Gundog Nation
A show to bring together gundog enthusiasts, trainers, and handlers with discussion focused on all breeds and styles of gundogs.
Gundog Nation
Gundog Nation #020: Steve Strongman - The Waterfowl Dispatchers, Retriever Training
From carving wooden decoys in Ontario to guiding hunts beneath dancing Northern Lights in Saskatchewan, Steve Strongman's waterfowling journey embodies the rich heritage of Canadian hunting traditions. As co-owner of The Waterfowl Dispatchers outfitting company, Steve offers a rare window into what makes Saskatchewan arguably the world's premier waterfowl destination.
What makes this conversation truly compelling is Steve's parallel journey as a first-time dog owner and trainer. Having never owned a dog before, Steve and his wife—a Florida transplant who traded sunshine for Canadian winters—decided to dive headfirst into the retriever world with their high-drive Fox Red Lab. Their training adventures with what Steve affectionately calls their "problem child" will resonate with anyone who's struggled with a challenging but promising hunting companion.
The episode explores fascinating contrasts between hunting traditions in different Canadian provinces, the remarkable diversity of Saskatchewan waterfowl, and how outfitting has evolved to accommodate dog-focused hunts where working retrievers takes priority over shooting limits. Steve shares captivating stories about hunting beneath the Northern Lights and creating once-in-a-lifetime photographs that capture the magic of dogs, wild places, and hunting heritage.
Whether you're interested in international hunting opportunities, training retrievers through structured programs, or simply enjoy listening to authentic conversations between passionate dog people, this episode delivers genuine insights from someone who bridges the Canadian and American hunting communities. Ready to experience the allure of prairie waterfowling or learn how structure and community can transform dog training challenges? This conversation might just inspire your next hunting adventure.
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Hello and welcome to Gun Dog Nation. This is Kenneth Witt and I'm coming to you from Texas. I want you to know that Gun Dog Nation is more than just a podcast. It's a movement to unite those who want to watch a well-trained dog do what it's bred to do. Also, we are set out to try to encourage youth, to get encouraged in the sport of gun dogs, whether it's hunting, competition, trials, hunt tests, all the above. This is a community of people that are united to preserve our heritage of gun dog ownership and also to be better gun dog owners. So if you'll stay tuned to all of our episodes, we're going to have people on here to educate you about training, about nutrition, health. Anything can make you a better gun dog owner. It's my pleasure to welcome our listeners and please join our community.
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Speaker 1:Hey, this is Kenneth Witt from Gun Dog Nation coming to you live again. Well, it won't be live by the time you hear this, but from Texas. And you know I recorded one last week with a really good friend of mine from Ireland. You live again. Well, it will. It won't be live by the time you hear this, but from texas. And uh, you know I've recorded one last week with a really good friend of mine from ireland and today I get to record it one with a friend from canada. So we're going gundog's, going international gundog nation. That's it's. I love it, but uh, I'm gonna let him. I'm gonna introduce this man here in a second.
Speaker 1:But steve and I met uh at a at a seminar, weekend seminar with cornerstone gundog Academy. We're both members and we both trained under their methods, you know, and using the do it yourself way that they have, and anyway, it and his wife trained. It's really exciting. They're both very involved and I got to see them in action down there and I was down there with a very young. I had the youngest dog, I think she was barely six months, so she might've been five and a half, but it's.
Speaker 1:It was neat, you know it's uh, but y'all, I know y'all had a dog. I really liked that. I I wish I could have stolen if I wouldn't have been arrested in Alabama for that. I would have took off with that dog but you'd driven all the way from Alabama, I mean from Canada, and I drove my way from West Texas and I think we both had about the same distance to drive, you know, because I was in Midland coming over and that's a long haul to Alabama. Steve, yes, let me do a formal introduction. You tell everybody who you are and where you live.
Speaker 2:My name is Steve Strongman, I live in Ontario, canada, and we own the Waterfowl Dispatchers at Saskatchewan Outfitting Company for waterfowl, and that's who we are.
Speaker 1:Now, am I correct, Steve? Is that you and your brother, right? Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my brother and our two wives we're all partners in the business Smart man, that were all partners in the business, so we uh wanted smart man. Yeah, so we had, uh wanted to spend more time hunting in the field, so we had to get them involved somehow, so we roped him in that way what got you and your, or who started first?
Speaker 1:did you was your wife from a hunting background, or were you from a hunting background, or how did y'all begin?
Speaker 2:yeah, my wife. Uh, she's actually from florida, so, uh, I'm married in america, that's right, I forgot yeah, so we were yeah, yeah, okay the cga um event there the weekend. We were actually down in florida. We kind of make it like part of our, our winter vacation and then we drive back up, do the weekend and then drive home. So, uh, we were on our way home that time. But yeah, we met online dating and imported her to Canada.
Speaker 1:It's true love getting a woman to leave the tropics of Florida to go freeze to death in Canada.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You got to keep her and I remember you all told me a little bit more about it, but you went down and met her right. Yes, sir, yeah.
Speaker 2:We went down and we kind of got got talking, just saw where she lived. It was like 45 minutes away from where we we, uh, snowbird, my family and I would been going down to florida during the winter for a couple weeks every year and I was like, oh, that's not too far, and so we got talking in that and um, it was in the fall, uh, before uh, the pandemic, and anyways ended up getting married right in the fall before the pandemic and anyways, ended up getting married right in the heat of the pandemic and and she's been up here for maybe five years in July now. So I think she's regretting it a bit this winter, cause we've had the last three winners have been fairly mild. Last year was probably one of the most mild winners we've had and then this year it's making up for it.
Speaker 1:So we been getting hit so you just kind of eased her into it. Right started out not so bad. Yeah, no, that's neat. Now, what part of florida was she from? I'm? I grew up going to florida a lot.
Speaker 2:Uh, my family had a she's from uh plant city, florida, so it's about uh 20 minutes. Uh, north east of tampa, right off the I-4.
Speaker 1:Okay, Is that kind of in the panhandle a little bit. No, it's down farther the other side.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay. So it's kind of it'd be 45 minutes south of Kissimmee.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. So, we've got a tiny place down there that's been in my family a long time, in Kennonsville, which is a little bitty, tiny area Same county as Kissimmee, okay, and the same county as St Cloud. Osceola County actually where the Osceola turkey, yeah, yeah, so that's real close to us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, her town's pretty cool, so we'd gone down and Kissimmee's all hinged off of disney and so there's it's nothing but tourism there. And she's like I'm from a small farm in town. I was like what? And then uh, sure enough, went there and they're the strawberry cat winter strawberry capital of the world. So if uh didn't know that, if you look on your strawberries a lot of times, probably from january till march, uh, most likely they they're from plant city. So it's pretty, uh, pretty cool. Like she said, it is a farm town. There's not much tourism there, so pretty nice town.
