Gundog Nation
A show to bring together gundog enthusiasts, trainers, and handlers with discussion focused on all breeds and styles of gundogs.
Gundog Nation
Anna V - Finding Purpose in Wingshooting and Gundogs
#39 From sporting clays champion to bird dog maven, Anna V's journey exemplifies the transformative power of saying "yes" to unexpected opportunities in the outdoor world. Her story begins with a short-haired pointer in 2014 and quickly accelerates into a whirlwind adventure through competitive hunting tournaments, championship sporting clays, and eventually mastery of both pointing and flushing dogs.
What makes Anna's narrative particularly compelling is how she navigated these worlds as often the only woman in the field, balancing motherhood with competition while her young daughter tagged along with a box of John Deere tractors and her Ducks Unlimited seat. With disarming honesty, Anna recounts showing up to sporting clay courses in blaze orange vests while others sported custom Krieghoffs, and heading into Kansas CRP fields without understanding the necessity of GPS collars for her dogs.
The podcast reveals the incredible mentorship that shaped her journey, from shooting instructor Demas who recognized her competitive spirit to the legendary Smith family who welcomed her into the pointing dog world. Anna's achievements accumulated rapidly – becoming certified as a sporting clay instructor with a perfect score, traveling as the first Purdy Shotguns ambassador in the United States, representing CZ Shotguns, and eventually dominating the Bird Dog Challenge World Championship in 2021 by taking first through third places in flushing and first and third in pointing categories.
But beyond the trophies and accolades lies a more profound story of personal transformation. Anna shares how bird dogs helped her rediscover herself during a difficult life period, providing direction and purpose. When she eventually lost her entire social media platform – years of documented experiences and connections – she faced an identity crisis that ultimately led to a clearer mission: empowering women in wing shooting.
Today, Anna has built partnerships with prestigious institutions like Griffin and Howe, organizes women's hunting trips across the country and internationally, and continues sharing knowledge through her podcast. Perhaps most touching is how she's passing this legacy to her daughter, who became a state champion shooter at age 11 and exhibits the same passion for dogs and hunting.
Whether you're a seasoned bird dog handler or someone curious about entering the field, this conversation offers invaluable insights about the hunting community, the special bond between handlers and dogs, and how saying "yes" to new challenges can lead to extraordinary places. Connect with Anna's women's wing shooting community at AnnaVOutdoors.com or on Instagram at AnnaVOutdoors_.
Gundog Nation is Proudly Sponsored by Waterstone Labradors.
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Hello and welcome to Gundog Nation. This is Kenneth Witt, coming to you from Texas, and I want you to know that Gundog Nation is much more than a podcast. It's a movement to unite. I want to build a community of people united to preserve our heritage of gundog ownership and to be better gundog owners. Stay tuned to each episode to learn more about training, dog health, wellness and nutrition from expert trainers, breeders and veterinarians. Be sure to go on our website, wwwgundognationnet and join our email list. You'll receive newsletters from trainers and vets and breeders that will also help you being a better gundog owner. And be sure to listen to some of our supporters Mo Pitney, who is a very good country musician and bluegrass musician. He has a bluegrass project called Pitney Myers and he's getting ready to come out with a new album on Curb Records, so stay tuned. Also, the music provided on our show is from Sean Brock, originally from Harlan, kentucky, just across the mountain from me. He did all the music that you hear on our introduction and our outro for the show. He played all the instruments except for Scott Vest on the banjo and Jerry Douglas on the dobro. Check them out. Thank you for listening.
Speaker 1:Hello, this is Kenneth Witt with Gun Dog Nation. I'd like to encourage all you listeners and viewers on our youtube channel to check out patreoncom forward slash gundog nation. For ten dollars a month you can become a member of our community and we'll have access to lots of stuff. Mainly, we will do a monthly forum, an open forum, where you can ask me anything gundog related and we'll learn from each other in community. Should be a lot of fun each month. We will do that that, so check it out. Patreoncom forward slash gundog nation. All right, welcome to gundog nation again. This is Kenneth Witt, coming to you from Midland Texas. Today I've got a lady I've been wanting on this show for quite a while who's. She has so many talents it's going to be hard to really break it all down. We may have to do several episodes of this one, but I've got a very talented lady who hunts, shoots and does it all from Georgia, ms Anna V Anna. Please introduce yourself.
Speaker 2:Hi Ken, I'm so excited to be on here and I'll tell you, it's so weird being in the hot seat because I normally am the interviewer, you know, and so it was so funny. I was like this morning I got up and I said, oh my gosh, I better make some notes, like it's been so long it is different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is different. So I started Anna V Outdoors back in 2016, maybe 2017, actually I'm trying to think, yeah, it would have been 2017. I got a short hair in 2014. That was my first gundog I ever got and I picked up a shotgun right at the like when she was turning two. So we were talking earlier about how I got into hunting and I actually was running hunting tournaments before I started bird hunting. So, yeah, it was really crazy.
Speaker 2:But the guy that was like our family friend that was breeding short hares, he got into um running these hunting tournamentsFTA, which is the big one down south, and so that was really what my introduction was. And so, yeah, I was like I was the biggest hot mess and I think back then I might've been the only female running in Georgia. So, yeah, I just kind of just jumped into the deep end of the pool and realized I didn't know what I was doing, but it was a heck of a good time and I'm going to figure this out. So I was really just a circus. I mean, tater was like three no, she was two when I started. So I was traveling around with all of these old timers that have your daughter right yes, tater's the
Speaker 2:youngest, um, jc mays the oldest, and then jc was a. She was an early teenager back then and she loved horses so she kind of dabbled in shooting. But she was the cowgirl, so I would get up, you know, four o'clock in the morning. We got to go to some place in georgia to run mercy on a Saturday and it was going to be a train wreck but it was going to be fun. So that was really my mentality. I was like maybe I'll shoot a bird today, I don't know. But yep, I had Tater and a box of John Deere tractors and her little Ducks, unlimited seat, and we would go, and sometimes I I would know all the guys at the field and sometimes I wouldn't. But when it was my turn I just turned to those guys and was like here's Hayter and I'll be back in 15 minutes or less, because you get 15 minutes in your field and your time is up. So that's really how it started. It was just so crazy and the communities that I've been in just rallied around me and said we're going to help her out, mainly because I really needed it, and I hope that I just brought a lot of fun, you know, to the whatever event we were at. So UFTA led to Ducks Unlimited asking me to host a ladies event here in town. Me to host a ladies event here in town. And so I was like, sure, I mean, I just figured I could do it because I was raised turkey hunting and rifle shooting Right. So I was like, yeah, you can shoot anything. Even though it wasn't really that good in the bird field, I just thought clays would be a little bit more controlled. It wasn't any better, but luckily there wasn't anybody there that knew anything more than I did. So we had such a good time. I went back to my DU committee and I said boys, y'all have to find me an instructor, I need help. So they found my shooting coach. I took my first shotgun, was so hooked, I was having so much fun with my dog.
Speaker 2:But in my personal life things were falling apart, and so it was this part of time now that I've fast forward almost 10 years I can look back and say, wow, I had no idea who I was. I had no idea what goals I had in life and I didn't realize the importance of having community. And so I'd been raised in a hunting family and so I loved it. I felt at home there, even if I was the only female, like it didn't matter, like I just I loved it. It was normal for my family, so I just really embraced it and I was raised. I loved it. It was normal for my family, so I just really embraced it and I was raised in that world. So it was really. It was a no brainer too for me to have my kids there.
Speaker 2:So you know, now I get so many questions like how did you get your kids started? And I was like I don't even know if I thought about that, like we just about it, and so it's really fun. Today I'm preparing for this. I didn't really expect to be so like overwhelmed with it, but I posted today about my dog's birthday. I'll cry she's 11. Like what do you do when your first bird dog turns 11? Like you start thinking gloom and doom, you know yeah, how is she?
Speaker 1:how is she health wise?
Speaker 2:she acts like she's three. She's that annoying short hair that I got as a puppy, you know, but going back to it like I just. I started shooting with Demas every day, five days a week, probably for two and a half years, and he taught me. He taught me so much. I did not know what I was signing up for. I didn't realize that by finding him I was signing up to be a competitor. I was already a competitor. He saw all these things in me. He knew what was going to make me tick. He knew what I was signing up to be a competitor. I was already a competitor. He saw all these things in me. He knew what was going to make me tick. He knew what I was going to thrive in. And he just kept giving it to me and fueling that fire.
Speaker 2:So, before I knew it, I was shooting NSCA tournaments. I had gotten my sporting clay certification six months into me, picking up a shotgun, and I aced the test. I made a 100. And I was the only female there and I was the only 100. And the guys were like I just remember, like my instructor and this is not to say for like all of NSCA, but just facing, like some stupid things which were very far and few in between, but that was rough, like they always put me on the spot and I'll never forget. I'm like I don't care how hard these men tease me. I'm going to make sure that I just do it bigger and better because I just loved it so much. I thrived off the energy of my dogs and so I got in mercy when Tater was nine months old by the time she was three she got her short hair. I was shooting, sporting clays with Mercy, taking her to the clay course, taking a kid with a pacifier, driving the golf cart, having to turn around and go pick up a pappy.
Speaker 2:I mean it was just so crazy. When I look back I'm like how did I ever build a career doing this? I didn't know that you could have a career in the outdoors like this. I was so oblivious to opportunity. I had funnel vision or tunnel vision on of just saying like I love setting these goals and achieving these goals and seeing that I can do hard things over and over and over. That was kind of the part of life that I was in at that time, coming out of like a survival mode mentality that women can find themselves in when they lose themselves into just life. So Demons helped me through a lot of that and I say golly Jesus. I shed a lot of tears in therapy on the clay course. He actually saved me a ton of money and I won state within 17, 18 months of my first lesson and super sporting and I was like I love you, demas, but I love dogs more and so I know I broke his heart. I still talk to him almost every single day. We still shoot together all the time. He's Tater's coach. But I did sell out to dogs and I ran some. I ran UFTA for a little bit longer and then the industry just started opening up to me in a way that I didn't expect and I sure didn't plan for At that time.
