Build From Here
An Unforgettable Opening Day | Todd Sanders
It's amazing how one simple duck hunt can change everything.
Some 17 years ago, one simple duck hunt transformed CGA Member Todd Sanders from a deer hunter into a duck hunter nearly instantaneously.
From that day forward, Todd has been in a passionate pursuit of the sport of waterfowl hunting.
All waterfowlers can agree a good dog can make or break a hunt. Todd decided to take his hunting a step further by finding a good dog.
Todd's dog Tusk made an incredible debut on his first hunt that etched a joyful memory into Todd's life forever.
Want to hear the details of Todd's unforgettable first hunt with his dog Tusk? Listen to this podcast to find out more.
Ready to train your dog with confidence? Follow our three-step simple plan below...
1. Purchase
2. Follow the Videos
3. Enjoy Your Dog
BuildFromHere,
Cornerstone Gundog Academy
It's amazing how one simple duck hunt can change everything.
Some 17 years ago, one simple duck hunt transformed CGA Member Todd Sanders from a deer hunter into a duck hunter nearly instantaneously.
From that day forward, Todd has been in a passionate pursuit of the sport of waterfowl hunting.
All waterfowlers can agree a good dog can make or break a hunt. Todd decided to take his hunting a step further by finding a good dog.
Todd's dog Tusk made an incredible debut on his first hunt that etched a joyful memory into Todd's life forever.
Want to hear the details of Todd's unforgettable first hunt with his dog Tusk? Listen to this podcast to find out more.
Ready to train your dog with confidence? Follow our three-step simple plan below...
1. Purchase
2. Follow the Videos
3. Enjoy Your Dog
BuildFromHere,
Cornerstone Gundog Academy
cornerstone gundog academy online resources to help you train your retriever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I'm excited to have you on, so we'll dive in. Welcome to the build from here podcast. I'm just so excited. I've got a great friend, uh, here and, honestly, an incredible cga member. His name's todd, todd sanders. Cool thing about todd is you live pretty close by in the tuscaloosa area, so that's right. Um, not too far away, and just over the past two, three years, I've just been able to see you grow. So you are really, I guess, about three years now. Tusca is about three years old, so I've been able to see you grow as a trainer grow and your dog grow, and just seeing y'all go through all kinds of different phases and challenges and overcome them and to be where y'all are at today has just been incredible. It's been an honor. So super excited to have you on and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you. So thank you for having me here. It's a privilege on my part.
Speaker 2:You bet it's always an honor to bring people on. We bring people on that we feel that have invested. We've seen you invest in your dog and you've just treated everything right. You've taken the time and you've brought your dog into your family and just did the things the way that ultimately fit your schedule. So I'm excited. We're going to talk a little bit about that in a bit, but before we kind of dive into all that, I want to go way back to your first memory of hunting that you can think of, Because the dogs for me the dogs, it's all about getting them on the hunt, and I hunt because I enjoy hunting with the dogs. But I do remember myself. There was just memories that I have of something when I first went outdoors and I was hooked. That first experience is like I got to get back out here for more. So for you, what was that experience, and was it a good experience? Was it a bad experience?
Speaker 1:After doing these podcasts.
Speaker 2:I found that some people have an interesting experience not as good as you'd expect, but something about it draws them back out anyways.
Speaker 3:Right. Well, my hunting experience has started back. I'm thinking I was around 10 years old, wow, but it was deer hunting. My dad had gotten into deer hunting and he started taking me along and I think I was 10, 11 years old and I deer hunted for years, loved it. Never did duck hunt, wow, up until it's been around 17 years. My wife now we were dating then and her oldest son was a duck hunter. He and his best friend duck hunted and had for a couple of years and just over with them I think it was two or three days before opening day, they were out in the yard getting their decoys ready, doing this and doing that and I'm like so y'all duck hunting, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah Okay.
Speaker 3:I've never done that, you know. And got towards the end of the week and I remember asking you know, you think they would mind if I tag along with them? I said I'd kind of like to go see what that's like. She said no, I don't think they would Just ask them. So I did and I said, sure, come on. So we, I went with them opening morning and had on way too many clothes. It was cold but I still felt like I was headed to Alaska. I guess I remember by the time we got through setting decoys out and trying to get set up, I had to shed clothes because I was sweating. But I'm thinking we shot three, maybe four wood ducks, probably shot at. I think I may have shot a box of shells, but they were flying a lot different from doves, which I dove hunted a good bit, and low light conditions. So my shooting was not very good at all but I was addicted at that point.
Speaker 3:Like I said I think we shot three or four wood ducks and got through with the hunt, went back home. I said I think we shot three or four wood ducks and, uh, got through with the hunt, went back home. Uh, I said hey, you want to go back this afternoon? He said yeah, let's go, so that's where it started.
