Gundog Nation
A show to bring together gundog enthusiasts, trainers, and handlers with discussion focused on all breeds and styles of gundogs.
Gundog Nation
Baylor Smith and Brittany Reese - Training, Heritage, and Youth in the Field
#50 The best dog work isn’t loud; it’s calm, clear, and earned one short session at a time. That’s the energy we bring as we sit down with Brittany and Baylor from Oklahoma—two hunters who prove you don’t need a pedigree in the outdoors to fall hard for working dogs, public land, and long miles under an open sky. Brittany didn’t grow up hunting; she jumped in to shake up her life and discovered a sense of peace and purpose that stuck. Baylor learned by doing—training friends’ dogs, reading body language, and refining a five‑minutes‑a‑day philosophy that gets a dog ready to learn before the training starts.
We get practical. Brittany’s 11‑month‑old lab arrived with excitement baked in, so we talk through correcting jumpy greetings without harshness, using a calm voice, and withholding attention to reshape habits. That small shift unlocks bigger wins: steadier sits, clean release words, and the first water retrieves without breaking. Baylor walks through introducing gunfire the right way—slow exposure, careful observation, and pacing the steps to the dog’s confidence. We compare breeds where it matters: labs built for waterfowl; Boykins that shine upland but have limits in wind and distance; GSPs with world‑class drive that need management to find calm. We even wade into the versatility vs specialist debate and share a rare story of a drahthaar passing the HRC Grand.
Tools and safety get honest airtime. E‑collars are communication, not a crutch—tone, vibrate, and low‑level stim used by handlers who’ve felt the collar themselves. Garmin 550 Plus vs simpler Delta units, what matters in the field, and why instant access beats menu diving. We trade field stories—a rattlesnake at the ladder in the dark, 40‑mile upland grinds, axis deer shot opportunities that last four seconds—and the lessons they teach about preparation, hydration, scope setup, and staying composed when it counts. Underneath it all is a thread you can follow: find a mentor, ride along, learn the rules, and bring youth with you. The culture survives when newcomers feel welcome and dogs are trained with patience and clarity.
If you care about gun dog training, public land tactics, and building a stronger hunting community, you’ll feel at home here. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s just getting started, and leave a review with the one tip you’re taking to your next training session—we’ll read our favorites on a future show.
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I'm Kenneth Witt and welcome to Gun Dog Nation. Gun Dog Nation is much more than a podcast. It's a movement to build a community of people around the world that like to watch a well-trained dog do what it's bred to do. Also, we want to get our youth involved into the sport of gun dogs, whether it be hunting, sport, or competition. We want to build a community of people united to preserve our gun dog heritage and to be better gun dog owners. Tune in to each weekly episode and learn about training, dog health, wellness, and nutrition. We will also offer tips for hunting with dogs and for competition at hunt tests, field trials, and other dog sports that involve gun dogs. Please go to our website, gundognation.com, and subscribe to our email list. We will keep you up formed weekly with podcasts that are coming out. We also will be providing newsletters with training tips and health tips for your dog. You can also go to patreon.com forward slash gundognation and become a member. There's different levels of membership on there. Just go check that out. Also, would like to thank Sean Brock for providing the music for this show. The introduction and the outro is Sean Brock. He played everything on there except the banjo by Scott Vest on the Dobro by Jerry Douglas. Sean is a neighbor of mine from over in Harley, Kentucky. I'm just crossing Mount in Hyden, Kentucky, and he's a super talented guy. But most of all, I want you guys to check out the creakers. They are also from Hyde, Kentucky. This is an up-and-coming bluegrass and country band, and these guys are hot. They're all over TikTok and YouTube. You will hear these guys because in a year, so they will be on the radio. They are very talented. Their videos are going fire on the net. These boys are family. Two of the lead singers, one drew up with my daughter, and the other one is my cousin's son. So he's family. But check them out. Check out the creakers. Also, last but not least, if you want to buy a hat, koozie, t-shirt, or even gun dog supplies, go to shopgundognation.com and you can purchase any of those items. Thank you so much for listening. It's a privilege to have people that want to put up with me talking about dogs all the time. I actually enjoy what I do, and I'm so glad to have this opportunity. And thank you. Hey, welcome to Gundog Nation. It's Kenneth Whitt coming to you today from Fort McCabot, Texas. I'm at the ranch today, and I've got two young people from Oklahoma that I can't wait to get feeled back. Uh they're both hunt, they both have dogs, they're both in training dogs and two training dogs. Uh they hunt public land. They do a little bit of it all. And Brittany even does photography. But I'm gonna let y'all uh before I go on further and keep rattling, y'all introduce yourselves.
SPEAKER_02:Uh I'm Baylor Schmidt um I have a YouTube channel with a Primal Life, and then I've trained a few upland bird dogs for some of my buddies and also myself uh for probably the last uh five to six, seven years. Um wouldn't consider myself a pro, but Kenneth just got done talking to me about how if you get paid to train a dog, you're considered a pro. So there you go.
SPEAKER_01:I'm Brittany, um I'm 25. I actually didn't grow up hunting. I got into it about six years ago, um, and just have learned a lot from my friends and everyone willing to teach me. Um I'm a big waterfowl hunter. I feel like that's kind of what I'm rooted in, but have fallen in love with kind of everything this last year, just getting into it. Um I do a lot of freelance photography, and that's kind of what I'm working on building right now.
SPEAKER_00:Well, let's talk about that, Brittany. So, what I'm finding interesting, and and you know, you've seen some y'all, I know y'all probably saw the two young girls I had on here.
SPEAKER_01:Uh I'm actually made good friends with Hannah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's how we kind of got on to you. I sent that podcast to her and I said, those chicks remind me of you.
SPEAKER_01:Me and Hannah actually hit it off really well. We we've been talking about getting together for a hunt.
SPEAKER_00:Well, what I think's great is like, you know, Hannah and Abby both come from non-hunting backgrounds. You just said you come from a non-hunting family or background. I'm kind of like that. Like I kind of, you know, it was my friends that hunted. My dad was a musician, and even my grandpa, you know, they just didn't, they weren't hunters. They they shot and would shoot and stuff, but that's that's really it. So tell me what drew you, because what I want to happen, what happened to you, I'd love to see happen to lots of young people. Tell me what drew you to hunting. What what made you think, oh heck, I want to do this?
SPEAKER_01:Um, I think I just wanted to get out of my comfort zone. I didn't really have anything that I was like super driven and passionate about. And my first hunt, I fell in love with it. I didn't even shoot a duck my very first hunt.
SPEAKER_00:So I'm sorry. Was duck hunting your first?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, it was my very first. So I didn't get into any other type of hunting until this last year.
SPEAKER_00:And what was that?
SPEAKER_01:And um, I had my first deer hunt, courtesy of Baylor. Uh he actually took me on a lot of my first hunts this last year. Uh hunted turkeys for the first time. I've been on some of his hunts that I've helped film and take pictures and just got to experience that first upland hunt.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, and quail and festival. Yeah, quail and the very first field we ever walked with their fuss a rooster right in front of us. Yeah, I'm pretty lucky.
SPEAKER_01:Lucky dog.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I've never had that happen, so yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um I don't know. I'm just super passionate about it. It just brings me like a supernatural peace. Um, it's so much more than just harvesting animals. I mean, at the end of the day, that's the goal, but for me, I feel like it's done a lot just in my life with like confidence, pushing me out of my um comfort zone. And I mean, it's something I never like. If you were to ask me six years ago before I had ever hunted, I'd been like, nah.
SPEAKER_00:So now Britney, that that first duck hunt, was it before you met Baylor? Did he take you on that or did you just go on your own?
SPEAKER_01:No, this was before. So a long time before yeah, a long time before.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Um I just I was ate up with it. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:She had someone else who brought her out then, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Someone that showed it to her, and then that person wasn't in her life anymore, and she's like, I'm still gonna do this because I love it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:What did you use a dog the first time?
SPEAKER_01:No. I didn't even have well, I had a lab that um I had gone on to train after that. Okay. And she went on a couple hunts. I don't have that dog any longer. I have my almost two-year-old, but she she's a little bit crazy.
SPEAKER_00:We're gonna talk about your dog. Uh we got a lot to talk about on this. About that. So when did you and Baylor meet and how did you meet?
SPEAKER_01:So actually, Baylor and I uh went to middle school together. I mean, yeah, like we actually but we didn't really connect until about a year ago.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we've always known of each other and talked a little bit in high school. We worked on the same homecoming court. Um different we walked with different people, but we walked on the same court. I mean, we've known each other forever, pretty much.
SPEAKER_00:Nice, I like that. And uh did the hunting kind of draw y'all together?
SPEAKER_01:I feel like it played a big part in it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Uh yeah, it does.
SPEAKER_00:It's yeah, it's it's nice, but when your lady, you know, doesn't nag at you if you're going hunting all the time.
