Latest / Bird Dogs and Big Game / (EP.50) Ben Proctor & BPRO Kennels
Transcript
- 0:18Speaker 3: Hey everyone.
- 0:19Speaker 3: Welcome to the Bird Dog podcast.
- 0:21Speaker 3: Uh, in this episode, I sit down with my good friend Ben Proctor.
- 0:24Speaker 3: I've known Ben for years and we have a great chat about his business, BPRO kennels.
- 0:30Speaker 3: He makes phenomenal high-end, good looking bulletproof custom dog kennels, uh, for.
- 0:39Speaker 3: At the back of your truck bed.
- 0:41Speaker 3: Um, he does amazing paint jobs.
- 0:44Speaker 3: They look fabulous.
- 0:46Speaker 3: I have one.
- 0:47Speaker 3: Uh, and they are awesome.
- 0:49Speaker 3: So I hope you guys enjoy this show.
- 0:52Speaker 3: Uh, we talk about his business and his dog kennels, but we talk about, uh, his background in dogs and, uh, all the good stuff.
- 1:01Speaker 3: Uh, that comes with that.
- 1:02Speaker 3: So hope you guys have a great weekend.
- 1:05Speaker 3: Uh, do us a favor, go ahead and follow us if you get on our social media, Utah Bird Dog Training and the Bird Dog Podcast.
- 1:13Speaker 3: I need to do a little better putting my, uh, when I make, uh, podcast to put it on the Bird Dog Podcast, Instagram.
- 1:23Speaker 3: Um.
- 1:24Speaker 3: Feed.
- 1:25Speaker 3: So if you guys go ahead though and follow that, that'd be awesome.
- 1:28Speaker 3: Follow Utah Bird Dog training.
- 1:30Speaker 3: Uh, we're gonna, we post stuff on there about our dog training, obviously.
- 1:34Speaker 3: And, um, and if you have any training questions you can email us or, or, uh, training questions or podcast things you'd like us talk about, uh, you can email us at the Bird Dog podcast@gmail.com and, uh, and we will try to respond to those and answer those questions.
- 1:52Speaker 3: In a podcast.
- 1:54Speaker 3: So also check out gun shy fix.com.
- 1:58Speaker 3: If you have a buddy's dog that's gun shy or, or your dog is gun shy, or you're trying to introduce your puppy to gunfire, go ahead and give that a try.
- 2:06Speaker 3: It really does work and help those dogs get accustomed to gunfire, um, and, uh, get you going in the right direction.
- 2:14Speaker 3: Also, check out nda.com, K-U-R-A-N-D a.com.
- 2:20Speaker 3: They make the best.
- 2:21Speaker 3: Cot, um, kennel Cot for your dog that you can have inside.
- 2:26Speaker 3: You can also use it for place instead of a dog bed.
- 2:29Speaker 3: You can have one of those raised off the ground so you can sweep underneath it, move it easily.
- 2:34Speaker 3: Um, you can put a dog bed even on top of it if you wanna make it extra comfy, but they are hands down.
- 2:39Speaker 3: The best cot that I have found.
- 2:41Speaker 3: Um.
- 2:42Speaker 3: And nothing is bulletproof over time.
- 2:45Speaker 3: If you have a dig or scratch scratcher, he's maybe gonna get through that over time, but they're super easy.
- 2:50Speaker 3: You just pop out the, the bed part, they make replacement parts super easy.
- 2:55Speaker 3: You just swap it out and you're ready to go for years again.
- 2:59Speaker 3: So anyhow, check them out.
- 3:01Speaker 3: If you do get one.
- 3:03Speaker 3: I want to get one of those.
- 3:04Speaker 3: It helps us out if you go to the show notes and, and click on the link and follow that link into there and then buy a bed at that time, that gives us a little kickback and we really appreciate it.
- 3:13Speaker 3: Helps us, uh, want to continue to do the show, put information out there for you guys.
- 3:18Speaker 3: So anyhow, let's get to the show.
- 3:20Speaker 3: Hope you guys have a great Friday and we'll see you in the next podcast.
- 3:25Hey folks, welcome to the Bird Dog Podcast.
- 3:27My name is Tys Erickson.
- 3:28I'll be your host.
- 3:29Uh, today in this show, we, I got my good friend Ben Proctor, um, with Bpro Kennels and, uh, grateful to have him on the show and hopefully, uh, we can have a, a good time here.
- 3:42And, um, I share with you guys some cool information about his dog kennels or dog boxes, what do you call them?
- 3:48Yeah, dog boxes, dog kennels, crates, whatever.
- 3:52It's all, it's all good.
- 3:53All same, same thing.
- 3:54But, so I don't know if you had a exact term, but Nope.
- 3:57Um, anyhow, so, uh, I just came in from training.
- 4:01I was a little late.
- 4:01Luckily Ben was on time, so thanks.
- 4:04No stress being on time.
- 4:06I was trying to wrap up some, uh, we have a hunt test this weekend, um, just for the retrievers.
- 4:11And then this next week we have a double master, and then the, then that same weekend we have.
- 4:16Or next week we ended have another hunt test.
- 4:18So it's pretty busy with, you know, training away.
- 4:20Yeah.
- 4:21So, and you do mostly a KC tests?
- 4:23Is that kind of the, your bread and butter test wise?
- 4:26I'd say mostly a KC.
- 4:27So I've done lock last week was HRC.
- 4:30Mm-hmm.
- 4:31So that's Hunter Retriever Club.
- 4:32We did third test.
- 4:33There's just some the different ribbons, um, on that.
- 4:36Right.
- 4:36That's a finished TE ribbon.
- 4:38So that's like, that's considered, that's kind of the same as their master essentially.
- 4:43Uh, a KC master.
- 4:45And then on the left there's the seasoned, which is comparable to like a, a senior hunter.
- 4:51And then the rest of those are a PLA ribbons, uh, American Pointing Lab Association.
- 4:55When I did a lot of the pointing lab hunt tests, that one's the grandma in the middle.
- 4:59That's kind of the highest level there.
- 5:02And then you have, uh, uh, certified on the left and then advanced on the right.
- 5:08And then those other two are just master A KCI just grabbed a few of their cool ribbons and yeah.
- 5:14And so you can see kind of the different ribbons and clubs and stuff like that.
- 5:18But so for those of you who may not know, so I've known Tyce for quite a while, but maybe, yeah, give us an intro background, all that good stuff.
- 5:26I was just gonna say maybe about 10 years ago when I dropped off my first bird dog to you, I've, I've known Tyce for quite a while, um, back when I was in high school.
- 5:34And he was a, a car salesman for, uh, um, the guy that owned it was actually my bishop in my, my, my local church congregation.
- 5:43And so, um, I knew Tice'cause I was detailing cars and entice was one of the salesmen.
- 5:49It's funny, we were like, here we're, we were like, oh.
- 5:52I mean, I always hunted.
- 5:54I don't know for sure.
