Build From Here
Build From Here
Hunting Retriever Training: Patience and Confidence
BFH Ep. 053 Meet our guest, Nick Hibbs, a proud Labrador Retriever owner, and a passionate hunter. In a captivating recount, he takes us on a thrilling journey of his 10-hour drive with the lively Winston, his bond with his father's Fox Red Lab Maverick, and how an unforgettable incident with Maverick retrieving a goose sparked his love affair with dog training. Hear about Nick's transformative journey with his retriever Winston, as he navigates the challenging terrains of dog training, discovering the uniqueness in every dog along the way.
Let's embark on a captivating journey exploring the progress of Winston, the Labrador Retriever, now in his 31st week of training. Glean insights from Nick's experiences as he navigates the realms of obedience, shares the exhilaration of Winston's first retrieve, and the significance of instilling training fundamentals. As you listen, you'll discover the anticipation that comes with the evolution of a dog's abilities and enlightening lessons that transform the world of dog training.
Finally, sit back and savor the beautiful narration of the symbiotic bond between Nick and Winston as they gear up for the upcoming hunting season. Be privy to Nick's efficient training techniques – the click-and-treat methods, the process of fetch, hold, and release, and more. Listen as Nick imparts valuable advice on dog training, emphasizing the importance of patience and confidence. This episode is your chance to share in the marvel of Nick's unwavering dedication to training and his love story with Winston.
Cornerstone Gun Dog Academy Online resources to help you train your retriever.
Speaker 2:Welcome to another episode of the Build From Here podcast. In this episode we have a special guest, nick Hibbs. How are you, man, good?
Speaker 3:man, thanks for having us on. We appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Glad to have you. So Nick made the drive from Michigan. Where are you from?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we're north of Grand Rapids just about 30 minutes. Originally I was born in Cedar, but we're residing. My wife and I are in Sand Lake now, But it was about a 10 hour drive down here, but it wasn't bad at all.
Speaker 2:So we made it here in one trip and in one piece. I'm glad you did So. you're Pop Winston and we'll talk a little about him Then I want to redirect us to kind of your history. before we do that, Speaking of the 10 hour drive, I found him at Michigan last night At dinner. you said that was his first like that long of a drive.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so obviously at the beginning stage socialization was the biggest thing for us, so I kind of really took him everywhere. My other dog, oscar, on the other hand, is not great with that. He winds in the car a lot, so that's kind of what I've always known, so socializing Winston at such a young age, he really got good in the car And to the times where I literally forget about him, i mean I forgot that he was in the back and of course he's a black lab. So I was just driving and then I look in the rearview mirror and I see two eyes and I almost had a stroke. I swear. But no, he's really good in the car. I think we took maybe three or four breaks throughout the duration of the 10 hour trip. He had no accidents. He's super quiet. He was just fantastic the whole ride down. So it's awesome.
Speaker 2:So I couldn't have asked for a better travel. That's awesome, man. So well, obviously you're pretty into it if you're willing to do that. Where did this all start? Not the dog stuff, but like your passion for hunting. Where was that? Like something you've done since you were little? Yeah, what's the story there?
Speaker 3:So a lot of it really just derived from my dad. So when I was growing up, from anywhere from like to 10 years old, we really didn't do like a ton of hunting You have your typical deer hunting and then just some of his friends just through his relationships, his personal relationships, he got into duck hunting through some of his friends, and so I tried it one time with him when I was really young, and it was probably the worst experience I've ever had. I was in a field, i didn't have the right clothes on, i was cold, i literally was like bundled up and it was just not fun. Until then, you know, a couple of years passed. You know my dad got associated with some friends with black dog outfitters, and that was around Rockford, michigan, and from there the owner had a dog named West And my dad just saw him in action and just fell in love, and so then he was like, okay, that's what a dog is for, that's what a lab is meant to do, it's, you know, it was kind of looked at as more of a tool at the time because you know, animals are a lot of work, and so we ended up getting our first Foxred lab, which his name was Maverick And you know my dad spent a lot of time with him.
Speaker 3:He trained him on my own. I was never really a part of those training sessions. I kind of just like stood from afar and just kind of like joined my dad every time he would go duck hunting. And ever since then all I can remember is just him, myself, maverick and some of our friends just having some of the best memories we've ever had duck hunting. So you know, that was like. You know he's getting older now. We retired him last year because we retired him, sorry, two years ago and last year.
Speaker 3:Obviously I'm the young guy So I became the dog last year of getting the ducks, and I was just like, yeah, i don't really want to do this again. You know, you get. the thing is is you get your full setup and you're there and you're hunting and you kill a bird And then you got to just completely get out of your setup, which isn't fun. And so I was like I really want a dog. And so I just convinced my wife. I was like, hey, i would really like a dog. Is that something that would be okay? You know she was a little on the fence about it, but I was like, hey, look, i really you know, I feel like I could be committed to this a little bit more than I ever have with anything else.
Speaker 3:You know, as soon as I got him and I started watching the videos with CGA I mean, it was all over I was hooked from week one.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. So the need of not wanting to run out there, Yeah, and I wanted a dog. I mean, hey, I mean, who doesn't want a good Labrador? So you got your dog. Sounds like you all agreed on it. And before we talk about Winston and talk about him, let's talk about Maverick for a second. Just what was? do you remember your first experience with him in the field?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it was a bit of a traumatic experience. So Maverick's first ever retrieved was a goose, or his first, i believe it was his first goose that he retrieved And then it was the first goose that I ever shot. Wow. And so we were. You know, we were driving down It was this guy's place, walt, that was his, that was his name And that was the place that we go to.
Speaker 3:I actually wanted to name Winston Walt originally because of that, because that was the first place I ever, like, really got my retrieved. But Winston was a much better name, but nonetheless, you know, i get the goose down, maverick goes out, sniffs the bird and comes back And I thought my dad said it was going to pop off Like he. He was like I cannot believe that because he knows better. Right, he knew exactly what he wanted. And so my dad grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, threw him over the boat, made him go get that bird.
Speaker 3:And you know, of course, i was like I don't know, like 10 or 12 at the time. So I saw that and I panicked, you know, started crying. I was like, no, you're being so mean to the dog and everything. And then, you know, now realizing it. I mean, that was a moment. That was, you know, a correction. I needed to understand what he does And from that moment on, you know, like I said, all that I can remember is Maverick just being just hands down, one of the best dogs I've ever seen work in the water.
Speaker 2:That's so cool, and he I guess so that's. That's been your primary experience with a dog other than seeing other people's dogs work as Maverick?