SPEAKER_03:You know, and it actually nagged Hugo half the time.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's what I figured. Yeah, now you gotta take her word.
SPEAKER_01:The one thing I have to nag him on is duck hunts.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:That is that's the last thing he wants to hunt.
SPEAKER_03:No, I have fun.
SPEAKER_01:He has fun, but yeah, like our passion, his passion is definitely upland, and I feel like deer, but I feel like upland's their big passion, and mine's ducks.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But I mean, any chance I can hunt, I'm like, can we go hunt?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Now listen, I I've got a lot of questions for Baylor, but let's talk about your dog a little bit, Brittany. You are tr training it now with some assistance, correct?
SPEAKER_01:Correct.
SPEAKER_00:Tell us about that.
SPEAKER_01:So I will say, um, this is kind of a funny story. I had been around Baylor's dogs, and we were actually at a field trial, and that weekend I had been telling him I was like, I want to get I want to get a puppy, I want to get a new lab, start training her.
SPEAKER_02:I preference patients a lot on this situation.
SPEAKER_01:And um I think that I kind of didn't listen to him about waiting, and I kind of jumped the gun, and I wanna wound up with an 11-month-old dog instead of a puppy. And he had told me, he said, you know, you're gonna have to break a lot of habits that she had from her previous home. And I was like, uh, it'll be fine. And it's been really hard, and I should have listened to him, but she's made, I mean the dog's the best I've seen it.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, it's definitely made progress. But we still have to do that.
SPEAKER_00:What were some of the habits, Baylor, that you saw that it had that needed a little correction changing?
SPEAKER_02:Um I mean, if you talk to the dog at all, it's gonna get so excited that it can't control itself. Like, you know, I would feel like the previous owners kind of had a situation where they would see the dog at the end of the day and then it would be this overly excited moment. You know, so anytime you talk to this dog, even if it was calm talking, it would be just I'm I'm on you, I'm j, you know, it's like, hey, I'm here kind of thing. I'm like, now that's a big problem.
SPEAKER_00:Tell me how you fix that, because I'm real interested. And and I've I actually was in a dog training seminar, someone was talking about this very thing that you're talking about.
SPEAKER_02:So what I've been trying to preach to Brittany is how you talk to the dog. You know, I want to talk to this dog with a calm voice. You know, I don't want to be hey nelly, hey, nelly. That's not a good thing for that dog unless you're just really trying to convince it to get a point. Otherwise, you're talking to this dog calm. If it's jumping on you, it's getting no attention. Um I'm not one to just be real hard on dogs, but you always try the hey no, bop it on the nose. And this dog has proven that no, that's not how you train this dog. Um I've tried to show to her that just no attention on the jumping. I mean, so it gets excited, jumps on you, and just you know, violent jump, and that's been the hardest thing to break so far. We're still working on it, but she's gotten a lot better. Yeah. Um and then yeah, that's pretty much the biggest thing, is it's just hard, hard to get a dog in the mindset to train it. You know, you kind of gotta get the dog ready to train before you train it, you know.
SPEAKER_00:The good thing is, Brittany, going through this process, it'll make you a better trainer. I mean, because what she's already gone on.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but I have to give a lot of credit to him because he's shown me a lot of like what to do, what to work.
SPEAKER_02:Like, I mean, you just I haven't babied her through it. I tell her what to do, and then there's been a couple instances where I tell her what to do, and then I come back and see the dog like a week later or something, and I'm like, Brittany, you haven't been doing it.
SPEAKER_03:And then there's other instances where I come over and like, what?
SPEAKER_01:This dog's making it, like it's doing something. Like today he even said, Are you fooling me, Nelly?
SPEAKER_00:I was like, You you've come a little ways. Nice. It's a process, and like you said, it takes patience. And I'm not a patient person. I and and you we all want our dogs to run before they can crawl, and and yeah, you know, it's it's just human nature. But no, he's giving you good advice. I was listening to him very close.
SPEAKER_02:Uh like you said, run before they can walk. My biggest training point is five minutes a day. Like when people ask me, how do I train my dog? I said, first of all, you're training them every day, all day, and then it's a five-minute training session, you know, just a little bit, just to, you know, you don't want him to take off and have a 500-yard retrieve on his first retrieve.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Amen. Yes. So how far is it? How far along is it now, Better? What would you is it like at the started level, like a if you were a hunting test or something like that?
SPEAKER_02:I don't I don't know if it's uh hunting tests. I've never been to a hunting test necessarily, but I would say that the dog is to the point where I even mentioned to her, I think it's, you know, it's willing to bring hunting now. I think. I mean, it's not gonna do much on the first hunt, but at least it's starting to understand how to listen to a human. And um, you know, if you get in that environment, a lot of the times dogs will just adapt to those environments once you establish a mindset where it'll listen to you a little bit.
SPEAKER_01:She has been on um a couple upland hunts with us. She didn't do anything but kind of follow the other dogs around. Uh, she's not gun shy, so we've already got that part down. She hears a gun shy so excited. So excited.
SPEAKER_00:See, I love that. That's actually, I like to see that. So, how do you all introduce, or Baylor especially, how do you introduce a gun to a dog to gunfire? Hello, this is Kenneth Whipp with Gun Dog Nation. Many people quickly become frustrated and confused when training in a 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 will be proud to have in their blind. Learn where to start, what to do next, and what to do when problems arise. Visit Cornerstone Gundog Academy.com to learn how you can train your retriever. 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 fresh and 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 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 Cornerstone Gun Dog Academy.com and learn how to train your own retriever.
SPEAKER_02:Um, so uh well I can start like when I I've had a couple letters of dogs uh out of my female that I have now.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um when they're born, I mean, I uh as soon as they're born, I start introducing them to adversity, like life kind of. Um some of the techniques I've seen is a newborn puppy. I'm talking pretty newborn, like about the time you cut the tails off, a week old, uh I'll start putting cold water on their belly from time to time. You know, when they're in a controlled environment, it's warm in my garage or whatever. Cold water on their belly just a little bit. Um when I feed them a lot of the times, boom, boom, boom. I'm making loud noises as I'm going to feed them. I'm watching the dogs obviously to pay attention to how they're responding. If I see one dog that's just terrified, I'm not gonna keep banging my shovel or whatever I'm hitting, you know. But I'd make loud noises as I'm doing things with them. That's the very initial step. After that, you know, it's all about how you can read the dog. I'm gonna start introducing louder and louder noises in different scenarios as time goes on, as I see the dog adapting to the steps I've given it previous. But I know a lot of people that have told me the best dog trainers are the ones that can read the dogs the best. So I I believe that there's not a book for it. You know, you kind of just gotta throw things at it and see how it responds and then adjust accordingly.
SPEAKER_00:You know what you said is magic. There's a famous dog trainer in Ural's home state, just on the north end of the state.
SPEAKER_01:I was getting ready to say.
SPEAKER_00:And I'm actually going up there to pick up a dog uh next Monday or not next Tuesday or Wednesday. And uh, yeah, I'm pretty pumped. I'm gonna be you all see a lot of pictures of it.
SPEAKER_02:Huh? Are you going to there in Bahaska? Yes, sir. Yeah. Yeah, they have a nice place out there. We hunted a lot of quail right around their place this year.
SPEAKER_00:Oh man. Well, you know, I one of the things that I noticed about him, and you know, of course, his wife is an excellent trainer j as well, but his ability to read a dog is I've never seen anything like it. And the the best dog trainers I know that's that's one of the keys is their ability to read a dog and uh and train it based on that, you know, what they perceive. It's it's anyway, he's it's his seminars are so good. I I talk about them all the time, but he that's what you're right. And and everything you said for your young age, Baylor, is pretty impressive. I wish I'd known some of the things you just said when I was training dogs and messing with dogs at your age, but you're you're on the right track. Where have you learned this stuff?
SPEAKER_02:Um well, Ronnie Smith. I've uh I'm in involved with a chapter here in Tulsa, and I've been to um two of our local uh it was called uh Bird Dogs and Beer, and he showed up saw him at Pheasant Fest. And then we saw him at Pheasant Fest. And I remember a bit. He was a big influence on me. And as far as training a dog's mindset, you know, I didn't even think about that, but you know, every day you interact with a dog, you should be working on that dog's mindset on what you want it to be. Um then my dad, my dad was a huge influence. We had English shutters growing up, and um, yeah, from as ever I can remember, we were training dogs.
SPEAKER_00:So you just you you opened up another door for me. So what types of dogs do you have at your kennel?
SPEAKER_02:Uh right now I have uh two German short hairs. I have a mom and then I have a uh daughter from that mom, and very happy with them. I have a Boykin spaniel um that I love. I love that dog. Uh very trainable, super lighthearted, you know, just a loving dog. Uh my short hairs are a little more driven and prey. And then I also have a lab uh that I use for upland and waterfowl, and she's she's doing really good. This is pretty much the first lab I've trained, so I've been really happy with her.