Speaker 2:While I was taking my sporting clay lessons, I was actually doing some marketing for Glock. So Glock was using my pictures in places and CZ Shotguns was sponsoring UFTA. So I won my first tournament with a CZ. That just fit Like I just gone through several guns just trying to find something that I can find some consistency with, and it was actually Demas's gun. So in the cross of just finding people, you know how it is like you need something, all of a sudden you know somebody that knows somebody in the gun dog world, you know, or in the shooting world in general. So that led me to Dave Miller at CZ Shotguns and I was like, listen, I don't know, like I just need this gun.
Speaker 2:And I'm telling you I looked like the biggest redneck when I first started, like I would show up at the clay course with my proud like field vest on blaze orange, my field shotgun, field chokes, like the whole nine yards and there's and I'm shooting, all the guys with their Cree golfs and like everything's custom and I'm like, hey, I don't care, like my score is fine, I'm happy, and it was so funny, like looking back, I don't know, like I just can't believe that I didn't like pay attention more, I think, to my surroundings, especially working with women. Now, they always want to. What do I wear, what do I need to be prepared for? I don't know if that ever crossed my mind. I was just like somebody opened the gate and let the cows out. You know, it was just so wild like that.
Speaker 1:Just showed up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really did. And so it was like in two years I was shooting for CZ, I was traveling with Purdy. I was the first ambassador that Purdy ever had in the States which they did away with all their ambassadors during COVID. I mean, just massive things opened up. And so then I started. Well, traveling with CZ put me on TV, which really helped build my platform.
Speaker 2:I didn't even know what that meant back then. I think the world saw me posting on Instagram all these adventures, thinking that I was an expert, when I was literally most of the time I was just experiencing something for the first time. I just never said no and I shared everything because I'm like, if I can do this from North Georgia like little North Georgia, we don't even have birds Anybody can do this and it is so much fun. I'm having a ball with my kids, so I just I just ran with it and it was so much fun. I'll never forget putting my dogs down in Kansas filming Gun Dog TV for the first time. I didn't know anything about needing a GPS collar, right, like we don't need that where I'm at, and different world.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I was so scared I was going to lose a dog and the storms came and it was cold and it just everything just made it worse, you know, and you're in CRP up to your eyeballs. I wasn't prepared for that either and I was like, if I don't go home with one of these dogs, I'm just going to freak out. I think I thought that over and over and over every pass. It was like when I get to the end of this pass, I need to see my dog, because you can't hear out there the wind blows so hard. It's not like you can just call your dog and then come and tag. Okay, let's keep going. You see some movement in the grass and you hope that's the dog, not the wind.
Speaker 1:Hello, this is Kenneth Witt with Gun Dog Nation. Many people quickly become frustrated and confused when training the retriever. Cornerstone Gun Dog Academy's online courses eliminate all the guesswork by giving you a proven training system that will help you train a dog that anyone would be proud to have in their blind. Learn where to start, what to do next and what to do when problems arise. Visit cornerstonegundogacademycom to learn how you can train your retriever.
Speaker 1:I have used this method myself. I have been through it a couple times with different dogs. I refer back to it lots of times when I'm trying to get dogs freshened back up for hunt test season. I highly recommend them. I have actually been a subscribed member of Cornerstone Gun Dog Academy since 2016, and I would suggest anyone use it. I highly recommend it. They have an app that you can get to on your phone. You can do it from your phone, your laptop. You can't get any more convenient than that. I've used it. It's proven and tried and I know literally hundreds of people that have done the same thing that I've talked to. Visit cornerstonegundogacademycom and learn how to train your own retriever. All right, now I'm going to. You're being modest, so I'm going to ask you questions. Tell the listeners, anna, you've won a lot of I mean, you have a lot of accolades, a lot of winnings that I don't even I can't count, I don't guess.
Speaker 2:But let's go over some of the big ones. Okay, well, hosting some events, you know getting thrown out there. I mean, I will say, looking back, I guess I am kind of the first female to go big in wing shooting. Um, there's a lot of amazing clay shooters, I mean, and, and there wasn't as many when I first started, but over these last 10 years there's some hot shots that are females like endless names, um, but in the wing shooting world it's just, I don't know, it's kind of been kind of slow to take off.
Speaker 1:So and distinguish that too. For people that don't know the difference in what you know, like sporting clay competitions and wing shooting competitions, actually explain the wing shooting competitions.
Speaker 2:Well, the wing shooting competitions kind of vary. There's multiple organizations across the country that have different rules. I started in UFTA, which was about a 10-acre field three-bird plant, and they ran all quail at that time. I don't really know what they're doing right now, but I transitioned after making it. You know, CZ kind of took me across the country, got me out of Georgia and so I got exposed to so much like nobody in my family was a bird hunter. They were all deer hunters and turkey hunters, and so I had that exposure and I wanted to do everything. I loved it, I loved my dog, I loved running my dog and, of course, I was already addicted to being a hardcore shooter and I was shooting like 250 rounds, five, six days a week. So I was in training mode per se. So I found some tournaments out there, running into some guys that I had ran UFTA with in South Dakota, not realizing that we were all going to be at the same event.
Speaker 2:So in Huron, South Dakota, there's this. What's it called Pheasant, Just slipped my mind. Anyways, there's this huge tournament. It's been going on for 30, 40 years, Teams of six, and these events happen all over, because I've done a sharp tail shootout in Nebraska. The same kind of setup. So you bring your team to one location and it's an actual event. Local ranchers, I would say within a two hour radius, will donate their ranch. You have a guide that's familiar with the land, You'll have your judge and there's different rules of how many dogs you can use, all these things.
Speaker 2:So I got invited by the people that run this event through Pheasant Fest to come and be like the female host, because they're really trying to get more women involved. So I was like, yeah, this will be a ball. So they just threw me on a team with a bunch of strangers again. So I just showed up and at that time I was only running short hairs. So honestly, I was kind of snobby about it. I was actually really snobby about it. I had to hashtag short hair snob and even though Ducks Unlimited guys had pretty much like they're all, my local DU committee here in Gainesville, Georgia, is completely responsible for launching this entire career. I mean I never would have picked up a shotgun the way that I did if they had not encouraged me the way that they did.
Speaker 2:So here I am in South Dakota seeing labs for the first time, because here in the South. I had only been exposed to test labs, but I was a hunter and I didn't understand how those overlapped. I didn't understand having those test skill sets applied in the field, right. I was like I don't know, I don't, I just didn't get it applied in the field, right. I was like I don't know, I just didn't get it.
Speaker 2:Get to South Dakota and the day before the event started some of the guys up there were like we're going to take you wild bird hunting. I was like, yes, this is going to be so fun. So I just remember getting caught with a dog getting birdie and I was stuck on one side of a creek and I had to get my way over there and I was like put a whoa on that dog and it just became like the biggest joke ever and I was like lesson learned, Like right here, I just fell in love with lab and through that I got invited to host an event in Wisconsin just a few weeks later to have some ladies come and do a pheasant hunt over there. And I get to Wisconsin not prepared for the weather and a blizzard comes, so the event doesn't happen.
Speaker 2:I get stuck force-fetching dogs for like six days. I can't drive in this, so I'm just stuck right. I'm like, okay, well, there's worse places to be snowed in at, I guess stuff. Right, I'm like, okay, well, there's worse places to be snowed in at, I guess. So at this time I had stopped running UFTA because I had started traveling and doing a lot of clinics for women, just sporting clay clinics. Really. At the time it was just clay shooting. And so they're like okay, at the end of the week we've got a tournament up here If you want to run tournament. I'm like, oh my gosh, here I just learned about a lab. I've never watched a Flushing Field, I've only ran pointers. But I came up here to shoot something. So I ain't going home until I get this done. And so I just said, yeah, I'm in. And I was like, oh my gosh, what did I say? Like gosh, what did I say? Like this is for real, for real.
Speaker 2:And at that time, you know, I was kind of in that I'd say yes, and then I'd be like, what did I do, right, I don't know what I'm doing. And I just remember saying, okay, here it is. I don't know. It could have been negative, two negative five 30 mile an hour winds. I'm not prepared, like I'm not acclimated to any of this and I've never ran a dog. But this trainer was like this dog just won BDC worlds in October. You need a runner, like I'm pretty sure this dog's going to be running me, right, you know. And so I was like okay.
Speaker 2:So I sat and watched the field all day. I was like okay, I think I got this figured out. Like main thing is is a flusher runs a lot quicker than a pointer because they're not going to wait on me. So how do I just make sure that I keep this dog in range? And I'd been shooting every day. So I felt super confident, even in the weather. I just went for it and it was so funny. Oh, my gosh, ken, I showed up up here right With my coil bag on. So I just got these little pockets for little birds and we're running. I don't remember I think it was a four bird plant, could have been five chucker. So it was like double the size of the bird, double the amount of birds, pretty much. And so I had a hoodie on and a Carhartt vest and like jeans and as many socks as I could fit in my boots and my Filson chaps. I mean, that was like all I had. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:And I remember I had leather gloves too, like we all wear leather gloves down here, right. I mean, I was just so completely not prepared and I'll never forget hitting that gatebird and I was like this is on like me and this dog. I never met this dog except for this first, like the week that I just spent with her, never ran her in the field. I was like we speak the same language and I don't know how to explain that to people. They've never ran a dog. But there is something about it when you literally just can think something in your head and that dog is on the same path and you just go. It is the most thrilling thing I've ever experienced in my life.
