Rise and Shine Retrievers

08/30/2024

It takes a village to conduct a successful training day with live fliers. Thank you Denise, Jon, Mike & Steve.
The final count was 18 dogs yesterday ranging in age from 7 months to 11 years old.

08/28/2024

One of the benefits of membership is year round use of the facilities. Yesterday we did some water work using the pond, which by the way has some pretty nice fish in it.

08/22/2024

Training is always an adventure.

08/20/2024

Absolute beautiful weather for training this morning.

08/18/2024

If my math his correct we ran 20 dogs today.
Pheasants & ducks on land. Ducks on water.
Thanks to everyone that came and helped out.

08/15/2024

Ready to start my day.

08/14/2024

*Who wants to train this Sat*???
I’m available.
Let me know what you want to work on.
Marks/Blinds-Water/Land
I’ll set things up accordingly.
PM/Text me

08/14/2024

Lots of fun for the 13 dogs, representing 4 different breeds, that came for water work this morning.
Marks and/or blinds as appropriate.

08/13/2024

A 4 mile hike yesterday morning had everyone sleeping the rest of the day.

08/08/2024

Long day…
This morning, marks 110, 100 & 70 yds. Blinds when appropriate.
Mid day, handling drills.
Late afternoon, 6 month old Benelli got her 2nd marking session with ducks. She’s a retrieving machine.

08/06/2024

Neither rain nor snow nor heat nor gloom of night stays these dogs from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

We timed this morning’s training just right.

08/04/2024

Just part of the crew that braved today’s unpredictable weather.
14 dogs, from the 3 major retriever breeds, sharpened their JH/SHR & SH/HR skills on 2 different land set ups.
Thanks to everyone that came.

07/30/2024

A slow start , but we wrapped up before the real heat came.
A cool deep pond.

07/27/2024

Thunder says she’s done with T drills for today.

07/25/2024

Folks have made comments about wanting to work on a specific issue during one of my group/large training days. Unfortunately on those days I can’t spend individual time with people teaching blind drills, heel/hold training, bird introduction, etc.
If you have specific things that you want to work on or you’re looking to advance your dogs training but you’re not sure how, I’m available for 1 on 1 sessions Tues, Thurs and most weekends. Just reach out.
Maybe several people have contacted me and I can put together something or meet with you privately.
ie, a handler that ran their dog at my training day last Sat wasn’t happy with her blind performance. They came yesterday and I set up a lining drill to help address the problem. T drills with a couple of dogs yesterday. A straight forward water double to make sure the younger dogs could count to 2.
Don’t hesitate to text/PM me with your training needs. I’m here to help.

07/23/2024

Spice & Becca getting a check up yesterday.

07/23/2024

07/22/2024

We took advantage of the nice weather and lower humidity this morning to run some land marks & blinds.
It was nice to see the dogs work and figure out certain variables in the set up.
Good times

07/21/2024

Beautiful weather today for the 21 dogs that showed up. Labs, Tollers, Goldens, a Chessie and a Flat-coat ran through a challenging land set up.
As you can see we had one very special handler today.
Thank you to everyone that came and helped out.

07/19/2024

Sitting pretty on this morning’s walk.

07/16/2024

Great start to my training day.
Walking into a hornets nest wearing shorts and short sleeves.

*3 hits on my legs*
Could’ve been worse.

07/12/2024

I tell people the farther back to are attached to the dog, the more they want to pull.

LET’S TALK TOOLS

Red Arrow: Harness that fits around the dog’s body and when connected to a clip leash, creates a pulling reaction from the dog. This pulling reaction triggers the shoulders and chest muscles to be used which then influences the dog to use strength to get where they need to. If you have properly trained your dog to walk right next to you on a harness, you will not experience the pulling. Congratulations, I have yet to see this. 😂

Orange Arrow: Flat collar, usually used to connect a clip leash to and often times sits on the bottom of the neck due to gravity and the dog’s head being higher than the shoulders. This then triggers the dog’s shoulder muscles and the pulling starts. Again, this teaches the dog that strength needs to be used to get where they need to. If you have properly trained your dog to walk next to you on a flat collar, you will not experience the pulling. The majority of dogs I see are pulling during this setup.

Blue Arrow: Slip Leash is very high on the neck where it is placed behind the ears, behind the jaw bone, and it allows us to influence the dog’s head and brain. Shoulders and chest muscles are not triggered and physical strength is not used during the walk. When used correctly, little to no pressure is on the leash and physical strength is used by the dog to get from point A to point B. If you have properly trained your dog to walk next to you on a slip leash, you will not experience any pulling.

Out of the 3 tools shown, the slip leash is one of the most productive tools to create a structured walk, a calm mind, and a solid relationship.

Ever watch anyone walk a horse by the saddle?

Yeah, me either.

That’s because when you walk a 1000lb animal, you need to influence the brain and not the body.

Let’s start influencing our dog’s mentally and not physically.

07/04/2024

Beautiful weather greeted the 9 dogs that came for training this morning. Unfortunately, some of them decided to exercise their independence while in the training field. 😀
Thanks to everyone that showed up today.

07/03/2024

I often tell people, especially non hunters, that there is a lot of obedience work that goes into training a hunting dog. If your dog won’t sit still in a blind, you’re not going to shoot many ducks and if your doesn’t work under control in the uplands it’s a safety issue.
My dogs know in order for them to get a retrieve, they have to be in the heeling position. I start to teach this early on. Every dog as they came out to work the other morning, walked calmly with me towards my set up without saying a word.
My first Chessie at only 4 months old, couldn’t wait to get to heel if I had a bumper in my
hand. At that age he didn’t know what heel meant, he just knew where he needed to be to have some fun.
Start “showing” your pups what’s expected of them early on. Enforcing those commands will come a little bit later on.

07/02/2024

Serious stuff
A walk up single with a couple of whistle stops on the way to the line.
Straight forward land double.
Fun stuff
A couple of hand thrown bumpers into the pond. I can fling them quite far.

07/01/2024

It was hot/humid, but no rain, for the 7 dogs that ran through 2 land series this morning.
Thanks to everyone that came out and those that lended a hand.

06/27/2024

Ready to begin our day