Speaker 3:That's so cool. I may have gone deer hunting two more times that season. Wow, I was focused on duck hunting. I mean I went the very next week. I had borrowed a pair of waders from a buddy of mine. I didn't even own a pair of waders. I said, hey, don't you have a pair of waders? He said yeah, I said I need them. So he, uh, he loaned me those and but the next week I went and bought a pair of waders. I went and bought a nice coat you know more suitable for duck hunting, and I was hooked. I mean it just something about it the effort that you put into it to get ready for the hunt and then watching the birds come in, it was. I got addicted quick to it and I don't even think after that season that I ever even got in another deer lease.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 3:I thought no, I'm duck hunting. Oh man, that's how I got into the duck hunting part of it and I've been going at it ever since then. I love it.
Speaker 2:I feel the feeling's mutual. For me, it's just something about everything. It's this beautiful symphony of everything just coming together and every part coming together that just draws me in. I still love deer hunting, but if I had a choice to go on a really awesome duck hunt oh yeah or a deer hunt, I would probably choose the duck hunt yeah, especially with the dogs. I mean that, yeah, there's the dogs, there's the calling, there's the decoys, there's the getting up early, there's everybody being a team. I love the team aspect of duck hunting, just how it's not just you, it's we got a group of guys, we're going on a mission, we're accomplishing something together and that. I think that's what gets me too. But that's uh, that's really cool how things got tied around and in there. So do you still duck hunt with them a good bit?
Speaker 3:yeah, we hunt the same. Those were. That was my stepson now and since then I introduced or I say I introduced, I introduced my oldest son because he'd never been until I finally got him to go my. I've got another son that he hunts some but he's more into the deer because of the slow hunts. For duck hunting he's like no, I'd rather go shoot a big deer. He'll go duck hunting with us from time to time but there was a few years that he did go hot and heavy, bought the boat with the surface drive, all of this, but he's more into deer hunting. But my oldest son, he's in a local lease there close to us. As a matter of fact, I got in on part of that lease with him this year. My first several years was all public river hunting.
Speaker 2:Oh man.
Speaker 3:Anybody that's done that knows that's the toughest route to go, and uh, it was. It was a lot of work with very little. You know production 100 and uh. But I've started in the last two or three years hunting some private land with a friend of mine and then, of course, got this other lease. So it's it's more suitable. Once you get older you get tired of fighting that crowd and fighting the foggy rivers in the boat and all this. So this is a lot more convenient, so it's a lot more enjoyable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that that adds a an aspect to it's.
Speaker 3:I think everybody has their their, uh, their public hunts everybody needs to do the public hunting for a while to appreciate it when you get somewhere. That's a lot simpler.
Speaker 2:Makes life different. So you got hooked. That's been years ago. Okay, what was the first? Was there a dog on that hunt? But did it come later? When was your first experience?
Speaker 3:seeing a dog on a hunt. I bought a dog that same year, first year duck hunted. Did you buy it for duck hunting? Yes, okay, I thought you know I got to have us a dog. Yep, went to the newspaper, went and looked at three or four litters they're local Bought a little female Abby and knew absolutely nothing about training a dog. I've had dogs my whole life but they've always just been pets Right, and I thought I'm going to train this dog to be a duck dog. Well, that did not turn out well.
Speaker 3:She would go pick it up if she saw it hit the water or if she saw it hit the ground and bring it back to me, but that was about as far as we ever got. And then I only hunted her a couple of years. She got injured and lived for a long time, but I didn't hunt her any after that. But my dog fever came around several years later. I want to say it's six, seven years ago maybe. I had a buddy that invited me to go to Arkansas. He was in a lease out there and invited me to go duck hunting with him out there and I did and he had a nice dog and I can remember, especially the first morning I paid more attention to Gage sitting there on that dog stand because he was watching the sky he knew what we were there for and just watching his eyes when the birds came in and watching his demeanor. It was like that's pretty cool, this dog knows what his job is. It was like that's pretty cool, this dog knows what his job is and, uh, that's pretty neat to watch. And then for him to go out there, pick up your bird, bring it right back to you, jump back up on that stand and sit and wait for the next one. I'm like I'm gonna have me one of those one day. Wow and uh, we had two dogs. Of course I still had my lab ab Abby, and then we always had another dog as well and I thought, ah, three dogs is too many, so I'll just wait.
Speaker 3:And time went by and my lab Abby, she was on up, 12, 13 years old and getting real slow, and I thought you know, I think I'm ready for me another dog. So that's when I started looking. I found the guy or the dog that I wanted. I had seen a brother of his from a previous litter and got in touch with the guy. I said, hey, you going to have any more breedings this same breeding? He said, yeah, matter of fact, got one to be here in a month or so. I said that's the litter I want in on. And so we made that work out. He was born in December. Of course, I went and picked him up in February, which suited me fine. I did not want a new puppy during hunting season because I didn't think it would go over well if I left every weekend morning before daylight and had a puppy there for my wife to have to tend to you know when she would rather sleep in a little bit, you know.