Speaker 2:So our name was Winnie she's no longer with us these days but I got to that last bird and it was like a 40 yard just whipping around and I dropped it and she got really far from me to retrieve that and she'd never been ran by a female before. So the others were up really close and we got to there and I just hollered like come on, girl. Just laid on the whistle Like get over here, get over here, you're going to lose. Every second counts. I didn't know how much time had passed. It seemed like I was out there and it was slow-mo, you know.
Speaker 2:But I remember she gave me a little trouble. Coming back, cost us a few seconds but I ended up taking second that first time that I ran and I was hooked. I was hooked on labs. I was hooked on this game again and that trainer didn't know that I could do that. And I at the time didn't know that I could do that because when I was running UFTA I had not had shooting lessons. I wasn't skilled in running my dog. Those things happen over time. You can coach me over video about how to do this, but until you get in there and you get that timing right and you read dogs better, like it just don't. It just takes time to fall together.
Speaker 2:So, that's pretty much what I experienced that day and I was like I'm doing this for the rest of my life. And so they were like, okay, well, we've got all these dogs that the only title they don't have is ladies, can you go do that? I was like, yes, I can. So that was in December. Come the following March I was running nationals. I won nationals with Winnie. I placed fourth with another dog. So that's when I said, okay, I'm going to start doing both. And so I was running pointers and flushers and going back and forth between Georgia and Wisconsin and I sold out to it and it was the coolest thing. I don't know how I ever got away with it, but I took Tater out of school.
Speaker 2:Covid hit. We did homeschool, we traveled, we ran the BDC. We literally lived like a frat house and it was like you know how it is you get all the dog trainers together, everybody gets their dogs together, and you get a lot done. So that's really what it was like and I just I loved COVID so much, like it gave me such a life and the best memories I could have ever asked for with Taterbug. So we were shooting, grouse and running dogs and AKC in the summer and BDC through the season and that was a circuit all through the Midwest. So you run your tournament, you hunt wild birds till you get to the next tournament. So I was picking up client dogs and, like I never really said, okay, now I'm going to be a dog trainer. But when COVID hit and things changed, we just had to pivot and I was like I got the support system, I'm going to do it and yeah. So that's kind of how it all happened. So, yeah, I did end up bringing in some amazing titles and I keep all my trophies out.
Speaker 2:But I think the biggest thing through all of it is all the things that I conquered that I didn't know that I could do. And you know, I was traveling the country by myself, homeschooling a kid trailer full of dogs. At that time I could haul 10 to 14 dogs and I learned to drive in the snow and I learned to read the weather and make sure that you know, hopefully, that the weather man was right and I was beating storms. And you know, you, just, you just figure it out. I figured out shooting. I figured out I figured out my ammo pairs. I figured out I can do hard things. You know I don't always have to have all the answers, so I didn't take a lot of time to stop and self-reflect. You know, when you're in competition mode, as soon as one thing ends, whatever little Midwest town you're in, you go to the local bar. You eat some chicken wings. The next morning it's all about the next goal. You know like you don't have time off to just soak it in.
Speaker 2:So it got to be where I built my string of dogs and I was like, okay, I think I'm going to start breeding. And I was going to just come back home and build my kennel and just duplicate what I had been taught to do. Like you know, I'd been in this mentorship program kind of thing and I'd racked up all the titles and I went out probably as good as I ever could. I mean worlds of maybe 2021 or 2021, I think was the last one. I think within two years I brought home like 30 trophies and that Worlds I took first through, third and pointing. No, first through third and flushing, and first and third and pointing.
Speaker 2:And I went out with that first dog and ammo was so scarce, right, so that was at the end of COVID. We couldn't get ammo and I remember calling boss and I was like y'all, I'm going to Worlds and I have no ammo, like I really need some help. And they sent me God, they saved me is what they did. And so I had been shooting my Rossini round body with the federal pheasant load and that was like my sweet spot right, like I didn't have to think about it, like if my bead was anywhere close to that bird, I was in the distance, it was going down and if I somehow messed up and only winged that thing, I had a dog that was going to get it. You know, it was like one of those things, so I did not pattern my gun. Another one of those lessons you don't learn until you make mistakes, right. You don't know what you don't know.
Speaker 2:I had it figured out and I didn't slow down to pattern my gun and I went to shoot that first bird and I'll never forget it was a wired hare that I just love so much and the owner of the BDC at that time. It was his dog and I'd gone through all of Raina's training together with her and I was like I really would love to run Raina, I just love her, she's a little firecracker and I'll tell you a funny story about her. So I went in the first field and the first bird it's like it just took a racetrack off the top of that bird. I just saw like feathers just disappear, one thing, and that bird just flew off and I was sick. I was so sick I was like I better just shot me out of winning. You know, right here on my first dog in the field. So I was really careful for the rest of the birds, because in BDC it's five birds in a in a 10 to 12 acre field and so your dog, like you, set your dog off, you get your gate bird which is kind of at the very front of the field, in the middle, and then the rest of the field is broken up in like three sections in the middle and in the back, so there's plant cards, like there's a whole mental aspect of running that game and so I just made it really careful to not mess it up. But the pointing side over there is really strong with the female. So anyways, I shot rain out.
Speaker 2:But the first time I was in Wisconsin in that week where I got stuck for fetching dogs, they're like okay, you're a shooter, you can shoot all the practice birds. You know what that's like when you got to run dogs and you got, you got to shoot over there and if they miss you have to start your drill all over again, right, yeah? So I was like okay. So then the owner of the bdc who at that time would have been a straight up celebrity to me I'm like this is the coolest game, the the coolest tournament hunting game in the country, and I'm sitting here getting to watch the owner's dog get built. This is cool. So of course it snowed. Was was knee deep. I'm a Georgia girl Like. We see snow. If it comes for what? Like three hours, and then it's gone. So I remember I'm standing out there, the bird flushes, goes around me, I'm swinging with it, but my feet can't move and I literally like lose balance and fall straight back into the snow.
Speaker 2:Like I could not have had a more embarrassing moment meeting the current owner of the BDC at that time and it was just like things like that happened to me over and over and over again and I wish that I had just like written about all the crazy dumb things that I did along the way, because there's an endless list, I know, but it was just like funny things like that happened and it was like sorry, there goes eight bucks, that word's gone. But yeah, it was just super fun. And then everybody just loved me around, regardless of whatever was going on. They just loved me around regardless like whatever was going on, they just loved me through it and I just wanted to do better and I just had the best mentors along the way. So it's like I look back, I can't believe I did that, but then I'm like, of course I did that. I had the best of the best helping me. The only way that I could have not achieved those things is if I'd quit.
Speaker 1:Now you say that you had a really good gun coach. Did you also have a dog training mentor? Yeah, or did you just pick it up?
Speaker 2:I would say, like Tommy Wiley, that I got my dogs from in the beginning. He coached me to get started. Kyle Larson out in Kansas was probably the biggest short hair mentor that I've ever had and I still call him. I called him just a couple of weeks ago. He's just done amazing things with his dogs and we both started in UFTA. He's running field trials now and he breeds legendary dogs, so he's winning left and right with that. So that's pretty cool, I would say.
Speaker 2:The pointing people that were in my life and this is going to blow your mind was um, I didn't get to spend any time with Delmar Smith in the field, but Rick and Ronnie and Susanna. I don't know if Rick just felt pity on me or what, but maybe we just laughed a lot, but I watched their videos all the time. I would say when Tater started watching videos to go to bed you know, around a year and a half to four years old she went to bed every single night watching their training videos and we got to go out there and spend time with Ryan Susanna in Oklahoma. We've been out there multiple times and Rick's put her on stage so many times at Pheasant Fest. I was so green. When I first started I did not realize that Delmar Smith is like the godfather of pointing dog training.
Speaker 1:I say that on here a lot. He wrote the Bible for bird dog trainers in the 70s.
Speaker 2:And I'm like, oh my gosh, I've been doing this for 12 months maybe and I just spread my wings and that's where I landed. And so I was just so gifted in that that I didn't know. I just I didn't know what I didn't know and they just took me under their wing and they taught me and so I learned right the first time and that was what was so important and that really did elevate my success. I told women all the time. I was like anybody can do what I did. I always, just, I always said yes and I ended up finding the right people. Now that I can look back and see that I'm'm doing that with my lab world, I'm like, how do I duplicate exactly what I did? And I had a really good start.
Speaker 2:But going through and running the BDC, I was like at the end of the day, it's a lot of money and it was very expensive to enter those tournaments and there wasn't women that were putting in as much time and effort as I was at that time. And one day, like at Worlds, I didn't know that was going to be my last tournament. But when I ended that last day and we all got awards, I was like I think this chapter just closed and I was like what am I bringing to the industry now? What am I bringing to this organization? Because if people don't feel like they have a chance to win, if people getting started that can only do it as a hobby, especially for females, they're not going to take time away from their family, they're not going to take family funds to invest in a hobby that's not going to have a return. And I just was like, yeah, I don't know, like something is just something feels like I just need to change directions again, like it's time for another pivot. I really didn't even know what that was at the time. I ended up joining another TV show and filming for another three years.
Speaker 2:So it worked out, because there I had not been able to spend a lot of time waterfowl hunting but I'd fell in love with the lab, and so it's just crazy to look back and say, wow, like when I felt in my heart like this season was over, a door, I mean a massive door of opportunity always opened, even though sometimes I didn't seek it out. Yeah, you know. So it was just like. I just know I changed my entire life to be with the bird dogs and this world is so vast and I haven't found anything that I haven't enjoyed doing, so I'm just going to do it all. I mean, that's really like been my attitude about it. I love it, and you know so, running the bird dog world in the tournament hunting. It's a really small group of people and then I was fighting too.
Speaker 2:I was like, who am I? What am I going to do with this next season? What am I going to do with the knowledge I've been given? How do I give back the way that I've been given? And so I was like, okay, we came out of COVID, I can get back to women no-transcript. So how do I, number one, reach women where they are? And, number two, how do I help them build confidence, not only to get into the field but to have just confidence in everyday life? Because that's what picking up a shotgun did for me. It was like, okay, so I kind of disappeared this last year.