- 5:54I want to hear about your background, but like, I always hunted, but obviously I wasn't in the, I wasn't training dogs for a living, and so it was funny you, I was doing cars and you were detailing, and now we're both doing dogs stuff for a living years ago.
- 6:07That was, I mean, you were, were you in high school or just Yeah, I was, I think I was a senior in high school.
- 6:12Yeah.
- 6:13So I was 20, what was I, 23?
- 6:16Yeah, so you must, so is that our, what's our age?
- 6:19I'm gonna guess your age.
- 6:20I don't even know how old you are, so I don't even know how old I am.
- 6:24So you have to have been, so if I was, oh, 22, 23.
- 6:30Yeah, that's probably 18.
- 6:3118 at the most.
- 6:32So like a five year gap.
- 6:33Yeah.
- 6:33So you, what are you around?
- 6:3439, 37, 8 30?
- 6:37I don't know.
- 6:37You might've been a little young.
- 6:3830.
- 6:38Okay.
- 6:39Because I'm 44.
- 6:40Yeah.
- 6:41Yeah.
- 6:41I might've been a junior, but could've been a junior.
- 6:43Yeah.
- 6:44Anyways.
- 6:45Nice.
- 6:45That's fun, fun, fun background.
- 6:47How we met?
- 6:47Well, I was just gonna say, so when I got my first bird dog, um, I was looking at just people to train and I just googled like bird dog training in Utah.
- 6:56Mm-hmm.
- 6:56And the first first hit was Utah Bird dog training.
- 6:59Yeah.
- 7:00It's like, oh that's convenient.
- 7:01So I call him and Tice isn't the most familiar, the most common name.
- 7:06Yeah.
- 7:06Um, so it went to voicemail'cause Tice was obviously out training and uh, went to voicemail and it was, Hey, this is Ty, Ty Erickson.
- 7:14I was like, this has to be the same Ty.
- 7:16Yeah.
- 7:17Anyway, so I come and meet with Tys and I drop my bird dog off.
- 7:19And this was at your old house?
- 7:22Mm-hmm.
- 7:22And in your front office you had this wall and there was probably, I don't know what, like 70, 80 master hunter ribbon.
- 7:31There's ribbons all Did I have a mall?
- 7:32Just the entire wall.
- 7:34Now they're in drawers.
- 7:35Yeah.
- 7:35My wife's like, just put like a few nice ones up there.
- 7:38Yeah.
- 7:39Um.
- 7:40But I always thought that that was like really, really impressive.
- 7:42And, and as I've gotten more into this world and, and meeting different dog trainers, it really goes to show, um, you know, hunt tests aren't necessarily everything.
- 7:52Sure.
- 7:53They don't, obviously it's not completely apples to apples from hunt tests versus hunting in real life, but if you go to a trainer and they have just stacks and stacks of ribbons mm-hmm.
- 8:05You're probably in pretty good, safe hands.
- 8:07Yeah.
- 8:07Um, and I don't know, maybe maybe you have some more insight on that, but, um, no, I mean, I mean, when I, just as far as testing and, yeah.
- 8:15So I was, I was, I, I want to say I was self-trained and develop my own, I did develop my own program, but obviously I learned off the hill.
- 8:22Sure.
- 8:22Other people Yep.
- 8:23Reading their books and watching their videos, and then finding the program that I liked that, that fit for me.
- 8:28And then, but honestly, why I did hunt tests in the beginning, I knew I could produce a good hunting dog, but it's nice to just have that right kind check the box, like those academics of like, Hey, I can, yeah.
- 8:38I can train dogs to the highest level that these clubs are Yep.
- 8:43Requesting to do.
- 8:44So it's like, okay, if I can do that, I can produce a good hunting dog.
- 8:48And so it was just, it was more for a, just a, my personal self.
- 8:51I wanted to be able to do that, you know?
- 8:53And then we breed golden retrievers and labs on the side, so I wanted to, obviously we want those titled when people are buying puppies, they can see Okay, the parents are proven to some level, you know?
- 9:03Yeah.
- 9:04So, but I just think it's, you know, from a, from a consumer, obviously you've trained all of my dogs.
- 9:10Um, it just goes to your, your program, your trainers, your whole system, and the way you do things that, you know, I have 100% trust in my dogs.
- 9:23If I ever have a question, Hey, my dog's doing something, I just ask t and i, I don't deviate.
- 9:29I don't think so, or I try not to rather, I, obviously I'm an idiot most of the time, but, uh, I just think that's really cool.
- 9:36From a trainer's perspective, not every trainer does it.
- 9:39Mm-hmm.
- 9:39And I think it goes to show the, I dunno validity if that's the right word.
- 9:45Yeah.
- 9:46That, uh, they have a really, really polished program.
- 9:49Oh, I appreciate it.
- 9:50And it is, it is fun.
- 9:51If we have a dog that has like the genetics that, you know, has genetics, it, it, it is like, it's almost, I don't wanna say it's like clockwork, but we can, I can pretty much say, if your dog doesn't know this or this or this, we can, it's gonna be about this amount of time with the average dog to get'em there.
- 10:07And the hope is, yeah.
- 10:08You just find a good trainer or something.
- 10:10You, you trust that they're gonna put the effort in and have a good proven program.
- 10:14You put your dog in there and they're gonna, they're gonna be where they Yeah.
- 10:18You know, are expected to be Yep.
- 10:20At the end of that.
- 10:20So.
- 10:21Yep.
- 10:21A hundred percent.
- 10:22I appreciate those, I appreciate the kind words and.
- 10:25And uh, yeah, it's been fun.
- 10:26It's crazy.
- 10:26I've been training dogs now about 20 years, so That's nuts.
- 10:30It's a long, it's a long time every day.
- 10:32Yeah.
- 10:33So, yeah, it's, some people think you're a veterinarian too, after you train long enough there, you're probably like a, probably right about there anyways.
- 10:41Well, you just see some stuff, you know, you don't have it all.
- 10:44But generally I can you can you see being around dogs enough Yeah.
- 10:47And things you're like, okay, I tried this or try that.
- 10:49And Yep.
- 10:50Sometimes I'll have clients call me on a weekend if something, like, I had a client the other day, his dog swallowed a bunch of rat poison.
- 10:58Got somewhere into, yeah.
- 10:59So he calls me up and she's pregnant with puppies.
- 11:01Oh.
- 11:01Even better.
- 11:02And I, I'm like, oh great.
- 11:04He's like, we can't get ahold of Yvette.
- 11:05We can't get in.
- 11:06What do you recommend I do?
- 11:07And I'm like, well, I mean, you can always go to ai, but you know that you don't know.
- 11:12And so anyways, we ended up having the dog.
- 11:15We had to throw up, use some hydrogen peroxide.
- 11:17Had to Yeah.
- 11:17Throw that up.
- 11:18And then we got some, uh, uh, charcoal, oh, I'm missing the blank.
- 11:23Like that powdered charcoal Yeah.
- 11:24Absorbs stuff, you know, on how to take that down.
- 11:27And she just had a litter of, uh, 11 pups and she's doing great.