Speaker 3:But all of that worked out great. I had told him what I was looking for in a dog that the same thing everybody says they want. They want the dog that is like a bullet when you're working and they want the dog that lays his head on the pillow with that off switch. And that's what I was really looking for. That's not what I had with my first lab. Really, she was high strung up until she was 12 years old.
Speaker 3:I always accused her of being on crack or something. I mean, she was just constantly at something, but she finally slowed down the last couple of years. But I wanted something that would just lay at my feet in the house but yet be willing and interested in working out in the field. And that's what I got. That's awesome. I've been very satisfied with him. That's amazing. But so got him and was trying to determine the training process.
Speaker 2:Yeah, your last one. You just kind of went about it just on instinct, and then Right, it was just a random.
Speaker 3:That was at that time and I'm not real super savvy with research on the Internet and what have you, but at that time that wasn't even a possibility for me. If it was around, I didn't pay it any attention. So, I was just kind of going with what I thought would work which didn't any attention.
Speaker 3:So I was just kind of going with what I thought would work, which didn't. But I got to looking for a program. I thought I need to get me a program. I know there's been books there's been. You know I can watch some stuff on YouTube and I don't even remember now who mentioned it.
Speaker 3:But someone mentioned the CGA program and I had seen it advertised a couple of times and not really paid that much attention until I really got to searching and I thought let me look at this and I did and I even called I don't remember now who I spoke to, maybe Sarah, I don't remember and I asked a few questions about it and of course she explained everything that I was interested in asking and I just decided that's the program I'm going to go with and we're going to give this thing a whirl. And so I ordered the program I'm thinking it was in December, before I even had picked Tusk up. So I got started with that and watching a few videos and, of course, waiting to go pick up my puppy as soon as that day came. I couldn't wait for that to happen.
Speaker 2:Oh, I bet, I bet.
Speaker 3:That's when the journey began. And got him, got him settled in for a couple of days and I'm like, all right, boy, let's go to school. That's awesome. So that's when we started.
Speaker 2:Man, there's nothing quite like the anticipation waiting to go pick up a pup, right, I mean puppy pickup day, that's a fun day, and so you got him, got him back, and I think you made a good move on getting it early. I recommend that for anybody, um, just because you can watch some of the stuff and be fully prepared when you get that dog home, because their stuff, I mean, I mean it's no lie when you get that puppy home the first night, it's, it's on as far as like, look, they're gonna be whining. You got to learn how to deal with all that type of stuff and so when you're starting to get sleep deprivation, you need to have already known what to do beforehand, versus trying to figure it out and being desperate.
Speaker 3:And I was lucky with him. I had, of course, the kennel in the back of the truck that he didn't ride in on the way back.
Speaker 1:My wife.
Speaker 3:I had a three-and-a-half-hour ride to pick him up and my wife went with me, and of course he laid in her lap for a little while man. Then he laid in my lap for a little while, and he may have whined once or twice the first night.
Speaker 3:That's incredible, and maybe a couple of nights, I don't really remember, but it wasn't. I thought, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it right. I set my alarm for every two hours and I would get up and take him outside, watch him use the bathroom, take him right back in, put him back in his crate, go back to bed. Wow, and I did that until I could tell you know, as time progressed he could go a little bit longer and a little bit longer, until it just finally worked out to where you know, over time he stayed in there all night long. That's incredible. I was real persistent with the program that I was trying to go with. My wife even told me, said man, never seen you, this patient.
Speaker 1:I'm like okay you know that's so cool. We're working on it, wow.
Speaker 3:But I guess I was lucky with that process. I don't think he had but two, maybe three accidents in the house. That's incredible the whole time, which I expected it to be worse than that. That's incredible. And those were of course my fault for not reading the signs. But I took him to work with me from day one and I would put him in an office in his crate and I would go get him every couple hours and it didn't take long before a couple of people that worked with me they wanted to be a part of that so they would go take him outside for me oh that's amazing, and I think of, of course, that helped with the bonding part because he was there all day wow, you know people paying attention to him and uh helped with the crate training process.
Speaker 2:so I feel like that's nice if you can do it that way. It's harder if you have to. It's doable either way, but it's harder if you have, to like, leave them for 10 hours or gone and then get home. So how was kind of coming into things with a program this time? What was your experience like versus just going at it blindly?
Speaker 3:Well, I'm the type person that I can read something and I can take something from it and I can take something from it, but if I can visually see it happening, it sticks with me a lot better. I've always been that way. It's kind of like a hands-on thing. If I can watch somebody do something, it's just easier for me than reading.
Speaker 2:It Makes sense it's just easier for me than reading.
Speaker 3:It Makes sense. So watching the videos and step by step I mean, I had watched videos of people dog training before, but you don't always see what's actually going to happen. You always see the end result. You don't see the process that you have to go through to get to that point. And if you watch someone else struggle I won't say fail, I'll say struggle with something you get an idea as how to work through that problem because you're going to see the same struggle and it's going to happen. It may not happen today, but it's going to happen.