Speaker 2:It was one of those things where, looking back, I can see how this was a calling instead of a career. And I can just briefly tell you my dad, in January 1st 1984, got shot in the head with a .30-06 right here on a Sunday morning he was called to preach and he was sitting in the deer stand instead of in church and everything about his recovery was biblical. It was just a phenomenal story, and we're going to put together a podcast called Devotions with Dad and we're going to tell this whole story in detail about all these things and what it's meant to us as a family. And so when I went through my hardship in life and I didn't know what I was going to do next, god literally threw me in the outdoors. You want to talk about a sense of humor, right? So my dad had put the outdoors before God and I literally was able to find
Speaker 2:myself. God gave me that gift, and so I told the girls when we first started I was like, okay, I don't really know what this means, I don't know what we're going to do, but we're just going to have to show people love Jesus through bird dogs, whatever that means. And so I was like, okay, this is what we're going to do, and it's been really fun. I can't say that I've treated my career like a ministry. I didn't even know that I was building a career at the time. I was really just finding myself, and so I think God was teaching me lessons of what we're able to do in life when we have faith and we find our purpose. Find our purpose work. And so I took this last year and I just got really quiet. I was like, okay, I'm going to spend this time with Tater, get her to her next level, right. Like she started shooting at CTP, like I told you, you know, she ended up state champion Her first year as a rookie and she got to spend this first season.
Speaker 1:And tell her. Tell her about how old she was when she won state champion.
Speaker 2:She's 11. Every hey, the rookies are all fifth grade. Somebody's got to win, Somebody's got to win.
Speaker 2:But you know, I wanted her to have memories with her dog. When you get your dog at three years old by the time that you're old enough to have independence in the field with a short-haired and I didn't know that too at the time independence in the field with a short hair and I didn't know that too at the time, you know, if I'd known that, I might've started her off with a lab cause. I feel like that would have provided her more independence in the beginning. They're just a little bit easier, I think, to run at a young age. But, like I told you, tater was five, dolly was three, no collar running UFTA nationals in the field, like in the youth, and Dolly was perfect. She would not do that for me, but she will do that for her, you know. So I don't know, it's just, it's just been the biggest experience.
Speaker 2:So now, looking back, I'm like, okay, I'm devoting everything to my podcast. I want to share other people's stories. I hope that and you do the same thing. Like I know, you have the same heart for your podcast. It's like we just want to share people's stories because, number one, it motivates us, it keeps us going. But number two, we hope that somebody else relates to that story and says, hey, I want to go build my own family legacy. I want to make this my own story. I want to see what my family can do and I want to be able to spend this much time with people, because when you're bird dogging, you're with people, you're not with devices. I never know where my phone is, especially when we were training.
Speaker 2:You know like you don't keep up with your phone, and so I was like I have loved this and I want to share it in a way that motivates other people to go build their own story. So that's what I'm doing now.
Speaker 1:I think it's so important. I did a podcast with a guy in Ireland who's won the Nationals over there with the Spaniels and Cockers and he's been in it for a long time. I don't know if the podcast is going to work out. We had a really horrible connection. I don't know if the podcast is going to work out. We had a really horrible connection.
Speaker 1:Anyway, in the interview we were just talking about because you know I'm like you, anna, I want youth to get involved. I don't want this sport to die and we're having fewer and fewer hunters Fewer and fewer youth are getting involved. Anyway, we were talking about youth involvement in the field trials in england and ireland and scotland and it's really went down because it's gotten more expensive. You know these young people can't afford to do some of the you know to run dogs and it's just uh, we've just got to find a way. So I'm actually gonna have an episode on here. We're going to record it probably next week with a very big guy in the coon dog world and look, those guys make money. We got to figure out how to do that on our side.
Speaker 2:Okay, so my first. My first dog was a red bone hound named Honeybell.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, I love, I love red bone.
Speaker 2:I did too, and I, and then I got to hunt bears once with the hounds and I said and then I got to hunt bears once with the hounds and I said I thought that I loved bird dogs, but I really just love a gundog, Any kind of gundog.
Speaker 1:Me too, and you know Gundog Magazine I'm talking to Kelly Parma, you know it's traditionally for upland dogs, right, but to me, my podcast. I have coon dog guys on here. I've had a mountain lion hound guy on here, but that episode also got destroyed, so we got to do it over. But I'm like you, I I grew up well, didn't grow up, but my first hunting dog was beagles, okay, and I ran rabbits in eastern kentucky, southeast kentucky oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's like a dream life yeah, I mean, you know people think it's weird I'm a nerd but I dropping that tailgate, list them dogs run through the mountains and eastern kentucky. You know people think it's weird I'm a nerd, but dropping that tailgate, listening to dogs run through the mountains in eastern Kentucky, you know I loved it.
Speaker 2:I know, when I turned 16, I had a Toyota.
Speaker 1:Me too.
Speaker 2:And then when I went bear hunting with the guys, like not too long ago, I was like this is what that truck was built for, that's all. Everybody runs Toyotas because you can turn it around on a single lane. You know, uh, dirt road with your dogs in the back and I'm like, oh my gosh, I would be driving through town with my striker on top like look at this dog, you know I tell these west texas guys I said man back back in the day because I'm 56 years old, I'll be 57 in september but a toyota truck was in eastern kentucky, at east tennessee.
Speaker 1:You know, they're just narrow enough to go in the mountains like a four-wheeler, like a cyber site is today. They're actually probably the old ones are more narrow and everybody had a Toyota and everybody had a dog box in the back and that was your hunting machine and you could put one for sale and it would sell in 24 hours if you put it for sale in your yard.
Speaker 2:Because they were like gold. I know Tater's gonna end up having to have a truck where she has to lock her hubs.
Speaker 1:I'm convinced of it, like one time in your life you got to get out and do that you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, make sure you do it before it's too late. You have to get out in the mud to lock your hubs, but you can't stick a toyota.
Speaker 1:I've had, gosh, I don't know how many of those old regular cab four-wheel drives, but yeah, my buddy's got the ISIS wagon. You know it looked like. You know you see them in the middle East and they're riding those 12. But anyway, so now I know that you spent all these, all this time, you know, in the hunt, competition, shooting, competitions. What's what's Anna's life starting, going forward, what, what, what's the next chapter?
Speaker 2:Okay. So you know, when I got into this, I had this whole mental management thing where I found myself right and I'm like I'm this hardcore competition girl, I'm just going to go win it all. And it was so fun and it drove me to have a sense of excellence and through that I got involved in advocacy and I realized what's the point of working so hard if we don't keep our rights. So I started hammering down on all the advocacy stuff and so I got introduced to SEI and then they just fueled that fire and then the next thing I know I am deleted and kicked off of all social media. So I had built all of this, like this amazing platform, all these friends from all these events that I'd been to, and I never thought twice about backing it up. I had pretty much created this whole journal of my entire life, of everything I did with my kids, and it's not necessarily the pictures, like I'll probably add the pictures, but I don't have the words. Like I wrote those words in the moment of exactly how I felt, exactly what I learned, and I don't have it anymore. So that was awful. Not to mention that once I turned this into a business, you only get paid for your followers, and I was like, well, that's gone forever for me because I can't. I can't build anything anymore, and so I don't know.
Speaker 2:It was one of those things where I was like, okay, everybody's like, will you hire a hacker to go find your account and get it back? For, like, a good hacker takes over the bad hacker. I was like, how do I even do this? So it became one of these things where I was like forget it.
Speaker 2:There is a bigger reason as to why this happened. You know, you can always look at it glass is half empty or it's half full and I was like, I don't care if I never have another social media platform. Nobody can take away my experiences, nobody can take away my skills, nobody can take away my knowledge, nobody can take away my wisdom and I'm just going to keep doing what I've always been doing. And if the industry doesn't want to keep me around, I'm still going to be running dogs. And I just had to come to that realization and accept that, which was really hard, because you just don't know how things are going to work out. But I tell you what. I would say that I've accomplished bigger dreams that I didn't even dream, since I lost my social media. How do you even explain that?
Speaker 1:Purina ProPlan. Here at Gun Dog Nation, we use Purina ProPlan for our dogs. We actually use the Sport Performance Edition, which is 30% protein and 20% fat the beef and bison. It contains glucosamine, omega-3s for their joints. It also contains amino acids for muscles and antioxidants. It also has probiotics. It's guaranteed to have live probiotics in each serving. There's no artificial colors or flavors. We see the difference in our dogs. We see the difference in their coat, their performance, their endurance and also in recovery. Be sure to use Purina ProPlan dog food. The reputation speaks for itself. There's a reason that Purina has been around for such a long time. We suggest that you use it and we are so proud to be sponsored by Purina dog food. You know, I wonder if it's just because we get so and I'm guilty we get so focused on keeping up with all that that it takes us away from our creative time. I don't know. I don't know the answer, but I think maybe it gives you time to sit and really dig deep?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is a job. It is a job and I don't know if people realize how these contracts work, but you're obligated to do so many posts or you know so much to keep up with your, your relationships and they are so important, like for me now. Uh, one of my soapboxes is the fact that I want people to appreciate the art and dig into the art of wing shooting, the art of dog training, and not get caught up in the hype. You know there's so much hype out there that doesn't come with wisdom and roots and knowledge. It's where the majority of people that have the time to do the marketing aren't doing the job. How many times have we talked about that behind the scenes? You know the people that are really digging in and doing all that stuff, like you don't have time for your phone, and so it takes such a big team to do everything. Like one person can't do it all.