SPEAKER_00:What's your thoughts, Brother? I mean, you've you've got these different breeds. You have pointing breeds and and then you've got a spinal, which is kind of a retrieving. I I I guess they flush and stuff too, correct? I mean, on the boycotting, are you using it for water only or are you also using it as an upland dog? Like flushing and retrieving. Okay, good.
SPEAKER_02:She is she's an okay upland dog, or she's an okay waterfowl dog. Okay. She's a great upland dog. I don't know if you've seen some videos that I have on my Instagram, but you can see her woe and just her drive on hitting hitting that point, like she knows where to go. She knows exactly what to go and she hits it with drive, and she's really enthusiastic. That's what I love about that dog.
SPEAKER_00:I'll have to watch that because you know, I've not seen a lot of boykins in upland. I've seen them do waterfowl, and I I see them at all I see them in a lot of hunt tests, which is you know basically a waterfowl test. Um what what do you see in the differences of the breeds? Like, I mean, in in training, you've obviously now trained pointers, you've trained boycan, and now lab. Do you uh what how do you approach each one and what's different?
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna say I can't deny that lab is king for waterfowl. You know, they their coats are made for it, their drives made for it, their patience to heal is made for it, um, their swimming capabilities and their legs are made for it. The boykin can get the job done. Now, we hunt a lot of lake, you know, we're in northeast Oklahoma, there's lakes everywhere and marshes that require very strong swimming capabilities. My boycan can swim just fine, but not like the lat. Yeah. Franklin, I mean, that's as simple as it gets. The legs aren't as long. She cannot go a hundred yards out into the middle of the lake on a windy day and make it back. I mean, she knows it and I know it, so that limits her a lot in the waterfowl realm. Um, that could have been a little bit from training on me not giving her confidence on going far out in the water, but really I think it does just come down to the fact that her legs aren't as long as the labs, you know.
SPEAKER_00:You know, a lot of people I hear say that, you know, I've got a cocker, I'm getting ready to hunt for my first season, and I've heard a lot of people say, you know, they're they're great, springers are great, but they just can't handle the cold. Um she swims pretty good, but I've actually thrown dummies and let my lab and my cocker both go at it. She's got the drive, she just can't get there and back, you know. She's just little. Uh well, how much is your does your boy can weigh?
SPEAKER_02:She's about 40 pounds, but she's everybody says she's a wiener dog. I mean, she's long. She ain't got much leg on her. That's a pretty good drive.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, she's she's getting that.
SPEAKER_00:Well, Brittany, watching all Baylor's dogs, have you caught the bug yet? Are you wanting like one of each breed now, or has that hit you?
SPEAKER_01:Uh it's really funny you asked me that. I sent him two GSPs yesterday and I said, This makes me want one so bad.
SPEAKER_00:She's got it. She's she's already drinking cool aid.
SPEAKER_01:Better not.
SPEAKER_00:Now, Bailey, who's the hunt planner now? Are you are do you plan these out? Does Baylor plan them out?
SPEAKER_01:It's it's very back and forth, I feel like.
SPEAKER_02:She's the last half of the season, I think she planned every hunt. Other than the Upland hunt we went on.
SPEAKER_01:No.
SPEAKER_03:She planned every hunt.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. In Turkey, I feel like it was both of us.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. But you did a lot of them.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So I I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:I feel like it's been pretty equal.
SPEAKER_00:So what's Baylor Britney's counter look like this fall? Let's hear it. If you got it planned yet.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, I got a plan.
SPEAKER_00:I do too. Mine's pretty bad.
SPEAKER_02:Uh we'll start off with this weekend. Oprah Dove. Uh my dove plans kind of got jumbled a little bit. So I'm just gonna kind of throw together a hunt. We've got to go to I do an annual family reunion this uh Labor Day weekend, which normally works out perfect because it's dove season, and our fam reunion is in wheat fields. I mean, there's nothing around but wheat fields, cornfields, you know, so it's great dove hunting around there. Unfortunately, dove season won't be open until the last day we're there, so it's kind of like Yeah, it's Monday, right? Yeah, it starts Monday, but we normally leave Monday and we're cleaning all day Monday, so it's may not work out. I might try to do something, but it may not work out. Uh, and then we got teal.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, early teal season uh starts for us in Oklahoma. We have early goose and early teal. Uh that starts the 13th of September, I think is opening day, and teal runs through the 21st, and early goose runs through the 22nd, so they get an extra day.
SPEAKER_02:So we're gonna try to throw together at least one weekend hunt there, and then the next weekend I'm going to Kansas to try to shoot a mule deer uh with my bow. Opener is the 15th, so I'm gonna kind of try to leave as early in the week as work will let me and then spend the weekend, you know what I mean? Like maybe hopefully Wednesday, Thursday kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00:But are they still in velvet?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, they'll be in velvet. But it's hard to find them because they're in that standing corn, standing milo. So uh you gotta kind of catch them going in and out and then get sneaky on the wind and stuff. I've never done it, but do you try to hunt water at all? This year I'm not going to. They've had plenty of water. Okay. I don't know if you've been keeping up with the forecast, but uh typically, yeah, if you can get by a river or even a pond, you know, you're in Mill Deer, Western Kansas, is where you find it. There's not a lot of water. I mean, there's literally three lakes in western Kansas total.
SPEAKER_00:Now, how does that work in western Kansas? Is it a tag? Is it public land? How does it work there for Mill Deer?
SPEAKER_02:So I'm a resident or I was a resident for five years. So I got my lifetime when I would live there. Um so I get the resident tags and you have to draw for a rifle tag. And as far as bow and muzzle loader go is over the counter, uh, and you can hunt public and private. Um I'm not sure how the non-resident laws are. I'm I know my buddy looked into it and made it sound like getting a mule deer tag was pretty difficult.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah. You know, here you can get it in Texas. It's not getting the tag, it's just going finding a place to hunt it. It's so expensive, you know. Um the ranch beside me, the guy that used to own it, they have like 10,000 acres in alpine and they run mule deer hunts, but you know, it's it's they make a lot of money. Um it's it's fun. Yeah, you'll have a good time. Uh hope you get hope you get one. You gotta send me a picture. I definitely will. I'll keep you updated. Now, Brittany, have you started archery hunting yet?
SPEAKER_01:This will be uh well, he took me on my first deer hunt last year, and I used a crossbow. Um I didn't buy a compound until this early in the summer.
SPEAKER_02:Tell him the story of your first deer hunt.
SPEAKER_01:So my It's a good story. I mean, there's a there yeah, it is a good story. So summon up basically this deer or doe I shot at. She ducked at the last minute and it kind of just backstropped her. She she's still alive. Oh, so so then after that, we're getting ready to get or get out of the stand, and I'm the first one walking down. I put my foot on the ground, rattlesnake.
SPEAKER_02:I'm in right next to the stand.
SPEAKER_01:And he goes, he goes, Don't move. What do I do? I take off running. And he's like, What are you doing? But I mean, this thing what held it.
SPEAKER_02:It was five yards or less from our ladder.
SPEAKER_01:And he wounded up uh shooting with my bow. Yeah, shooting it with his bow.
SPEAKER_02:It was a scary moment though. I mean, this thing was right there. And I mean you take the step the wrong direction, it could have striped. And it was that close.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Oh man.
SPEAKER_01:And it was pitch black. I mean, it was dark at this point when we were getting out of the sand. And where we're at, we're not near a hospital.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Oh man. You know, and I bet you obviously weren't wearing snake boots, were you? Hello, this is Kenneth Witt with Gun Dog Nation, and I've got to tell you guys about something that I've gotten hooked on lately. It's Folicious. These are gourmet instant faux and ramen bowls that actually taste like the real deal. When I'm out in the field all day, and the last thing I want is a settle for bland camp food. Folicious is what I go to. It's authentic, the flavor, it's real ingredients, it's ready in just minutes. It's perfect for hunters, fishmen, or anyone on the go. And you can get them over 1900 Walmarts nationwide, your local A E B here in Texas. Or you can just go online at Folishious.com. Trust me, once you try it, you'll keep a few stock 10 in your back, your pack pack, or for your next adventure. I just want to say this, I'm gonna add this to this commercial because I know the owners of this company. They've hunted on my ranch. Uh Joseph, uh he and I were actually met in Colorado on a hunting trip uh that was a real adventure. They are true hunters. They've hunted the ranch, you know, and I've I've hunted with them. And Ana, she is just amazing. She is the one that came up with this idea. They were both on Shark Tank. They are amazing people. So it's I love seeing people like this have a business. And I just had to say that in addition to the commercial because I really believe in the product and I believe in the people that made the product. Be sure to go to Folicious.com or go to Walmart or H E B and try their product. I promise you you will like it.