Speaker 3:Wow. And as long as you've seen how someone you know stepped in there, what they did to fix the problem, it's just a lot easier and things go a lot smoother. Yeah, and to me, that's what y'all have done with this program. You've taught people like myself who don't know how to do something. You've showed us how to do it Wow. And it's an easy process. It's not always easy to get the results. Sometimes it takes a little bit more work in some stages than it does other stages, but the process is easy. You've made it look simple and all you've got to do is just work at it. Wow. So I've been very happy. That's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, tusk is, uh, that's turned out. I mean, it's been really. It's really cool, just uh, that's amazing to see. So when you started, you kind of you're learning, step're learning step by step, just trusting the process. What uh, what was kind of your first major win with him. But when, when, kind of like whoa, you know this, I'm really like I believe this is gonna really work for us.
Speaker 3:Um, the first major win. I guess I'm like everybody. When you first start out and you tell that dog to sit and he sits, you're like man. That's pretty cool, that's so cool. And then you tell the dog to place and he places. The first few weeks they pick up really quick and you feel like you've got the greatest retriever that the world has ever seen, because they're doing exactly what you're telling them to do. That's so cool. Exactly when you tell them you know, I'm like man, this dude here is smart.
Speaker 3:Well, then you get into the process of starting to train them for other things. That's when you have to really get on the same level with them, right, wow, it may come natural to to them, but you've got to teach it to them what you're asking them to do, right? And I think my first while we're getting somewhere was on a extended place. I really worked on that because I wanted my dog to be able. I really worked on that because I wanted my dog to be able to go outside. If I'm out in my front yard I don't live on a busy street but there's a few cars and I want to mow my lawn and I want my dog sitting out there, I want him to sit wherever I put him and just watch me mow grass. You know, and that was probably my first while he's picking up, because it got to the point I could place him and I could walk to the opposite side of the house or I could walk up the street and he would still. It took a little while of me walking a distance, turning around and maybe giving him this signal no, verbal, but you know, here's what I want you to do, but it got to that point where he was getting really good at that.
Speaker 3:I mentioned before I have two dogs. I would take both of them on a walk and I would pick this particular man's driveway that he was older and I knew he wasn't leaving. I would sit Tess down in his driveway, right, you know, a few feet off the street, and I'd just tell him to stay. I would continue my walk with the other dog all the way to the end of the street into the cul-de-sac, come back and at first occasionally turning around and giving him this sign, and sometimes I would stop and bring him back with me for the remainder of the walk. Sometimes I would keep on back towards our house and maybe walk up in my driveway and then call him and have him come, or what have you? Walk up in my driveway and then call him and have him come, or what have you? Wow, that was my first super proud moment, I think, was the fact when he learned that once I tell you to stay somewhere, that's what I expect.
Speaker 3:That was my first, I guess major step that really caught my attention.
Speaker 2:That's such an important skill set too, and very few dogs will do that unless you train them to do it. I mean they will if you train them to do it, but very few people take the time to train that. Right, I mean that's a very important skill set. I know a lot of times we're talking about retrieving skills here, but the obedience skills are literally everything, because that's what's going to create a real duck dog. The retrieving skills all that comes later. But that right there. Number one that's impressive to be able to have a dog sit there while you're walking another dog around, even with all the distractions around. But number two that's just. It gotta be a great feeling just knowing like, hey, my dog, if I tell it to sit, I don't even have to worry about it, it's going to chill there.
Speaker 3:I'm pretty confident in him. There are some distractions that can make him lose his mind for a minute, you know. Oh yeah, no.
Speaker 2:They're still dogs. At the end of the day, they're still dogs.
Speaker 3:He still has a memory lapse from time to time. To me that's just a safe thing to teach him. Could be danger around, I don't want him wondering. But that was my first major wow. I think my next one would have been I could not wait through this whole process to get to the whistle stop and the casting.
Speaker 2:That's what you're looking for too, oh wow.
Speaker 3:Of course we had the whistle stop. Pretty good, walk in and tweet. The whistle sit. And it got started out ahead of me a little bit and all, but once we finally worked and I had to start off with a long line to get the stop Right. But once that started shaping up I remember thinking this is what we've been working for. Wow, now then I can stop him somewhere and I can tell him where I want him to go to make the retrieve and the first few whistle stops and cast in the right direction.
Speaker 3:That was another big, big step for me.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah to me that's a monumental moment. I mean, all that's important but like, especially when you get to a place where you can blow the whistle, the dog stops and looks at you and then you direct it. I remember back when I was first learning my very first dog and when I got to that point I was just like blown away. I could not believe that a dog's listening to this little whistle right and just gonna take my little directions. I just couldn't believe it. It was the most amazing thing.