Speaker 2:And I backed myself in that corner because I made all these commitments when I had a team and then, all of a sudden, I didn't have a team anymore and I still had these commitments and I still had these dreams and I was like, wow, and so that's what I was talking about. Like I feel like I kind of put my career before my calling was like what am I supposed to do? Cause I loved winning trophies and I loved winning dogs. It's kind of like they were talking about in church last night about the Holy Ghost goosebumps, like we're not supposed to go to church for that. That's what I was living on. I was living on adrenaline junkie from one town to the next, loving raising up these pups and people trusting me with their dogs. And you know there was nothing more exciting to and you know this, when you train a dog and you send that dog back home and that dog is successful with the owner, it's like the biggest compliment you could ever have. Like it's fun when we're successful with them, but when somebody else is successful with something that you built, like that's real and so I just got addicted to that and I don't necessarily know if that was exactly why I was supposed to be here, but I definitely celebrate the season that I got to live that life. So now it's all about the wow. We're going to build, wow, we're going to have monthly programs put together and I've dabbled in it some. I've had some really great partners start out with me and just like the corporate world goes, you know, not everybody seems to stay in a position, you know, in those companies, and so if they leave, sometimes the programs that they're associated with leaves too. So it took some time to go build a team to do this all on my own, but that's what we're doing, and so we have a Facebook group.
Speaker 2:If there's females out there, or if you have a female in mind that you would like to get involved with women wing shooting, you can always reach out to me at AnnaVOutdoorscom. You can email me directly there or at AnnaVOutdoors underscore. That's where I am now on Instagram and hopefully you can find me there. And so, like I just want to cheer, cheer girls on, and it's really fun. I have a daughter that's about to be 23.
Speaker 2:And then there's a group of girls that are about that same age that are just breaking out in the industry, whether they're rockstar clay shooters. I've got a police shooter now that I just took under my wing, and then I've got another one that is up in Virginia that's running a hunting lodge, and it's just so cool to see there are girls out there. They want to be classy, they want to live with excellence. They want to embrace this industry and do it the right way and they want to build legacy and I just can't get away from that word. So now I've just got all these girls and I just cheer them on and they keep me feeling young and I never want to quit.
Speaker 1:You know I love it. I had two episodes back. I had two girls from Kentucky.
Speaker 2:I listened to it this morning and I didn't know that some of them have followed me. I was like I got to follow these girls back.
Speaker 1:And there's another one that didn't get to make it on the show, that I've known. I know her family, cause I'm from, you know, from the, I'm from the area too, but they, you know, it was a great story. I mean, they had no hunting background, absolutely zero. And now they're obsessed and I love it. I mean that's what kills me. Maybe you can rub off my.
Speaker 1:I have kids, two boys, two girls, in my uh, I've said this on several shows, people's probably tired of hearing it, but you know, my, my oldest, my youngest son hunts. My oldest son hunted and he doesn't hunt anymore. He did some of my, my youngest daughter's god lover is an animal lover, like, well, she won't kill a bug, I mean literally will not step on the spot, and she's been like, she's like ellie may, she's got all kinds of critters, you know. And then my oldest daughter would hunt, but she's, you know, she works, has two kids married, and you know I mean, but anyway, so I love to hear youth getting involved. I've tried to, you know, trying to get my kids as much as I could. At least they like dogs.
Speaker 2:So right, yeah and I wish that well, jc may she's. She hunts everything like. She's super proud of her big buck she got last year and she's in the turkey woods every year and stuff. But I'll tell you so. The president sat in our family is. My grandmother shot her last buck at 84 and georgia sci hosted a hunt for her and I've told the story a lot. It was just so awesome to see my grandmother out there. She needed no help, she dropped it right in its tracks. That's cool.
Speaker 1:I've never heard of a lady that old, at that age, killing a honey. I love that. That's amazing.
Speaker 2:She is a little rock star. Her health has declined significantly since then, but that was just a few years back and at the time, like I didn't know it would be our last hunt. We thought it could be, but I thought maybe we could sneak in one last turkey season, you know, set up a blind and it'd be really easy to put her in there, but it just got to where she just had too many good days and bad days and it was just too much. So unfortunately, like, she's probably not gonna make it back out to the deer stand, but it was fun for me. Just that was the last time I said nope, that was not the last time.
Speaker 2:We took tater toater to Texas last year so she could shoot a deer, that kid. You ask her like what's your? What do you want to do this season? Everything. So she kills me.
Speaker 2:We were scheduled to go turkey hunting. We got up to the we were going up to the mountains in North Georgia and we get out of the truck, everything's set, get our chairs on us, everything up, we're going to go. Up on the mountain Pours rain, I mean like flooding Not your first time experience, you know. So we're like we're going to try again tomorrow. Maybe we said maybe, so she goes to school, we go through carpool to pick this kid up. Maybe we'll go Like we were going to pick her up, figure it out. We had plenty of time before sunset to figure out if we were going to go or not.
Speaker 2:The kid is standing in full camo in carpool line Like she had packed her camo in the bag. The fifth grader you would think that she might be kind of like embarrassed about it. Oh heck, no, she's like we're going, we are going. And she caught up her own bird this year. She shot the Rob Roberts setup. So she had an SB3 12 gauge with a Rob Roberts choke, rob Roberts federal ammo, the whole nine yards. She loves him. And she just scratched her little turkey right up and took it out and we're like holy smokes, this is going to be a very expensive child.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's got it.
Speaker 2:She's got good taste in her yeah, oh yeah, she does, so she's the one that plays music too. You're telling yep, she plays guitar and we're taking her to Nashville. I can't wait. Is it public that you're going there?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, actually, yeah, I think so. Not everybody knows, but my family knows. You know my brothers are there. My mom has a house in Nashville but she moved back to Kentucky. But yeah, I'll be there. I will be in Nashville probably by September. I've got to put my ranch on the market and that's what's going to take some time. So I've got to.
Speaker 2:You've got a lot of HRC stuff. I'll have an HRC buddy because Clark up and moved to Missouri. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'm going to get an HRC and everything out there. I've already. I've got a couple friends I guess it's Middle Tennessee. A couple of friends, I guess it's middle Tennessee, yep, I think. I don't know if they're AKC and HRC both I know they're AKC.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm going to stay in the HRC world. I want to stay in the hunting world, I want to get my girls running. So one dream thing I'll tell you. That happened. You just never know what's going to happen. I get up every single day expecting to be wowed. I do it every day. I'm like what's going to happen today, because it's going to be amazing. And I learned this lesson the hard way because I was down and out. I was like okay, I got these big, big dreams. I'm down to just me.
Speaker 2:No social media platform, even if I built something. How do I tell people I have it? You know it was like platform. Even if I built something, how do I tell people I have it? You know it was like. What am I doing here? How do I share this news?
Speaker 2:Because even if I'd partnered with some people, like repartnered with them, the majority of their followers are men and I love the guys. Like, if it hadn't been for strange men and conservation organizations, I would not be where I am today. Right, they just took me under their wing. Nobody judged me, they just loved me through the chaos. And so it was like but how do I reach the women? And how do.
Speaker 2:I say like this is for you and we're going to teach you. Like nobody knows anything when they get started and half the time the people that are out there still don't know. We're all just winging it. You know to some degree. You just learn from experience and it's okay to accept. You don't know what you don't know, it's okay. And so I was like I just want to share this message. So I was like how am I going to do it? How am I going to do it? And it just weighed on me and weighed on me and I kid you not, it was like three days before Christmas Eve. I could not believe it. I get a message. That takes me back to the very beginning. I told you that I'd gotten to travel with Purdy, which is a hilarious story. Purdy Shotguns is one of the premier shotguns in the world Bespoke shotguns, I think they start at like $80,000.
Speaker 2:I didn't know they were that much yeah, yeah, that's why I don't have one um and so they're out of the uk and through traveling with them I had met some other people you know in the industry and you just have fun at your little events and all stuff. One guy stuck out to me, kevin stirk. He's the head instructor up at Griffin and Howe in New Jersey. Griffin and Howe in itself has the coolest history. They were a gun shop that was in New York City back in like they started in like 1930s, but they had actually bought out Abercrombie and Fitch, which was an outfitter in New York City. It was not originally a like prep brand, okay, it was an outfitter.
Speaker 1:And yes.
Speaker 2:So Griffin and Al bought them out. They are so famous for building like the best custom American made rifle, bespoke style. I mean just phenomenal. So their gun club is up in New Jersey and it's called Hudson farm and I knew Kevin from working, like traveling, with Purdy, because he is a Purdy gun fitter here in the States and then they also sell them.
Speaker 2:So when we would do events I would run into him all the time and he is this loud mouth like fine, just life of the party New York guy, right, and he's just so full of wing shooting knowledge and shooting knowledge. He's like 70 years old, he's done everything and he just has stories from sunup to sundown. So we started doing a podcast on Tuesdays, just he and I. So he like comes on and we just have our own series because I can't get enough of his knowledge. It's just like he calls it tribal knowledge. Like you, only you only can learn things if you sit down with the people that's done it before. You can't read this stuff in a book. So I was like man, I don't ever want to forget a word. So we're just going to record it and use a podcast and everybody can hear it. You know it'd be so fun.
Speaker 2:So, but before that happened, I'm sitting, I'm I'm in bed watching the show, and it was like nine o'clock at night and I get this random message on social media and it was from Griffin and Al, and they're like would you be interested in helping us revamp our women's program? I just started crying. I just started crying. I was like, oh my gosh, this is what my heart has said I need to do. I've sat here for six months spinning my wheels, like how is this going to work? And here's somebody that needs what I have to offer and I need what they have to offer. It was like a perfect match. I love these people. I have loved them from the beginning of my career, and you want to talk about having a spirit of excellence, like it doesn't get any better than what they have to offer, and not just their firearms, but their training and their experience. Just being on site there. It was everything that I could have ever aspired to be.