- 11:32And, um, and so I was glad we're, she threw up a lot of poison too, man.
- 11:37Oh yeah.
- 11:38Big old chunks.
- 11:38And they, they, luckily, they caught it fast enough.
- 11:41It wasn't able to, you know, fully absorb into the bloodstream.
- 11:44So anyhow, but that's enough about me, so, okay.
- 11:48So me and Ben, we met years ago.
- 11:51I want to kind of backtrack a little bit.
- 11:53Yeah.
- 11:53So we met years ago, training.
- 11:55He was detailing cars.
- 11:56I was selling cars.
- 11:58Um, that was the longest job I've ever worked for anyone, really?
- 12:01Two and a half years.
- 12:02Yeah.
- 12:02Yeah.
- 12:02I was there.
- 12:02That was fun.
- 12:03That was an awesome job.
- 12:03I loved that place.
- 12:04Yeah, it was just chill and fun.
- 12:05Classy car buyers, classy car buyers.
- 12:07Rand and Ty, they were both hunters, so, yeah.
- 12:11Yeah, we went out, I actually went out pheasant hunting with them quite a bit.
- 12:14Oh really?
- 12:15Because I had dogs and Rand had connection over to over to the church farms on the other side of the lake.
- 12:20Oh, that's right.
- 12:21He could take kind of like troubled youth, but he is like, take you because you have dogs.
- 12:26Yeah.
- 12:27Or youth.
- 12:28You was, you were always with the, and I'm like, I'll be your, I'll be your troubled Yeah.
- 12:31Youth.
- 12:32And then we go FA hunt together.
- 12:33So it's kind, it's kind of a funny, funny way of getting around it.
- 12:38But anyhow.
- 12:38So tell me about your hunting background.
- 12:41Yeah.
- 12:41Have you always had dogs?
- 12:44When, when are you later on?
- 12:46I don't know.
- 12:46I'm, yeah.
- 12:47So my dad's dad was a government trapper down in Penit, which is this tiny little town in southern Utah.
- 12:54Okay.
- 12:54And um, like hunting was never like, frowned upon in our house.
- 12:59Mm-hmm.
- 13:00But I think.
- 13:01And I've never actually confirmed this with my dad, but I just think that hunting was just what grandpa did for work.
- 13:07Mm-hmm.
- 13:07So why would we ever go do that for fun?
- 13:09Hmm.
- 13:10Like that's, I mean, literally grandpa every day, loading up horses, loading up a truck, you know, trapping mountain lions, shooting deer, whatever.
- 13:18Yeah.
- 13:18Um, and it was just such like a, like, it was just all the time.
- 13:23That's just what grandpa did.
- 13:25So for activities and like for fun, that was the last thing that they wanted to do.
- 13:28So growing up we would, like, we went camping all the time and we'd go to all the east national parks and like, we just had a ton of fun growing up outdoors, but we never really did hunting.
- 13:40So you think your dad being around it too much, it was almost like kind of burnout.
- 13:43Like there's just kinda like, I didn't, it was burnout.
- 13:44It was much as, it was just like, we do something d we're gonna do something else.
- 13:48Something different.
- 13:48Yeah.
- 13:48Yeah.
- 13:48Okay.
- 13:49So it was never frowned upon and it was never like, oh, we're not hunters.
- 13:53You know, we had guns in the house.
- 13:54Like it was just, yeah.
- 13:56Um.
- 13:56It was almost just like, sure.
- 13:58I guess like if you want that's, you know, go for it, but we're gonna go do something else.
- 14:02Yeah.
- 14:03Yeah.
- 14:03Um, and so growing up when Rand Robbins that year, your old boss, my old boss, um, he was in the Bishop Rick of this church congregation that we were in, and his next door neighbor was a guy named Kyle Cle.
- 14:17Mm-hmm.
- 14:17And Kyle had son.
- 14:18Son.
- 14:19So Clegg Automotive.
- 14:19Yeah.
- 14:20Clegg's car hair down in off Geneva in Orum.
- 14:23And he had a son that was my age and we became best buddies.
- 14:27They moved into the ward when I was like 11.
- 14:30And these guys are like full blown hunting freaks.
- 14:34Like his whole basement is just this museum of mule deer and elk and turkeys and bears.
- 14:40Sounds like my type of people.
- 14:42Yeah.
- 14:42Just nuts.
- 14:44And so when you're little, you're always, you know, spending the night over there and hanging out and whatever.
- 14:49And I remember we would wake up Saturday morning in the fall.
- 14:53At their house and you know, I'm in like jeans and tennis shoes and like no jacket.
- 14:58Mm-hmm.
- 14:58And like, we're getting loaded in the truck and we're going pheasant hunting.
- 15:01Mm-hmm.
- 15:01And I had no idea what pheasant hunting was, anything like that.
- 15:04So that was my first real introduction to hunting birds.
- 15:06What age?
- 15:08Probably like 11, 12.
- 15:09Okay.
- 15:10Um, and it was so stinking fun.
- 15:13Mm-hmm.
- 15:13And they were awesome.
- 15:14They were so fun.
- 15:15They were, um, did they have dogs?
- 15:18They didn't have dogs.
- 15:19Okay.
- 15:19They would just drive around.
- 15:20Birds would get up, they'd get out, they'd pile outta the truck and run around and shoot'em and Okay.
- 15:25I just remember being like so young and being like, this is nuts.
- 15:28This is so fun.
- 15:29Yeah.
- 15:29What are we doing?
- 15:31Didn't know anything about it, but that kind of planted the seed.
- 15:34And then as we got older and, you know, um, Cameron and I are still best friends, but we got a little bit more into it and we would go out, you know, after school and, you know, even when we were outta high school and stuff like that.
- 15:46Mm-hmm.
- 15:47Um, so hunting, that's kind of that, that first seed that.
- 15:51I loved bird hunting.
- 15:52Mm-hmm.
- 15:53Big game was always fun, but birds are just like, it's such a long season.
- 15:58Mm-hmm.
- 15:58You can hunt all the time.
- 15:59If you don't get anything, it's no big deal.
- 16:01You go out there next, can talk a lot, you can talk a lots bus to clean.
- 16:04Yeah.
- 16:04It's just so much more gear.
- 16:07Cool gear.
- 16:08Yeah.
- 16:08It's, I don't know if it's funner.
- 16:11Um, less stress I guess anyways.
- 16:14For sure.
- 16:14So bird, bird dogs, they're different for sure.
- 16:16Big games, a lot of hiking and stuff, and they're not, it's like, uh, excitement real quick and yeah.
- 16:20And it's all condensed into like a couple of weekends and if you don't get anything it's, anyways.
- 16:25So for sure.
- 16:26Um, as I, as I got older, um, I knew that I wanted to get a bird dog.
- 16:33And I didn't know anything really about bird dogs.
- 16:35Um, okay.
- 16:36I'm gonna pause you real quick.
- 16:37Yeah.
- 16:37If you don't mind.
- 16:38Um, a lot of guys, I, I know at least this was for me.