Speaker 1:Hey, I learned something new. I don't remember that that's winter strawberries, so had she or you, before y'all met, been big hunters?
Speaker 2:She came from a non-hunting background. I'm, uh, third generation. So my grandfather, he, um, grew up in a really ontario about an hour south of us and, um, there's a couple bigger lakes there they hunted on and he was a diehard. A lot of, a lot of what they eat in the winter was what they shot in the fall and, uh, he was a man I would have liked to met. He died the year I was born but carved all his own decoys and hunted out of a canoe and, yeah, just pretty cool. And my dad had one other brother and they hunted as soon as they were old enough and pretty much exclusively waterfowl. So but, yeah, growing growing up I got seven siblings. So, um, my dad's a baptist minister but I have seven siblings and he took a hiatus from hunting until we are old enough to get our license and and go out.
Speaker 2:So I remember our first hunt. We went out and first couple hunts. We have a cottage a little bit farther north of us and he took us out and built the blind just along the shoreline with a bunch of rocks and that and put out grandpa's decoys and he had us shooting hooded Maganzers and we just had. There's a ton of them up here and we were just shooting them up like crazy, and then he had us cook them of them up here, and we were just shooting them up like crazy, and then he had us cook them. And, man, when I took a bite of the first mcganser, I just about I was like, ah, I don't know if I can keep doing this. Is this what it tastes like?
Speaker 1:but I've heard I've never tried them, but I've heard that oh yeah, don't try them if you don't have these did you end up get? Do you still have any of your grandpa's decoys?
Speaker 2:yeah, my, my dad's got them. Yeah, he's got them Wow.
Speaker 1:A lot, a lot of them.
Speaker 2:No, my uncle, he made a set for my dad. They hunted mostly mallards and then in the fall we have divers, a heavy population of common golden eyes and buffleheads. But he had a set of mallards, about a dozen of them, and then, um, about a dozen of the gold knives, and uh, so yeah, he still got them and uh, that's neat well, I'm a little ignorant about that process.
Speaker 1:What kind of wood do they use for those? He?
Speaker 2:used mostly cedar. Yeah, my dad, uh, he actually made us, uh, like, make a few of our own. For when we first started out we couldn't figure out how to make them and then finally figured it out. But Grandpa used to cut them in half and hollow out the centers, and then he'd have counterweights on the back and we just carved them out of a block of wood and the heads just fell over.
Speaker 1:But we tried our best Diving ducks. Yeah, that's pretty neat. I shouldn't laugh cause I've I have no craft skills, so it would not be pretty.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Kept them in the, so go ahead. No, no, well, educate me on what all waterfowl, what all species that you guys would hunt up there. And would you always be in Ontario? Did you go to other parts of canada?
Speaker 2:yeah, so we um, uh, we grew up in ontario and primarily we hunted. Um. It was kind of interesting, uh, in a really, where my dad grew up, there was very little canada geese population.
Speaker 1:Um, can Canada goose so yeah, they were.
Speaker 2:They were um not very prevalent and uh, lots of farming around Aurelia too, but they always hunted the water. So they would hunt the mallards and black ducks and wood ducks and uh, you get the teal, and that a little bit in the early season, but it all opens at the same time, um, as far as ducks up here, so a lot of the teal are gone and in ontario, and then, um, probably mid october, late october, november, the divers start coming down and so that's what they would hunt. They would hunt the gold, nyes, bluebills, ringnecks and um and uh buffleheads, ringnecks and um and uh buffleheads, and so that's what we hunted in ontario. Now we primarily hunt mostly.
Speaker 2:Our lakes have all got built up with cottages and there's a not very many places that we can actually hunt. Um, there's still some, but the cottages are turning more into permanent residents, so you run into some interesting situations with cottagers. Yeah, I'll go ahead. Yeah, now we primarily hunt dry field Canada geese and corn and if you're lucky, you get the mallards coming into the field. That's pretty special, but that's what we hunt in Ontario.
Speaker 1:Now, yeah, coming into the field, that's pretty special, but uh, that's what we hunt in ontario. And uh, yeah, what do you see? Do you guys get sandhill crane up in that part of canada?
Speaker 2:yeah, we do, we, um, just in the last probably 10 years they started uh, showing up and uh, no season for them.
Speaker 2:But they're talking about 2026 opening a season and and doing like a tag draw for them. I think you'll be able to shoot one or two, but you're starting to see the farmers hate them because they can't get rid of them and mostly in the spring, like up here, we're in the tree line About an hour south of us, you start to get into farm and then southern ontario is pretty heavy farming but up here at smaller farms and we talked to quite a few farmers and their problem is in the spring they show back up and on their way back north and the fields are planted and they just walk through the fields and just scratch two feet and destroy it and farmers lose a couple acres, three or four acres and they can't do anything to them and um, oh, wow. So but yeah, we were up two hours north of us in another smaller farming community and drove past a field and it was a like a saskatchewan huntable flock of sandhill cranes. I was, I I couldn't believe it. There was. There was probably five or 600 in the field.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, they're in big groups. Uh well, let me ask you so, since you're, you're an Ontario native, but your outfitter businesses in Saskatchewan is it is hunting better in Saskatchewan. Yes, sir, yeah, is there a reason that you're there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Is there a reason that you're there? Yeah, yeah. So we my grandfather took my dad and my uncle out to Saskatchewan, to the Big Quills when they were. I think dad was 17. Uncle Chuck was either in his early 20s, I think it was, and they camped in a farm field by the Big Quills, by the, in a farm field by the big quills. And so when we turned, I think it was 17 and 19 dad took us out. We drove out and super green, and drove out in a small car and just packed a bunch of shells and had no idea what we were doing, and that was probably 14 years ago. And so we made the trek out there just because, I think, really just because they had, because you drive through Manitoba and it's amazing for hunting too, but Saskatchewan, I mean, to me it's the best place in the world to hunt waterfowl. So it's the yeah out there. I mean, have you been up to Saskatchewan to hunt?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I flew into Saskatoonatoon and drove. I bear hunted up there first. Uh, I was there for opening day of black bear season in 2017 and then went back that november for deer season. Same place, same outfitter. We were like three hours north of saskatoon and, okay, I mean there was no, there was no cell service for an hour, you know. Yeah, but I remember seeing waterfowl, especially when I was there in the spring hunt of bear season. I mean it was unbelievable. I've never seen it much. So I figured to me it's a sportsman's paradise, I mean the lakes, the fishing, you know. So, yes, I have to answer that question in a long answer. Yeah, Interesting.
Speaker 2:You say that the farmer's son that we're really good friends with out there he owns two camps. I think it's five hours or three hours north of Saskatoon, three or four hours north of Saskatoon on Besnard Lake, besnard Lake Lodge. He's the one that kind of pushed us into the outfitting side of it, but he was closing up camp and we had a gap in between clients so we'd never been up to his camps. He has both camps on the lake and that's the only fishing outfitter up there. We drove up and helped him close up the camp but he took set one night and I mean, I fished here and my buddies all have sonars and and fish detectors and everything and we go in.