Speaker 2:So I had also put three trips back to back years together, so this would be summertime bird hunting. You know us, we don't have an off season, right? Like if there's a downtime here in the States, we go find something else to fill it. So I don't really know what inspired me to want to go to Africa, because I'm not a big game hunter, even here in the States. But I was like I think this would be the coolest experience. And I met a guy at SCI convention, tim Van Heerden, and he has K-Roo wing shooting, and we just hit it off. We just like became fast buddies and so I was like let's do this. I want to host a hunt over there. Let's do the entire world record book, let's see how long it takes us. Let's build trips and this is going to be kind of hardcore hunting because you got to hunt one space day, travel, get to another region Like we're going to take it out Within three years. We have it, so starts next summer.
Speaker 2:And I was like, oh my gosh, people are going to think I'm crazy. It's like let's go to South Africa and shoot all the birds and how am I going to talk people into going there? I want to go there. I think it would be super cool. And when you move into the big game world, people go there all the time. But if you're not going to Argentina or Canada, wing shooters typically like you're not really finding people that are traveling to places like that, you know, and so I was like I'm probably never going to find just a female group either to go to South Africa, like people are probably going to want to take their significant others. So now it's couples trip to South Africa.
Speaker 2:We have limited spacing, you know, but besides that I'm doing um, two trips to honey break a year for hunting. So we've got an upcoming Dove and Teal hunt coming up in September, at the end of September, and then we've got a duck hunt in December. That we do. We started that one last year. And then in the off season we'll do something super fun there because Drew and Jared and them, they've got it all going on over at Honey Break, from Hallease to Sporting Clays to the dogs.
Speaker 2:Fun there, because Drew and Jared and them, they've got it all going on over at Honey Break with from Hallease to Sporting Clays to the dogs, to conservation gators and deer. I mean they, they got it. It's really cool there. And then some other quail places we go to Prairie Wildlife, we're going to Almos Heaven Plantation. I'm working with Clark, we're putting together a goose hunt. So we want, like we want to do things where people can get involved with their dogs too, and so Griffin and Howe's got a kennel that they're starting. They built a brand new facility. There's bird hunting there. Yeah, like I'm like I don't even, I don't know, I don't have enough weeks to do all the things that I want to do Now, these trips.
Speaker 1:No, I don't have enough weeks to do all the things that I want to do Now. These trips, they're organized trips for ladies right.
Speaker 2:Some of them are ladies and some of them are couples.
Speaker 1:Do you have openings?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I put them on my website. You can find them at AnnaVOutdoorscom AnnaVOutdoorscom. Okay, yep, and you can message me directly and I'll just help you through it all. I'm working with a guy right now, too. We're going to add driven shoots in Europe. We're going to go where all the good dogs are and all the good food is. That's where we're going to go, ok, ok.
Speaker 2:So I talk about this word legacy and excellence, because that's what we want. That's what we want. Well, back when I had clients, that's what I wanted to give my clients. Right, that's the life that you want to live with your dogs. We don't want to cheat our dogs of anything. They've been born with this potential. They're a gift to us and we need to make sure that they reach it, you know, and they just have this best life.
Speaker 2:So I met this guy, mr Pat. I did a podcast with him just a couple weeks ago and I'm going to look up his business name Pat Gregory Decoys. Okay, so I thought that I was the snob of legacy and stuff I get on this podcast with Mr Pat. Now, mind you, I just met him on Facebook. I saw his post and I was like this is the coolest dude, so I started digging in with him. I think he said he was in his 60s.
Speaker 2:His great-grandfather started making decoys in 1890. He was also like a minor league baseball player. I mean, it's all on the podcast, it's just like the coolest history. And so he elevated this standard of legacy and excellence. He was like you put all this over and into your dog. He's like you don't even need to insult your dog by letting it swim through plastic decoys. And I was like, oh my God, I've never heard that before, ever. I was like that's it, that's it Like right. When I thought we'd gotten to the top of these fancy shotguns, it was like nope, now we have to have all hand-armed decoys.
Speaker 1:That's pretty cool. I like that. What if you just have?
Speaker 2:a couple. That's pretty cool. I like that. What if you just have a couple? You know, like I know it's like a big tall order to have a whole fleet of hand-carved decoys, but it's like you know why not? Why not build something that you can pass down? Yeah, I just thought it was so cool, so I just loved this journey of the people that we've met, you know, I mean just meeting you. How many friends do we have in common? And we met on social media.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was crazy. It's actually crazy the number of people I knew that knew you, which was quite a bit.
Speaker 2:Well, I have. I have traveled many circles and it has been so fun and I'm just so grateful for it. It's like it's probably very overwhelming to a lady who's just picked up a shotgun for the first time, or saying, hey, like I want to take my first lesson, like you've done all these things, but I didn't do it at once. And it's not necessarily realistic that I could even duplicate what I did if it hadn't been for COVID, but because life hit pause and I didn't, I didn't stop. You know, it was like it.
Speaker 1:I think it kind of fast forwarded time for me a little bit. What would be your best piece of advice to a female of any age?
Speaker 2:Maybe considering getting into the sport.
Speaker 2:Find a mentor that and it's really hard to know this right when you first get started find a mentor that you can trust, that can lead you along the way and nobody's ever going to know everything.
Speaker 2:But I talk about this so much on our podcast of like making sure that you're with the right shooting coach. You know, if they start with gun fit, that's a big green light because without the proper gun fit, you may know exactly what you're doing, but if your tool is not in line with what you see in your actions, then you're not going to hit birds or you're not going to hit clays, and it doesn't necessarily mean you don't know what you're doing. It just means you have the wrong tool. And so all the things that we do right I mean running our dogs, when we're hunting with them or if we're shooting clays our gun is like our main tool, and if it's not on, our dog's going to be mad at us and we're not going to have as much fun. I mean you can't hide the fact that hitting things is a good time you know, and so that's really the best place to start.
Speaker 2:And then you know, just because you find one, you know if you started somewhere and it really didn't take you to the next level, it doesn't mean you can't find another instructor or another mentor Like you. Just don't give up. I always tell everybody the best place, based on my experience, is to get connected with the local conservation organization. Ducks Unlimited is a great place to start. They always have very knowledgeable people, members in their clubs Pheasants, forever, quail, forever, delta, waterfowl, sci. I've done all and I've worked with all of them. I've done all and I've worked with all of them. And so wherever you know somebody, that might know somebody. But I can tell you, even if you don't, it might be hard to take that first step into the door the first time, but you're going to be so glad you did it.
Speaker 1:Hello, this is Kenneth Witt, and Gun Dog Nation is proud to have one of their sponsors as Retriever Training Supply. Based in Alabama, retriever Training Supply offers fast shipping on quality gear. Your dog will love it. Visit RetrieverTrainingSupplycom to purchase gear to help you train your retriever. Listen, they have some of the best leashes I've ever found. It's stuff's made in America. Their leashes are, and they source them locally. They have anything you want. Fast, fast shipping, just good people. Retriever training supply, yeah, and you know. And then, if somebody's wanting to get into the, the gundog world too, hrc clubs are great, don't you agree?
Speaker 2:in a case, your retriever clubs, any retriever club any retriever clubs for sure, and even the pointers, like I don't want to forget that I started in the pointing world was so good to me. But I tell you what I'm addicted to this retriever life.
Speaker 1:I just got an English pointer pup.
Speaker 2:You did Okay. So what is it about? How we like end up flipping.
Speaker 1:It's a, I guess, because I've always wanted one and then I always grew up around buddies who had, you know, some really high dollar coon dogs. I always loved that look, you know, always wanted one, and now I can have a hound looking dog. That's a bird dog, you know.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you got an English pointer.
Speaker 1:Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 2:Who'd you get it from? Like, did you get an Al Hugh puppy?
Speaker 1:Hanbury, Kennel up in Iowa. That's who Ronnie Smith and them. When they get points, that's where they get points See how do?
Speaker 2:we know all the same people. This is so funny. If you want to get into pointing dogs, oh my gosh, you just got to call Ronnie.
Speaker 1:This is my first, so I need help. All the advice I can get you, message me, text me, whatever I want help. I'm never too good to ask for help.
Speaker 2:Have you met Stiney?
Speaker 1:through the Smith. He's in Wisconsin. He's a legend. You did. I went to the beginner seminar, or the yes three, about three, four months ago in Oklahoma. I've only been to one seminar.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, it's so good.
Speaker 1:But that name sounds familiar. There were people there from all over.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he works with them too. He has his own kennel. He ran the hunting tournaments and was such an inspiration to me because he kind of did the same thing. It's like it's super fun to win, but then what do you do with the wins? What do you do with the wins? You know, like, what do you do with that to take you to the next level? And for me it was like I just need to go inspire people. He's doing the same exact thing. He's got all the pointing dogs and what he does is super cool. He runs dogs and he'll go run wild birds out West and take clients out West and just get on wild birds all over the place. So you really can just do whatever you want to, I think, with bird dogs.
Speaker 2:I thought for so long what is the way that you get from A to B? And I used to drive Rick crazy, you know. He's like why are you not hosting any of these clinics? And I'm like I don't feel qualified to do it. He's like well, what else do you need to do, you know? And so I'm like I don't. I don't really know. I think I just waited on somebody to like give me permission, but for him. I just felt like he was just it's just Rick, because Rick had been there from the beginning. It was like and I'm like what, there's nobody else who knows more than him. He did it, he, you know it was like what. So maybe I do kind of regret not getting into those pointer clinics, because, man, those are special times, meeting all those people that are so enthusiastic with their puppies.
Speaker 1:And I will go to the intermediate and the advanced course. I just I've got time and around, you know, but it was. That was a great weekend. Uh, I did the one at third place and uh, and I've had Ronnie and Suzanne on the podcast. Actually, we were getting ready to do a second podcast on here and we've we've had some scheduling issues. We're trying to get them back on, but just great people.