SPEAKER_01:No.
SPEAKER_03:We were on shorts. It was it was awesome.
SPEAKER_01:It was literally opening weekend of archery. Yeah. So October 1st.
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Did y'all skin it out?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:No, I everybody asked me that. I told her the other day, I said, everybody show that picture. She's like, What'd you do with the skin? I'm like, well, there's three arrow holes through it, and it was a big snake. Yeah, it keeps the rattler. Yeah, it was every bit of five foot. It stretched across my tailgate.
SPEAKER_00:Dang, dang. What do y'all have?
SPEAKER_01:There's a picture of it on his Instagram.
SPEAKER_00:I'll check. Do y'all have diamondbacks? What do you have up there? Yeah, it was an Eastern Diamondback. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Or a Western Diamondback. Sorry. Western Diamondback.
SPEAKER_00:You know, I'm like that. I when I kill him here at the ranch, I I just cut the tails out. I ain't I ain't scanning it. No uh I'd like to have the skin, but I'm not gonna skin it. So I have you ever eaten one like at those rattlesnake festivals or anything? You know, it you know, they have that big one in Sweetwater, Texas. Every year I swear I'm gonna go just to because, you know, say that I've been. I've never been. And uh when I lived in Kentucky, you know, my buddies it fried some, we'd all be out partying, you know, uh up on a strip up on a strip mine, which is kind of the thing to do back then. And I would never eat them. I mean, I've watched them, they deep fried on them, and I've seen it fix every which way, but and I'll eat anything. I've eat, you know, everything else. I've eaten groundhog, but I just couldn't do it, man. I don't know. No. No, I think it's satanic, man. You know, I've eaten frog legs and everything else. But I don't know, man.
SPEAKER_01:I've been looking at pictures of it the other day, and we were looking at its fangs, and I was like, I it's scary.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, man. They're they're evil. I I don't know. I maybe I come from the Bible belt and I've you know, I come from No, we're with you.
SPEAKER_01:Very yeah, very in view.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I I don't want to mess with a serpent. Uh you know, and and I'm not afraid of them if I see them first, but when I get scared like y'all did, then I'll scream like a girl, man. I mean, I hate them. But if I can see one like out here in the in the yard at the ranch, which has happened, I'll walk out there, take a stick, take it up, then shoot it with a I've I I use use a judge, 410 shell thing. But anyway, yeah. All right. Well that no, that would have that would have been a big moment. Uh it was it was pretty exciting. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That was my first encounter with the Rattlesnake.
SPEAKER_00:So well, what what I've admired is that you went back. And you but you you wasn't you didn't stand around and check it out though, right? You didn't sit there and look at it. You just hit the road running.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he he said I put my foot on the ground and I mean immediately it started rattling, and he was like, Don't move. And I took off.
SPEAKER_00:Dang.
SPEAKER_01:Did not listen. I panicked. It was just like human instinct.
SPEAKER_00:Ain't it crazy when they start singing, rattling how loud it sounds like a sprinkler going off?
SPEAKER_01:It's oh my god.
SPEAKER_02:I start looking around with my headlamp for it, and you just I mean, this thing's curled, like you know, doing this thing. I mean, it had to have been a foot off the ground, just curled up and just watching us.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I'm like, man. That's a big snake, too. You said it's across your truck, it that that's that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's there's a I have a picture of it all the way across my the bed of my truck. I mean, it didn't fall off either side, it was just shy of either side, but it was every bit of the bed of the truck.
SPEAKER_00:Jeez, man, that could have been a bad day.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, bit.
SPEAKER_00:Um, so I I I kind of skipped over a little bit, Brittany. Let's come back here a little bit. So, how is it training your own dog? Is it fulfilling? What how do you feel about that?
SPEAKER_01:I feel like I'm just now getting to the point where like I I'm watching things click for her. Um, I I just started working on water retreats with her. I've done bumpers in the yard and really, really keeping, huh?
SPEAKER_02:You've been done a lot of hold.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and keeping her from breaking before I give her her release word. And so I worked on that for a couple weeks and I wasn't super consistent with it. I was trying to do it when I had the time. Um and I also didn't want to do it with super hot because I didn't want to wear her out either, because they do get worn out in this heat pretty easily. And so I mean, she lets me know when she's done, and he made it like a huge point when he was telling me about training her. He was like, A dog, they'll when they're done, don't force them to do it because they're not gonna think it's fun.
SPEAKER_02:I try to tell everybody stop before they're done. Yeah, I agree. Knowing how to read a dog, yeah. You know, read the dog. Is it about done? You're done.
SPEAKER_01:And that's something that I'm still working on. Yeah, it just takes time. But we just now started working on water retrieves, and to see her like be driven, I took her out, it was Sunday. That was the first time she didn't break one time until her release word. She swam directly. We started real small first time she went out, and then the second time she went out, we got further and further with how far I was throwing the bumper, and she did really, really good. I was very proud of her.
SPEAKER_02:Two days in a row, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you did it. It was yeah, second day.
SPEAKER_00:You I'm sorry, I'm trying to fix them on my computer real quick. Okay, now all right. Um, it's you you said something you very first started talking right then, Brittany, about that. You said when you see it click, isn't that the greatest feeling? When you see them click and they learn something that you've been working on, and it just they just get it. Uh and then you kind of, you know. I love that feeling. I mean it's it's it's real satisfying to know that you've got to be a little bit more.
SPEAKER_01:First time I really kind of felt that way. I was like, I was even telling him, I was like, I'm so proud of her because I could just see that like sh this dog has the drive to do it. It's just getting her to get to get her to focus and really working on getting her to calm down. That's probably the hardest thing to break right now.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Um, she's gotten a lot better, but we're still we've got a lot to do on that part.
SPEAKER_00:Now, did she come from hunting bloodlines?
SPEAKER_01:Uh so I was told that she was full blood, she was not AKC registered. I have mixed thoughts about it, and I'm sure that he does too. Um I was told that she was full blood. Parents were AKC registered.
SPEAKER_02:So she gives me no reason to think she's not full blood. She has a great prey drive. There's we just found it off online. Yeah. She went and got it. You found it online.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Hey, if she's got the drive, I'll say that every day of the week.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, we we did I gave her a one of the ducks that we had brought home from run of one of our hunts, and she went crazy. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. That's what it's all about. It's uh now what color is she?
SPEAKER_01:She's black.
SPEAKER_00:Like that. I'm getting ready to start training a black female in the middle of September, and I'm gonna I'm gonna start documenting it on social media, you know, and train her myself, and I'm gonna get advice from some pros. I may even call Baylor a few times and you know.
SPEAKER_02:Where'd you get the dog from?
SPEAKER_00:I'm gonna get so it's really neat. I'm getting it's a the sires passed away, so it was an AI. Uh with Stroker owned by Clark Kennington. And it's a SRS, he was a SRS crown grand hall of fame, you know, just a super dog. And then the the damn, the the female is owned by Chris Rudd, who has a podcast, a really, really good podcast. And he's a hunt, he's called the Hunt Test Hobos, his podcast. But Chris is really, he's really good at teaching. Matter of fact, I encourage anyone who wants to learn some dog training stuff to listen to Chris. He is a he's an expert, and he does a great job explaining. So it's his dog winner, and she's got several grand passes, I think, and maybe an SRS win. She's got a pretty good title, but it's a well-bred dog. And I'll tell you, the other what I started looking at and Britney both is like, you know, I when I first started early in the year hunt testing, I still didn't understand all the hunt test levels, you know. I knew there was a junior, senior, and master in the AKC, and then the master national in the AKC, but the HRC, which is UKC, I feel like when I'm in the military with all these acronyms, but the UKC, they call their retriever test program HRC because it's hunting retriever club started something and then the UKC adapted it and absorbed, took it over. So but they still refer to as HRC. So that goes started, seasoned, finished, and then they can go to the grand. Well, the grand's as high as you can go. It's like the Master National for the AKC. So in the grand, uh you have you have two passes and you get a title, but the pass rate is uh I don't know why my computer's getting so dark. One second. Let me see. Sorry, one I have clicked you all off. Can you hear me?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we are here. Yeah, we can still see you too.