- 16:43Do you remember the, do you remember the first bird you shot?
- 16:46Oh, yeah.
- 16:47Okay.
- 16:47So that's what, like, I found like there's, like, generally there's something when you take that shotgun and you pull it up on that rooster, whatever it was, and you sh it like burns it into your soul.
- 16:57Yeah.
- 16:57And you're like, I, I wanna hear that story.
- 16:59Okay.
- 16:59So this one's actually, and then we, let's go back.
- 17:01This one's actually almost embarrassing.
- 17:03So again, going back, I have no idea what I'm doing.
- 17:07We're just out there with the cleggs.
- 17:08They're the greatest, kindest people, and they're trying to teach me the difference between hens and roosters.
- 17:16Okay.
- 17:16And again, I'm like, I dunno, 11 or 12 or whatever.
- 17:19Yeah.
- 17:19And they're just like, yeah.
- 17:21The, the roosters are like these bright, crazy colors and the hens are just dull colored.
- 17:26Um.
- 17:27My first bird, I don't know if it was a hen, it might have been a roost in the first one, but definitely the one that I remember the most mm-hmm.
- 17:35Is we're at this, um, that same church farm mm-hmm.
- 17:39That Rand would go to.
- 17:41And this bird gets up and I hear Cameron say, shoot, shoot, shoot.
- 17:45Mm-hmm.
- 17:46What he's really saying is Don't shoot, don't shoot, don't shoot.
- 17:50And I just smoked this bird and ends up being a hen.
- 17:53So, you know, there was a bird farm so you could, it was, you can shoot whatever there.
- 17:56Yeah.
- 17:58And, uh, so anyways, it was kind of embarrassing and, you know, Cameron's dad came over and kind of gave me a hard time, laughed about it.
- 18:05Um, but that was my first introduction to like, okay, these are the two difference species.
- 18:09Probably felt awesome though when you hit'em.
- 18:11Oh, so awesome.
- 18:11You hit it, connected on it.
- 18:13And when you're tiny, you, you're 11 and you have this giant 12 gauge.
- 18:16Yeah.
- 18:17You know, the fact that you're even pointing it in the right direction, you hit something, it all comes together.
- 18:22It's all awesome.
- 18:23You don't care if it's a hen or a rooster or whatever.
- 18:25Yeah.
- 18:26The fact that you hit it was just great.
- 18:28Um, but it was really, it was awesome.
- 18:30It was, I had that, that me, that memory like seared in my mind.
- 18:34We were down in the cattails.
- 18:36This bird gets up, shoot it, dump it.
- 18:38Mm-hmm.
- 18:38We run over, we find it.
- 18:39Mm-hmm.
- 18:40Um, that's awesome.
- 18:41It was super fun.
- 18:42Yeah.
- 18:43I think interesting everyone I've asked about same story I had, I had similar, uh, the first bird I shot was a hen too, a hen pheasant on a, on a ranch also.
- 18:53And I don't, I don't really remember that one as much.
- 18:56I do remember the bird.
- 18:57I have the picture of it.
- 18:58I, I remember that.
- 18:59But, um, I think that's what it was a hen pheasant.
- 19:03I did a lot of, I did a lot.
- 19:04I shot a lot of like quail and stuff around my house, so those kind of just grown up.
- 19:08So it was a lot more.
- 19:09Yeah.
- 19:09Those kind of don't count.
- 19:10Yeah.
- 19:10'cause they're just too, yeah.
- 19:11And I just seemed like that blended a little more.
- 19:13I remember the first ducks, I, I remember the first ducks I ever shot at.
- 19:17And then.
- 19:19I just was down in like the marsh, Utah Lake Marsh, and these mallards flew over and I'm like, bang, bang, bang.
- 19:24And I could see their glistening head in the sky, and I totally whiffed, but I was like, whoa, that was cool.
- 19:29You know?
- 19:30I can't believe we're duck hunting, you know?
- 19:32Yeah.
- 19:32And uh, and then later on I ended up, these two ducks came past me and I shot at the front one, and I totally smoked the one in the back.
- 19:41I didn't even, I didn't even hit the one I was aiming at, but all of a sudden it like splashed down by me and I was the only one there.
- 19:46So I'm like, oh, sweet.
- 19:47So yeah, it's kind of funny how those, uh, how those kind of burn into your soul.
- 19:52But yeah.
- 19:52Anyhow.
- 19:53Okay.
- 19:53So we, I, thanks for sharing that story.
- 19:55That's kind of, that's fun to hear.
- 19:56Um, were we talking about dogs then?
- 19:59Yeah.
- 19:59So getting your first dogs or, um, or get your, into, getting into hunting and everything in your first dog.
- 20:05Yeah.
- 20:05So now I'm quite a bit older.
- 20:07Um, I'm dating my wife at the time or my current wife, not my current wife.
- 20:12My, I don't know, how do you say that?
- 20:14I was, I was dating the girl that became my wife.
- 20:16Wife.
- 20:16Okay.
- 20:17Um, however that needs to make sense.
- 20:19We got that.
- 20:19We got it.
- 20:19Yeah.
- 20:20Hopefully I'm not in too much hot water when I get home.
- 20:23Um, current wife.
- 20:25Yeah.
- 20:27Hopefully my homie wife.
- 20:29Yeah.
- 20:29So, um, I knew that I wanted a bird dog and again, I didn't know that there was like different degrees of like how good a bird dog could be.
- 20:39Like I thought bird dogs were bird dogs.
- 20:40Just run around and find birds.
- 20:42Yep.
- 20:42All bird dogs were created equal.
- 20:44Mm-hmm.
- 20:44You didn't have to like, look at different breeders.
- 20:47You didn't have to find good dogs.
- 20:48Yeah.
- 20:48It's just like, man, if it's a bird dog, it's gonna do all the things.
- 20:51Yeah.
- 20:52And I ended up getting pretty lucky with my first bird dog, Otto.
- 20:55Mm-hmm.
- 20:56Um, he's a knucklehead, but he's got a great nose.
- 20:59He's a great hunter.
- 21:01He's a great bird dog.
- 21:02Mm-hmm.
- 21:02But we drove up the canyon, picked him out.
- 21:05I think we paid 400 bucks for him.
- 21:07Mm-hmm.
- 21:08And, um, just did a little bit of obedience just there at the house, just by myself.
- 21:12And we took him out to a different game farm and he pointed by himself and I was like, whoa, this is natural ability.
- 21:19Yeah.
- 21:19This is amazing.
- 21:21Mm-hmm.
- 21:21Just hooked on it from there.
- 21:23And then, um, I kind of realized early on that I'm like, I don't have the temperament to train.
- 21:30Um, I, I think you really have to have the right temperament.
- 21:34You have to have the right mindset, um, to really get the full potential out of a bird dog.
- 21:40Mm-hmm.
- 21:40And I knew that I didn't, I knew that I was just like.
- 21:44Well, it can be challenging, I think from the, not like,'cause bird dog training isn't like, Hey, today we're just gonna turn this into a bird dog.