Speaker 2:I've never met Rick, but I got a dog from Rick years ago. Yeah, if you have a pointer and you don't really know what to do with it. Those clinics are so much fun and you meet people that, like you, never know where that hunt is going to lead you, you know. Like you go to a clinic, you meet people everybody has hunting dogs and by the time that you leave there you're friends with every single person that's there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's like my first time to Ronnie and Susanna's bricks. Like we are going over to Oklahoma for a horse show. Just go over there early and stay with Ronnie and Susanna and I'm like I'm not inviting myself to go stay at their house. Oh yeah, you are, here's his number, and I call. Like Ronnie Rick told me to just come. Oh yeah, we're going to be home, we're going to that whole week. Yeah, I just show up and I'm like what, and it was just like that.
Speaker 1:They're very nice people.
Speaker 2:I know and what like what we benefit from? Just their family always doing the right thing At the end of the day. It was just like they treat everybody like family, everybody's welcome, and they share their knowledge so freely, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and it's you know another guy that does that. Well, there's two guys I've met in the business, and there's several, not just this is not the only two, but Rhody Best and Clark Kington. Both will give you every bit of knowledge they have. They don't try to keep you know and they look they actually enjoy sharing training tips with you and I love that.
Speaker 2:He was at a clinic one time and he was like I think that I actually enjoy hosting these clinics more than I do running, and I said oh, like no you're like nobody's going to let you stop running dogs because you're still like multiple dogs in the top 10 all the time.
Speaker 1:He burns it up at the grand. I know.
Speaker 2:How do you do that? What was it Did he had? He took what? 18 dogs and 16 passed the grand, or something like that.
Speaker 1:It was something like that. I can't remember exactly. It could have been 25.
Speaker 2:I don't remember it could have been up in the 25 number, I don't remember, but it was like only two dogs didn't pass the grand, it's like what, and I think that he had the highest percentage of passes that anybody's ever had.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I'm so sorry if we are blowing people crazy, probably making them nuts. We go back and forth between pointer people and retriever people Because once you've been in it for so long, you have them. I've had every color, like the Neapolitan of short hairs, and I really like yellow and red dogs on the lab side.
Speaker 1:Well, I got a beautiful, beautiful fox, red female.
Speaker 2:And she's going to be a rock star. Is that what you got your stroker puppy?
Speaker 1:No, no, that's not come yet, that's not been born, okay, and I think that. So out of that, litterark has first pick, female, I've got second, so we'll see what happens and you don't ever know no you don't ever know no, I, uh, I'm low on black. I need black blacker, that you know. Stroker through Fox Red Dogs.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah, I've seen one when.
Speaker 1:I was up there. Well, when he called you, I was up there with him and he was running one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was harassing him to get our goose hunt schedule set, and so it was so funny because I was literally giving down the road like dude, my schedule is stacking up and this is my priority and I'm waiting on you. But he was waiting to get his HRC and SRS schedule done so that he would know when he could get away. And so, instead of him just like popping back and he put me in my place, he threw me under the bus to you and he was like, well, he's waiting on you to get on the podcast. And I was like what, what is he doing over there with you? It was so funny.
Speaker 1:No, I wonder what he that makes. Well, now you explain the rest of the story. Now I know why.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he loved being able to use you to put me back in my place because I was giving him heck for slacking on his schedule.
Speaker 1:He's slick, he's slick, he's a smart guy, you know, this is so fun and I'm thrilled that you're I mean Texas.
Speaker 2:we go to Texas all the time, but with you being in Nashville I know we've talked about like how can we work together and how can we do things together. It's so much more fun when you've got a crew.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and honestly I just I let a buddy of mine who's a competitive shooter give me some lessons of the day. You know, I'm ex military but I shotgun doesn't. Shooting doesn't come natural for me. I can shoot a rifle with anybody. I mean, I'm not, don't get me wrong, I'm not like Mr, you know, uh, marksman or anything, but I can shoot a rifle. But I need help, you know, and clays and I hunt a lot but I still want to get better. You know I could use improvement big time.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm in. I mean, nobody has a twist of arm to show up at Nashville Gun Club. I love it there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I was researching that, trying to get you know. I know the area. My family's been in that area since 96. But I'm not plugged into the sportsman world there yet.
Speaker 2:So I've got to do that. Well, I've already volunteered you, since we've been on this podcast for Music City SCI chapter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know what I'm about to say this I let my SCI membership run out, so I've got to renew that.
Speaker 2:Yep, and you'll be at convention. Okay, we can take our dogs to convention. We're going to be like the wing shooting presence is just doubling every single year since they came to Nashville. We're just going to parade in there with our labs.
Speaker 1:I'm ready, yeah, yeah. Actually, the reason I haven't completely moved yet because I've got to build dog kennels at my house and it's a house is there I've been, it's already a house, but so I can't move from the ranch with my dogs until I have. You know, even though I've had the house now for three months, I can't move into. It took up my dogs that's right.
Speaker 2:That's right. That would be so hard for me to leave here because originally, when I was going to do just dogs and I didn't realize like some things would change which all those details will come out in the devotions with dad podcast I have a kennel where I could put like 50 dogs and it's so beautiful and there's ponds just right out here. But, um, this place feels temporary. It's like the city just keeps getting closer and closer, like when we came here it felt like we were far enough out and now it don't feel like we're far enough out, so we're just going to keep going north. Um, but yeah, it's perfect training grounds. Clark's been here and trained here and showed me what to do with the land, you know, you know. So, yeah, it's been, it's been awesome and I'm just, I'm just looking forward to it. I'm supposed to be getting my homework because so I'll tell you what happened. So Littles, I got Littles because when I ran Winnie, I told you the story of me running Winnie the first time. Because when I ran Winnie, I told you the story of me running Winnie the first time, her daughter, ackley, was sitting in the kennel that week that I was force fetching dogs and I'm like I never loved a lab, but I love this one and I don't know why she's in the kennel, but when I'm at this place she ain't in the kennel, right, like I'm just going to have her with me. Well, she had been like one of those dogs. She's a working dog, so that's where she had lived. And, oh my gosh, they wouldn't let me bring her back to Georgia my first time there. But when I tell you like I took ownership of her, I totally did.
Speaker 2:And so Ackley's first litter, littles, came out of it. And I didn't think I could ever love a dog more than the one, like the first one, you know. And so I was like, well, I need a project dog, I've got to learn to train a lab, I've got to go through the whole thing. So I'm going to get Littles. Her name was supposed to be Dixie, but she was really tiny and so the nickname kind of stuck. I realized that she came to that a lot quicker than her real name because I used it too much. So, um, that's how I ended up getting littles and I titled Ackley her mom and her dad and her grandma, and so I just loved this line of dogs, you know, and I ran other relatives of her per se and done really well with them too.
Speaker 2:So she was just the easiest thing. I mean easy it. That was the other thing and and I know it's all in genetics, um, and not that it can't be that way in the porno world, but I ended up with tournament hunt dogs, that with big, big motors and they are firecrackers, and so when this came and I was like I could have 10 of these dogs for the headache of one of those, it kind of changed my mentality, you know. And so I don't know if I will always have a pointer, because I still have two short hairs and I have the slab. I went down from like eight dogs to three. That was life changing, holy moly.
Speaker 2:But Littles and I, I did all of her training. Her first tournament was two weeks after her first birthday and we took second and I was so excited and I was like I did this, like I did this, one of those things, you know. It was like I don't care that I didn't win first, like we got on the boards and this was the first dog I took from the ground up in the, in the flushing world, and so I was like, okay, um, we're gonna. If we're not going to run tournaments anymore, we're going to get into HRC. Because you get this conscience about your dogs. It's like I can't take their life away. Yeah, she lives a posh life. She's been eating watermelon today, she's been sleeping on the couch, all the things, but she's built to run. And so I was like, okay, I'm going to go learn the new game. And so Clark's given me all my homework. We've got to work on diversion birds, we've got to sharpen our skills on blinds and marking more marks on a run.
Speaker 2:Because we showed up at one HRC, clark was over on the master field. He couldn't come over there and help me, like I've never even seen one before. Right, I'm like, okay, they've worked with me on the gun. I can do this because I don't even actually have to shoot anything. I don't even have to put my head down. Right, like, I can swing a gun. Make sure my dog heals with me. Because, don't forget, like my game I had to shoot and run a dog. So I'm slowing everything down when it comes to HRC. I don't have to hit a bird and I don't have to. I don't even have to move. I sit in my chair or I stand in my spot, right. So it changes. It simplifies things, but in my mind I try to overcomplicate it because I'm used to having to micromanage so many different things at once.
Speaker 2:Yes, so we're over there and I realized, oh my God, like this dog, she is not broke on diversion birds, which luckily that didn't count against us in the season. But yeah, our first two runs I had the sweetest ladies in line with me, and Bree that works with Blaine Tarnecki here in Georgia. She was there with me most of the time running her boykins. So it was super nice. So I wasn't like completely alone but I didn't have like a mentor per se there with me, my first one.
Speaker 2:But we came home with two passes. I was like checking in. They said, well, would you like to be here the whole weekend? I was like let's take this one day at a time, you know. And we ran land the first. I think my first part of the first morning was on land and it she smoked it. I mean, she's a hunter, you know. So I'm like as long as I get her in the wind in the right direction, that dog's going to bail me out, and I know that about her, so it was awesome. I was like, okay, well, how can she screw up on water? She screwed up on the diversion bird, but we stayed in the game and so I could not wait to go back to check in and say sign us up for tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1:I'm getting ready to go through season. Well, when season, when contest season starts back, I did the junior and the started both this year.
Speaker 2:How fun is this? It's like tail game.
Speaker 1:I told.