Speaker 3:Yeah, i've seen a couple here and there, but not too many really Mavericks, mavericks, the pinnacle of what. I've been blessed to be able to watch and actually grow with him, because my you know my hunting career, as you can say, has grown with Maverick and I've seen him in every, every circumstance. So he's got some big shoes to fill, but Winston's on his way.
Speaker 2:So yeah, Winston's a good dog. I'll tell you it was good to get out there and train this morning and see him And that's that's so cool. I love stories like that of just like how you know dogs, like 10 years or so, how long we have, maybe a little longer, but that's like sections of our lives, you know. So they say replaceable. So Maverick's time is irreplaceable, But now we've got Winston, who's kind of rising up in the ranks and going to take, take his, take his turn.
Speaker 2:So and I'm pretty newly married So that's awesome And so that's kind of a meaningful experience for you to have that dog as your family now, and then you'll be having that for all, winston Lord willing, for 10, 10, 12 years.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. You know the training's been really different. you know, with Maverick it was just the straight fundamentals, right. He would stay, you'd call him on his name, he'd go get the bird in any sort of water, he would come back and you know that was kind of the gist of it. He would understand hand signals here and there. But you know, I never really focused with my dad on all those fundamentals and everything that he really did.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 3:Maverick was just, i mean just the most casual dog. Just, you can go home and cuddle with him on the couch. You would have no idea that his drive is just through the roof. And so with that was the biggest thing that I had to go off of is I want a dog that can be a family dog, but then when it's time to work he knows that in Winston has followed in Maverick's footsteps 10 fold. So you know Maverick's a little bit old to really show Winston the way which I was kind of.
Speaker 3:You know it's kind of unfortunate, but like I said, through the program CGA really makes it easy. They lay everything out for you. There's really no excuse to not have a dog where you want it. If you just don't put in the time, that's really all that it is. If you just follow the sessions and everything that you have to a team, you watch all the videos, there isn't anything simpler that you could do to get your dog to where you want to be. You know whether that's just straight obedience or whether that's a full-fledged gun dog, that's up to you, but it's the easiest program. I mean there are some hard things and you have to be consistent. That's the hard thing, but if you're actually doing it you know it's not rocket science, that's awesome?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's definitely not. It's not overly complicated, so it sounds like you're very fond of this journey so far. Now, obviously you're for those that are listening here you're, i think, week 31. Yep, so how has your perspective shifted from where you're at now to when you started this? Do you see things differently? Did things go any different than you were expecting? Did what you thought it would be like the training of your dog, or did you? you know what's your thoughts there? What was like your thoughts going in versus like how you view things now?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I mean, when I first started, you know I was really eager. What I didn't know is how much obedience there was going to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I was under understanding, like okay, Maybe, maybe a month maybe a month or two of obedience and, like I said, i never was on that side of it So I didn't really know. And now you know, i was listening to Barton's podcast, the lab, which you guys should check that out. But anyways, no, the you know he talks about 90% of retrieving problems are obedience problems and that was 100% the truth, right, just the bit.
Speaker 3:You know you have to go through everything, even from day one, from when he gets onto the place board, which blew my mind just with the clicker and the tree and how quickly that resonated with him. And and he just followed that to a tee with everything that we did. As long as that treat was there, he would do whatever he needed to get that tree. Yeah, so the hardest thing that we had was like pulling those treats out of there. Yeah, so I would say that was the biggest gap that we had to jump because that was like his driver. But then once we started to get into the retrieving and he wanted to build that drive to get the retrieve, that's that was like the biggest shift between. Once we got that done, the second half of the training of the retrieving aspect of it was much easier. Yeah, because you didn't have to rely on cutting a hot dog for 20 minutes So and have slimy fingers at the end of your training but But no man, it's.
Speaker 3:You know, when I started I was, you know, of course I was not confident in myself because I never trained a dog before, so I was like I'm not sure how this is gonna Go, but I'm gonna give it my all.
Speaker 3:But there's also the potential of, hey, this is 52 weeks, this is a really long time.
Speaker 3:I'm not sure do I have it in myself to to build this whole, you know, to go through the entire program, right, and and I followed it to a tee for five sessions a night, every single night, after work, going up and down three flights of stairs in our apartment complex, whatever I had to do, and you know, believe it or not, actually built some really cool relationships at the apartment complex with some People seeing that they would mention all the time Hey, i saw you out there training your dog. That's, that's really, really cool. And I was like, yeah, man, i appreciate you guys want to come down and check it out, you can. You know, some people would watch from their balconies. It was, you know, really really cool. But There's really not much that changes from the beginning to the end, as long as you're consistent with it, the model that you guys have of build from here you can easily see that the more that you focus on the fundamentals at the beginning Makes the more, i guess, technical side of things much, much easier.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and and, like I said, we've really focused on that stuff and, as you can see, it's really been successful, especially for Winston.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, i'm really happy with where Winston's at right now at week 31. I your diligence is clear. You know Your dogs will look different at this time frame And I was really happy to see that because we're in a new place Complete, i mean completely new place. You're here at my grounds, you're training, yeah, and that's a generalization thing. You're in a new week and like Winston's still kind of like clicking and like getting it. That shows me that you've really been faithful in the work that you've done so far. And he just I mean one of the first, i mean first, first retrieve got out there, boom, hammers down, just sprinting. Yeah, after He goes, he's pretty quick.
Speaker 3:He is. You know, he shocked me, sometimes he can lollygag at home. Obviously we had the heat, so being in the morning, it was a little bit cooler, some water on the ground, that definitely helped. But you know, compared to violence, seeing her on the videos, knowing she's just a piston and I was just like I'm not sure if Winston can hold up to that.
Speaker 3:And you know, this morning He just hammered down and I even I was impressed. I was like, wow, i'm pretty sure you've never ran that fast in your life, but I'm gonna take it you know he's like I gotta show off.
Speaker 2:He showed up to play man.
Speaker 3:He showed up and I couldn't be more thankful, you know, as is a cool moment for all of us to see, so I was definitely happy with that.
Speaker 2:That's good. What's um? What was so? how did the whole obedience go for any issues there? Is it pretty Straightforward?
Speaker 3:you know, i, really, going through all of the obedience, i don't really remember any sort of like hiccup that we had. Really we were able to just kind of go through week by week and really instill it and in it kind of just really stuck. You know, the only thing that I would say, that translated from the fundamentals that we tried to clean up, is the heel work a little bit, and that's just because he he's sniffs a lot and especially like this morning, you know, he's in a new place So and there's tons of smells.
Speaker 3:Yeah so that's, he wants to keep his nose to the ground and he needs to make sure that he needs to look up to me and follow My path.