Speaker 2:It's a 10 boat with a 25 horse and no fish uh equipment at all, just a rod and and he's like, oh yeah, he's like, um, they have fishing guides. Of course local guys take them out, but I'm like you know the fishing good, fishing is good when they have no electronics in the boat. And yeah, then what does it? What does it take to get a limit, like? And he's like, oh, they'll probably get their limit the first day and then throw what, throw back what they don't want just keep fishing until they get the bigger ones, and so so. But yeah, it's definitely a sportsman's paradise for sure.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, steve, the place I stayed I wish I could remember that name, it's driving me insane. It was an older couple. They'd been there all their lives, that was their business, and it was a camp, had these tiny cabins. They ran everything off a giant caterpillar generator, diesel generator. They ran everything off a giant caterpillar generator, diesel generator. Um, and they, they had fishing in the you know warm months, bear hunting and then deer hunting, and it was. It was a year round thing for them. But the cabin, I mean, I stayed in this little tiny cabin, woke up and look at a lake right there. And I remember one thing. I remember, steve, I'll never forget One thing. I remember, steve, I'll never forget I was eating. The lady cooked dinner. Two meals a day, I ate wild rice out of that lake. Oh really, that was the best stuff. I'd give anything to have taken a truckload of that back. I don't know what she did. I don't know if you've ever eaten that. No, it blew me away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've heard of it. We have some lakes around Ontario that have wild rice in it, but yeah, I've never tried that.
Speaker 1:I know it sounds crazy that rice could be that good. Yeah, but I could just eat it plain. I'm sure she might have put butter or something in it, but words can't describe it, so it was good.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I bet it's in the vicinity of where you are somehow.
Speaker 2:I just I don't know why I can't remember.
Speaker 2:We're an hour um uh, an hour uh south or an hour and a half south of uh Saskatoon. That's where we're set up right now. Okay, we're outfitting. So cause, uh, saskatoon is, um, I think you're, half hour, 45 minutes or a little bit more to the tree line, they call it, and then the farming kind of sparse like, gets a little bit more sparse and then you get into the boreal forest. But yeah, we're right in between almost dead center, in between Saskatoon and Regina. So that's where we right, close to one of the biggest bird sanctuaries in Saskatchewan.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, you know you're right. I remember there was logging operations, sawmills all through there where we were.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, big timber, thick, so thick. Yeah, awesome. So how long have you been in business?
Speaker 2:This will be our third fall. Yeah, we started two years ago and, uh, we really run it. Um, we're not uh, looking to scale um much more like we'll. Right now we're doing one group a week. So we run three day hunts, um, and hunt five times in those three days, so morning evening and morning evening and then the morning of the day that the clients leave and, and, uh, right now we're just doing, uh, yeah, one group a week. So just to kind of ease into it, we, we are it's basically like we have full-time jobs back here and it's something that we love doing and we don't want to kind of go too far into it where the customer experience suffers. And I'm still at the point where it's like if the clients have a bad hunt, it hurts me pretty bad and, yeah, to schedule on it's, it's pretty hard to have a bad hunt, but they come every once in a while it's hunting and uh, especially when you're chasing snow geese, but uh, no, what's the season there, at least for your outfitters yeah you have your business.
Speaker 1:What? What's the season?
Speaker 2:we run um. The season of saskatchewan runs from september 1st to december, I think 16th, but most like our season, the prime season is basically last week of september. Obviously, weather depending is a little bit um last week of september to the first week of november. That's kind of when we run.
Speaker 1:So for those six weeks now I know where I hunted in november. You had a lot of snow up before you were further north.
Speaker 2:When does it start getting kind of real? Canada winter weather there at your place, saskatchewan, is kind of funny, because I've been out in like late October and they'll get six inches and then a couple days later it's gone, wow, and then it won't snow again until maybe December gone, and then it won't snow again until maybe december, and so they kind of seem to have like a snow, like storm in that uh, late november to mid-november time. But it just depends like you can get the snow but then the water. If the water stays open, then the birds will just stay, and so until the the sloughs and the smaller lakes freeze up, then they they'll stick around like they. Basically you'll just keep getting pushes of birds and then finally, when everything starts to lock up up north, then the final push will come through. But if you get a really solid freeze, it's usually around the end of october that things start to freeze up and the majority of the birds leave. So the big masses Okay.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I never thought about that. I guess it freezes up so you're not able to really hunt, yeah.
Speaker 2:Makes sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah so and you don't have a January season for, like snow goose or something right, everything's over. December the 16th.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, so snow goose, yeah, until everything's over December the 16th. Yeah, yeah, so it's snowy. Yeah, until I can't remember when the spring season opens, but we have a spring like on the migration backup that runs until I think it's June 1st. I think it's April, mid April or early April till June 1st that the snows will be rolling back up through Saskatchewan.
Speaker 1:Do you all operate, then?
Speaker 2:No, not yet. We haven't hunted the snow as much in the spring, just with work back here. It's pretty busy, but we go out every every couple years and just freelance ourselves. But uh, and that's a, that's a tough. It's a tough hunt because saskatchewan, uh, the you'll be the daylight is just crazy in the spring. Like it be, you'll be up at three o'clock in the morning. You got to be like in the field by three and like seven, 30, you can be limited out or or earlier and you're done for the day. And then you sit all day until you'll be packing up your decoys, finishing the hunt at 10, 30 at night, 10 o'clock at night, rolling back. So the saying is you, you sleep during the day and you nap at night because there's not very many hours. So it's, it's, it's tough hunting in the spring, but it's a lot of fun still too.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that was so. You know, I remember staying in a cabin, little tiny cabin, there by myself, bear season in may, and I woke up I don't know, steve, I guess it was two or three in the morning and it was broad daylight. Yeah, would that be right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I was scared to death that I'd overslept. I went nuts. I was like oh God, I've overslept. You know it's broad daylight. Yeah, that was so weird to me because I'd never, you know, experienced that before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's different, um, uh like not out in the states yet, but I think one of the cool things about saskatchewan is is is just the what we've seen too with the clients.
Speaker 2:Obviously we experience it on our own, but when you come for a hunt, like with us, it's like we'll hunt twice a day and normally if we hunt one species in the morning then it's different in the afternoon. So we'll hunt sandhill cranes in the morning and we'll hunt snows in the afternoon and we'll hunt ducks and darks in the afternoon, and just the variety is insane. And it's kind of a shooter's dream, because I remember the one clients we were shooting sandhill cranes in the morning and the wind was just howling and those birds were just crawling into the decoys barely moving, and they were shooting them good. Well, we went to shoot ducks in the afternoon and the wind had died off and the ducks were just coming in twice, three times as fast and you have to adjust your shooting right. So it kind of throws you off a bit when you go from one species to the next in the same day, only a couple hours apart, and yeah, it's pretty fun.