SPEAKER_00:It is crazy. Hang on just a second. I lost my mouse. I'm sorry, I know this looks crazy on camera, but all right, now I don't know why. Okay. Oh, no wonder. There it is. It was dark, and I was trying to hit F2. I thought F3 would brighten it. Sorry, y'all. That was really bad. Okay. Hopefully I can edit that out. Um so yes, the grand, yeah, the grand has a 23% pass rate. So it's crazy. So what I've learned that I like to see when I'm looking for a title, and I've learned this from guys that know more than me, but I I want to sit I want a puppy off a dog that's had several grand passes because it's so hard to do. And the grand, what makes it harder than the others, in my opinion, is that it the obedience is so hard and strict. They're really strict in it. And uh, I'm not saying the master's not strict, but it's just a harder competition, hands down. So you see a dog that compete and win at that level that many times, it has excellent hunting skills, but it also has excellent obedience so it can be calm and and listen and chill, you know, enough to they pretty much tested patience at the grand, is what I'm saying. Yes. Uh like if you go up the hill and your dog goes in front of you, you're out. You're sent home. You know, it's really strict. So I get that. Yes. And that's why I wanted this pup. And you know, and believe me, I sought advice from all kinds of people, but that's why I sought this pup. And and uh, but my goal is to take a dog to the grand and title it, you know. And I know that's hard, it's hard to do. But nothing worthwhile is easy. No, you're right. If it's easy, everybody have it.
SPEAKER_03:But uh everybody driving it ain't fun.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. So first of all, both of y'all y'all both do pictures and video videography and and photography both, right? Both of us. I mean, yeah. We're both pretty big into it. And and and and y'all, thank you so much. Y'all have actually given me some of your stuff to post, which I love, and you please continue to do that.
SPEAKER_01:Well, we appreciate you sharing that for us. Oh, you're welcome.
SPEAKER_00:No, listen, I need all the content I can get. I I love it. Plus, I I wouldn't ask for it from you if I didn't think it was really spectacular, but uh uh I gotta say though, did who took the picture, Baylor, of you on that hunt where you're like, you know, the one that I posted.
SPEAKER_02:It was you I was I was on solo mission to set up the camera. Yeah. I well, so typically I just set up the camera, put it on a timer, and then I'll have it take, you know, seven pictures over ten seconds. So you just click the button, it gives you ten seconds to get to your destination, and then you just do your thing. You know, get down there, start cleaning the deer. And it takes ten pictures over the next however many seconds you set it for. Ah, wow. So that's what I did, and did it a couple times and got a few good photos.
SPEAKER_00:So since it was you doing it, the picture, I just assume Britney took it. You know, I was like, man, this is.
SPEAKER_01:I wasn't on that one.
SPEAKER_02:She's taking a lot of mine, but a lot of mine have been from self just running back and forth to the camera.
SPEAKER_00:Well, keep it up, you know. Uh I've just bought a camera and me and the wife. What'd you get? Uh we got a Canon. Uh actually the guys at Josh Parvin with Cornerstone Gun Dog Academy, he's one time to tell me what to get. Because, you know, I'm an old dinosaur. I don't know, yeah, you know, I don't know photography, but I'm out so much. Uh the two of us, she's takes stuff, you know, of me training and things like that. Yeah. I've got a long way to go. Like a long way to go.
SPEAKER_02:But I'm telling you, like, so I started with Canon. She's running Canon her whole life. She loves Canon. I still love Canon, but I had a good deal on a Nikon. Yes. I got the Nikon, and you know, it's a lot higher quality camera, so I have a lot of learning to do, but the auto stuff, the auto functions on that Nikon are not where the auto functions were on the Canon. Really? Canon's kind of set it to auto and go. Like just it figures it out for you. Okay. Whereas this Nikon, I kind of gotta adjust some settings, like in the field almost. So I think you want I think you want the good option with the Canon.
SPEAKER_00:Purina Pro Plan. Here at Gundog Nation, we use Purina Pro Plan 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 uh amino acids for muscles and antioxidants. It also has probiotics. It's guaranteed to have a lot of probiotic and eat certainly. 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 Pro Plan 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. And that's what I was told to get. And then I actually bought on my own. I've got, I don't know what model it is. It's an icon that's got this, it's it's the longest auto point and shoot zoom. Uh I mean, it's insane, like a 300 millimeter maybe. It's insane. What it will so I got it because here at the ranch I always take pictures of my animals to put on my Instagram, which is Horn and Antler Ranch, you know, because we sell hunts. And uh, you know, these axes deer, these big giant axes, you're not gonna get close to them. It's just don't it's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01:So not to cut you off, but did Bailey O'Strander just come out there with you and Heidi?
SPEAKER_00:Hey, she did.
SPEAKER_01:For her birthday?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, she did. Uh uh, and here's what's crazy uh the videos don't really show up show it, but she made an insane shot. And she told me, so I'm not a big game hunter, I'm real new at big game hunting, and and I talked her through it. And to to make matters harder for her, I she had a I had a night force scope. She didn't want to fly with a gun, and I said, Hey, I got a whole, I got whatever you need. So she was used to a 308. I gave her a 308 and I put a suppressor on it. And uh, I have a night force scope, that's a good scope. It's older. I mean, I've had it five or six years, but anyway, it's it was turned, you know, it was zoomed in real close at the eyepiece. And she's like, I can't find it, I can't find it. I was thinking to myself, this is a very expensive scope that works real well, you know. I bought it used, but it's they're not cheap. And uh so I said, mess with that, adjust the eyepiece, and that was it. But she shot in hard conditions and hit a deer. She shot a doe. And I said, that's okay, you know, it was with a bunch of bucks, and normally, right now, they're the bucks are together and the does are together right now. So that was that was my fault. I must hey, and we couldn't really tell. And I just told her to take the shot. I said, take the shot, because we've been hunting, it's hard here. We don't hunt in a we don't hunt in the blind here, we don't hunt over feeders, we safari style. Well, when you're moving, and I tell everybody when you're hunting axis, you got about four seconds, and that's it. You can't range fine, you can't do all this stuff, set that scope, you know, have it zeroed in about 200, which mine was, and you're good to go. You and then the second shot, let's see, that was the morning, right? No, that was Friday night. Yeah, it was Friday night. So Saturday we get back out, and then Saturday morning, had some misses, had some near misses, you know, got on some deer. But we finally got to uh we finally got on them, and they were all running together. And they were in these thick trees and stuff, and anyway, the last shot she made uh was uh so hard, and it was starting to get a little bit dark. The scope again was kind of giving her the same trouble uh and she finally I said, take the shot, you know. I was talking her through it, and we videoed it. But she did. And I and she said I thought she missed it. And I wasn't really sure. I thought I seen it jump a little, but I said, let's just go over here and make sure. I think it might, you know, see if it went down. And sure enough, you know, it had gone up about uh 50 yards, and it was down, and uh she had to take another shot because you know it was it was it was fine. So uh, you know, and it it ended up being a beautiful axis. I mean I told her, I said, it's it was perfect symmetrical antlers, and it was a real Oh, it was a beautiful deer. And he was heavy. I mean, uh, you know, we kill a lot of axes here, and uh they're very challenging. But it was perfect. I said, I've got uh a real nice one on the wall that and and that one has it had long eye guards, which is like the brow tines would be on a deer kind of. But yeah, it was perfect. I was like, you couldn't have killed a prettier Axis buck. And I told her, said when you eat this meat, you're you're you'll never eat white tail again. It's so good. That's what I want. And she's got plenty because she killed two. Matter of fact, uh a guy's want me, my friends want me to help him train a tracking dog, and that's something I'm I am pretty decent at because I've done a lot. So it's a wire-haired doch and so I was coming back from Midland and he wanted me to pick it up and wants me to work with it. And I stopped at the meat processor where she we dropped off her deer. And I said, Hey guys, y'all cut me off a couple pieces of deer hide and put blood, you know, leave the blood on it as much as you can and just put it in a ziploc for me. And that's what I used to train with. I just make a drag, you know, and drag a track. Training tracking dogs are easy if you got the if you've got the drive to track, and these little wire-haired docs and shoot they'll track, they pretty much train themselves. And uh, but people think I'm a great tracking trainer, but it's not me, it's it's the dogs. But so she's gotta have all that meat shipped to Tennessee. I hate to see her taxed dairy bill, but she had it's untelling how much she has from a doe, and that buck was big. So hit her up because she's gonna have plenty of action.
SPEAKER_02:We'll train her all over a white tail.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, don't tell her it's it's tell her it's better. So this is yeah. But no, I think she had a good time.
SPEAKER_01:I have too.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it it that axis is really good meat. Uh in Texas, I mean, I people here, I think if you talk to most people, they'll tell you they'd rather definitely rather eat axis than white tail. But uh I think, and and you'd know this, but you know how hard it is to kill a mature white tail or mature mule deer. A mature axis, like you you see an axis that's 34 inches and bigger, 35, 36 inches, that's just from the beam to the top, they're they're gonna be a challenge. You're gonna earn it. And you know, she hunted here, we hunted for a day and a half.
SPEAKER_02:So those axis, are they they rely off their sight or is it their smell more? Isn't it like movement? Like any movement sets them off and they gone.