Speaker 3:Yeah, i haven't really done much like backwards heel work Although he still stays on my hip, but it's, you know, it's nothing too crazy, but Other than that, every sort of basic obedience when we start the program, i've somehow instilled it in our life, so like if I let Winston out in the yard, i I actually we hang our whistle actually got it from my dad, but we hang our whistle on our door and so I recall him through our whistle to make sure he comes. So he knows like 100% that when he hears that whistle he's either coming inside or he's coming to me. You know, whatever it is, you know even inside the house now that we're doing whistle stop. I guess whistle stops probably the the biggest thing that we haven't done. You know we trained on it a little bit, but he actually did really well with sitting down and everything, but it's just been such a long period that we haven't worked on that that that would probably be the one thing that we Really want to clean up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a stop getting that down. I mean, i thought he did good, even like today when we're working on that. That was. That was cool to see very like.
Speaker 2:He kind of whipped around really quick and just like some of the details like changing, like okay, how quick are we gonna Get him that retrieve? the quick if they do something good, the faster you can reinforce. Yeah, and it was clear like we did it real quick one time, like the first two sets or so we're slow. Then we got him to sit reasonably fast, rewarded that, then the next one It was a little bit faster rewarded that, the next one, rewarded that, and then the third or fourth time he was a boom. Yeah, let's go.
Speaker 3:You know, yeah he's, he's a, he's really big on energy. Yeah, you know, and you understand that with violet, where you know, i would get so excited that he would do something again. This was my first experience doing any of this. So, like I remember, when he went on the platform, it would just sit on the platform and then, once he understood that and then associated the word place and we were like Five yards away and I would like place and he would go to it. I was just like, oh my god, did you see that? did you see that? I was like babe, did you record that? Did you do it?
Speaker 3:So you know it's, it's super exciting because it's not, it's just the development of what he's able to do and his capabilities. They're so smart, they're so smart in. I guess I never really realized that. You know, i was never super into the dog training. I just I was just always like, oh, maverick just kind of knows what he needs to do and that's that. But now we've got hand signals and whistle stops and Healing and all this extra stuff that I know that he's capable of. I just have to teach him and he'll understand it. It's, it's really, really cool. So that's cool.
Speaker 2:Well, he's doing good. You're doing great as a trainer, as a handler. What? you know, yeah, you're getting after what's been Any challenges that you I mean you're. So you haven't made it through the whole thing yet. Typically, if you're gonna face challenges, it's gonna be within like the first 25 weeks. Yeah, then after that you'll face like little things but like any Challenges you face, and we talked to you kind of how you work through.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so actually our When he was like eight to nine months old And for a lot of you guys who don't understand when you're to that phase, that's like he understand What he tests you. Basically he knows exactly what I wanted him to do. Yeah, and he wasn't sure if he would do it or not. So, like the place board, yeah, i actually had to switch off the place for to the Mo March stand because it was a, you know, obviously a change in elevation and that can be really helpful for a lot of things. But I would tell him to place and he would just like go up to it and he would just look at it and then look at me And I'm just like that's not gonna fly. I was like that's, that's it, you're not gonna do that. So, you know, for a couple of sessions I actually took the place board away because he wanted to be by my side and so I took the place board out. Then he did really well and then I reintroduced the place board And then and this was actually during our, our fire training, our gunfire conditioning, so I think that's week like 22 or 25 somewhere, somewhere along that lines.
Speaker 3:But the eight to nine month phase, yeah, he tested me on a lot of things. It was really important to not like lose my mind because it was really easy to. But luckily enough I've looked at a lot of other people and their trainings and Patience is the number one thing that you can have with dog training. And so just working through those things, i, you know I would just Bring the hot dogs back out. I brought him back out for one session because I, you know, i said didn't want to recondition the hot dogs, but I brought him back out, clicked and treat, and then it just like clicked again And I was like this is what I want you to do and whenever he wouldn't do it, i would just give him a soft correction and And he understood. So the the hardest thing, necessarily that I've ever done is just grabbed by the scruff of the neck.
Speaker 3:Sit him down after I told him no, you know place, you need to be here, and After that we really haven't had any issues. I mean, today He was fantastic on the place board whenever I asked him, and so sometimes he can be testy with that a little bit, but really not much.
Speaker 3:So, that was, i would say, probably our biggest thing that we ever had to go through. It's just him testing me through those phases when I would do those eight to nine months when I would ask him to do stuff But it would only take about one, one to two corrections and and he would really, and he would really go through. But that place board was the only one that stood out. That's why, you know, i have the mohmarsh, the Cato board and I have the safe, solve that problem.
Speaker 2:now. You kind of like, yeah, i'm gonna fix that, i don't care what board it is, you're going there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, so he um, but yeah, now he now he loves it. So his mohmarsh stand is definitely his favorite. He loves that, which is good, because that's what we would hunt with that's what we're gonna condition him on the most, but The other ones. You know he'll be right. Actually, technically he'll be behind me because it'll be a kayak, but Nonetheless, that was the hardest really thing that we had to work through, so it's awesome.
Speaker 2:Hey, i hope you've enjoyed this episode so far. There's more to come, but I wanted to interrupt real quick and let you know if you're thinking about training your hunting dog. Maybe you are training your hunting dog or you're thinking about getting a puppy And you don't really know where to start, what to do next or how to solve problems in your retriever training. We would love to help you. Cornerstone gun dog Academy exists to help guide you on your training journey and to really help You have a dog that you can be proud to take in the blind and hunt with you and also just have the ability to say You know, i did that. Nothing's greater than when you've trained a dog really well.
Speaker 2:Your buddy see you working in the blind and they ask you who trained that dog, expecting that you're gonna say, hey, i dropped this dog off to some pro. Well, no, you ended up doing it yourself and you have the satisfaction of saying I did that myself. So if that's you, you're thinking about it and you just need help on the journey, go to cornerstone gun dog Academy dot com and Check it out. Browse the site and you'll see the different options that we have available to help you on your journey And we'd love to help you in whatever way seems like it's gonna work for you best. So, with that said, visit cornerstone gun dog Academy, calm.
Speaker 2:And now back to the episode. So those challenges you faced with the place, you've kind of became those you saw that, yeah, that kind of leads me into something I thought was interesting that we kind of talked about today when you were, when we let you run violet a little bit. So you're like you know, that was really mainly ran Winston, yep, i guess pretty much the only dog of change. So learning to handle her differently.
Speaker 2:Yeah every dog's different. You know, let's talk about a little bit of that and kind of like your, you know your thought process on learning to read Winston, just like, was there anything along the journey that like stood out to you? like, hey, you know, like Moments like I'll hummel was, oh man, i just learned something here.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So You know, with that was a really interesting experience. Run in violet like that, like I almost felt like it was a stranger. I mean like it sounds really weird, but I've spent hours, like hundreds of hours, with Winston's probably thousands of hours, honestly, in. I know every little antique that he does. I could tell you.