Speaker 1:Now, since you have so many species, Steve, let's just say a group comes in and maybe they just want to hunt duck or they just want to hunt crane. How does that work with you? What's your guidelines for that?
Speaker 2:We do, like what we tell clients is we'll give you the best options. So like we'll go out. I do most of the scouting. My brother, he's a videographer, so in our, in our three-day package, he'll film the hunts and then he puts together a video that's included for the clients. So we'll go out, I scout, um scout, and then I just come back and we say, like if the clients say we've never hunted sandhill cranes, and I say this is the option for tomorrow, like it looks pretty good or it looks bad, and and then kind of, let them.
Speaker 2:We always give them the best option. If they want to go chase something that might not be the the greatest hunt, then we'll go shoot that too. We run smaller groups, like six, eight guys at the max, and even we had some four groups, um, last year and uh, that's kind of how we want to keep it, so it's a little bit more personable and um, but yeah, that's we kind of. If we talk to, we do an interview, like send out a survey to the clients too before they come up and ask them if there's anything specific they're targeting or you know what their hunting experience is, if they've ever hunted Saskatchewan. So it's we always try to get them in on, like I would like to target every species, but sometimes it doesn't work out quite that way.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so one thing, just switching gears. Just a second. It just hit me. I know you and your wife brought dogs down to train. Back in spring when we were in Alabama. I brought a dog over from Texas and you know, august 1st the US had some– the CDC, the Center for Disease Control, changed the rules on, at least for pups coming in and out of the country, or coming in the country. I should say I'm not a fully fledged in in the, in the, the regulation, but I know it affected me when I was trying to import two pups. Right, my point is, after rattling out all that, like, if you guys come down this time to the, to the uh event, this cornerstone gu Dog Academy event, will you have any more restrictions than you had last year?
Speaker 2:No. So they rolled that out and our vet put us on notice up here and then a couple guys CGA members actually that had been talking to about coming out in the fall and they were like, oh, delta Waterfowl, just put this out, this notice about it. I think it was maybe two weeks and then everything got changed and it was basically like canada got taken off of the I don't know. I think it was a rabies, something to do with rabies, and it kind of went back to about the same. I don't think there's much difference. Um, we had quite a few dogs come up and go back and we've gone down to Florida a couple times since then and never had any issues, I think, as long as their shots are up to date. That's basically the only restriction right now.
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Speaker 1:I was actually in niagara falls okay and I had a rottweiler, a protection dog that I was training, and took her across and they were really easy. That was in 2012. But it was really easy to you know to cross over and come back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've. Then Go ahead.
Speaker 1:At that time it was just easy. I think I had shot records and that was really it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've, like we bought both our dogs from uh, I guess I should say from uh, james river retrievers you had shane kendrick on and um, yes, but I think, great guy, yeah, we've come back and forth I don't know how many times since we've had them at least two and a half and uh, they, we keep them in the back of the truck now that they're bigger and gunners and with a cap on it.
Speaker 2:And uh, I thought for sure, like soon as we started doing that they'd go back and check everything and whatnot. But, excuse me, I think the last time my wife went down there, that was the only time they asked what was in the back. And then, uh, most lot of times when they were younger, we had them in their crates, in the back seat, and they would say roll down the window, saw it and never said boo. So I think a lot of times they're a little bit timid about inquiring about any kind of a dog in a crate and they don't know what kind of reaction they'll get when they open the crate or whatnot.
Speaker 1:Maybe that's what happened. I had a full-grown rottweiler in germany and she was uh, she was safe and she was, but still she was intimidating yeah they didn't open her up. Yeah, so so do you. I know every outfitter is different and you all have your reasons and stuff. Do you allow hunters to bring their own dogs?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we do, we try to. We try to have at least a couple dates like set aside for like dog exclusive. Like obviously, if you're bringing a group of six guys and it's that'll be six to eight guys as a private group, and if you guys want to bring six or eight dogs, then that's up to you. So that's what we. Yeah, we tell the guys like um, if they book a private group, it's the group's hunt. All the guys like um, if they book a private group, it's the group's hunt. Like, if you want to stand out when all the ducks are rolling in and run your dog, that's up to you guys. And uh, so we, we try to set out at least two, uh, two days a year. We have one um october 23rd to the 25th, that we're trying to fill with cga members. So we have, uh, okay, a couple that um are coming up already. Um, do you know chris roland? He's involved with cga quite a bit.
Speaker 1:I just I know his name and see him on the social media and stuff, but I don't know him personally okay, yeah, you should.
Speaker 2:Uh, I was going to even suggest uh talking to him because he breeds, um, english labs like the blockheads, the big dogs, and he hunts them. So he, he came out last year and and we hunted over two of his dogs and or watched them hunt and uh, they're awesome dogs but super smart guy and and good ethical breeder too. So so he's coming out I think he's coming out for two or three weeks and he's just going to bring his camper and camp at the lodge and he'll probably run his dogs throughout. But, yeah, so we're hoping to get just because not necessarily just exclusively CGA members, but the teaching is usually the same. So we find that when we've had a couple of the members, when they run their dogs it's the same thing, kind of thing. So, um, we've had a couple other clients bring their dogs and they're trained differently and there's nothing wrong with that. But, um, that's one of the reasons why we're kind of trying to make it just a cga group. So, yeah, but uh, yeah, going back to your question, yeah, we do, we do allow it and um, um, so that's kind of how we were doing it, because we were going to do just private group if you wanted to bring a dog. But then we're like, there's also a lot of solo hunters that train.
Speaker 2:Um, once I entered the dog world because I I never grew up with dogs and uh, I discovered a lot that there's two types of hunters there's or two types of yeah, waterfowlers. There's waterfowlers that hunt because they have a dog and then there's waterfowlers hunt because they want to waterfowl and a lot of guys. I had one guy we were on one of the best duck hunts we had all fall last year. He didn't pick up his gun once, he just wanted to run the dog. And I still get taken back by that because dogs are secondary for me, Like I didn't grow up hunting them, so I was always shooting and I'm like man. I was like don't you want to shoot? Don't you want to shoot?
Speaker 1:He's like no, no, no, I just want to run the dog and uh, yeah, so you know I feel like the older I get I'm I'm leaning that way and, uh, I just about soon run my dog and I've I've loved to shoot stuff, but yeah yeah, no, I can understand that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's what I. Going back to the, so I realized that I've seen on Facebook groups and that there's a lot of people that are like, hey, I've trained this dog, but I can't get any anybody to like allow me to come in and bring my dog like an outfitter. And so that's what I said to Phil. I was like I think there's a market to those people and obviously there's going to be rules and whatnot, but primarily when it's just a dog group, that's what we say hey, like, this is about working your dog. This is not about shooting a limit, like if somebody's out running a blind and a group of birds comes in, then it's about running the blind. And uh, because I find that's what kind of changes when you're not, like dog focused, it's more about the shooting.