Speaker 3:And then it that's probably what hooked me on training dogs the most was that right there, it's probably what hooks a lot of people because that's, you've got a team, yeah, your teammates, and uh it, you know it's so important to have them to follow your directions and to do what? For one thing, safety. Another thing, you know, you need that dog to be able to go where you send him to make the retrieve. If you've got a bird down.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:So that is a major part and it was a major goal you know, and once we achieved it, wow, there was a lot of satisfaction there.
Speaker 2:Oh, I believe it. Well, you know we talk about in the podcast intro the trials and triumphs. You know the trials too. What's? Everybody has their trials on training their dog and it's different for everybody. It can be in. Every problem feels like a big problem when you're in the middle of it. What was, what was one of your greatest challenges? That that you really had to grow as a handler to to overcome, or a trainer?
Speaker 3:grow as a trainer. I will say the biggest problem I had was getting him to honor other dogs. Wow, I think a lot of that was because we had done most of our training, just the two of us, right. And I don't remember if it was the first members weekend. I want to say it might have been the second one that I attended, I don't remember. I remember Barton, we were doing a walk-up A big group over by the lake.
Speaker 2:There you go the walk-up already. That's already going to be challenging. I'm steady now.
Speaker 3:I remember Barton was shooting the launcher.
Speaker 3:And luckily, for some reason I had taken my long lead and stuck it in my pocket Wow. But I can remember him almost jerking my arm out of socket a couple of times Because he didn't think he's supposed to have to wait. You know, all the retrieves are his and I struggled with that and, of course, even when it was his turn, I remember giving him a couple denials because he did not sit and wait. But I put the long lead on him and I didn't hold back. I let him go ahead and break and when he got out there about 10 or 12 feet.
Speaker 3:there was nowhere else to go. That's right, I didn't break his neck. I didn't let him go far enough to build up enough momentum where it would hurt him, but it got his attention.
Speaker 2:I bet it did.
Speaker 3:And after that a couple of times got his attention I bet it did. And after that a couple of times I think he learned that it's not a very good idea for me to try to take off like this until somebody tells me I can. And that was a struggle until we got to doing it more. And you have to do that with a group of people and a group of dogs to get you know realistic. Um, that was one of the biggest struggles, I guess.
Speaker 3:Um, the rest of it, some things just took a little longer to, you know, to develop, but that was the one thing that I really struggled with the most, but he's gotten a lot better at that. I feel like we can. Some guys that I train with now I'll get him out and I'll sit him a distance away from them. I don't get him right up there next to them while they run their dogs, but I'll keep him, you know, 30 yards from them just in case and just watch him really good to make sure that he knows that he's got to honor and he's definitely gotten a lot better at that and hunting.
Speaker 2:A couple of times there's been another couple of dogs that we hunt with, but he's working through it, it, I'm working through it, and I'll tell you what if that would be something that I think a lot of people would struggle with, like a lot of dogs, especially on a hunt. You know, if you get one dog on one end of the blind, you got another dog. It's that's something. That steadiness is something you got to get on pretty hard and early, which sounds like you handled it extremely well and, you know, handled it the right way, took care of him and taught him and disciplined him too right, and there's nothing wrong with discipline, like, hey, we all need discipline from time to time.
Speaker 2:Discipline's a good thing, but also rewarding them for when they do it right is another good thing too. It's not just that discipline. So it seems like y'all handle that extremely well. But that steadiness right, there can be a uh can be a frustrating thing. So that is the only worst problem. That's probably having a dog that just doesn't really want to go. If you got that problem, you got a real problem yeah, well, I've never had a problem with him, not wanting to go.
Speaker 2:I'd prefer to have that problem if I was going to have any I do, wow.
Speaker 2:So let's kind of talk about so you, you had that challenge. Let's talk about hunting. Okay, so the reason you get a dog is you want to create a hunting dog and you're you got him in February, you're training him, you're prepping him to get ready for hunting. When, what was your first hunt, like what? When you, you know what was that whole experience like for you, for you and Tuscan? Were you apprehensive, going into it? Or were you you? You felt confident, prepared, ready for it? You were just ready to see what happens.
Speaker 3:I was ready and I was kind of torn because I'd heard several people say do not hunt your dog their first. You know he wasn't when the hunting season came around, he wasn't even going to be a year old Now, almost probably November, almost a year, not quite.
Speaker 3:Dove season came around and I had already done some shooting gun conditioning and all so he was good there, so I took him dove hunting and kept him on a lead. Let him retrieve a few birds. The problem that I saw with that was he had never picked up anything that small 100%, and so I thought this may not be a good idea, because I think I had to pull one out of his throat and he thought they were treats.
Speaker 1:They weren't much bigger than those hot dogs we'd used earlier.
Speaker 3:So I watched that really close. He picked up on it fairly good. But my most memorable hunt would have been opening day of duck season. That would be his first duck hunt. It would be his first duck hunt, that's right, opening day.