Speaker 3:I mean, for a perfect example, you know, we sent him out on a line and he came back because he stopped, i think after like 10 yards, came back and he wasn't really sure. Yeah, and then he came back and I could ears up, eyebrows up, he was locked in load. I was like, oh, actually I'm going to send him this time because I have confidence that he's going to go get it. And he went and he crushed it. He came back And then I was with Violet and I was like holy moly, i was like I don't know anything about this dog. I don't know if she's going to go. I mean, obviously I've watched all the videos but up to this point, watching her, but it was just, it was really surreal. I almost felt like a rookie again. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I was just like I wasn't sure, like because you know I can yell at my dog, but I was like I didn't want to yell at your dog or correct it in a way that you don't typically correct it, because Winston's like, for Winston, his biggest word is no right And he's associated with that. So does that work with Violet? I don't know Right If she's going to come straight back or if she's going to ejuke me out, you know right. So it was just a really, it was a really interesting experience And it's I think it's something that I would actually incorporate with our training. So because my dad's going to be the one that's hunting with me. You know my dad's been a part of a couple of sessions when we were doing the gun conditioning, but nothing outside of that. So that would be a really good thing because Winston needs to learn to whoever's directing him, not just me, yeah, and so it's really important And I think a lot of people don't practice that too.
Speaker 2:That's why that was funny, like when we first got there you did a few of your treats like hey, let me run your dog now, yeah, and just see And I guess it was that I'm either only has he been worked by anybody else before? Was that his first time? Maybe your wife?
Speaker 3:Yeah, With the gun conditioning. Yes, my dad stood down there and threw the bumper with the pistol up in the air, but that was it. But nobody had ever seen.
Speaker 1:Nobody ever like ran Winston.
Speaker 3:So yeah, you were the. you were the first person I got to do that, And then the next episode.
Speaker 2:he was like trying to like he looks at you. He's like, okay, okay, yeah, mark. he's like, okay, i got this. And then, when he picked it up, he's like should I come back?
Speaker 1:to you, or do you want to get back to you?
Speaker 2:Then he finally decided to come back, yep, and I thought that, yeah, that's fun, but it's always like it also takes a little bit of time to you know, for the dog to get to know the handler to you. Yeah, but if you do enough of that like for example in your case, if your dad's going to, maybe you run him, sometimes you're going to run him it's worth getting out there doing enough that Winston's comfortable working with both of you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. My wife's done it a couple of times in the yard, like nothing like super formal, but just like throwing it, and then, while I'm kind of like on the side, but again like sometimes he comes back and he's not sure who to go to. Yeah, but that is. I think that's a. That's a really underrated training that we could do. You know that you could do with your dog, because you never know where you're going to be right, maybe I'm out of the boat adjusting something and I can't be right next to him and my dad needs to send him right. That's, that's a. That'd be a crucial training. That's something that needs to happen. So definitely something we'll look forward to to instilling in our training at some point.
Speaker 2:So it's always funny that the first time you do it the dogs are like mind blowing Like. I didn't know anybody else could work in me, right Oh yeah, oh yeah, he seemed to.
Speaker 3:You know, winston seemed to pick it up. You know he got his mark and you know you called his name and he ran right for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i was happy to see that. Yeah, sometimes you do it and they're like no, I'm not sure about this, or sometimes I'll break or whatever you know even Violet was the same way.
Speaker 3:I mean, she healed right next to me and I gave her. you know, just, she was just getting a little head.
Speaker 3:So you know, i noticed that you did the snap, so I did the snaps with her and she backed right on up, sat down through the mark, brought her back, got her up on place and and then she went for it. So you know, like I said, and that's just the foundation, your training is always going to fall, especially in generalization, any sort of new environment. You know it's going to fall back to how much you've really trained, how much you've done the foundations. And you know again, it's as long as they're there, anybody can really run that dog.
Speaker 2:So did you have any like so I don't know like a big part of like what we do, cornerstones based on, like learning theory and all that. Did you have any? was that like new to you? Like talking about acquisition, fluency, generalization, maintenance and certain things like that. Was that new to you? Maybe familiar with some of that in the background?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so um, actually the beginning. So when you first start the program, there's what like four sessions is what you typically do. It's like four 15 minute session. Well, actually they're like five to 10 minute sessions. So I was like that doesn't sound like a lot of time. Yeah, right, i was thinking, man, i was, i'm going to have to spend hours every single day. Yeah. But you got to realize you got to keep it fun, right, you got to keep it fun when they're really young. And I was like, oh, that's, that's kind of smart, that makes sense. You can't just keep going, keep going, keep going until they're tired. You have to end it when they want to keep doing it. I was like, oh, that makes sense.
Speaker 3:And then, once we got done with those every now and then, and then we finally switched to the one long session where it was like acquisition, you know, handling, and then steadiness, stuff like that I was like, oh, this is I'm really excited for this, because now I don't have to focus on breaking up my, my periods, because usually I'd set a timer in between each session and keep it uniform, but now it's like I just get to work on everything all at once. Yeah, and that was my favorite part, because you know I like to keep him locked in and sometimes and during the beginning periods, is when you would say, all right, go play. And then you have to get them re-engaged and you almost spent that full five, 10 minutes getting them re-engaged to go to the, basically to just go to the next break. So with Winston, you know, throughout a longer duration, now I can just keep him locked in for 45 minutes to an hour and there's no issue. So yeah, that's like a lot of people don't understand.
Speaker 2:you know like, one of the greatest things about when you're working a dog is they learn through that association. So if you always push them to the point to where they're tired, they get tired. They get to learn when they can turn it off. Right, if you, if you cut it off every time before they're tired, they learn that you're the one that cuts it off, which makes sense. when you're going to duck hunt, you don't know when you're going to leave, like we talked about earlier. it's just a classic Everybody. you're sitting out there, you're not killing anything. You start packing your stuff up and all of a sudden you look and the ducks start coming.
Speaker 1:Exactly Right.
Speaker 2:So having the ability to tell your dog when and when it's not going to turn off, and instead of allowing them to turn it off and they don't even recognize it because, ultimately something that just happens naturally, and that's the same thing with any association, like a lot of people, like when they're working on fetch and hold or they're working on getting their dogs to retrieve um, you know, they're okay with some sloppy things- and that's association If you, if you, it's okay to shape that or progress over perfection that, but if you like, let that happen for too much.