- 21:52It's like, yeah.
- 21:52It's like trusting in a process.
- 21:54Mm-hmm.
- 21:54That if every day you put a stroke in the right place on the painting, you will get that beautiful painting.
- 22:00Yeah.
- 22:00But if you don't know like where those strokes go and kind of the order and the process.
- 22:05Yeah.
- 22:05And like, you know, you're new to it, that it can be overwhelming.
- 22:09That's partly why we're in business is like, yeah.
- 22:11It's just people, you know.
- 22:13It's just, you kind of guide E.
- 22:15Either you have someone that like you train with every day that knows the process.
- 22:19Yeah.
- 22:19And they can go out and show you how to do it.
- 22:22Or you're just like, or you send'em to someone like us.
- 22:25We just do all the hard work for you and then you, you're like, okay, I can reinforce all the training.
- 22:30Yeah.
- 22:30I can take it hunting, but.
- 22:31There's just that kind of getting from point A to point B, all that inner Yeah.
- 22:35Stuff.
- 22:36And then obviously when you're with a lot of dogs, you learn to read their personalities and pivot as needed or whatever, you know?
- 22:42But yeah, and the way that I, the way that I viewed that was I was wasting his potential by not either going all in and learning how to train and getting all the gear and like mm-hmm.
- 22:54Just really doubling down on it.
- 22:56Mm-hmm.
- 22:57Um, I was gonna do him a disservice by having this kind of shoddy bird dog that mm-hmm.
- 23:03Wouldn't listen, wouldn't respond.
- 23:05Or I needed to go the other route and go to a trainer.
- 23:09And I always relate it kind of to, like, obviously I, I work with metal, so everything I do is kind of revolved around the metal world.
- 23:15Mm-hmm.
- 23:17Like with an ax, you can, it's, you can.
- 23:21The way that I envisioned it was a trainer was gonna put the initial grind, the initial bevel to the ax.
- 23:25Mm-hmm.
- 23:26I can keep that sharp.
- 23:27Yeah.
- 23:28But to get that to be a nice, clean, beveled edge, I wanted analogy to go to a trainer.
- 23:33Mm-hmm.
- 23:33And then I can keep it sharp, you know, after talking to you, the way that you kind of do your handoff with the, with the customer mm-hmm.
- 23:40The client, um, you just really go through everything and just make sure that the client is, is up to speed and comfortable and confident that they can take the dog home.
- 23:48Mm-hmm.
- 23:49And obviously you're there as a great resource if you get home and you're like, Hey, I can't remember what you said to do about this and this make.
- 23:53Mm-hmm.
- 23:53Yep.
- 23:54Um, but I knew that that was the route that I wanted to go, especially getting ready to get married.
- 23:59Just a whole lot of stuff was going on.
- 24:00I'm like, let's have Ty take this from here.
- 24:04Mm-hmm.
- 24:05Um, another way to to think of it is, um, being a welder, you're around other tradesmen all the time, whether it's electricians or plumbers or HVAC guys, and there's a saying that is, you can't beat somebody at their own trade.
- 24:17Mm-hmm.
- 24:18Meaning.
- 24:19I would never go to an electrician and ask them plumbing advice.
- 24:22Yeah.
- 24:22A plumber would never come to me or Yeah.
- 24:25And ask for electrician, like kind of stay in your lane.
- 24:27Yeah.
- 24:28You go to a welder.
- 24:28Unless when you need something welded, you go to an electrician when you want things, you know, if you want it done and efficient and Yeah.
- 24:34Probably faster.
- 24:35Yeah.
- 24:35Not to say that mean you try to learn, but it can be maybe.
- 24:38Yeah.
- 24:39And not to say that there's not great just random Joe that lives at home and doesn't go to a trainer.
- 24:45Sure.
- 24:45You know, he, he could still produce a phenomenal Oh yeah.
- 24:48Burd job.
- 24:48There's a lot of good amateur trainers out there.
- 24:50Um, but the way that I viewed it was, this is worth it.
- 24:53I, I want to do this more.
- 24:57This is more of a passion now I see the potential here.
- 25:01Let's get a trainer involved.
- 25:03Well, it's kinda like, it's, it's just it, um, yeah, like you're saying, talking about staying at life, I.
- 25:09Could I learn to weld?
- 25:10Yeah.
- 25:11I could probably learn to weld.
- 25:12It's gonna take forever.
- 25:13Yep.
- 25:14It's gonna look like crap.
- 25:15It might not.
- 25:15It might not hold.
- 25:17Yeah.
- 25:17Or I can just call Ben, like, dude, I need this and this.
- 25:19You're like, okay, boom.
- 25:20And it comes out like three days later and it looks awesome.
- 25:23Like, okay, I'd rather let me do what I'm good at.
- 25:27And you do it, you're good at, and then we just exchange funds.
- 25:29Right?
- 25:30Yeah.
- 25:30It's like, I mean, it's just, I mean, but if I want to learn how to weld and I love welding.
- 25:35Sure.
- 25:35Like, yeah, if you want to, someone wants to learn how to dog train, they want to get all the equipment and time or buy a welder, like yeah, go for it.
- 25:42But it's just, uh, you know, I dunno.
- 25:46When you find what you're good at and it's just easier sometimes you just, you get older to do that and yeah, life just gets busier.
- 25:52Busier.
- 25:52Here's my dog, I wanna hunt with her this fall.
- 25:54Give it back.
- 25:54Yeah.
- 25:54Ready to go.
- 25:55Okay, here you go.
- 25:56And I'm now in the mindset of like, I would way rather invest time in having just really good positive memories with the dogs going, hiking, hunting, whatever it is.
- 26:06Mm-hmm.
- 26:07Then have months and months of just like pounding my head against the wall of like, I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
- 26:12I don't know why the dog doesn't cooperate, you know, all these different things.
- 26:15And again, over time I think you'd just narrow that down and, and shorten that learning curve.
- 26:20But for sure, um, I think having a, having a great bird dog trainer is, is a huge resource that then just allows you to just turnkey.
- 26:29You have this phenomenal dog, you obviously have to build a relationship with it.
- 26:32Mm-hmm.
- 26:33And, um, our dogs are now kind of incorporated.
- 26:36They're part of our family, you know, the girls love him.
- 26:38Mm-hmm.
- 26:39Um, but yeah, that's just an invaluable piece of the puzzle for me at least.
- 26:43So you had Otto, you, you picked up Otto.
- 26:46He's, what is he?
- 26:4612 is he had old, he, he's either 11 or, yeah, 11 or 12 or something.
- 26:51I'll go back and, and look, he's, he's still, last time we boarded him, he still looks pretty decent.
- 26:56He's doing great.
- 26:56Decent.
- 26:57Yeah.
- 26:57Found out he has heart failure from the vet.
- 26:59So he, they're kind of just like, Hey, he just throttle him back a little bit.
- 27:03Um, we'll just kinda keep an eye on him, but.