Speaker 1:So yes, and you know, you know what more, way more than I do steve it's, you know, when all those birds come in, you got six or eight guys in the blind, it's chaos. And you've got a dog. It's like I took one of my dogs duck hunting with a group of friends and you know you didn't get to see him, but he, he's, you know, he's well trained. And then I had another dog that uh was started but I didn't want to take him with the group because I knew it would be a little chaotic in the blind. He's been, you know. So yeah, I understand having a set-aside time to work dogs in a hunting situation where that's the focus is actually working the dogs instead of killing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in Saskatchewan I don't know. I mean there's lots of amazing places to hunt in the States too, but Saskatchewan I mean usually if you could sit in the blind all day in the field, that was the X and you'll get birds trickling in all day. The clients I'm like just don't get too worked up. It's like in ontario a lot of times. If we're hunting a bird like a feed and there's only 300 birds, I mean you might get six shooting opportunities, that's it. But in saskatchewan I mean you might be targeting snow geese but you'll shoot ducks or you'll shoot you know a group of specks are going by and you can pull them in. So it's just, you know there's a lot of different options going by and you can pull them in. So it's just, you know there's a lot of different options and it gives you a lot more lenience when you're running dogs so you don't have to be super focused on just shooting the you know birds for half an hour, kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is nice. I've got to come try it out. And actually I just thought about when you were telling me about the dates of the CGA group. It conflicted with a pheasant hunt I do every year. Right, it's opening weekend in South Dakota, it's usually around the 18th, 19th, something like that.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And I think that was what happened this year. I wanted to come up there with you all. Yeah, when I met you and you were telling me about it, I was all excited.
Speaker 2:So I'm still try to make that work. Now you're all coming down this year right to the cga. Yes, sir, yeah, we're um, I think it might be just me and, uh, our oldest dog, ellie that was we were running last year diesel he's had, uh he, a bit of an issue with his uh. He just had an operation on his elbow so he had, uh, I don't know what they call it. It was like bone fragments or something in his elbow. So he's not going to be quite ready to be back on his feet. So Sherry's just going to probably stay back with him and then I'll just bring Ellie up. So Ellie's been we call her the problem child. Was she a fox red that you all had? Yes, sir, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the dog I like. Just for looks, it looked great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's a fox red and she looks great and she runs hard. Um, I've never. Uh, I'll go into. I guess I'll go into a bit about how I got to know about TGA is, uh, my wife and I my wife grew up having small dogs and, uh, but she never had a big dog and we talked about getting a dog after we got married and I said, well, if we're going to get a dog, I'd like to get a hunt dog, cause, uh, I didn't really see the purpose of just having a pet dog because I'd never grown up with one.
Speaker 2:So I was on Instagram scrolling and I saw this guy post this video and he's a really good friend now, but he was running his labs they were SOK labs and he was running them and then stopping them on the whistle and casting them to a bumper and I was like whoa, I've never seen anything like that. So his name's jake baroncott. He's pretty heavily involved in cga too and I just straight up followed him on instagram, messaged him and then, probably a day later, we were on the phone for over an hour and I was just texting him and asking them hey, what, you know, what's the difference between you know, chesapeake and the lab and what's better. And he was just going through and gave me a like. Now that I'm kind of in the dog world, I'm like I didn't realize how blessed I was to meet him, cause he gave me a lot of very sound advice in the beginning and the only thing I say to him is I'm like you told me to get a British Lab because they are a softer dog and they're easier to train, and I never.
Speaker 2:I think the first time I even met Jake in person was at the CGA weekend, not last year but the year before that, and so I'd never seen his dogs. I never seen a british lab besides my puppies and shane. Um, I saw his dogs when we picked up ellie, but I never saw him run them or anything. And man, ellie is the furthest thing from a soft dog, so I can yell at her and yell at her and she just stands there and looks at me and the first time I ever saw it was I was training with Jake. We went down to his house and he said a correction to his dog, sadie, and he did it twice and she tucked her tail and got her feelings hurt and I was like man, I wish my dog would do that. Ellie just looks at me and does the exact opposite.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the thing. You can't generalize them, can you? Well, I've got a female British dog that I imported and she's kind of soft. As far as you know. You have to watch how you say something to her. I've got a male. I could scream holler, kick, kick a bucket, he don't care. I mean, he's just going to hunt and nothing fazes him. And they're actually from pretty close bloodlines.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you never know.
Speaker 2:No, and that's the thing it's nice to see. Jake's two dogs are amazing, and Ellie, but that's why we call her the problem child. We started out and he introduced us to CGA and that's how we got on, because me and my wife we decided we're going to train them together and we're both of the personality where we have to have step-by-step. I've learned a ton since I've trained ellie and diesel and they're not even fully trained. But, um, when I was first starting out, cga was amazing, just for the example of like you go out and josh, we'd got 52 plus and josh was like just going through step by step by step and it helped us immensely.
Speaker 2:But one of the bad things that we did with um ellie was, uh, we created the keep away habit. We would take stuff out of her mouth sticks and stuff so we've been paying for that for a while because she'll grab the bumper and if she doesn't want to come back then it's a bit of a chore getting it back. But we're, we're pretty much through that. So it's starting to get fun. Um, I think we're on week uh 30 or no, 41, and so we're getting close to running blinds with her and uh, so it's a lot of fun now to to start seeing that all come into play, so I'm really looking forward to the CGA weekend this year.
Speaker 1:You know I ran two labs all through hunting season pheasant duck and sandhill crane. Okay, actually, one of them through all of it and the other one. So now, and these one dog's fully finished, you know, and I'm going back through video from week 42 you know doing trying to get him all the bad habits that he picked up from hunting, which is my fault, trying to clean it back up, just almost do some hunt test, you know, just for fun.
Speaker 1:And so he's. He was, and it was so crazy he's titled as a hrc season, oh really. But right now I doubt that he could pass the entry-level HRC test. You know just because, oh man, you know how it is Hunting season. It changes them, yeah. So I got to get it cleaned up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, ellie's got tons of like I don't know if I'm using drive in the right way, because I've learned like that can mean different things, but she like she's very, very much and that's what I love about the. The british labs like she's very much comes in the house and she's laying on the couch like barely makes a peep, but you come out outside and she is just jacked up ready to go and I love that and that's what I told my wife.
Speaker 2:She was, uh, she way as a puppy and I'm like she's going to be a guide dog. She's going to be picking up a lot of birds a year, so I'm like I'm not upset that she has that energy, but it just also makes it a little bit more difficult to train her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you never find that happy medium right, especially if you're guiding and you've got that many retrieves on a dog that many days a week. You know you need a dog that's got some drive and that doesn't get bored and burn out on it. Yeah, but usually to get a dog like that they've got some juice when they're not hunting too yeah uh, but yeah, we all search for that, don't we that that has to be?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been.