Speaker 3:You have to keep in mind where I hunt here in Alabama. Why do you duck hunt? The numbers are very low, that's right. There's places that you can have some good hunts, but overall the numbers are low. You don't have have high expectations. But we go that morning and I rigged me up a leash where I'm gonna, I'm gonna tie him to the tree just to be sure, because I didn't want to have to deal with him if I was gonna shoot. The way we hunted these beaver ponds, we weren't all grouped together, we spread out around it, you know, and so it was just me, me and my dog sitting there. So I'd put him on the leash and I think we dropped shot two wood ducks that morning, but they were in our face, in our wow, wow, not I mean, yes, I was proud of him because he went and picked them up, but not super impressive. Yeah, just simple, simple retreat. It was very simple, you know, I was proud. Hey, good job, buddy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But we went back that afternoon same place and I remember sitting there not very many birds flying. Didn't really expect any to fly until right at the end of shooting light. You know, wood ducks is basically what I had my expectations for and I thought, if I can get him that one more my third for the day, we're good, but I see a pair of mallards.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 3:Circling. Oh man, and I think I mentioned to you before, don't shoot very many mallards, no, not here in Alabama. So I was excited Very few, and I'm like a pair of mallards. Well, they swung around and I thought, did they spot me? They're not coming back. Well, they just made a circle and they were coming in and of course I got excited and luckily I had him on his leash.
Speaker 3:But they came in and I dropped the first one and the other one was just kind of fluttering, didn't know which way to go, I guess. Luckily I got two of them, wow, and they fell out there in the beaver pond. Probably the farthest one by the time it fell was probably about 50 yards, wow. The other one was a little closer but they were not directly in line with one another but the gap couldn't have been over 10 to 15 yards. The farthest bird was still alive and so I took him off the leash and I tried to you know, keep my nerves about me I thought, okay, great, I lined him up and I sent him and luckily he went and got the live bird first, wow, which was the longer bird, that's incredible and I guess the fluttering just drew his attention, more so than the other one laying over there.
Speaker 3:So he goes and gets it, brings it back and I thought, okay, does he remember where the second one is? I took the bird from him, you know, and he's wigging and wagging and he's as happy as he can be and I'm tickled to death and so I sent him back and he goes back and picks up the second one.
Speaker 2:Second retrieve on his first. The second retrieve, double retrieve on his first day hunting yeah.
Speaker 3:And so I was tickled and he gets back and I'm like I didn't get that on video. Nobody was here to film it. You know I missed it. So I'll tell you what I did. I took the Drake Mallard and I threw it back out there and I took my phone out, turned the camera on and I videoed him bringing it back. It wasn't the original retrieve, but I did get a picture of him with his first mallard.
Speaker 2:That's incredible.
Speaker 3:I was happy for myself because of the pair of mallards, but I was super excited for my dog.
Speaker 2:His first major retrieve was a double, a double, with one live bird, that's crazy.
Speaker 3:I was super pumped about it and I thought then then you know, this is either going to be a great season because of the way it started over or, if it's not, my work is paying off. This makes my season. So I was happy there. I was I bet you were.
Speaker 2:That was a good day. That is a solid day, first time hunting double arch, so he picked up four, four ducks. He killed two wood ducks and then he was able to pick those up. Yeah, one thing I want to talk about too just because, even though those were simple retrieves, you having him tied up for his first hunt, especially being a little bit younger, is the right move.
Speaker 2:A lot of people just well, I think my dog be steady and then, boom, they break on a hunt when the gunfire is going the calling. If they break on a hunt, unfortunately it takes a lot of reps to really ingrain behaviors. But there's something about, I think, just because the intensity of the situation that it like is like an ultra reinforcer. If your dog breaks on a hunt and it goes and picks up a duck and gets that reward of coming back, it's definitely going to be an issue and a challenge to work through. So you did the right thing, making sure that prevention is always better than cure, right, if you can prevent something from happening, 10 times better. So his first four retrieves in a real situation. He's learning. Hey, I gotta sit here and wait until it's my turn to go, and I think that's super valuable.
Speaker 3:By the end of that season. I used the leash to lead the whole season, but by the end of the season he wouldn't even pull against it. Wow, I will say the first few, you know he would stretch it out I bet he was.
Speaker 3:He would stretch it, but he learned and I would be constantly sit, you know, trying to reinforce, for him to know what I expect out of him, and by the end of the season it got a lot better and occasionally I would take him off and let him sit there and I would watch him. But he picked up pretty well on it. He didn't I'm not going to say he never broke, but he learned it and did a pretty good job with it. That's amazing.
Speaker 2:Well, that first time, I mean that gets me excited. I can just and that's a very special moment In Alabama there's not a lot of mallards, and we've already talked about that. But seriously, I mean, it's some places you'll find them, but I mean most, the majority, is depending on where you're hunting. It's just not going to be, that's not a, not something that you're going to see a lot of. That's right. So that's incredible.
Speaker 3:That's incredible. That'll be a hunt. I'll always remember that.
