Working With a Professional Dog Trainer

Dec 28

Covey, my English Setter, is a beautiful dog, as the accompanying photo proves. She loves me and my wife almost as much as we love her. She revels in a dog’s life of freedom on the ranch, racing the Polaris Ranger wherever we drive. And of course she’s bird crazy.

Truth be told, however, she’s neither the perfect hunting dog I’ve imagined nor am I the perfect trainer. She tends to creep in and bump too many birds, doesn’t retrieve to hand, and sometimes forgets (if she ever knew it) that we’re supposed to be a team.

Covey on point at Standing Stone Kennels dog training facility. — *Covey on point at* *Standing Stone Kennels* *dog training facility.*

I’ve been lax in my training, so her failures aren’t her fault. She has the drive and passion. Just needs the direction and reinforcement.

My excuse is time. Or lack of it. After long days of writing, shooting videos, fencing, weeding, watering, bucking firewood, repairing buildings and similar off-grid ranch maintenance, dog training tends to get the short end of the stick. Or no stick at all.

A few months back I had the opportunity to meet Ethan Pippitt from Standing Stone Kennels while on a scaled quail hunt in Texas. He got to see Covey work and said she had great potential! See, I told you she was an amazing dog. (Biased.)

I asked Ethan if his program would be able to help Covey reach her full potential even though she was two years old. Affirmative. Flash forward to today and I’m dropping her off at his place in Kansas for a few months of training. Happily, he will be filming her training sessions and sharing her progress on YouTube. I hope to do regular posts so you can see the full training process as it pertains to an older dog. We might learn some useful tricks!

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This video outlines what the drop-off and check-in process is like at their facility.

In this video Ethan observed me working with Covey in the field to see how she handled, and made notes about what things he needed to focus on most while working with her.

It feels like yesterday, but the first two weeks of Covey’s training have already flown by! Standing Stone just uploaded her two-week progress report and I couldn’t be happier. She is already doing better with pointing and retrieving and they haven’t even started her formal retrieving training yet. It is fascinating watching Standing Stone’s process to help Covey become comfortable and progress quickly. Check out the video below to see Covey’s first two weeks of training unfold.