Speaker 1:I do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been. The dog world is is like I said, I didn't grow up with dogs and so this was a. It was eye opening for sure. Like I CJ, one of the things that I I had to do with myself was the CG. I was just like I'm just going to do CJ and I'm like I know there's tons of different ways, but that's what I started looking at some other types of training, that and I'm like man, I could get lost in the weeds and there's nothing wrong with that. But I had to come back and we're like we're just going to train like this until she's kind of like seasoned or whatever, like finished, ready to hunt and then we can look at some different training if we wanted. But the dog world is very there's a lot of opinions on how to train a hunting dog and a lot of them are great. But it's just like that's what I had to do.
Speaker 1:I was like I just have to stick with one and go with it. Well, you know something, what you just said, you really turned on a light bulb for me, right then I've done CGA too. I've been all through the 52-week plus and what I found, steve, and maybe you're like me I found lots of good material. Right. There's all kinds of dog training. There's as much as you want to research that's out there and I'm not bashing any other trainer or training method. But what works for me about Cga is I'm kind of adhd. I need structure, I need guidelines, parameters, and it's a day by day, by day building. Yeah, and then if I you know, and if you're not ready to move on, you stick there and work on that. So it was perfect for my personality type. My, my learning ability worked well with that program yeah, and that I think I love it?
Speaker 2:yeah it's. I told josh when I first met him there I was like man that the uniqueness of him taking um violet from a puppy to a finish, like hunting, it's like you saw the the bad times too, and that that really did it for me. Because like we had a lot of bad times with ellie, like we'd hit a certain stage and we couldn't get through it for a while. And violet takes off running when he's training her and then he's like just completely leaves the camera. He's like gotta deal with her and I'm like that makes me feel like you know, like uh good, because a lot of the youtube stuff it's not bad, but usually it's with a train. They edit it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah so, yes, steve, you took words. I mean, I've actually had josh on this program and, yeah and uh, one of the things that I, you, you, you nailed it that I love about cga, when I first started watching I thought and I've said this before I was ready to kill that violet you know that pup that they used because she was what you're talking about kind of like your dog, right, high drive, insane, but insanely intelligent, almost too smart for the trainer, right, right and. And that dog would run off and they didn't cut that out, no of the video.
Speaker 1:So here you're watching a training video and it shows every mistake that you can make there or that can happen or anything that you know like you don't know what a dog's an animal, you don't think it's like a horse. You know what they're gonna do. Well, they're gonna kick you, you know. So they had this dog and they showed every mistake and I thought this is awesome because I want to see how he fixes that. Yeah, because it happens to me, it happens to you. We're training our dogs. If it can go wrong, it will in training, you know. Yeah. So I was like man, I'm learning more watching him fix that mistake that he just made. Or it wasn't even josh's mistake, it's just the dog just took off, darted out, gone, you know, yeah, or whatever he was trying to do, didn't do it. And so that, to me, first of all, it made it authentic and genuine because it's real and there was no fake stuff. They could have gotten an easier dog train.
Speaker 1:You know, they could have got a pup. That was kind of you know easy go lucky, but they didn't.
Speaker 2:They got a really hard pup, which makes impresses me that much more about the program yeah, yeah, and the I think the thing that really helped us, like jake, I mean we, I called him quite a bit when we were training ellie and and but the community too, because that's how I met chris roland, like he's part of the cga group and he had us down. He lives four hours south of us, just across the border and in new york, and we went down hunted and and, uh, saw his dogs too, because they're english labs and so they were completely different and he has his take on everything just to. Because that's the thing with cga too is like everybody's just training. Usually they're amateur trainers but they have different experiences with the different types of dogs. So, like what, something came easy to ellie, would be hard for somebody else and then vice versa. So but, uh, when we hunted ellie for the first time, it uh, I had, I called, definitely called a few people and told them about it because they they had been along with me on the journey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's a journey. Oh yeah, you know, I've got two dogs about the same age right now. I'm training a male and a female, and the male is easy, almost too easy, and the female is the hardest pup I may have ever had my hands on. Oh really, she's, yeah, and I mean, and she's an import English and well-bred, you know, but oh my gosh, I mean, but I know that once I get her obedience solid, that she's going to be a hunting machine because she's full of fire, you know, kind of like what your dog sounds like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she, because she's full of fire, you know, yeah, kind of like what your dog sounds like. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we, uh, we did, uh, we got ellie already and everything finally got her like uh, coming back to us and that an introduction to gunfire and did all that and got, took her out and decoys and everything and and, uh, we wanted to hunt our first in saskatchewan, just because, uh, in early season you can pick dry field ducks and and, uh, it's pretty easy hunting and uh, run her out of an a-frame blind, so it's, we can control her so she doesn't break, and um, but I remember we were just the last thing we needed to do. I didn't have any live like dead birds for the from the previous season, so I had to wait. Um, goose season opens september 1st here. Well, yeah, depending on the date, sometimes the last part of august, and uh, so we had to wait for real birds.
Speaker 2:And once again, I'm like she didn't she, she was fine with the wings on the bumper and everything, but she wouldn't put that duck in her mouth, and so then we spent about a month getting her to put the duck in her mouth, and so we missed most of last season. We had her out. I think she's got 15 or 18 retrieves right now. But I was a little bummed because I'm like just accomplished all these problems and then took her out and she then she still. Sometimes she'll just pick the duck up by. It's the bare minimum and she loves running and coming back just as fast, but she's just like what is this thing?
Speaker 1:And then like that texture in her mouth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but then Josh said he's like sometimes that happens, he's like, but wait until you get around 30 birds or so, and and she was putting it together like we had her in and the ducks were circling and I was trying to let the bigger groups go and just have her get a couple and shoot one at a time and she was watching them and the duck call and everything and she was putting it together. So I think he's right, like next season, once we get her on a few more hunts then, uh, then she'll be pretty dialed in.
Speaker 1:So yeah, now one thing, steven, I just I'm asking this because I honestly do not know do you all have? Is that area of canada or any part of canada? Is there any really good upland hunting there? I guess?
Speaker 2:yeah, saskatchewan has um some pretty good upland hunting there. I guess there is. Yeah, saskatchewan has some pretty good upland hunting what species? We have I meant to look this up, but we have sharptails and I'm not sure if they're called. They call them prairie chickens in a huns, I think, but I'm not sure if the sharpies are the same as the prairie chickens. I'm not 100%.
Speaker 1:And I get that mixed up like the Hungarian partridge.