Speaker 2:I'll bet.
Speaker 3:He's made some more pretty good retrieves.
Speaker 2:He's made several blind retrieves, you know, and but that one always sticks out as my favorite so far man. So so that at that moment I get, how were you feeling at that moment, just realizing all that work you've been putting in over the past, you know, since february you feel proud.
Speaker 3:I mean, you feel like you've you accomplished what you set out to do yeah, that'd give you a lot of confidence, I guess, moving forward.
Speaker 2:How did that compare? Just, uh, you said said in your other dog. I think you had mentioned when we were just chatting earlier that you had rocks and stuff. How did that compare to realizing, hey, I'm not going to need my bucket of rocks anymore.
Speaker 3:I used to take a coffee can with some rocks in it to throw out and put the ripple in the water if she didn't see the birds. I never took any rocks with Tusk Wow, I just didn't feel like I needed them.
Speaker 3:I could have probably found a stick if I'd have needed it, but I never took any Wow. I don't remember any birds that we lost Wow. So he's retrieved every bird that I've seen him after. That's incredible. I do remember one more hunt this season. That was pretty fun. He got on his first chase for a live bird out in a pond.
Speaker 1:And I remember that one.
Speaker 3:I never think to get my phone out and video Too much in the moment.
Speaker 2:Nothing wrong with that, though.
Speaker 3:It was pretty neat to watch because it was a blind retrieve. The bird was out in a pond with a lot of grass and I could barely see it, so I know he didn't see it. Yeah, a buddy of mine had actually shot it down and I walked down to him at the end of the hunt and I said is the bird still out there? And he said yes.
Speaker 3:So I sent him on a blind and I got him out there close enough until he saw the bird start to try to get away and he hung in there with it and it took him a little bit to catch it, but he brought the bird back. So I was pretty proud of that too. But yeah, those highlights, that's what makes you go back. I mean, if it wasn't for my dog, I don't know that I would duck hunt. You know, in this area I might, would you know, like to go somewhere once a year. But I go because I want my dog to to be able to work and do what he's worked hard to learn to do.
Speaker 3:And that's incredible. If we shoot one bird and he makes a retrieve, I know he's happy. I'm happy, yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's what it's about. Well, todd, this has just been an incredible episode, and just getting to celebrate those memories with you just gets me fired up. That's what it's all about. That's you know. We want to just celebrate those moments with you and that's why we wanted you on here to be able to tell the world right, you wanted you to be able to have that voice to be able to say, hey, this is what my dog's done, this is what I've been able to do, so it's an honor to have you on. I guess that's a great note to kind of land down on. But I do have one more question for you. If you could go back and tell yourself any advice, or if you had someone that was kind of in your shoes, that was thinking about training a dog, what would you tell them? What would be kind of your encouragement, your number one advice, just like, hey, this is, if you could do one thing, this is what I would do.
Speaker 3:Well, and I've done it. I've been in places where a couple of people were new and wanting to learn to train their own dogs, and in the group of people there would be, of course, others that have different methods, different systems that they follow. But I would always either pull them to the side or go to them and say, hey, have you ever heard of Cornerstone? And some say yes, some say no, and I say, well, you need to look into it, it may be just the perfect fit for you. And I always tell them it was perfect for me.
Speaker 3:Wow, because you can tell a lot of them are like I was. They don't really have an idea what system to follow, how to go. You know the roadmap to get them where they want to go and I say, take a look at it. There's people in this program and I always tell them about the Facebook page and I always tell them about the members weekends that are. I mean, you can't really put a price value on that. It's just really important to have somebody if you have an issue that you can contact, and it turns out it may be fairly simple. You just haven't thought of that method.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:And everybody has gone through the same problems and the same struggles that you're going through and that's kind of how I go with that. But I also tell them that I'm not one that is able to train. I spend time with my dog every day, but I'm not one that's able, on a daily basis, to go somewhere and do a formal training set up, you know and do a lot of tech work and all it's just I'm not able to do that.
Speaker 3:I may go a couple of weeks sometimes without being able to do that, and then I may go two days in a row and we'll work on something. But the advantage to the CGA program is you're not running against the clock, right, you're not running against the calendar. They set it up, or you set it up with a time frame that will work. And if it takes you longer than what you know is in the program, you're not backing up. You're not losing anything, that's right. You're just extending it. Wow, yes, if you worked three times a day on one of these drills, within a week you may have it mastered. Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 3:But if you're not, able to work three times a day, every day of the week. It may take you a couple extra days, but you will get there and the videos that you're able to watch. If you miss something on it today, you can go back and watch it tomorrow and you'd think well, how did I miss that?
Speaker 1:It was there right in front of me.
Speaker 3:I think y'all did a great job with the setup, the videos. You not only show the progress that can be made and the end results, but you show the struggles. I don't call them failures, because you only fail if you quit. That's right. That's right. But you just keep going at it and sooner or later it's going to pop, that's right.