SPEAKER_00:You know, that's a good question. I'm just assuming because I'm I'm sitting here looking at I've got uh an addict's deer and a fowl deer out in front of my backyard right now. I mean an addict's not an addict's deer, that uh a fowl deer and an addict stand here. And so I see axis all the time. I feel like they definitely have great sight and move and they run on site. I don't know if they smell as good as a white tail. I I don't know the answer, but I assume they do, but they're a hearty animal. Uh they thrive real well here. There's free range of axis everywhere here. Uh yeah, and it uh and mine's high fence, but you know, don't don't make no mistake, this high fence is hard to hunt because I don't we we've got blinds here, you know, big old tower blinds. I don't use them. It's boring. I don't sit in a blind all day long, and it's hot here too. So we go we just safari style and just take her time in a side by side, and you're gonna see a lot of animals that way. It's not so boring, you're not sitting still. Uh the thing is though, you just gotta be prepared and uh gotta be ready to go when you see them. You you've got to be ready. And she she did real well. I mean, I'm sure she'd never safari hunted in her life. I mean, I I never when I moved out here from Kentucky, so it was a I knew that was new for her. She hadn't white tail hunt, she'd I don't think she game hunted much. If any, I don't know. But I was impressed. She never missed. She made three shots, and all three shots went in deer. Yeah. So what are you gonna do at the ranch with you leaving town? I I put it on the market for sale, man. It's it's kind of sad. I love this place, it's beautiful out here. And uh I the animals will go with it. I've got cattle, a small a small herd of cows. I'm gonna sell them and just uh but the animals, the exotics will go with the ranch. It's gonna be tough, man. I've been I've owned this ranch six years, and I had another one before in Coleman, Texas.
SPEAKER_02:And uh you know is I don't know nothing about really hyphen stuff. Is that kind of like a self-sustainable thing? You don't have to bring new livestock in, do you?
SPEAKER_00:You you well, I do. I'm always trying to I've I've always tried to improve the genetics. I've always tried to get like black buck. I try to find big black buck with you know huge horns. Um orcs. I've got some orcs in here, it's real good genetics. My phyla, they're average genetics. I if I was gonna keep the place, I would improve it some. But now my axis genetics, you can ask Bailey. I've got some of the best axis, and I've done that over six years. Like uh I don't I hardly ever shot does here. Probably needed to, maybe, but I was always buying stuff and having it brought in. And then in the last year, I haven't really ran hunts. I've just worked too much and just couldn't. So I've got a lot of animals now. And so it's a mixture of both. You the you know, like the black bucks, I don't have to buy any does because they just reproduce so fast, they reproduce every six months.
SPEAKER_04:Wow. That's quite a bit.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and it's like you know, most things are nine months, but the addicts, and they're a big money animal when they get mature, they're eleven months. So that's the slowest thing here, but uh I I I keep those. And you know, I just and I don't shoot anything myself. I only I've got quail here this year for the first time. I don't even shoot my quail.
SPEAKER_02:Uh what are they, bob whites?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, and it's so crazy. You know, up in Midland there's blues.
SPEAKER_02:And yeah, there's blues. I know there's blues around somewhere where you're uh.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, all all of West Texas is blues, but the ranch is more, it's not really West Texas here. It's and it's not really South Texas, it's kind of I don't know. I I'm two two hours from San Antonio, which is considered South Texas. But north. Kind of central, northwest-ish. I don't know. Anyway, I I'm in the I'm in the poor man's hill country, you know, like I'm on the edge of the hill country. When you get closer in the hill country, you know, the prices go crazy high. Uh I'm I'm still in the affordable section.
SPEAKER_02:You're still in the west section.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's right, that's right. I'm I'm on I'm an outskirts. Uh, but it's pretty here. I and I look I'm gonna miss this place. I mean I love this country. I'm a Kentuckian, lived there for 40-some years, but I've been out here 13, and uh man, it's it's I love Texas, love the people. If I'm gonna miss it, it's gonna be tough.
SPEAKER_02:But you're you have good seems like you'll get a good situation where you're going.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. I think so. And and my key, if it was my kids is a big reason, and uh, you know, they're my mom and my brothers are back there, and my my I've now got grand two grandkids, so it's it's it's time. But you know, I've I've enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_01:Well, it's good.
SPEAKER_00:Now do you all get how far are you? So you're on northeastern. Are you far are you close to Pawhuska?
SPEAKER_01:We're about an hour and a half.
SPEAKER_00:About an hour. Yeah. Okay. That's you know, that's pretty country up there. So you're close to Kansas. That's why you lived in Kansas, right, Baylor?
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:I live there in Wichita. Okay. Now we we we started on this, and I think I probably got you off track. What's our what's our hunting schedule look like this year? What all you got planned? I might have to go tag along.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we did get a little bit of a little bit of a little bit.
SPEAKER_02:Then after that, I think both of us got a little white tail action from pretty much September 15th. Mid-September to the beginning of second weekend of November. We pretty much uh focused on deer, both of us. Okay. Uh public land and maybe a little bit of private land if we can find some. Um, and then after that it'll be a lot of duck hunting.
SPEAKER_01:A lot of upland hunting too.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. We'll be doing some upland hunting for sure. Um I will be at least. I always go to uh Southwest Kansas, opening day of uh Upland. It's always a blast. You know, the stuff that those guys like to hunt, it's kind of like a party scene, you know. All the bachelor guys come and we have fun. Uh shoot birds, but they like to hunt pheasants only, so it's all CRP fields. Uh we don't really hit any tree rows or anything that Bob Whites like to hang out in. We always find a few randomly, but yeah, that's that trip. And then um deer and waterfowl from there.
SPEAKER_01:And then I feel like after waterfowl's done, we have a little bit of quail.
SPEAKER_02:Time to do some quail hunting. That's the best thing about Oklahoma and being a resident that their season lasts until February, like late February. Wow. So that's where we got a lot of our hunting in last year. Like we've kind of focused on ducks and deer the first part, and then January hit, and we kind of got on to straight up one. I mean, just yeah, I about walked her into the dirt.
SPEAKER_01:Uh winded up in the hospital after our last one.
SPEAKER_00:What happened? Walked a little too far.
SPEAKER_01:Say that again.
SPEAKER_00:What happened? Did you get dehydrated?
SPEAKER_01:Uh I well, we had walked, what, 40 miles and three days?
SPEAKER_02:We walked 14 miles two days in a row.
SPEAKER_01:I'm saying consecutively, like the whole three days, I think it was like 40 all together.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so pretty much four, yeah, it was like over 10 miles three days in a row.
SPEAKER_01:Um, this you were hardcore. Self-inflected. Well, this was self-inflected. I didn't drink enough water and I definitely pushed myself when I probably should have listened to my body. Um, I wounded up with a really bad kidney infection. And then I actually have kidney disease, so I have kidney problems in general. Um, didn't drink enough water, wounded up septic and was in the hospital for two weeks.
SPEAKER_00:Oh. Man, that's I don't know that I know anybody that hardcore. That's hardcore.
SPEAKER_01:And I told him right after that. I even brought it up the other night. I said, All right, it's time to go on an elkine, and he goes, No. No.
SPEAKER_00: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 Retriever Training Supply.com to purchase gear to help you train your retriever. Listen, they have some of the best leases I've ever found. It's stuff's made in America. Their leases are and they source them locally. They have anything you want, fast, friendly service, fast shipping, just good people. Retriever training supply. Well man, that it's so good, you know, uh, it's so good to see it's good to see young people, first of all, that love to hunt. But it's it's really neat to see people that's a a couple hunt like that, you know. There's there's not a lot of that going. There's really, I mean, yeah, I mean, I know people that hunt, but not that the couple hunts as hardcore as you two. That y'all, y'all might take the cake of what I've seen. That's impressive.
SPEAKER_02:I'm not one to slack, and she's not one to back down when she probably should.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, they're I definitely I learned my lesson on that one. I I hope that that doesn't happen this next year.
SPEAKER_02:I have a lot of guy friends that claim to hunt that will not go hunting with me because they know that we're gonna hunt. You know. I told her all the time, she said, Why do you go by yourself? I said, the last thing I want is to get out there and a guy I'm hunting with not want to hunt anymore. So we gotta go home, you know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I think I shocked him on that hunt a little bit, but I definitely pushed myself to the limits and probably should have not.
SPEAKER_00:He didn't know you were that stubborn, did he? I didn't.
SPEAKER_02:I thought she was gonna be okay. I didn't think it was that extreme, honestly.
SPEAKER_00:She must have been. Well, you've got a high tolerance for pain, you must, to do that, to push yourself to that limit. Yeah. Yeah. Well, now, Baylor, do you guide any?
SPEAKER_02:No, I haven't. I've done some like beneficial hunts for uh just my friends or you know, like people will buy birds and they say bring your dogs out, we're trying to make some money, kind of deal. But I've never like officially guided. Um I've thought about it, but at the same time, like it's gonna cut into my own hunting time, you know. Uh I do like the aspect of it because it keeps you in the field, but I just never took the step to try it.
