it, and it was it was um it was amazing. And I tell that story as much as possible because I love the fact that Bo can sit perfectly beside me while another dog breaking as the birds are flying, as everything's happening, Bo is mostly calm, very obviously shaking because he's so excited, but he's as calm as he can be sitting next to me, just waiting on his name. Wow.
SPEAKER_01:Man, that is absolutely incredible. And that kind of yeah, that's a great, I love that question of how did you do that? But I think you know, if you if you rewind that all the moments culminated, including the work that you did prior to CGA, right? You put all heart and passion in for it for two to three years, then you jump into cornerstone, you get things right, you make sure that you're not missing anything. And now the outcome of this is a dog that anyone would be proud to hunt with. Right. I'm sure everybody in the blind was like, we need more of this.
SPEAKER_02:I know the one guy I hunt with, he goes, I don't like hunting with dogs. And then I look over, I'm like, hey. Okay, Bo doesn't count. Bo doesn't count. Because he hates how they break. He hates he grew up, and the guy's like 80. He grew up where dogs aren't steady. Dogs just ran out after stuff. And then he goes, I Bo doesn't count in that. He's a better partner to have the blind than any any normal person. He sees you, he sees the birds, he tells you where they are. A lot of the time you're sitting there ducking down and they disappear behind uh behind it. Behind you. Hey, you know what, you know what the birds don't care about? A dog head spinning around and following them. And it's just, oh, I can't have you leashed anymore. Pop it off, and he's sitting there just spinning in circles, following the birds, and it's just oh, wait, we hear honking. And everyone the blind, and I mean everyone the blind just spares a bug. And you just see the you see his head like locked. No matter where the birds are, you have he's locked on the entire time, and it is just the best thing ever.
SPEAKER_01:Man, that gets me so fired up, and man, I'm just so proud of you for doing that too. I know that's that's gotta be a defining moment as in like wow. I mean, obviously, you know your dog could handle it at this point. You've probably been practicing all that through the course. But I mean, the fact that your dog was handling in the chaos, don't know where the bird is. You got a dog breaking, and if any dog is gonna break, they're gonna break when they see another dog break. I mean, you may have a remotely steady dog, but if another dog runs out and then that someone's yelling at it, trying to get it to handle, if a dog is not truly trained, then what is it gonna do? It's gonna be like, oh, this is my moment, let's go. But clearly your dog was in tune with you. And that's one of the things we talk about. I think that a lot of people don't understand, like at Cornerstone, our standard is just so much higher than anything out there, right? We are preparing the best hunting dogs out there. And when I say we, I include every member in that that are part of Cornerstone that are using the course. That's the collective we. We are all individually trying to have the best hunting dog that we can and are clearly well equipped to do so. I mean, that's a very challenging scenario. Um and so that was basically a blind. So Bo so Bo didn't even see where it fell. Bo's eyes were just locked in where that other dog ran out there and was kind of hunting around. And so he thought that's where I need to go first.
SPEAKER_02:Even the people didn't know where it went. The only reason my dad knew where it was was because he caught it in the corner of his eye. We all thought it landed down there. I mean, everyone thought it landed down there. It was super silent and came across, it uh took it, took a hard right turn over to the right side, and the only reason he caught it was out of the corner of his eye. No one knew where it was.
SPEAKER_01:So this bird, so this bird was wounded. It wasn't necessarily even was it dead? Like it fell dead, or it like kind of like sailed and then died.
SPEAKER_02:Uh uh, it was definitely wounded, unfortunately. But that is like the one best part about dogs are I couldn't have got over gotten over there any quicker. I couldn't run that distance. And immediately I sat him, I passed him over, and he was there and dog, I don't want to say less than two seconds. It was dog's fast.
unknown:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:Um he picked it up, it did bite him. That was the funniest part ever. It had a hold of his ear the entire way back. And I mean, when it got back, I saw him had an ear, and I'm like, ah, this isn't gonna be good. Like I sat there and was this a goose or a duck? I'm out of it, I may have missed this. No, we were goose hunt. It was the duck. We don't get ducks, we do not get ducks where we're at. We we just don't get ducks. So we see a duck, it's the greatest thing in the world, and it's no one knew it was happening. Um there was of course starting season, so like we're like, we can shoot it, let's do it. And um it was fantastic.