Speaker 2:then it becomes an association that's developed and becomes a habit that's created. So, and that was one thing I loved about your dog too, his delivery was nice, on point. He does a good job getting a good solid hold, picking up the bumper, and you're. the cool thing is you're at that stage like you just got out of fetch hold and release your, if you're on 31,. so you've been out for like seven weeks, eight weeks or whatever, and um, so really, from like week 24 to 36, there's a period there to where we call it like the walk jog run. So you, you've been doing obedience, you get into some fetch work and it feels like you're picking up some steam And all of a sudden it's like you turn on the afterburners and everything's like you're just taking off because you're throwing so many new skills at them, because they can handle it, because you built the proper foundation.
Speaker 2:Um, but I loved how you handled him today, like it. there was a couple of times where he didn't grab it perfectly. just a simple correction, how you corrected it. And you know, let's talk about that for a minute, was that? because I think you said that, um, your other dog was trained a little bit differently. uh, kind of old school.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:How has that been different for you? Like learning like that. It doesn't always take like brute force to get them to do it.
Speaker 3:It takes more of a thoughtful process.
Speaker 3:Exactly. So you know, when I, when I was about a freshman in high school, um, i worked for a kennel of German short hair pointers, um, and the dog that I got Oscar, his mom Spice, she was a grand champion and she was a trial dog So she was, like you know, the best of the best, um, and in the trainer he was, i mean, he was an older gentleman So he was just kind of tough on his dogs. So that's pretty much all that I've known My dad. It wasn't really tough on Maverick, you know he had his, he had his moments, but it was, it was a love relationship Like Maverick was that dog that just his drive was from him, he didn't do it to please my dad.
Speaker 3:He wanted to get that bird and he wanted to to bring it back Right. That was his passion, and so, like for a perfect example, that that fetch hold release. You know, that's probably the um, the one thing that we've worked the most on.
Speaker 3:I'm pretty sure I did that for a week and a half, maybe almost two weeks, because if I hold that bumper in front of Winston's face and I told him fetch, he would look at me like I'm stupid. He would just be like what do you want me to do with this? And I'm like you carry this around all the time. What I don't understand And I've watched again. I watched a ton of different videos, even just outside of CGA, to maybe get a different perspective you know, because there's many different ways to do it, like you said.
Speaker 3:Um, and so I took, i took the bumper and I rewarded every small little Niche towards it.
Speaker 3:So like he would come to it as soon as he touched it with his nose click treat. Then he would do it again, click treat, yeah, and Maybe that was our full session for for one day, with just him touching it, because then the next time I would do it. Then he gets a little bit of a bite And then, as soon as his mouth opened just a little bit, instead of like forcing it in there, shove it, i let him walk at his own pace. Yeah, and now it gets to a point where his, like he said, a lot of his holds are right in the middle, and that's, you know, because we worked through that so much, and that was during the winter time too, yeah, so I really had to work on that inside, not outside, because, as you know, puppy teeth are going in and if there's snow on it, it's cold, they don't want to hold it in their mouth.
Speaker 3:And so, doing so inside, focusing on that so much and I mean that just translated right out to the field, which you know I'm super happy to to find. But I also wanted him to heal and turn around at my side versus, you know, coming, and so I would make him hold the bumper and heal and sit and turn around, and so that was kind of part of the whole conditioning that we worked on, yeah, and, like I said, just click-and-treat, click-and-treat at every small little milestone and it just we just worked our way up to it. I just let him go at his own pace. I can't. You know, some guys they'll put their dog in you know A slip, lead tied and they're like you're gonna hold on to this or I'm gonna make you hold on to this. I'm gonna hurt you if you don't hold on to it.
Speaker 3:And that's just not the way that I want to train. You know, even a lot of people. They're like Oh, i see you have an e-collar on your dog, you know, and they already associate that with being, you know, a bad or a mean trainer. But you can see, i'd ever used it once today, right, it was just Sometimes. What it's the biggest thing that it's used for is for him staying in the yard, making sure that, because we don't have a fence up And you know, especially getting close to the road, which he's conditioned not to, but he's a puppy, every now and then he gets close, he's a lab and a puppy, Exactly but yeah, man, he's, you know he's, he's fantastic and Taking those small milestones towards that fetch hold and release and it's really just helped Significantly.
Speaker 3:I think his longest hold is like four minutes. That's so that's as long as that he had. That I recorded.
Speaker 1:But obviously at time. Yeah, that's way too much time, yeah, but you know, push the boundaries man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah might as well push it a little bit. And yeah, it's funny. So I'm a fetch on release. I love how you I Think that's a place in in most programs. So there's whole conditioning, there's force fetch, and then we do process called fetch, hold and release, which is Different than both of those. Really, it's actually simple. It'd be actually be more similar to force fetch than a whole conditioning. Yeah, a different motivation, correct, but what's so funny? we did alive the other night I don't know if you were able to make it on or not, but we did alive and where it was basically on the topic of fetch, hold and release, and so, like you, up into this point, place goes lightning fast. You're gonna get your dog on place in the first day. You're gonna get your dog to hill in the first two days.
Speaker 2:Yeah, three days, you're gonna get your dog to do this and that and then you come and you do this and something they actually naturally do They'll pick things up or treat it. If you throw it, they'll probably go get it and bring it back. They may even put it in your hand. Pretty good, it may not be perfect, but Reason we have that that fetch, hold and release process and you already know this is because we're not leaving anything to chance. Even if you've got a natural delivery, we want to take and perfect that as much as possible. Um, and really because we already talked about association is make sure that when the dog is doing something, it's perfect every time. Yeah, it's not. Practice makes perfect, hard work makes perfect, but perfect practice is gonna make perfect. So you got to practice and get to the place where you can get it perfect. Then you get a practice from there.
Speaker 2:But Anyways, what I thought was funny on the live is like, yeah, people are like We're talking to the members are like man, you know, this seems. It seems like it's taking a long time And because people are trying to force it, they're like, okay, i'm gonna. You know, they expected to go. Good, they're trying to push the bumper in the dog's mouth. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yep, and I get it. It's a, it's an interesting process. We're like Because they do the first thing and the dog touches the bumper of the nose and that's it.
Speaker 2:And then they're like, they feel like it a standstill, but you know, or maybe they don't even touch the bumper. But what I my recommendation was like, you know, i put the odds in my favor, okay so.