SPEAKER_00:Now, do you all need a license in Oklahoma to guide or no? I mean, Texas, you don't.
SPEAKER_01:I I'm not aware of our rules here.
SPEAKER_02:I I'm pretty sure to guide on public land, or if you're operating like an LLC, you have to have a permit that I've seen online, like the Wildlife Department offer.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:The guiding I've done is not like guiding. I'm not making any money. I'm just taking some guys out, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Friends, friends of friends.
SPEAKER_00:So Okay, y'all. I'm gonna put you on the spot. I wanna I'm gonna ask each of you each one of you to answer this question. What's your favorite dog breed? Hunting dog breed.
SPEAKER_01:You know, if you would have asked me a year ago, I would have said a lab. I think it's very situational for me. I think my hearts are with labs because that's kind of what I've owned. I've owned a few of them, but um getting to see like the way his pointers are and just I don't know, it's just cool.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I think they can be utilized in different ways, and he's got great dogs. I mean they're phenomenal.
SPEAKER_02:So I think you're his favorite dogs in the lab. She loves labs.
SPEAKER_01:I think my heart lies.
SPEAKER_02:She loves the black lab specifically.
SPEAKER_01:I think my heart's are my heart is with a lab, but that's just because I've had so many and that's kind of what I grew up with too.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. They're hard to be.
SPEAKER_02:But what about you? They are. I mean they are hard. Like I just said, like I I've never been a lab guy. But golly, they you can't beat them duck hunting. I mean, there's no better dog, in my opinion. I've hunted behind a few, not all of them, but just I don't know. I just feel like they check most of the boxes there in the waterfowl industry. So what's your favorite bailer? God, I don't know. I've been thinking about it. Well shockingly, it's not a German short hair pointer.
unknown:Really?
SPEAKER_02:I love them. You know, I think they're good dogs, but they're not my favorite. Um why is that? I know, I I could they get distracted really easy. You know, the people say the German, the German dog. Um, I do think it's true. Uh they're they're just um like talking about a calm mindset. Uh short hair is hard to get a calm mindset. Even if you do train the calm mindset, they're very just just look here, look, you know, they're they always got this going on, in my opinion, like the head movement. Um I think they're great as far as prey drive, there's no better. But that's you know, I don't know. They just are my favorite.
SPEAKER_00:See, I've never owned one. That's why I was asking you that question.
SPEAKER_03:I I've never they're energetic, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I've got an English pointer now. But I'm just now I'm not I'm still learning. I I'm it's brand new for me. So I don't I I don't have a the verdict's still out on that, but what what so what's your what is your favorite breed then?
SPEAKER_02:I don't even own one, but my heart has always been set on an English shutter. Um I went with the short hair when I was 16 or 17 in college or high school. Uh my dad passed away, and so the next month I went out and bought a dog, and this was my Maggie that I have now. Um and I got a short hair because, you know, like any young kid, even still to this day, I think of this I want a versatile dog, you know, I want to be able to do everything with it. Um, people still tell me I have conversations like this all the time with people. I want a versatile dog, I want a versatile dog. I get it, but a short hair, you gotta kind of have a special dog to be a really good uh up or waterfowl dog just because of their movement, their fur. Um they don't do good settings still for a long time. They don't do good in the cold. Yeah, they can do it, but not all year. And I don't know. I don't think buying a short hair to be a waterfowl dog is you know, it's not I wouldn't do it. After having one, I wouldn't do it. Well, you know, but I would say my favorite dog breeds an English shutter.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Well, you know, I haven't owned an English shutter, but I love the looks of them, and I I was around them as a teenager in Kentucky uh because they back then we still had grouse. But I had someone on the show once, uh matter of fact, I believe it was Jeremy Moore. And he who's a very I like that guy. I follow that guy a lot. Oh, I've followed Jeremy Moore since twenty twenty fourteen. I'm a huge fan. He was on my podcast, but he said once, he said on my podcast that if he he's versatile dogs, you know, there are some dogs that can kind of do it all, but if you want a dog that's a great pointer, get a pointing dog. If you want a dog that's gonna be a water retrieving dog, get a lab or something made for water. And if you want a flushing dog, you know, get a cocker. I mean, he i I I'm paraphrasing what he said, but he was saying that he was saying there's no one dog that's gonna do everything completely great. Now, there's people who's gonna argue that differently. I'm just telling you what he said. I'm not trying to stir up controversy, but I agree with you.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's pretty much what I was saying.
SPEAKER_00:I was trying to you know pretty much what's possible.
unknown:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And you know, like one of the guys who's ended up becoming my close friend now, a real good friend, I should say, Landon Popum was on my podcast. He's out in North Carolina, he's got a draught, which is as officially a a wire hair, German wire hair, but because it's not German registered. Okay. But now he guides every day for a living. You know, like he guides, I don't know, four, five, six months out of the year, and he took that draught to the grand and competed with retrievers and got a pass. It's never been done before. No, and he's taking it again in September. If it gets a pass, it'll be the first title, the title draught ever, and you know, in the grand or in the grand. But, you know, so can it be done? I guess, but I kind of want one of each breed myself, you know. That's just me. It's an excuse for me to get another dog.
SPEAKER_02:That's a I can't wait to get a setter. And my opinion about a sutter is it's like the pointer and the spaniel mix. Like it's like you get the sweetest of the spaniel and the drive of the pointer.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, you know, people that have them love them. And I I'd like to I got to hunt the setter back in the spring, or no, late fall last year. But uh, and I loved them. I'd like to do I'm gonna do a lot more upland this year. I'll have to holler at you. I'm gonna be I'll be hunting Montana and Dakotas south and north. Nice and Minnesota a little bit. So I'm gonna do a lot more upland and get to see a lot more upland dogs this fall.
SPEAKER_02:Uh Dr. Jeremy Moore, I I've followed him for a long time too, and I've always I've learned so much from that guy, just as far as building a dog's mindset. But one thing I really disagree with him on, like starting off watching him, is that obviously he did mainly waterfowl. You know, he had a lot of labs, and he didn't believe in the e-caller. And I'm you probably have followed along with this, but since he's got this pointing dog, he uses e-callers now, at least for the pointing dog. I'm like, because I would always disagree with him. I'm like, ugh, like I get it, you don't want to rely on this e-caller, but it's communication anywhere you go, and all the time you have that communication with this dog. It's like it's like I don't know how to put it, but it's just very beneficial to me.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, and it's been beneficial for me too, I feel like.
SPEAKER_00:If you know how to use them, I mean, god, they're good as gold. I think that's the most important thing is if you're gonna if you're gonna use an e-collar, no learn how to use it. And like I went to a really uh really good dog training school. It's called Napo. It's use it mostly for you know for uh protection dogs, which is what I have some background in. And uh we had to put the collar on us and use it on ourself, you know. It ain't that bad. No, no, it don't work. No, I mean I don't want it on high, but no, I don't either, but but yeah, so but it was good, and I it was so good to do that because you know you think twice about you know turning that thing up, if you know, because you know how it feels. So yeah, I mean I I own them. I own e-collars, and uh I've got dogs that I don't use them on some labs, but I got dogs that I do.
SPEAKER_02:And uh I'm not needing them too much on the waterfowl side, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I it's been beneficial for me. Um I don't have to use it like when we're like I put it on her when we were out at the lake working with water retrieves, and really I use that that tone. So she gets a tone warning and shall say it and because she she knows what it means. So I feel like it's been beneficial for me in that aspect.
SPEAKER_00:When you're getting ready to go on your next hunting trip, make sure you pack the most efficient and reliable ammunition on the market. Migra ammunition brings you the most diverse loads on the market. Migra's patented stacked load technology is the epitome of efficiency. Two shot sizes stack together to create the most diverse and efficient line of shot shells in the industry. It doesn't matter what flyway, what state, or what the weather, the standard remains the same. At Migra, reliable loads that perform in any condition every single time. We're proud to have Migra Ammunition as a sponsor for Gun Dog Nation. Yes, no, I and I think that too, it's it's it's all anything in moderation, right? I mean, it's uh but uh you know, I hear a lot of pro trainers that are really people I respect, and they say sometimes, you know, you need it just for safety. But you know, keep your dog from running out in the road because if you're hunting upland and you're all over the place, you know.
SPEAKER_01:You have a tracker on yours.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. The tracking system is I I I've got the tracking. I just actually just got the Garmin 550, just the the cheaper tracker out of it. That alpha thing is too complicated.