- 27:05You know, they say with heart, like his heart just is, is it congested?
- 27:09Or when they start, I don't know, what do they say when they say that?
- 27:12What do they mean?
- 27:12They, I mean, obviously vet heart failure, but like, what are the details of that?
- 27:16Like, we took him to the vet for something else.
- 27:18He was just having a hard time keeping food down.
- 27:20So we just took him to the vet and they kept him overnight.
- 27:22They did some tests on him, and I can't remember all the tests that they did.
- 27:26This was, I don't know, maybe a year or two ago.
- 27:28Mm-hmm.
- 27:28But they basically came back and they're like, Hey, he's got heart failure.
- 27:32And, uh, so no, you know, nothing to be too alarmed with.
- 27:36They, they're like, we can give you some medicine.
- 27:38And I was like, ah, I'm not, you know, let's just, yeah.
- 27:41You know, if it, if it's, he goes out when he's hunting or something.
- 27:44Right.
- 27:45Whatever.
- 27:45It's the way.
- 27:46Yeah.
- 27:46At least he'll die doing something.
- 27:48He was, yeah, exactly.
- 27:49That.
- 27:49That's honestly exactly my, my thoughts.
- 27:52So, um, anyways, they were just like, yeah, this, this medicine won't fix it.
- 27:56It'll just maybe.
- 27:58I dunno, help it a little bit.
- 27:59Mm-hmm.
- 28:00And they were like, I wouldn't do anything different.
- 28:02Maybe just try to not let him run so hard for so long.
- 28:05You know, just try to keep him in check a little bit.
- 28:08But he said the last two years have been great for him.
- 28:11Um, but that's why we picked up this third, third dog is just to kind of alleviate a little bit off him and let him just kind of enjoy Yeah.
- 28:19The glory hunts, so to speak.
- 28:20The golden, the golden years.
- 28:21Yeah.
- 28:22Yeah.
- 28:22So tell me, so you got Otto back from training.
- 28:25Yep.
- 28:26What do you, is there something you like hunting the most?
- 28:28What was there some times you're like, man, um, some wild birds that was awesome or, yeah.
- 28:33Is there any standout moments or, yeah.
- 28:35So maybe go into some of that.
- 28:36Yep.
- 28:37So I, he's got so many fun memories attached to him.
- 28:41Um, so when we first got auto, I was still pretty new to just.
- 28:46All the different species of birds that you could hunt.
- 28:49Mm-hmm.
- 28:49Um, I knew that there were different species.
- 28:51I just didn't know a ton about'em.
- 28:53Um, so in my mind a lot of it was just pheasants and pheasant farms and, you know, chucker and things like that.
- 29:01Mm-hmm.
- 29:01Um, I knew that there was grouse in the mountains, but I didn't know how readily accessible those were.
- 29:06Sure.
- 29:07Um, which ended up becoming, that's now like my favorite part is just finding new spots.
- 29:12Yeah.
- 29:12It's way less about the birds now and just more about like, Hey, we're gonna go have an adventure.
- 29:16We're gonna go try this new spot.
- 29:18I don't really care if we see birds.
- 29:20That's obviously a bonus.
- 29:22Worst case scenario, you get a workout and you let your dog run around.
- 29:25Yeah.
- 29:25You get some killer views.
- 29:26Some pretty country.
- 29:27Yeah.
- 29:27Yeah, yeah.
- 29:28Um, and maybe you find a fricking honey hole and you're like, well, okay.
- 29:31Yep.
- 29:32And that, it's just been so fun to have that whole kind of adventure, so to speak mm-hmm.
- 29:38Of finding new spots and new adventures and new areas and new birds.
- 29:42Um.
- 29:43Man, those first couple years, Otto just had some phenomenal years.
- 29:47Um, I remember we went out to the Dakotas and it's just, it's way different hunting pheasants here in Utah where Utah used to have a really good pheasant population.
- 29:56Mm-hmm.
- 29:57Wild birds and it's really kind of gone downhill.
- 30:00Yeah.
- 30:00To the point where like if you shoot a quote unquote wild bird, more than likely it was released by the state.
- 30:06Yeah.
- 30:07It's definitely a lot, lot less around.
- 30:09Yeah.
- 30:09Um, and so I knew that going into that, that quote unquote true wild birds and the Dakotas and, and that area, the Midwest, that those were like true.
- 30:20Yeah.
- 30:20Wild birds.
- 30:21Yeah.
- 30:21And if you can get your dog to outsmart one of those dog or outsmart one of those birds, pin'em down, you get up, bird flushes, you shoot it.
- 30:30Like that's pretty impressive now.
- 30:31Yeah.
- 30:32Yeah.
- 30:32Obviously there's guys back there back in the Midwest that that's all they do and that's super normal for Yeah.
- 30:37Yeah.
- 30:38But for me it was like, that was kind of nerve wracking to go out there.
- 30:42And just to say, kind of get that accomplishment type thing.
- 30:45Yeah.
- 30:45Like, okay, let's, I think Otto's great.
- 30:47Let's go see how he does.
- 30:48Yeah.
- 30:49Well, it's different when everything's controlled here.
- 30:51We don't have those bird contacts where those guys can take a dog out and just let it run every day and Yeah.
- 30:55And to bump birds, bump birds, point kill bird.
- 30:58Okay.
- 30:58The dog's like, oh, if I point, I get it.
- 31:00We just, unless you use like pigeons like we do, or you know, essentially pigeons to teach'em the timing of everything, they Sure.
- 31:08We just don't have that many wild birds around to just let'em do that, you know?
- 31:12Yep.
- 31:12But, yeah.
- 31:13Yeah.
- 31:13But there's a couple of his points that are just seared in my, in my mind where every time we go back to the Dakotas, we always hunt like a certain strip because it just has, nostalgic always has birds too.
- 31:25Um, yeah.
- 31:26And so probably, I don't know.
- 31:27No, it's, I mean, there's birds galore up there.
- 31:31Yeah.
- 31:32Um, so, well he just threw a sweet point.
- 31:35Rooster comes up, like everything comes together.
- 31:37Perfect.
- 31:38You slam.
- 31:39Like if you were to make a movie about bird dogs, that scene would be in it where it's just like, it's right at sunset.
- 31:46Sunset's going down.
- 31:47Beautiful sunset, dog sticks a point, bird gets up, shoot it, dump it, brings it back.
- 31:53Just this long tail feather.
- 31:55Yeah.
- 31:55Feathers are floating through the air.
- 31:57Oh dude.
- 31:58Yep.
- 31:58Some of that stuff's so fun.
- 32:02And then like, you're just like static.
- 32:04You're like holy.
- 32:05Like that whole thing just happened flawlessly.
- 32:07Yeah.
- 32:08Yeah.
- 32:08That's awesome.
- 32:09Yeah.
- 32:09And then good dog work.
- 32:11I don't know if you have the same experience, like when you go up in the mountains and you hunt grouse.
- 32:14Mm-hmm.
- 32:15Graphs are pretty tricky just because of the terrain.