Speaker 2:I like to get a well-bred dog. I put the odds in my favor. I like to do everything I do and we call it setting ourselves up for success. It's literally what we say a billion times of videos. But when you know, some people were saying you know, the dog will turn its head. Well, if the dog turns its head, that's an awesome thing. Why? because you can set the bumper closer to them and then they're gonna accidentally bump into the bumper and then you click and treat. You know, instead of you don't want to. One mistake somebody mentioned that they had made on the call Is that they were taking the bumper and then they were pushing it to their nose and then clicking and treating. Well, that's a problem, because the dog didn't do the move. So the dog's like, okay, great, i'll take a treat. Absolutely Exactly, you know.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:So did you have face any of those challenges as you went through? because it sounds like you ran into a little bit And then you finally just realized that I loved what you said. You're rewarding for every incremental little step, any, any step in the direction. You rewarded for it, like saying any progress you rewarded for yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:So I tried a couple of different things. Um, inevitably the one that worked was actually the duck. So we I have, you know, i have like our typical bumpers, you have your puppy bumper, the one that's really small, because I was like He actually held that one the most because it had a smaller circumference at the time and so you know I would put that in his mouth and Because of the way that those are made like, with the kind of like the wingers on the side, that it makes him hold it in the middle. And so, once we got to a period of working our way through all that, which legitimately was hours of getting him to do that, that wasn't just something that happened overnight. Like I said, about a week and a half, i think, is what we.
Speaker 2:That's actually really not that bad.
Speaker 3:You know, we can have that's really not that bad, But when you're doing it every single night it wasn't like It feels Monday Trish because like is this gonna turn out?
Speaker 2:is this?
Speaker 3:gonna turn out, you know. So, like I said, every little, every little victory, legitimately, even if he held it, like he would come to a point where it would come in his mouth and he would just drop it, i would still click and treat. I'm like you're, you're Progressively getting to where we want you to be. And then, eventually, what I did is I actually went on to Retriever, retriever training supply and I bought the wrong size bumper. I bought the goose, the giant one, yeah, and so we did the hold conditioning and then we started to do marks with that and because it was such, you know, so much larger than all the other ones, he had no issue with it Interesting, but he wouldn't grab it from the side.
Speaker 2:It was the only bumper that he never cigars, that he always just holds right in the middle, and so because heavy to really kind of grab it for me because they're like Right, exactly a little drag exactly, and he's not super high off the ground, so it really worked in our favor.
Speaker 3:And then, once he got conditioned with that, i bought the other ones, and because it was so much easier for him to just hold right in the middle, because he was conditioned for the Larger size dummy, that's really what that that's almost made his, his delivery perfect. I you know it can be different for everybody, but you know that was, that was the way that I That I tackled it. It was pretty cool, it was perfect, so a mistake ended up being super beneficial for us.
Speaker 2:I ended up making your life easier.
Speaker 3:That's hilarious. I love that.
Speaker 2:Well, so we transitioned out of that now from week 23, i believe, is where we in federal and release to you. So starting 24 year transition in the field to where you're at now. What's been the last series of weeks been like 40s fry? is it been like, obviously you're doing so much new things? How how is that gone when you're introducing so many new things at once?
Speaker 3:So my biggest I would say the biggest mistake that I took on the entire Program so far was the launcher.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I got really excited to use the launcher, and that's just because it's the, the most simulated feeling to the real thing, with the, with a lot bang and him still getting it and everything. So. So I went to Cabela's and I got my launcher Because the, the lucky duck one that I really wanted, was out of. You know, the one that you put on your hip and launch out, so that one was out of order, and I really wanted that for the extra hand, but I didn't. You know, they didn't have it, not a big deal and so I grabbed that and I I think we were still like three weeks away from it and I Just got way too ahead of myself and I kind of like I still did the same Progression of getting closer to him. I started like 50 yards away, but I started off from the side, almost like a remote retrieve, and then I got really, really close And at the time I thought that he got scared of it, which is why he was jumping off the platform.
Speaker 3:Every time that I would go to just pull it down because he would resonate the sound of the spring And so that's kind of. That was part of our place because he was on place. So then he associated that training and everything. So I was like, oh man, i was like that I can kind of see how now he doesn't want to go on place because he's. I thought he was scared because if I would set Now, then once we got to that training I realized that he just wanted to break to go.
Speaker 2:He was ready to, just want to beat the bump. Oh, that's hilarious.
Speaker 3:So the most you know. as far as our training goes, he was really good with the pistol, you know we started out and then worked our way in. but it probably took anywhere from about three to 400 shots for him to really get kind of used to it, conditioned to the pistol, to where I could go up, put it behind my back, throw it out, shoot it. He wouldn't have any sort of issue with it, cause what I would do is I would throw it out there and then I would pretend like I'm shooting it And then during that move of me quickly going like that, he would. that's where he would break.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, and so then once.
Speaker 3:I once, you know once, we just kind of worked our way through that. I took his lead, put it down, i put my foot on it And I was like you're not going to break It's. You know, this isn't something that's going to freak out. So I threw it and this is something that I didn't reward the the treat through. I didn't really want to do that at all, cause I, you know, we were really far past those And again, you just slowly, slowly work on it. I mean, i was even throwing down these five yards in front of his face with the pistol. Again, it's just those small progression that's really got us to it. But the difference is that he didn't really get everything like right away. At everything We've had to work for every single sort of foundation, every sort of advanced movement.
Speaker 3:We've just put in the hours to get to where he is, and that's all that it really is.
Speaker 2:So it's just work, but it's fun, it's very enjoyable. Well, most days it's fun. There are some days you're like I don't know if that's a good question.
Speaker 3:You know, even on the bad days, dude, I try to look at it and I'm like, even on a bad day, I'm still outside and I'm training my dog. You know, what am I going to be doing else besides this? even if it's a bad day, I could be at work, I could be sitting watching a TV, not being productive, But you know, I'm creating a bond in a relationship with, you know, my best friend, my hunting buddy, You know. So that's where I like to take it, because he's, you know, if he was a human he'd know everything about me because he's just my best friend in any way. You know, like driving through the field, You know, that's like one of the best moments that you can have driving with the truck, with your dog right next to you, And on some hot ground dude it's a really surreal moment.
Speaker 3:So that's what we look forward to a lot, so that's awesome.
Speaker 2:This episode of the Build From Here podcast is brought to you by Retriever Training. Supply Gear your retriever will love. Bring the market for some new training dummies. Maybe you need a Kato board, a launcher or really anything else you need for your retriever training journey. You can find it at RetrieverTrainingSupplycom. Go ahead, visit RetrieverTrainingSupplycom. Find the gear your retriever will love. So kind of talking about just you know your relationship and connection with him. What's you know was that a big part of doing it yourself Was like the idea cause, clearly, i guess, maverick. He had a pretty strong connection with Maverick. How let's talk about that, even the connection now with Winston and Maverick and comparing all of that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I remember when we first got Maverick, actually a couple of our friends, a couple of my brother and I's friends, were with us, and then my dad and we went and picked him up And then, you know, i carried him in my arms all the way home. But yeah, we just you know, maverick was our dog. So on top of the bonding that my dad and I had through duck hunting cause, you know, i was a young man at the time So I went from 12 to you know now you know that's a really important, especially in a young boy's life So you know and my dad's my role model, so that followed along with creating bond with him and Maverick cause.