Speaker 3:You're going to get it right up here in their head and I think sometimes, once they figure it out, you can almost see the look on their face like this is what we're supposed to do.
Speaker 3:You know, the tail wags a little longer that's right but it's not a program I I can't remember, or I can remember very few times that Tusk looked like he was so confused that he wanted to give up, and I think that the very few times that that happened, it was because of me not thinking things through and not really following. It was me just trying to speed through it and not taking my time to teach Wow. And once you teach it to them, and they get it.
Speaker 3:I think they hang on to it. But I can think of a few times, on some real windy days, trying to get him to go for long blind retrieves and struggling. And then I get to thinking why didn't I pay attention to the way the wind was blowing? You know it's right there hitting me you know right square in the face.
Speaker 3:We're struggling and I'm like all right, buddy, I'm sorry I sit here. I fussed at you, I called you every name in the book and it's not your fault, it's my fault. That's funny, but the program for me was a perfect fit and I'm sure that it would be at least a great fit for anybody that's looking for a program. You know, you can always send your dog off to a trainer and get them trained and bring them back and have a nice hunting dog. That's not what I wanted. I wanted the bond. I wanted to do it myself. I wanted the bond of being there with my dog every day, watching him grow. I just wanted the satisfaction of when things are said and done. You know we did this as a team. Wow, that's what drew me to it.
Speaker 1:That's incredible.
Speaker 3:I feel like we've accomplished a lot. We've still got some work to do, but we've got years to complete it.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:I do see him getting better, and he's been. I can't tell you how much fun I've had just working with him. I'm closer to this dog than I've ever been with another dog, wow, yeah, I had dogs growing up. They were just pets, you know, outside pets for the most part that got rubbed on the head and a stick thrown for them. But the bond that he and I have, he's my buddy. I'll take him anywhere I can and anywhere I can, and he's well behaved and I'm super proud of him and I think that a lot of his accomplishments are because of the program that we followed and I'm thankful for CGA, that y'all put it out there, that I found it when I did and it's really worked out well for me.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, todd, and we just I just want to say you know we appreciate those kind words and it's really worked out well for me. Well, thank you, todd, and I just want to say you know, we appreciate those kind words, but also, you know, maybe the program but also you put in the work right and you got to put some of that back on yourself too.
Speaker 2:Your dog wouldn't have ended up where he is if you hadn't have gone out when you went out and put in that work and also willing to grow right. I love what you said earlier. I just want to highlight that, too, as we close out here, that it's only failure if you quit. Just don't quit and just keep at it. And, like you said, that light bulb is eventually going to come on and it's going to click, and that's what it's all about. So you exhibit that, those traits, and that's what I's all about. So you exhibit those traits and that's what I believe Every CGA member inspires hope, right, and that's what I love about what you're saying here. You're inspiring hope for the people that are listening to our podcast right now that, hey, they can do it.
Speaker 3:You can do it, just got to put in some work I can tell you right now. You can do it, because I had no knowledge of what to do, when to do it, and the teaching is there for you and you can teach your dog. Your dog can do it and you can do it. I'm not ready yet, but I'm looking forward to going through it with another dog one day.
Speaker 3:I don't know how much longer it'll be, but I do have plans on starting, you know, doing another dog one day it may be after I retire, but I don't know yet. But I'm looking forward to that. I think I'll slow down a little more and you know, take it, I know what to expect, yeah, but I'm looking forward and that's the great thing about it, I've got it.
Speaker 2:That's right, it's handy.
Speaker 3:It's there for me forever. Of course, I can't remember it all without going back and re-looking at some pieces of it.
Speaker 2:That's why we did it. We didn't want anyone to ever feel like they were going to have to pay us again, but we want you to be a part of the family. Once you're in, you're a part of the family. You're part of the family. That's what it's about.
Speaker 3:But I'm thankful that y'all came up with the program several years ago, put it into action and I don't even know how many members there are, but I doubt if you're going to find any that are not happy with the program. And probably no regrets for anybody that bought into the program and got the program. As long as they're using it, yeah, it's well worth it. Yeah, if they're using it.
Speaker 2:I believe it's going to work. Oh yeah, you just got to put in the work, you just got to follow it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's right?
Speaker 2:Well, man, we appreciate you so much. Well, thank you. It was training this morning, got rained out there so I had to pop back over here to the studio, but, uh, really, this has been an incredible episode. You've said some really valuable nuggets that I hope people are hanging on to, because, like, it's just the little things that you mentioned. It's gonna make all the difference for them. But it's uh, it's a pleasure to celebrate with you and have you on here to celebrate your success.
Speaker 3:Well, I appreciate it and, oh, thanks to y'all for a lot of success, for teaching us how to teach. That's exactly what we've done. It's awesome.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Build From here podcast. To learn more about retriever training or our podcast, visit cornerstonegundogacademycom slash podcast.