- 32:17Yeah.
- 32:18That sometimes it's hard for your dog to get into that, um, what do you call it, the scent cone.
- 32:23Mm-hmm.
- 32:23Um, and so when your dog can point a grouse in the mountains.
- 32:29That's like even more of a rush because you're like literally everything lined up.
- 32:34Yeah.
- 32:35There's logs everywhere and different stuff.
- 32:37Yeah.
- 32:37Yeah.
- 32:37So a lot of times when you're hunting grouse, it's like if your dog can point, that's phenomenal.
- 32:43But a lot of times it's just due to the terrain.
- 32:46Your dog's maybe above you and in front of you, 20 or 30 yards and a bird down below you gets up, flushes up.
- 32:52Yeah.
- 32:52So you still shoot it'cause it's, you know, it's a bird and you're there to shoot birds and your dog goes, gets it.
- 32:57It's not like a willfully flush bird either.
- 32:58It's right.
- 32:59He's not like making mistakes and stuff like that.
- 33:01He just down and they just flush wild.
- 33:02Mm-hmm.
- 33:02Or even then, like he's jumping over a log.
- 33:04Mm-hmm.
- 33:05And then that's what bust the bird.
- 33:07So, um.
- 33:09But yeah, when you can get up in the mountains and your, your dog sticks a point.
- 33:13Mm-hmm.
- 33:14And it's all this thick timber and you're hearing elk bugling and you know, it's late fall, so all the aspen trees are turning colors.
- 33:21Yeah.
- 33:21Golden leaves in the fall.
- 33:22Yeah.
- 33:23Grass, dude.
- 33:23Awesome.
- 33:25Those are pretty rare when your dog will stick a point.
- 33:27Mm-hmm.
- 33:28But it is, it is magical.
- 33:30Yeah.
- 33:30It's amazing.
- 33:32I love, I've gotten more into the grouse hunting myself too, just where we'd shoot so many pheasants and chucker and train uhhuh.
- 33:38Like, I want to see something different than what we see every day.
- 33:42You know?
- 33:42So.
- 33:43And people don't realize how big grouse are.
- 33:46Oh yeah.
- 33:46Like some of these blue gros are awesome, are bigger than, like the body is bigger than a big male rooster.
- 33:52Oh yeah.
- 33:53And they have these giant tail fan, they're like small turkeys.
- 33:57Well, most people don't.
- 33:59I, well, I don't wanna say most people.
- 34:00I would say, yeah.
- 34:02I would say most hunters don't really target grouse.
- 34:04No.
- 34:04They just, they're an opportunistic bird.
- 34:06So if you're out bird or you're out.
- 34:08Hunting deer, elk.
- 34:09Oh, there's a grouse.
- 34:09And you shoot it with a rifle or whatever they do.
- 34:11Like not supposed to, but I'm sure a lot of'em do.
- 34:14Or Yep.
- 34:15Shoot'em with the archery equipment and you throw'em on the fire and eat'em, which is awesome.
- 34:18Yeah, they're great.
- 34:19But it's fun to actually target'em and learn.
- 34:22And I've, I've done recently, last year, last two seasons, I've gotten into like late some, done some of the late season.
- 34:29I know you have too.
- 34:31And those suckers, those where I'm hunting'em a lot, they stay in the trees a lot.
- 34:35Once it's late season and they're snow on the ground, they're not coming off.
- 34:38They're like, they're up the, you're like hunting'em out.
- 34:40Trees cover pretty much.
- 34:41And anyways, it's, it was fun.
- 34:43It's been fun to figure'em out.
- 34:44But I shot some, I shot a limit last year.
- 34:47I think the last day I sent you, you were, I invited you.
- 34:49But you had already, you were, I was already out somewhere else.
- 34:52Hunting, hunting.
- 34:52And, uh, got into some, and I shot some big birds.
- 34:55I, I'm con I guarantee, well, I don't know if they all die from old age, but there's some old birds.
- 35:01Oh, yeah.
- 35:01For those bluegrass that just Yep.
- 35:03They get up in those steep country and no one hunts'em, and, you know, so anyhow.
- 35:08Yeah.
- 35:08They're cool birds.
- 35:09Yeah, that's, and that's, honestly, that's been my new favorite is the, the mountain grouse.
- 35:13Like roughed or blue or don't care.
- 35:15Don't really care.
- 35:17Um, like if you had to choose one, is there one you'd?
- 35:19Blues are probably more my favorite, but I get into'em almost too much now.
- 35:24Mm-hmm.
- 35:24And so now roughs are a little bit more of this, like, we gotta find some spots with the roughs.
- 35:29Yeah.
- 35:30And uh, like.
- 35:32Any given weekend, I can go shoot a blue.
- 35:34Yeah.
- 35:35Um, almost guaranteed.
- 35:36Yeah.
- 35:37Like if I, if I want to go shoot one, I know where to find'em.
- 35:40Dozens of places that are just loaded.
- 35:41I would agree with you.
- 35:42Blues are easier to, they're like more isolated in certain habitat and terrain.
- 35:47Yeah.
- 35:47Or the roughs, I feel like are, they're just more kind of random, sporadic Yep.
- 35:52Kind of ish.
- 35:53A little bit more.
- 35:54And I typically find roughs and blues together more frequently mm-hmm.
- 36:00Than I will find roughs just by themselves.
- 36:02Hmm.
- 36:03So like if I, if I get into roughs mm-hmm.
- 36:06I can probably easily find blues.
- 36:08Hmm.
- 36:09And if I find blues, sometimes they're just is.
- 36:11But I, I have a hard time.
- 36:12So you're not a little more borderline, you're hunting a little more of the not, I mean, not necessarily the border transitioning maybe.
- 36:18Yeah.
- 36:19It's just, it's harder to find like, just true like honey hole of just roughs.
- 36:25Yeah.
- 36:26That seems to be the, the, the hard part is finding just really good.
- 36:30Yeah.
- 36:31Roughs only.
- 36:33Where they can develop and get mature and big and yeah.
- 36:36I don't shoot a lot of rough and blues together, honestly.
- 36:39Where I hunt roughs are generally a little more separated.
- 36:42They're usually lower in elevation.
- 36:43Yep.
- 36:43A little bit than your blues, you know?
- 36:45Yep.
- 36:45Will be way up high.
- 36:47Um, I have killed them.
- 36:48Overlapping.
- 36:49Yeah.
- 36:50Kind of those zones.
- 36:51I killed some last year on that late season hunt down lowers where as I was heading out.
- 36:55But the, the blues.
- 36:57Yeah.
- 36:57So, but there are some spots.
- 36:59There's a spot We should, I should really, we should go up to Idaho.
- 37:02I hunted it years ago for deer and dude, I was walking down this trail.
- 37:06It was way up behind some private and it, this canyon?
- 37:09No man canyon.
- 37:10And there were just roughs everywhere.
- 37:12Oh, that'd be so fun.
- 37:13I saw like, and like a quarter mile on the road.
- 37:16Like, I mean it was, it felt like every a hundred yards.