Speaker 3:Maverick was always with us wherever we went And so getting a dog of my own like I, understanding my dad's relationship that he has with Maverick is just so much tighter than like, so much stronger than what it was Like. You can see it from a surface, but until you actually go through it, like I've gone through with Winston, you'll never understand the bond that you can have with just one dog that you spend countless hours with, just working on it and bringing the potential that he has out of him. So again, you know Winston was a. Winston wasn't a dog where he had just like this insane stacked pedigree and just you know, everybody knew the breeder and all that stuff. I just got him in literally in the middle of nowhere in Michigan from this guy Jared, and he had so many pups that he was he just way too many at once And I think he had like two or three litters at one time, which is what he didn't want.
Speaker 3:One of the yeah, one of the dogs you know obviously created the third litter that he didn't want And so he was just he was selling dogs at a cheaper price. And so, winston, i literally got for like $300, you know nothing, nothing crazy. And so that, yeah, that's like I'm saying. That just shows you that if you just put in the time, you know he had, he still had his paperwork. So he was AKC registered, had the full pedigree, had all the paperwork and made sure that he's pure red And cause I wanted a pure red. You know, that was my one stipulation And I was geared to spend five, eight, you know, even up to $1300 on a dog right.
Speaker 3:You know, typical price And he was listed for 500. He's like, yeah, i'll do it for three. And I was like I'm on my way, like I'm coming right now, and so we get Winston. And you know, of course there's always going to be that little bit of speculation of you know, is he going to have it in him? right? And ever since day one, man just spending time with him as a puppy, spending more time with him even as an adult now, or I guess a young adult technically he's almost seven in real life, but, yeah, so he turns one next month and, man, that time just flies by And you get so focused on the week to week.
Speaker 3:Okay, what? what are we doing next? What are we doing next? And You realize I'm like man, i spend like all my time with Winston, even when I go inside, right. We go watch a movie, he's cuddling you. We go to bed, he's cuddling you, right is, he's literally is like a child. And and you know, and I can, i can tell when he's about to to run off, i can tell when he's in a bad movie, i can tell when he's tired, i can, you know, i just so many antics, right, because I've spent so much time with him That I guess I never really focused on or really kind of like comprehended. Even with Maverick There are some small things here and there, but With Winston like going from Winston to violet I was like I can't pick up on any of her antics, because I, i just don't know her as a handler.
Speaker 3:Right, winston man, i could tell you everything that he's about to do just by his demeanor. It's just the way that the training is created. And just spending that much time, it's just, yeah, it's just the way that is. So it's very eye-opening to me and like I would take a bullet for that dog, i would do anything for that dog, just because of what We've both grown in our own ways as a handler and as a dog. And you know, i I'm excited to see where we can take him.
Speaker 2:You know that's awesome, so I look forward to it. Well, that bond is tight and y'all are. y'all aren't finished yet You still got some weeks ahead, but clearly we're, we're in. Uh, you know, getting approaching season, you know it's. People typically at least in my experience, don't seem to really start thinking about season till after a little bit later in the summer. But I mean, i'm already thinking about yeah, what's what's your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2:So clearly you're going to be hunting with Winston this year. He's ready, he's by anybody's standard, i would say, right now He's a great dog. Yeah, like I mean that just if anybody saw that dog man, that's a good dog. So obviously there's still a lot of training left between here and there to get to where We can get him. What's, uh, what are you most excited about moving forward and, kind of what, what do you envision this season looking like for you?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So my dad and I took a little bit of a different approach this upcoming year. So typically we've always hunted out of boats. Um, you know, we have a duck water right now. We had a war eagle with maverick. We've really done everything with maverick. So we have a karsens pentail, yeah, and then we hunted out of a war eagle and now we have a duck water and maverick's been through all of those. So, out of all of them, it's nice with the pintao because you can get nice and low and in cover and you can Typically pulling more ducks, and so that's kind of the way that we looked at it.
Speaker 3:And ascend has a really nice kayak Which is the h12. It's 12 foot long. It's got two bays in the front, in the middle, or sorry, in the front, in the back, yeah, um, and then northern flight has a blind that goes on top of that specific kayak. That's got like a seat in it and everything right. Um, so that gets us our little profile and then winston is going to be in the back. So As far as our training, um, you know, as far as our hunting for this year, that's what we're really going to go towards. More is sitting in something like that. So I'm really excited to be able to get into spots and more of an opportunity for winston to, you know, get more, you know, ducks, um and geese, whatever it may be, hopefully more ducks, because that's, that's my favorite tissue. I really like those. Oh yeah, so that training, so our training is going to gear us up for that. So the water obviously the water aspect is going to be the really big training, but also I'm really excited for whistle, stop and hand signals.
Speaker 3:You know, that's kind of like the flashy part of Of what you're doing. You know it's crucial if he doesn't understand where duck is, so but like to send him, whistle him, sit down and you direct him like that. That right, there's going to be just something that's so cool that I haven't seen from you know a lot of other handlers. You know some people don't go that far. They just scream and shout and say, hey, over there. You know, yeah, maverick got hand signals, so, um, we never really had to use him that much because he was a great marking dog. But with winston, you know, like I said, you never know um being in thicker cover with a kayak, like that, it's going to be crucial. So that's something we're not going to skip over and that's something we're definitely going to get ingrained in And see where it takes us.
Speaker 3:So that's exciting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know a lot of people like think I don't think I need all that hand signal stuff, i just need a dog that'll hunt. Now I will say there's nothing wrong with that, right. But I mean, once you've got to the point where you're at now where a dog could hunt, it's not that much more work just to keep you going a little bit. I mean, most of your work It's heavily. It's heavily weighted on the front, yeah, and there's detail work on the back end, finishing work but it's definitely Um, heavily weighted on the front of just like as far as the labor intensive stuff goes. Once you get out to where you're We're traving with your dog, i mean that's how can you really count that as work? I mean that's kind of like let's just straight up fun.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, if you can train a dog to go on their name and study this and bring a dog, or bring a duck and come back, you can do hand signals Absolutely, and I think even hand signals were like week 15 or 18, like you know, you bouncing them back and forth between the the place boards. So you know, it's definitely something that is is crucial that you should. Oh, i mean, like I said, you don't have to know, you don't, but Sometimes even the dog can't find the duck, depending on where it landed, or if you shot five of them at once And they don't know where all of them are. You know. So it's definitely proven to be helpful.