SPEAKER_01:Wow. It was kind of so what I want to tie back to, I mean, this this just again gets me so fired up. I just had a lot of questions, but kind of going back to what I said that I wanted to kind of parallel is like two dogs, same kennel, similar lineage, somewhat related, two different outcomes, right? But the potential was there in the other dog too. He just didn't get the training he needed to get to that level, right? At least he's passionate about picking up birds. That's fantastic, that's great. But you train to that other level. And I think you know, a lot of people out there, like you said, may not even realize, hey, there is more out there. You know, there is another level. Um, you know, I see a lot of people maybe trying, and I I would like to maybe kind of inquire this of you and ask, right? So you started with YouTube thinking about all that. Was it one of those things? This seems like it was a journey that unfolded. And maybe there was kind of realizations along the way. The first realization is, hey, I'm gonna train my dog. Then you came to this realization of, oh wow, dogs can be steady. That's new. Fantastic, great. So, you know, as you're hearing about Cornerstone very early on, and obviously when you're looking at that price, like, wow, you know, and that I don't know about that. Because at this point you're thinking, I think I can probably just, I guess, were you thinking I could just do this without it? What was it just didn't make sense at the time for you, and I would love to know about that because I see a lot of people that wander into this thing of dog training. Um, there is a reason corners don't exist, and there's a reason it's the price it is, because of the detail that's there. But I think a lot of people are kind of wandering into this, they don't realize until they get to this moment in time, like you, you were you were two to three years in, and then you came to this realization, I think you said earlier, like, okay, this is what my dog's gonna be. And then you kind of came to this other realization, well, maybe there is more, maybe my dog can become more. But man, does any of that make sense? Kind of talk me through that, man. I would love to know what you were thinking about early on, kind of why you why you're thinking, I just want to do it off online on YouTube. Was it just like you thought that this is gonna work, or is was your basically your your goals shifting over time? And as time went on, you realize, okay, I do need more. What what's kind of the story there? Because I think a lot of people that are listening to this, especially people that are non-cornstall members, I think this is gonna make a lot of maybe resonate with Element. I would love just to hear hear more.
SPEAKER_02:So I first started out like everyone else does, every non-super doll guy before is I'm now the dog guy in my family is fantastic. Um so I started off YouTube and I found the one guy, and so most I still watch his videos, but he does no longer does retrieving dogs, and so I just like to see what level his dogs are, and he was no collar. He was he mostly does British methods, and I'm like, I love this. I want to have a dog like his. And I followed him as long as I could, but his video stopped. And I'm like, okay, what do I do now? I need more than just skipping to a totally different dog, I want to see that dog progress. Yeah. So then I found um GSPs, and I'm like, okay, yeah, absolutely. They teach their dogs how to retreat. So I'm gonna watch GSPs retreat. And I'm like, not the best, but hey, as you can tell, there's a lot of different there's at least three major people that have three very different opinions in how they train dogs. So it's like there's three vastly different ideas here, and I'm trying to throw them all into one. So CGA kept popping up and and I looked at my wife and I'm like, it says lifetime. It says lifetime. Is that my is that my lifetime? Is that my dog's lifetime? It it says it. But I don't know. So I messaged Sarah, and that was one of the uh that was one of the um questions I asked her. I'm like, whose lifetime is this? Because it's a good question, yeah. That's a good question. I'm I'm relatively young, like I'm in my 30s, like I'm I'm going to have more than one dog. Is it gonna be my lifetime? Is it gonna be my dog's lifetime? Like sometimes she's oh lifetime guarantee. Oh, it's for the lifetime of the product. That's that's what 10 years, 10, 12 years. I need something more. I need I want the lifetime, I want the community, I want everything. And like that why it took me three months is I'm going, is it lifetime? I I I clarified like 20 times with her, and I'm so sorry for that.