SPEAKER_02:Nah, that's all you need. The 550 plus. Yeah, the 550 plus. That thing's good. That's really good. You'll like it. Yeah, I I've got a I'm on well, I'm getting ready to get to use it a lot, but uh the only thing I don't really like about it, and obviously everybody loves this aspect, and you know, I might just be the lone duck here, but the multiple stimulations, so it has three buttons on the main controller part, and each one is like high, medium, low stimulation. Um you gotta change the knob at the top to turn it to vibrator tone, I believe. There might be a tone button, but I know you have to change the knob to go from one to another setting. I don't remember the exact details. That was my only complaint, because I don't need three stimulations on the same, you know what I mean? Like yes, I do.
unknown:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:It was just that was my only pet peeve about that, is that there wasn't all three buttons. All I I want a tone, I want to vibrate, and I want a uh shock on, you know, where I can have accessible right in front of my face. I don't want to mess with anything other than changing from dog to dog, obviously. But you know.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, mine's just the basic. I don't even know, remember what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, she has the delta, which is a great caller. I mean, especially for a waterfall dog. I mean simple, you know tone uh vibration.
SPEAKER_01:That's all you do. And then to turn your uh obviously like the level up, it's on the side. And I think it comes with a bark mode, but I've never used it, so I don't know anything about that.
SPEAKER_02:I think all the almost all the garments come with the bark bark eliminator.
SPEAKER_00:So what would you all say to other folks your age to get them to get encouraged to hunt and even hunt with dogs? What's your best piece of advice?
SPEAKER_01:I think, I mean my best piece of advice, I mean, coming from a girl standpoint, I think that you know, you don't see, I mean, you're seeing more nowadays, but there's not a lot of girls that are in this industry that you know are kind of like similar to me where I didn't grow up hunting. You the lot of the girls that are in this industry, they kind of grew up hunting. Not all of them. I've met some phenomenal people like I don't know if you've heard of Sisterhood of the Hunt, uh, Laurel York. I don't believe she grew up hunting, uh, if I remember right, and seeing like her get into it, and we've had conversations about it. Um it's just really neat to see other girls get inspired. I actually have a friend that I went to high school with, she got into it at 19, didn't grow up doing it. Um I think it's just really like you know, give it a chance, get out of your comfort zone because I would have never expected what it would have done for me. I mean, truly like that's just my passion. It changed my life.
SPEAKER_00:I like it. And better, what about you?
SPEAKER_02:Um, I think I tell people this all the time that the hunting industry is a big hurdle to jump to get into because of the rules and regulations and they're always changing. But find a mentor. There's a bunch of people that hunt around you. Uh, if you reach out to these people, especially like I know us, we're always looking for people to go hunt with, especially new hunters. You don't have to have all the equipment, just ask somebody, say, I just want to go. You know, we don't have to find anything. Uh for a new hunter, don't expect to find a lot at first because it takes time to find the good stuff. You know?
SPEAKER_01:So And I think it doesn't matter if you have been hunting your whole life or you know, like me, six years, there's always something to learn.
SPEAKER_04:Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, if you're not learning, that's just in life though. Um, if you're not learning, you're not growing.
SPEAKER_00:Brittany, I'm I'm I'll be 57 September the 12th, and I learn stuff about dogs from people every day, and even from my own dogs, you know. So uh when I stopped learning, I guess I've stopped living. Uh so the last question I'm gonna ask y'all before we close what's your number now that you've both have trained dogs, Brittany, you you've just got yes, you've got a system, but you're training your first dog. Baylor, you've been training dogs, different breeds. What's your best piece of advice that you would give someone that's starting out as a dog trainer?
SPEAKER_01:For me, being like a very like fresh into this, um ask for help. I mean, like ask for advice from people that I mean like Baylor has obviously taught me a lot and has played a huge role in that, um, and giving me advice and showing me what to do. But if you don't know what you're doing, I don't think it's harmful to reach out for help or what like watch videos, listen to podcasts, talk to people.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and uh that I think that was perfect. What I would say with that is try to get one, like try to get with that person. That's right. Like face to face, because you can read their emotions, you can read how they're looking at the dog, how they're uh when the dog does something, you can kind of see how they react to that. So being with that person is valuable to my in my opinion.
SPEAKER_00:I think both of y'all together said the perfect answer because I would say uh do exactly what you said, Brittany, but also like Baylor said, because I'm kind of get academic and I'll get too hardcore into the books and the videos and stuff, but if you don't get out and put it to practice and work with dogs where you're seeing how they react and and put just like anything else, right? You can read all this stuff until you you can read golf swings, but if you don't get out there and practice it, you can't do it. So I think it I think it's exactly what you both just said. It would be my advice too.
SPEAKER_01:I I'm definitely a a visual hands-on learner. Um, a lot of this come I work in the medical field. We always say see one, do one. Or it's it's there's a saying, I don't even think I said it right, but it's like you see one, you do one. You know, yeah, you you it's I'm just very I'm very hands-on. I have to visually see something. I feel like that's what works best for me.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:And that's how you find out what works best for you. It's just everyone's different.
SPEAKER_00:You're right. And uh like I I've I'll give a little bit of advice sometimes on here, and but I always tell people, hey, or a lot of times I'll do these little TikTok things or something, but I tell everybody, hey, listen, I'm not trying to tell you I'm a dog training expert because I'm not. And there's way more people out there that know more than I do, but this is what I do with my dog that works. And uh, you know, you just have to find what works for you, just like you said, Brittany. I I mean Baylor, I I mean Brittany, I that I think that was perfect. Um so tell everyone how they can find y'all.
SPEAKER_01:Um, well, we're both on Instagram, YouTube. Uh my biggest platform is probably TikTok, but you've been great. Uh that that's my platform. I'm gonna start getting in more to the YouTube stuff, but and what do they search for on TikTok to find you, Brittany? Uh my Instagram is Brit.reese, and then my TikTok is Brittany R Manual. I have that linked in my Instagram bio, so you can kind of find my YouTube on there, all that, and then um on Instagram, everything, YouTube, I'm a pri a primal underscore live.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. I post a lot of uh just dog training, hunting, whatever I come across in life gets thrown out there.
SPEAKER_00:And is it okay if maybe a young lady wants to reach out to you, Brittany, and seek advice?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. I'm not I'm still learning myself. I can only share my experiences, but I like to get people like I I feel like that's kind of how I've connected with people.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:And and so how these one's willing for their advice.
SPEAKER_02:Reach out where you're we're we've just been trying to find uh a youth hunter to take first.
SPEAKER_01:Finally got one.
SPEAKER_02:Where'd you find one? How?
SPEAKER_01:Uh lady I work with, her daughter, she's 17, so she doesn't turn 18 till April, so she falls in one more season for youth.
SPEAKER_02:Oh wow. I tried to take a youth hunter pretty much every year I could. Last year I didn't get to because youth and opening day of um Pheasant and Quail were that same weekend. So yeah. But I've done it in the past and we're gonna try to do it this year. I like it. It's always fun. There's two good reasons for it. One, you get to take a youth hunter out, and it's fun to watch them, you know. Yeah, it's just fun. Two, you get to work with your dog, and it's the best day of hunting all year because no one else is hunted.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's like an it's an extra hunting season day, so yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's a great day of hunting. The dog gets phenomenal work, and it's almost a hundred percent positive the kid's gonna have fun because you don't have to go trudging through some hard, you know, process to get there. You can go pretty much anywhere and find a few birds.
SPEAKER_00:Nice. I like that. Well, hey, thank you all. We're gonna stay in touch. I'll keep promoting your own stuff as much as I can, and I appreciate you all following me big time. It helps uh people like you, is why I do this. Uh I enjoy this, and I I love seeing young people up and coming uh because us old guys, you know, somebody else has got to carry the torch, right? And and we gotta we've got to preserve our heritage. You've got to preserve a heritage of hunting and and hunting with dogs both. But uh listen, hopefully I get to meet y'all. I I'm gonna be up, I'm up in that area some, especially I'll probably do another seminar or two uh for my own good at Ronnie Smith's. Um and if I'd known y'all then, I was that was back in like March or April. I was up there.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. But you know, I wasn't too far.
SPEAKER_02:You're coming a couple weeks, get that doll.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, let us know when you're here and maybe we can make something happen. Go to a lunch. We'll I mean we can come to you.
SPEAKER_00:I I'll text you all because I'm gonna stop up there. Matter of fact, I'll stop in Oklahoma City and pick up something. Uh I bought a set of waiters off my buddy, and he's gonna have them for me there. Uh yeah. I I'll I'll give you it probably Tuesday or Wednesday.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:So, yeah, but I'll text y'all.
SPEAKER_01:Sounds good.
SPEAKER_00:All right, Brittany Baylor, thank you all so much for being on here.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, no, thank you. It was a pleasure.
SPEAKER_00:All right. Y'all have a great evening. You too.
SPEAKER_01:Me too.
SPEAKER_00:Hello, this is Kenneth Witt with Gundog Nation. I'd like to encourage all you listeners and viewers on our YouTube channel to check out patreon.com forward slash gundognation. For$10 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 gun dog related and we'll learn from each other in the community. It should be a lot of fun each month. We will do that. So check it out patreon.com forward slash gun dognation.