Speaker 2:I don't know. Okay, yeah, these are. Yeah, I'm not sure I know there's one, the prairie chickens at the farm, that's what the farmers call them. So you just see coveys of them. Like, when I'm scouting I'll bust them. They sit in the canola fields and stuff like that in the pastures and they'll fly off the road.
Speaker 2:But in the sanctuary that we're next to, they have like an actual sanctuary on the inner part and then the outer part is just like a wildlife area and it's pasture land and you can hunt that like just go in and hunt it and uh, there'll be coveys along the, the hedgerows and we usually just walk the edge of the hedgerow and they'll come flying out and uh, because we don't have we that's what my brother and I used to do when we're in between hunts and that's what we tell the clients too, like if they want to hunt. We had a couple young, a group of young hunters come up and and uh, they're like, yeah, we just want to hunt and I'm like, all right. So we went out and hunted back to the lodge 10, 30, we were done breakfast kind of thing, 11 o'clock, and then we just took them over and and walked for a couple miles and and they shot at some uh, without dogs they flush pretty fast, so it's you got to be pretty quick but flushed a few and then came back and then we're out again at three o'clock and in the field again, and they did that for, I think, their first day, and the second day they decided to take the nap during the afternoon. Yeah, so, but to answer your question, yeah, there is. Uh, it's pretty good uh, upland game too.
Speaker 1:Is there a lot of? You know, I'm sure Canada's full of outfitters and full of hunters and seasoned people from the US and all over. Is there a large population of folks that come there to upland hunt?
Speaker 2:I don't know if it would be a large population. I know a lot of hunters, um, or outfitters, some of the smaller ones they'll, they'll book like upland hunts, but I think there's only a couple that actually have like pointers and flushers, like dogs, that specifically for that.
Speaker 1:Um, okay, yeah, but uh so it's fair to say it's.
Speaker 2:It's mostly waterfowl yeah, honey, yeah, it's mostly waterfowl in saskatchewan it's. It's crazy because, um, we were shooting, uh, a buddy of mine. He was shooting a snow goose feed on the edge of a pond, a slough, just a small slough, and he was shooting. He shot a canvas back, uh, which is a diver duck in the middle of saskatchewan, in a slew and there's all kinds of divers on the big lake that's close to us. There's rafts of blue bills and and golden eyes and it's just wild, like if you nobody goes there to hunt divers, but uh, and but there's upland, there's cranes and specks and snows, and so it's yeah, sounds like heaven.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, the thing that really kind of is a downside for me, but in southern Saskatchewan they have a huge population of pheasants, but the only people that are allowed to hunt them are saskatchewan residents, even if you are an outfitter, so it's the now and that's kind of the where I was up hunting up there.
Speaker 1:See, that may interrupt you, but it was like that way for moose and caribou. Yeah, you could. No one can hunt except residents in that area seem like. Does that sound right? I think I was. I think when I was hunting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that sounds about right, Probably when you were there. I know the moose population has been growing quite a bit Like I see them on a fairly regular basis and I think there might be. You can outfit. You have to go with an outfitter to hunt moose but the one thing that you can't hunt is mule deer. That's exclusively Saskatchewan residents too. And what did you say caribou? Was it caribou?
Speaker 1:Maybe caribou too, was that it could be.
Speaker 2:I'm not too up on the big game, but it could be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you mentioned canola and I now remember driving through, going north, driving through all those canola fields. Yeah, that was a big thing, yeah, okay, yeah, I'm not.
Speaker 2:No, it's, it's been a while since I was up there, but I'll tell you I need to come back. Yeah, yeah, for sure we'd love to have you. It's? Uh, I have a picture of um one of the cga members, matt papke. He came up on our very first year of guiding him and his wife and they have a dog, luna out of SOK, and a really nice dog, luna. She's awesome. She's been up I think three times now. She came up in the spring, but I have a. That's good.
Speaker 2:The one hunt last fall. We just finished up at night and uh, it was pretty much dark and the northern lights came out and uh, we have this picture. Actually, chris roland and his wife were there too. We have a couple cool pictures there, but my brother took this one picture of him and luna and he's kneeling down and luna's looking up at him and the northern lights are in the background, because he just did a long exposure and, uh, it's, that was probably one of the coolest photos, chris roll, and I told him I was like, get your dogs out, and so he got all four of his four or five of his dogs out and he sat them all in between him and sarah and they did a long exposure with the northern lights in the back and that was uh, that was definitely a highlight of my trip.
Speaker 1:Y'all need to submit that to Gun Dog Magazine in the States. Oh, yeah, yeah I had her on here, the editor.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I can't see. I have the background on my phone. It's just us standing, but I don't know if you can see that.
Speaker 1:Oh, my phone is just us standing, but I don't know if you can see that. Oh my gosh, yeah, I can see enough. Looks like something in a movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was after our last hunt and we've seen the Norland Lights out there before, but last year was just. They were just brilliant Multiple times a year. It was really, really awesome.
Speaker 1:That's definitely on my bucket list.
Speaker 2:I don't know much about it, I just know it's something I want to see, you know yeah yeah, usually the photos there you go or yeah, usually the photos are like, if they you take a photo, it makes it more like brilliant and yeah, so they're a little bit deceiving. When I first went out and saw them, it was kind of just like lights, like dancing in the in the sky kind of thing, and I was like, oh, this isn't that good. But last year I forget what they called it but it was like the brightest it's been and we went outside and it was like, um, like the photos, but in real life, and that was probably the best I'd ever seen. So Is it something that you can see there every year? It's just, yeah, primarily like there's a a good chance, like if you get a clear night, there's a good chance, if you're into october that you'll see it.
Speaker 2:I think, uh, I want to say probably half the group saw it. Yeah, and the farther North you go, the more brilliant like, more uh, vividly you'll see them. So, oh, wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, that's, that's. That's, that's gotta be on my list. Um, Steve, if, if someone wants to come and hunt with you up there, how do they find you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're the waterfall dispatchowl Dispatchers on Instagram, facebook and YouTube, and our website, too, is thewaterfowldispatcherscom, so my brother handles all that stuff, or well, if you call, you'll probably either get me or him both our phone numbers on the website with a list of our packages. But yeah, that's how you'd find us Now.
Speaker 1:can you book it online, or do you need to call you all and actually book it live?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll just do the call and my wife does all the booking. After the official We'll call and get everything lined up and then she takes it from there, kind of thing. Okay.
Speaker 1:And do you all provide lodging or do they get lodging nearby?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and do y'all provide lodging or do they get lodging nearby? Yeah, it's kind of all-inclusive, so lodging, meals and the hunting, obviously five hunts. So you got to bring your guns and your shells and yeah, that's it. Everything else and transportation to the lodge that you guys have to get, that as well. The clients get to the lodge Question.
Speaker 1:So when I the deer, deer season, when I went up there, you know I did bear hunt, I was archery, so I have to worry about ammo, but deer season we, you know there's Cabela's right there in Saskatoon and we went in there.