SPEAKER_01:Um look, I get it. There's a lot of people out there, and sometimes they're not always on the up and up. So that makes you you want to make sure, and that's fair. That's a fair question.
SPEAKER_02:And that is like the lifetime thing was the um the nail. That's why I chose it. Like I was in a different group, I'm not gonna say what the group is. They had a monthly membership, and I'm like, okay, for 10 months or for five years of that equals one time of like time. I'm like, there's no question. I'm like, and I'm like the community's community and CGA, I'm not that that's why I'm not saying the name, community and CJA is better. It's I don't I love the um the problem solving methods of us. I love the hey, I'm gonna joke around with you, but I'm also gonna tell you straight, like, this is how I did it. Choose a different way. You're more than welcome to choose a different way, but this is how I did it. And there's like 20 people commenting on one post being like, hey, we tried this, we tried this. And then the post I think it was last week, the guy's like, okay, in year one, you sit in a chair, you sit on a chair or on a bucket and have pilot return to you, and that's how you get a return. That that doesn't work for me. And I was like, okay, here's the little thing that I did that made it that made it work for me. Like it just makes it work for me. And there was like two other people I was like, okay, I tweaked it in this little bit and it maybe was sitting in a chair and was standing up, and that's what got to it. It might have been sitting on the floor and that's what did it. And it was just like those little tweaks of like everyone coming together to be like, hey, try it. If it works for you, fantastic. But let us know.
SPEAKER_01:Like keep us updated, man. That's that's awesome, man. Yeah, I think a lot of people can resonate with that. I mean, if you go back to when we started Cornerstone, that was kind of the way it was. There was nothing online back then, um, prior to Cornerstone. I learned from DVDs and books and and trainers in person, but ran into the same problem, tried to mix a bunch together and uh kept hitting my head against the wall and needed more, and uh finally built it. Unfortunately, it had to go the hard way. I wish cornerstone existed when we were starting. It would have been nice just to have everything you you wanted all in one spot. But I think a lot of people can resonate with that, right? You you're trying things, and you know, my big thing is for people out there, like you're you're hopeful, you want your dog to turn out and uh like you were, right? You you were hoping it was gonna work out and you keep trying, and it did get you somewhere, right? You're going to see results. If you go put in work, I mean, one thing's for sure, proverb says all hard work leads to a profit. So if you're going to putting in hard work with your dog, you're going to see some results. But when you get everything dialed in and you've got a process that you can follow that isn't just, it's not, we don't even offer a program. We offer a process, right? The process develops and creates it on the other side. You're going to come out and have this dog. And the reason I say it's a process is the process has those nuances. And what I love about what you're saying there is, I mean, clearly you and other members are equipped to to make those adaptations. Uh, and that's the reality. Like, you're gonna have to adapt. That's the first thing. One of the first training lessons you're gonna learn is be willing to adapt. You gotta learn how to adapt, though, and that's kind of the key. And I think the people that you're surrounded with can be a big help on that. Um, gets me super passionate. But um, man, that's that is so cool. That that just gets me fired up and and just to see the the you know difference in where you really the truth is your dog could have ended up in the same place as your butt, you know, your hunting buddy's dog. And I'm really thankful that you were able to get to that next level of training because I think that's serving you all well. You're probably getting birds faster. I mean, even a guy who says, I don't like hunting with dogs, now is saying, well, your dog's an exception. I would love to see in the next 10, 15, 20, 30 years that that be a change perspective, like, oh my gosh, we do not hunt unless we have a dog, including that outfitters. Like, you know, a lot of outfitters don't want you to bring their dog because they're used to dogs that break and do all those challenges. You know, over time, I think the more people that are adapting this process, it'll be like you need to bring the dog because you're gonna kill more birds, you're gonna limit out quicker without having to run around and do all that because the dog is is more efficient.