Speaker 2:Yeah absolutely I love it. I I mean most of my hunts. I mean we got to have hand signals just because I mean we're shooting and we're gonna hit some ducks. Oh yeah, they might now, they might not always fold, we're gonna hit them.
Speaker 3:They're gonna go down I don't know what that's like.
Speaker 2:I mean, i'm I like, i like my favorites when we fold them dead.
Speaker 1:But oh man you know you have to be prepared.
Speaker 2:You have to be prepared for every situation and we've, goodness, we've had multiple situations where we've had We've even got footage of uh violet on one hunt. This was like the last day. I think we have a cgtv episode out on this. I don't know if we posted it or not, but if we haven't, we need to. Are talking our camera guy there, but we This was literally like the last 30 minutes. Like we we were in Kansas, like we're getting ready because it's like this is the last day of duck season And like we're not shooting anything. We got to go and we're sitting there And two ducks come in. We kill them.
Speaker 2:We had a cga member, this tom form, and so we're out, helm retrieve First, and then the last bird was barely hit And uh, but it went way out in the buck brush. So it's total blind retrieve. We just had to cast her back. And then also having her go off vocal too, because at one point she got into the buck brush Where she couldn't see me or just like, go back, go back, you know, when she just kept going and went up getting the. That's awesome. So that was, that was fun. But that stuff, i think, is, if you want to be To me. if you're the dog guy, i think you definitely should invest in a little bit of that time.
Speaker 2:It's so much fun and it's gonna pay off and people when you pick up a duck like that, people like That's awesome.
Speaker 1:That's crazy. You gotta have you come back.
Speaker 2:We gotta, we gotta go hunting again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, yeah. The. The flashy parts of stuff like that is always, is always fun. I remember when maverick got a retrieve like that in the, in the straights when we went And it was choppy water. I mean one, one little, maybe maybe two footers, but for a dog.
Speaker 1:That's very chat.
Speaker 3:That's very choppy. Yeah right, you got to be careful, um, and he did just over a hundred yard retrieve in the water, and it was that's insane. Yeah, i mean, at that time I think we had eight guys with us in two boats and they were just astounded.
Speaker 1:They were like.
Speaker 3:Holy moly and maverick just came back and dropped it. I mean, it was like a mic drop, just like a stud. I was like, yeah, i'm like, yeah, he's, he's a good dog, he's that guy.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. I love those moments. It's like everybody's calm. Everything becomes still after the chaos. And then everybody's watching the dog that go out there and it's like just you can hear a pin drop Here's like are they gonna get?
Speaker 1:it? Yeah, they gonna get it, and then boom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they get it, or if they don't, they don't, but Oh yeah, it's uh that's fun. Well, man, it's just an honor to have you here. It's an honor to have you take the time to Drive down here to come train. I've enjoyed training with you. It was fun getting some training footage out there. Getting to show some behind the scenes of you actually in week 31 showing some of like actually showing and teaching Winston and he learned pretty quick.
Speaker 2:You know, still got some more sessions to do, but he was like, from when we started to where he was, he was clicking. I thought that was cool, um, and it's just an honor to see your passion for this too. Oh, yeah, that's I know when I taught, taught to you originalize that man. You just, yeah, i can see your excitement about it, you love it, you're passionate about it. So it's, uh, i mean, for us, we're always just proud of our members. We're proud of you for putting in the work, um, and for you know, using our program right. Without you it just wouldn't work because you've got you people like you got to Put in the work to make it happen, to show that it works. And, uh, winston's a great dog. I'm really proud of him. I was stoked to see how he's done, um. So, man, you've done a good job with him, you've done an incredible job.
Speaker 3:Oh, thank you, man, and the honors is all mine and my family's. You know, as soon as we got the call and you guys want to just come down, we were, i was, i was jazzing at the bit, couldn't wait until my dad. I said you have no idea where I'm going in three weeks, that's awesome, So um you know.
Speaker 3:We just appreciate the platform that you guys have and, of course, the members as well. You guys are fantastic. You know, whenever anybody has an issue, we can always come to you guys and know that it's a safe place and that we're not going to be judged for whatever we're doing, um in this eye opening. So it's great to have a place like that, just in case you hit a roadblock, because you never know, um. So you know from myself and my family we appreciate you guys, appreciate all the members. Thank you for letting us come out here in the opportunity to do this, because this is definitely This is definitely one to mark off the bucket list. So, thank you, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:We appreciate you Well, and in honor of closing this podcast out, like we always do. For me, it's about, like you know, it's about getting y'all's perspective. Like we're, we believe in our members and You've learned a lot like even up until this point. You've learned a lot like From where you started to where you are now. Like you, you're knowing how like you're you're actually. You're a solid place for training Dog because, like you know what it means. I love how you handle violet and how you like you, adapted really quick with her. Um, that just goes to show that you've really studied and learned the program. So What would you? what's your advice? I know we kind of talked about patience. Is that kind of like, your Last like, if you had one piece of advice to give somebody that's thinking about doing this, is that kind of like? hey, your advice or we got anything else?
Speaker 3:Yeah, i would say two things patience and confidence. Know that, as a handler, you have to have confidence in yourself And you have to have confidence in your dog. So The main thing I would say, number one, is patience. You just I'm telling you, don't blow up on your dog, because if you blow up on your dog that's going to create a bad memory.
Speaker 3:So, having good patience, even if they do something wrong, just soft correction, you know, do what you need to do, get them back on, and if it keeps going bad, you know you can always just stop it and try a new session. But always patience is number one, um, but confidence is number two. Like, for my background, i never had, i've never done this before, right, and you've seen where Winston can go from somebody Who's literally never done this before. So, um, to say that your program doesn't work would be an absolute lie. So anybody can, legitimately, anybody can do it, as long as you guys just stick to the script, watch the videos, do your homework, um, and do what you're supposed to do and follow through, and anybody can do it. So just have confidence in yourself as a person, as a handler, that that you can do it. So that's awesome.
Speaker 2:And we appreciate you and I look forward to continuing this journey with you. And uh appreciate the the advice for sharing with everybody and uh, we'll be uh obviously following along your journey, and then looking forward to seeing this fall. This is the. The super bowl is coming, the big, big moments come And we're gonna get out there and get your dog in the field and I think it's gonna be, think it's gonna be a good moment.
Speaker 3:So I can't wait to see it. Yeah, no, it sure is, i'm looking forward to it. that, uh, that that first duck that comes down, is going to be a surreal moment, so I'm looking forward to it. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:And well, thank you, and uh build from here.
Speaker 3:All right, sounds good.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the build from here podcast. To learn more about retriever training or our podcast, visit cornerstonegundogacademycom slash podcast.