Advanced Gundog Program
Investment: $925/Month
Duration: 6-8 Months
Designed for elite hunters and competitors, our Advanced Gundog Program takes your dog’s skills to the next level. This program follows completion of our Gundog Program that built your dog into a reliable hunter. The advanced phase transforms your dog into a precision athlete capable of handling complex technical work on both land and water. This is where we transition from "finding birds" to "technical handling," preparing your dog for the intensity of elite hunting or the rigors of the competition circuit.
Building on the foundation of total obedience and bird drive your dog learned in the Gundog Program, this 6–8 month addition focuses on:
Blind Retrieves: Teaching your dog to take precise directional casts and whistles to find birds they didn’t see fall, trusting your handling implicitly at long distances.
Multiple Marks: Developing the memory and focus required for the dog to track and remember multiple bird falls, efficiently retrieving them one by one.
Advanced Water Work: Navigating technical entries, re-entries, and staying on "lines" through decoys, heavy lily pads, or timber.
Upon completion of the Advanced Gundog Program, your dog will also be prepared to compete in AKC Senior Hunt Tests.
Hunt Test & SRS Competition Training
Investment: $925/Month
Our Competition Training program is designed for owners who want to campaign their retrievers in field events. Building directly on the foundational skills learned in the Advanced Gundog Program, this specialized training prepares dogs to handle the distinct pressures, complex setups, and strict judging criteria of competitive environments. We actively train for and compete in all levels of AKC Hunt Tests as well as the Super Retriever Series (SRS).
Training focuses on the advanced technical skills required to succeed on the circuit, including:
Honoring and Control: Teaching dogs to remain completely steady and quiet at the line while watching another dog work, a critical requirement for higher-level titles.
Complex Marks & Blinds: Preparing dogs for tight "keyholes," inline triple marks, delayed blinds, and diverse factors like heavy wind and challenging terrain.
Advanced Water Concepts: Mastering technical water entries, navigating shorelines without cheating, and holding precise lines through heavy cover or across multiple points of land.
Diversified Decoy and Blind Setups: Exposing dogs to a wide variety of competitive layouts, specialized equipment, and judges' scenarios so they remain confident and focused on test day.