Speaker 2:My buddy was with me.
Speaker 1:Uh, he was trying to buy some rifle ammo for deer season and no go, you know they don't. We were out of yeah, we weren't residents and they asked for a card. And so is. Is that the same for shotgun shells in Canada?
Speaker 2:So I think the issue would be there is, um, when the clients come in, like normally if they're flying, we tell them to fly into regina or saskatoon because there's cabela's there. But they bring like you fill out a gun form when you get to customs. There's two forms you hand one of the customs officers, you keep the other one and uh, it's missing me right now, but I'm pretty sure that's you take that form and when you go to cabela's, if you have that form, then you can buy ammunition oh no we didn't know that I brought ammunition.
Speaker 1:if you were the deer season, I brought my own ammunition, but oh, okay, okay, so that makes sense. Steve, I didn't understand that. He just luckily, you know he had enough shells, he just wanted to buy some extra. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you can also. Flying is a little bit more difficult. I don't, I can't remember. I know because I fly in Canada, like when we fly out to Saskatchewan. I don't, we normally just buy it at the Cabela's just for the factor, but I know driving over the border you can bring up I think it's either 2,000 or 5,000 rounds and without really any special paperwork. It's just the ammo paperwork as well which I was kind of surprised.
Speaker 1:You know, funny thing you had had me. I have to share this. So I was flew in there for bear season and I had to connect a flight and so the final flight I was on the saskatoon was. I'm not lying, the whole flight was bear hunters oh really, and they were from other states.
Speaker 1:Uh, I actually had flown in from kentucky, which is where I'm originally from, and uh, the whole plane was guys from texas bear hunting. Anyway, we get off the plane and go through customs there in saskatoon. I'm the only guy that has a bow.
Speaker 1:Everybody else has rifles okay and we get out, they funnel us over to customs. The gun guys get to just roll on through and I declared my bow. You know man, they you'd have thought I was a terrorist. I mean, they took me out of line and I had to go through all this stuff and and check oh, I'm gonna go through my bow case and all this. And I was like, finally, I was like you know what's going on, these guys have guns and y'all let them go right on through, and I've got a bow. And I think they said, like you know we what's going on? These guys have guns and you all let them go right on through and I've got a bow. And I think they said, like you know, we're used to getting guns and they had all their paperwork and but we don't see people come through with a bow. We want to make sure that you don't have a gun in there. And I was like, well, I, you know.
Speaker 1:Anyway, it was really odd and I thought, well, I won't come up here bow hunting anymore, I'll bring a gun. And maybe it's just me, maybe it's just that day, who knows. But it was a big ordeal and it took me an hour to get through customs and there was guys that was hunting in my group that I didn't even know, but they were on that flight and we had transportation from the lodge three hours, so they all had to wait on me. Oh really, yeah, it was a big deal and I thought, you know, I'll just prance through here at the bow. There's no big, you know, not a big deal. No, sir, that's not what happened, but anyway, hey, I know it's probably getting late for you. Are you on Central time there? No, you're on bet.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Probably Okay. So it's yeah, getting late, but listen, hopefully I'll get to see you guys. It's 1st of April, right Right around the first weekend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right around the first weekend. I think it's 1st to 3rd or something like that, right around there.
Speaker 1:I plan on going Definitely. I mean honestly, honestly. I love going and seeing everybody and see everybody's dogs and you know we all learn new things, training and yeah, but uh, the cga weekend is a fun time and oh, it's awesome I like all those guys yeah uh and then uh, so I guess I'll definitely get to see you then yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:Good, yeah, I, yeah, I'll, I'll be there for sure. We, I think we're. I got to go, basically anyways, cause we pre-bought our ticket last year. I know that. Oh, yeah, I did, that's right. Yeah, so I can't remember if we got it for cheaper or something like that. But uh.
Speaker 1:I know, I just haven't got a room and stuff yet.
Speaker 2:What dog are you bringing?
Speaker 1:That's a good question. This year Last year I didn't have much to bring. This year I have a plethora. There's no sense really in me bringing my older dogs because I'm in a retriever club and they get to work. I got younger dogs that need work, if I'm not too embarrassed to put them in front of everybody. But I'll probably bring a couple of young dogs.
Speaker 2:That's the one thing You're just going to bring one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just Ellie. Right now she's Diesel's because of his injury there he's not too far along in the training, so, ellie's, she'll get a lot of benefit out of it, and then Diesel will have them there next year for sure. But uh, no, that's the one thing, because we were so nervous when we went our first time to the cga weekend because I'd never been around dogs and all these people and and we listened to all the podcasts and all these great dogs, hey. But it's the one place where it's like if your dog goes off the rails, it's like nobody sweats it, like they're just like. I think it was Chris he was the lead Chris Rowland, he was the leader of our group the first year and he said Steve, he said it's not a matter of if your dog goes off the rails, he said it's a matter of when he's like I've seen field trial champions just take off and he's like from who knows their dogs.
Speaker 1:So it happened to me this weekend at retriever training. Uh, okay, at the alano hunting retriever club. Yeah, my seasoned dog maverick, yeah, he first time back from hunting season and uh, yeah, he broke like a, like a racehorse, you know. But I called him back and I stopped him like that with my mouth, you know. Just, I didn't want no whistle. I stopped him and called him back. You know he'll have that. Well, hey, steve man, thank you so much. It's a pleasure seeing you again. It's. It's a shame I hadn't got to talk to you.
Speaker 2:Well, again it's. It's a shame I hadn't got to talk to you. Well, we've texted some but we've not got to talk, at least kind of face to face. Virtually since, uh, since april of last year, no, but I appreciate you having me on and I've, uh, when I, when you first started posting there, I've been following along and it's uh pretty awesome what you're doing. So it's a lot of good content, a lot of good people. That's that's, I mean, it's what your goal. But I've listened to quite a few of your podcasts and different type of dog trainers and dog people and it's a lot of information. I didn't even know.
Speaker 1:Steve, I tell you I'm glad you said that and thank you for following I've learned so much on here. That's insane and it's so nice, and I learned something every podcast. Uh, I learned from people that, like you, that train, god you know. Just it's. I love it. I enjoy it so much just because I'm a student. Yeah, I'm an old student, pretty old, but but, um, you know, I love it it's, and I can't wait to do the next one. You know, because I, I know I'm gonna learn something. So and I, I, you know, I don't. I train and I fooled dogs for many, many years, but I, I'm not a know-it-all and I don't ever proclaim to be, you know.
Speaker 2:So anyway, yeah, it's, uh, it's always. There's always something to learn from everybody. So that's what, that's right. Try to not act like you know it, everything, but and then you learn a lot.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, we do. Well, hey, tell your wife hello and hope your dog heals fast and look forward to seeing you this spring. Sounds good. All right, Steve. Thank you sir.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
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