SPEAKER_02:100%. And that's what's really funny. Like last year we hunted half the time with Bo, half the time with the other pup. And what's really funny was I brought Bo on every sometimes we got one, sometimes we got more. The other pup always got the first because, you know, the thatcher dog, the guy who runs the blind, like he gets a first. That's fine. I don't mind having Bo watch. But we we estimated between, and this was a big thing, is we estimated between over a hundred birds. 100 and 120 birds that we lost because, or that we didn't even get a shot at because the dog broke.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my gosh. And like it was- That is so many, 120 days.
SPEAKER_02:Oh wow. The guy just sat there on his that's like the 90-year-old guy. He sat there on his pad and was just sitting there. I'd be mad too. He just sat there and tallied everyone we could have gone. We could have gone. And it's just he got fired up about it every time. He's like, I wish Bo would just come. Just bring Bo next time. Tired of it, just bring Bo. And it's bad. That's awesome. Um I did want to say if anyone has questions, like the group is by far amazing. In your videos, I came in and I even asked Sarah, I'm like, I need help. Both pick both is having trouble picking up honkers. And I mean 14, 15 pound local geese that are just giant, like both having trouble picking them up. He's 75 pounds. Like, he just he's having trouble. And the very first post I put on the on the community site when it was on Facebook was how can I help my puppets pick up honkers? And like I tried everything on the sun, I Googled it, I went on everyone's site, I messaged people, like it was I tried everything. And I think it was you, one of the other chapter leaders, and then 30 other people commented like try it in the water first. Try it in the water, and Martin commented, I know a lot of people commented on it and just kept on like tagging, like liking it, and just going go for the water, go for the water. And Bo loves water, he's he swam in January in a pond just he just wanted to swim. Um and it was funny because I got it. Uh after the hunt, we had one, and I'm just gonna go, it's after the hunt. We're gonna be good. Let's see what we can do. And it was one of the big birds that he physically dragged back to the pit. Like, okay, we're gonna try it. Put it in the water, went out, grabbed it, swam back, lifted his head up at me, and I'm like, I hate how this how I hate how long this took me to try this. And I had like 30 people commenting, like, hey, try this, it'll help. Try it. We promise it'll help. And I'm like, it I wish I knew this so long ago. That was my like one main issue that I had that I just could not get over it. And then within two weeks of asking the question, I'm like, I this took so l I overlooked this that little bit, and we haven't looked back from it. It's fantastic. Wow.
SPEAKER_01:Well, man, we're Cody, we're glad you're part of CGA. Yeah, we're glad you're part of the lifetime community, right? We're glad you don't have to keep paying to be part of it. Uh, we just thought that made the most sense. We won't we created a we really have a family here, is the way we view it. So once you're in, you're in. Um, you know, and we're we're really glad you're part of it. I I man, we are running. I can't even believe we're at almost on time. We are going to 100% have to do another episode because we didn't even really get to talk much about the PA chapter. Um we may have to just do an episode dedicated to the PA chapter. And I I want to hear more about that. I'm fired up about that. But I again I'm just I'm just happy, man, about your story. I'm happy for you that you were able to find the success that you that you wanted with your dog with Bo. I'm glad you're able to take it from that mediocre level, that just typical dog getting up to that that cornerstone level, that amazing retriever. It's a fantastic hunting dog. And uh, man, but the truth is you're the one that put in the work. So good on you for doing it. It wouldn't have happened if you hadn't done it. You're the one that did the work. So we're glad we were able to partner alongside of you, help guide you in that. And now, man, we're glad that you're helping others do the same. And uh we're proud of you as we typically do. I want to, you know, kind of ask this last question um for this episode, and we'll we'll do more. But you know, what's one of your your big things you would say to someone like you? Um, and I know we've kind of covered it. I I actually want to ask you two questions. Um The first one is what would you say to someone yourself who just got a dog that's wandering into this and is excited? Like maybe they're not unaware of problems that are on the horizon. And then the second question I'll ask you is what would you say to someone, you know, briefly, and I know we've kind of covered that, but someone that is down the road, they've got a two or three-year-old dog that basically they're starting to lose hope with. Let's start with that first question, though. The person like yourself, never trained a dog or a hunting dog before, just starting out on their journey. What would be your biggest piece of advice, you know, other than choosing cornerstone? I mean, clearly you're you're very pro corner stone. Is there like one nugget of of advice you could give to them? Um, or unless it is choose cornerstone, then whatever it is for you, but I would I'd love to know that.