Speaker 2:Clark, I'm turning this into horse show world, like I'm going to get logoed everything you know, and I thought that's what it was. When I first started I thought you got your trainer, like Clark will have what 26 dogs on his trailer. I thought all the clients showed up and like watch their dog, but they, it's not really the way that it is. There's there's some people that bring their own dog and run their own dog, and then there's some that are just pros or whatever. But in this world everybody can win. In the world that I came from, there's only one winner, and so it was really nice to have that kind of camaraderie on a level that I haven't experienced before, and you really just fall in love with the dogs, like you just cheered these dogs on, especially when you're running with the same people. You know, test after test after test, you just you get invested in these dogs journeys. Um. So yeah, I just I've loved it for a whole, nother reason and you know it's just the thing you never, you never know at all and there's so many experiences, you know, I mean you could run HRC for forever and still have a blast, but I'm glad I've kind of gotten to do it, do a little bit here and there, but I'll probably run HRC, I'll tell you. The other big thing is the identity crisis was number one, like I'm not a shooter over there, right, and that's what I was, you know. So I'm still wing shooting and I and I get to teach that. I get to teach, like, the art of it and the history of it, and while we're still doing it, it's just amazing. The lifestyle of it is so great. You know the etiquette of it, um, but the dog etiquette. I just love that. I love talking about the dog etiquette and you know taking your dog to places and how to prepare them.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you, we've got all these mounts in our house. We have a rhino like a shoulder mount in the living room, stuff, and Littles freaks out. We've had birds in our house her whole life. We start putting big game mounts in here and she acts like a scaredy cat. Big game mounts in here and she acts like a scaredy cat and, um, so, but there's just things that you don't think about happening. You know, it's like a retrainer. She's five years old, she should know this. You know all the lodges she's been in and stuff, but you just, I don't know, there's just little tidbits. All the time that I think about is staring.
Speaker 1:Now is your daughter doing hunt test also.
Speaker 2:She will. Yeah, she can handle it. I have to be careful what I let her do, because now she's at the age she'll just take it from me. That's it, she's already said, has Clark found me a puppy? Yet I'm like, okay, let's think You're going into sixth grade You're going to leave me with a dog. You know, if we find you a dog now, it's going to take a couple years to get it ready. She's going to borrow mine until hers is ready. I see where this is going.
Speaker 1:She's already got a plan.
Speaker 2:You go pick a dog that you can adopt off Clark's trailer. You know, but she's done that before too. There's a guy in Alabama Gosh I wish I could think of his name. You probably know him Dark, black hair, drives a silver pickup. Anyways, he runs the Hunt Test World too, and we were running and she was doing rockstar stuff with Ackley and he was like, hey, why don't you come run this dog off of my trailer? And I mean, we just met him, so she gets a pass. And of course, like everybody, hey, why don't you come run this dog off of my trailer? And I mean, we just met him, so she gets a pass. And of course, like, everybody watches, you know. So she's coming back, everybody's clapping. They're like, dude, I bet she got a better score than you would have, or whatever you know. And they're just like. She's like this little kid, it was so funny. I'm like gosh, I know, you know, but it was just fun. Like everybody rallies around the kids.
Speaker 1:That's not easy to do.
Speaker 2:Kid involved.
Speaker 1:I mean that's it's. Even adults get nervous, including myself, so that's not easy to do.
Speaker 2:People are watching. Yeah, I don't know. Like she's just always done it, you know she's always been there. She got thrown in there with I she was think she was four years old mic'd up training with her little wonder lead on a stage like 200 people at pheasant fest with rick and rick's like me and taylor will be at the purina booth later if y'all want to ask questions about the training program. She watched it every day. She could. She could regurgitate the words and she had an idea of how to implement it. But of course, like she wasn't a perfection at it, you know, but she, she pretty much trained her own dog in the field with me.
Speaker 2:So they can do it, the kids can do it. Like it is is doable. Um, when you have it laid out like, you don't have to go figure out how to do it, you just follow a system, right. So today we do this and we're gonna do it until she's mastered it. And when she have it laid out, like, you don't have to go figure out how to do it, you just follow a system, right. So today we do this and we're going to do it until she's mastered it. And when she does it right the first time, like 10 times in a row, we'll move on to the next one. Yeah, Impressive.
Speaker 1:Well, hopefully that gets contagious to other kids that she's in school with and stuff.
Speaker 2:I hope so and I just like I just hope people feel welcomed to reach out to us, like that's my whole thing, is that I would just hate to think that somebody's sitting at home having a question or wondering how to get involved, because we're here and I don't know your story about getting involved in the, in the hunt test world or in the gun dog world, like we are, even though, like we grew up with dogs or whatever, we weren't doing this when we were kids.
Speaker 1:Me either. I had dogs, but I wasn't doing this.
Speaker 2:Right. It's like if somebody hadn't shown me the way, I wouldn't have known. So that's our job. Our job is to show the way. We have a podcast so we can share a message. So maybe people will ask us hey, where do we get started?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I think it's great that you're doing that and it's great that you're open to people reaching out to you. You know, just like the ladies, that you got to listen to the podcast I had, you know, a couple episodes back. You know, those girls just reached out to girls on social media.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And started hunting. I loved it when Hannah was saying that she reached out to her teacher in high school and was like, please take me hunting. I was like kudos to that teacher for being like this kid's serious, you know, and and so I just I think it's so cool. I try to get kids that help me with my kennel when I leave town. I'm like come back on, you know, when it's cool outside in the evenings or whatever, and like see what the dogs that you're taking care of can do. That's the fun part, like when you they'll play with them, you know. But if they don't know what they can do, you know, it's a whole, nother level of respect and appreciation.
Speaker 1:There's something I was going to ask you. So well I may talk to you after the show too, because I know you said you had you do a lot of grouse hunting. You've done a lot of grouse hunting up north.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I'm hosting a ladies' trip to Maine. I can't wait. I've never hunted Maine. It's going to be so fun.
Speaker 1:See, I know about Maine for bear hunting and stuff, but I didn't realize it.
Speaker 2:I guess it makes sense. Was it waterfowl or is it upland? We're gonna do, we're gonna do grouse hunting, but we're gonna do some offshore stuff too, because there's some like little boats that kevin used to hunt in, like growing up, and stuff, and we've got some museums. They've got decoy museums up there. All the things that you think we would have in the south is it's so. It's such a big part of the culture up in the Northeast and I'm not.
Speaker 2:I did hunt with pit balls, you know, one time. Oh yeah, I went with them on for sea ducks. So I can't wait to go back and just be with like a private club where they have all this history and they've raised up guys. Cause, this past Tuesday, when Kevin our podcast and he said you're not going to believe what happened, I was like what? Since we talked the week before, a guy came in for a gun fit and he's like I'm just tired of not missing birds. He says I'm tired of missing birds, I want a better, I want a better gun. So Kevin is the pro gun fitter, you know. So he works with them and turns out this guy's hunting in a duck club that his mentor that brought him in was brought in by Kevin when Kevin was hunting at that gut club and he didn't even know. And so I was like I mean, it just makes the story so much sweeter when you make these connections. I just love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want to do a hunt with Pit Boss too. I talked to him. I bought one of his decoys. I just thought it was so cool, those sea ducks. But I'm with pit boss too. I talked to him, so I bought one of his decoys, just thought it's so cool, those sea ducks. But yeah, I'm dying to go yeah.
Speaker 2:It was freezing, cold, raining. I'm in like big Avery clothes right, big hooded jacket. He's over there in flip flops and shorts I'm not even joking and we're out in his boat. He'd gotten up, it was. It was at that time. I'm sure he's gotten a new boat since then, but he just got in a new boat and we were out there having a good time. It was fun.
Speaker 1:It is fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got. We got ducks. It was very slow, the weather was not in our favor, but it's part of it.
Speaker 1:Nice, I want to try it. Ken this has been a blast it has. We'll have to do it again. Maybe after your daughter has some success in the hunt test world this year, we'll have to get her on too.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah. Well, when you get settled in and actually you'll have to come down and run dog. So this year we'll bounce back and forth because she takes us up there.
Speaker 1:Yeah because she takes us up there. Yeah, no, I'll be, it's going to. You know I love Texas. I've been here 13 years but it's going to be nice to get back close to home, close to my kids and stuff there is something about being in the South.
Speaker 2:I love it too. I love traveling. I keep a suitcase half-packed 24-7. There's always one on the floor, but I love coming back home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one in the floor, but I love coming back home. Yeah, it's something. I mean I that if I ever lived anywhere else again, it would definitely be back here in texas. But uh, my, my kids are there, so it's it's. It's tough, it's gonna be a tough and I'm leaving my ranch is gonna be hard. Yeah, I mean I do love it, so, but you, got friends, you can always visit that's right, actually I hunted.
Speaker 2:Texas dove for the first time last year Right outside Midland. I was in Midland for a fundraiser but it was hot, wasn't it? It was, but gosh, it was so much fun. Yeah, it was blast.
Speaker 1:You know, that's another thing. I grew up, you know I squirrel hunted and all that stuff in high school, but we didn't dove hunt in eastern Kentucky. I don't know anybody does that where we live because we're in the mountains, but here it's like a national holiday, opening day of dove season. I mean, people don't work, you know, and I thought I didn't get it until I went and did it and then I got hooked. I was like, okay, I get it.
Speaker 2:I don't mean like they park the cooler out here. The truck's right here, there's a turtle box on the hood of the truck and everybody's got chairs. I mean, for us it would be like Panama City, but we're hunting.
Speaker 1:It's like tailgating with a shotgun. It was crazy.
Speaker 2:It was so much fun. Yeah, and we had great birds too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, out here, especially in the desert, if there's water, they're coming.
Speaker 2:That's where we were. We were out by the water.
Speaker 1:You'll see, you'll live it out. It shouldn't be a problem.
Speaker 2:All right, well, I look forward to doing fun things ahead. I look forward to meeting your dog, especially your fox red one.
Speaker 1:Yep, she's pretty Well. Hey, anna, thank you so much for taking time and, uh, this week we'll definitely have to do this again.
Speaker 2:Sounds good.
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