SPEAKER_02:I am a very big advocate of cornerstone um program, community. It's amazing. The one thing I do want to say is as a new person, be a good leader. And be the one that it's Bo doesn't get scared very often, but I remember we were at Lowe's, someone dropped a um a box of spider wrap came off, and that was that super loud noise. Bo was like five months old. Hey, he got out of his harness. He stood behind me. And I'm like, that relationship is everything, especially when it comes to times where you're not sure. The dog's not sure. It's 4 a.m. We're at a brand new spot to hunt. Oh, I know for a fact gonna be within five feet of me. We can walk two miles in, the foe's within five feet of me. I trust him enough, we have that relationship that I know where he's gonna be, he knows where I'm gonna be. If the dog trusts you, you trust the dog, you just gain that relationship together. And that's what's fantastic about cornerstone is you go through the training process together. Instead of sending him out to someone who gets them for six months, you'll lose all that time. If you could do it together, you gain that relationship. You gain it's you gain the heartaches, you gain the hardships, you gain the wins, you gain. I'm not gonna lie. I jump up and down and clap and yell still. I'll be a cheerleader. I don't care. Because I'm so intertwined with like so I put so much of myself in the training game that it's just amazing to like tomorrow we go out for the first time of the year. And it's just I'm stoked that I get to take the dog and we're gonna run him and it's gonna be amazing. The relationship's so good that he knows for a fact I'm not leaving without him.
SPEAKER_01:Man, that is so cool. Um, thanks for that advice. That's great advice. Like you said, being that good leader, your dog's gonna be able to trust you. It sounds like you didn't panic when and a lot of times people do panic and you don't want to panic. If something bad like that happens, like especially something that could make your dog scared of loud noises, they're gonna look to you quickly. And it sounds like you just kind of remain calm and then your dog was able to pick up on that. So good nugget, good information. All right, what's what about the person that's starting to lose hope? They got a two to three-year-old dog. What would you say to them?
SPEAKER_02:For a two to three-year-old dog, if you're losing hope, consistency. If you can, and I highly suggest it, join CGA, start from the beginning. I was perfectly fine at sit stay heel, but you know what? I did it again. And the heel got better, it got tighter, I don't have to use at least 99% anymore. I still do it with leash loss, but I don't it's if you work through it step by step by step, the gaps in your training that you didn't know you were missing are filled. You gain that um relationship, you gain the missing gaps in order to make yourself so much better and your dog. I know CGA we talk about how to make yourself a better, how to make yourself better. Hey, here's how to help you understand what the dog's thinking, how the dog learns, like that helped out a lot. And oh, that makes sense why he's not understanding us. Hey, that makes sense why we're not on the same page on this one. It's if you start from beginning to end, you just gain a little extra agreement that personally I know I was missing. Wow.
SPEAKER_01:Well, Cody, this has been an amazing podcast. I'm proud of you. I'm excited about your hunt tomorrow opening day. Hope was a great one. And uh man, just thank you for taking the time to jump on here and share and encourage others. I think this has been an encouraging, um, encouraging podcast, really. I think for a lot of people, like they've lost some hope with their dogs. Man, I just don't know if my dog's gonna be what I want it to be, or maybe I'll have to get another dog one day. Like, hey, it is possible to still have that dog you dream of. And uh thanks for being an upstanding cornerstone member, Cody. You crushed it, man, and we appreciate you for being on.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you. I very much appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks for listening to the Build From Here podcast. To learn more about retriever training or our podcast, visit Cornerstone Gundogacademy.com slash podcast.