- 37:19You just like on the literal trail.
- 37:21Yeah.
- 37:22In your, we didn't have a dog and it's like, I gotta come back up in here.
- 37:25I still have it marked on my onyx, but I, yeah.
- 37:27Let's go.
- 37:28I don't know.
- 37:28I don't know.
- 37:28I mean, this is.
- 37:30Probably four years ago.
- 37:31So I don't know if the cycles, they're gonna be less or more, but I mean, there were so many, there has to be still at least one decent, decent numbers in there, you know?
- 37:39We haven't had any real bad winners since then.
- 37:41Yeah.
- 37:41So anyhow.
- 37:43But I have done, like Minnesota, we hunted grouse up in Minnesota a couple years ago and told me about Yeah.
- 37:50How was that?
- 37:51Yeah, it's like a totally different, like it's the same bird, same rough grouse, same bird.
- 37:55Mm-hmm.
- 37:56Not the same.
- 37:57Is it just thick as sin out there?
- 37:59It or what's the habitat like?
- 38:00The crazy thing is like, obviously we're, we're here in the mountains, we're, we're used to really thick timber, thick country, gnarly terrain.
- 38:10It is.
- 38:11The worst experience hunting in this.
- 38:14It's like, oh, really?
- 38:15You cannot, you're shooting trees, you cannot move there.
- 38:19It's just, it's so dense with willows and trees that like a bird gets up and like you're trying to swing and like your gun just like can't move.
- 38:28'cause you're just, it doesn't sound very fun, Ben.
- 38:30It's so stinking tough.
- 38:33And so these guys that are like really good at it, you know, I, I'm, I dunno, maybe I was a little bit, um, had an ego going out there of like, oh, I'm from the mountains.
- 38:42Like, yeah, there's no way.
- 38:44Your terrain is worse than us.
- 38:45Yeah.
- 38:46And it is super, super gnarly.
- 38:49Um, I've got these videos where like, I'm walking and I can't, it's just thick, gnarly.
- 38:54It's just super, super thick.
- 38:55Okay.
- 38:55It's flat as can be.
- 38:56Yeah.
- 38:57So like, you know, you'll go do a mile and it's like nothing.
- 39:00Mm-hmm.
- 39:01Like, you're not winded, you're not tired, but like.
- 39:04You're kind just like mentally exhausted of like, oh my gosh, like, I'm just so mentally taxed.
- 39:08I'm like trying to dodge all these trees and maneuver and get around.
- 39:12And Did you see any woodcock when you were there?
- 39:13Mm-hmm.
- 39:14Yep.
- 39:14A lot of woodcock.
- 39:15Shoot.
- 39:15Yeah, we shot Adam.
- 39:16Okay.
- 39:17But the same thing, it's like they'll get up and they'll be 15 yards like a layup shot.
- 39:23Yeah.
- 39:23But you can't, you can't swing your gun around and you end up having to like tuck your gun in and then shove it back out really just to get around all the trees and it's like standing in Willows pretty, almost.
- 39:34Pretty much.
- 39:34Yeah.
- 39:34It's nuts.
- 39:34It's, but it's really, really fun.
- 39:37And the birds there, uh, like I said, it's the same bird, but they get really big and beautiful and like their tail fans are just amazing.
- 39:45And, um, that sounds cool.
- 39:47I feel like the roughs that I shoot here, they're always just like a little bit on, like the smaller side, especially compared to blue grouse, but um, yeah, they're just like a smaller bird.
- 39:56Yeah.
- 39:57Oh, for sure.
- 39:57But then you get back in the, you know, the Minnesota, Wisconsin area.
- 40:03Big, hearty birds.
- 40:04They're mm-hmm.
- 40:04They're good sized.
- 40:05I wonder if they're kind of, they, I mean, they're the same bird, but they're, there's obviously different genetics.
- 40:09Yeah.
- 40:10They gotta be slightly, because I mean, I killed mule deer in Utah.
- 40:14Yeah.
- 40:14And mul deer in Colorado, they, I mean, they're a mule deer, but they do, they look like a different species.
- 40:19Sure.
- 40:19I mean, their bodies are just giant.
- 40:21Yeah.
- 40:21You're like, holy crap, this is a mule deer.
- 40:23And then we've killed mule deer down in southern Utah, like down on the Zion unit.
- 40:28And the thing has like a teeny body and a big rack.
- 40:30It's just, it's interesting how like there are different, obviously genetic pools and strains and maybe, maybe their winters are harder up there.
- 40:37I don't know.
- 40:37And it causes them to, over evolution has caused'em to grow bigger or something like that.
- 40:42Yeah.
- 40:42But I don't know.
- 40:44So that's cool.
- 40:45So, okay, let's talk.
- 40:46So Otto then, now we got Scout next, right?
- 40:50Yeah.
- 40:50Picked up Scout.
- 40:51She actually kind of was like an accident.
- 40:54One of my really good buddies, he, he bought her as a pup, but he also bought this, um.
- 41:01Bernice mountain dog as a pup.
- 41:03Mm-hmm.
- 41:04And about six months later, he's like, I can't handle both these dogs as pups.
- 41:08The, the mountain dog is just so chill, just wants to lay around just a total love bug.
- 41:14But this short hair is like this.
- 41:17Is this your roommate?
- 41:18Just like an old buddy.
- 41:20He lives down in Arizona.
- 41:21And so he called me, he's like, dude, do you wanna take this dog?
- 41:24This dog is like on crack.
- 41:26Like, I can't ever get it to be tired.
- 41:27I can never get it to relax.
- 41:29Mm-hmm.
- 41:29Just like normal short hair behavior.
- 41:32Yeah.
- 41:32Yeah.
- 41:32So I was like, yeah, I'll take her.
- 41:34And uh, man, she's turned out to be one of the best hunting dogs I've ever seen.
- 41:40She's tiny.
- 41:41She's so methodical.
- 41:43When she goes on point, she's literally like a statue.
- 41:45Like you cannot get her to move.
- 41:47Yeah.
- 41:47Yeah.
- 41:48Like.
- 41:49You know, one of the things that Tyce will do with his dogs and training is that you can go up and you can like, tap'em on the Yeah.
- 41:54The head and kind of release'em.
- 41:55Release them.
- 41:56Mm-hmm.
- 41:56When she's stuck, she won't release.
- 41:58She won't release.
- 41:59She's like, no, there's a birder.
- 42:00Like, she will not release until, until she feels like you've thoroughly gone and checked the entire air.
- 42:05You've stamped down all the brush.
- 42:07Okay, now she'll leave.
- 42:08That's cool.
- 42:09And she's really, really fun.
- 42:11Especially when you're taking buddies or friends that have never hunted before.
- 42:14Oh yeah.
- 42:15She's a great one because she won't budge, she won't make mistakes.
- 42:18Mm-hmm.
- 42:18Like if she bumps a bird, it's like a true mistake.
- 42:22Mm-hmm.
- 42:23Like you, you can't really fal her for that.
- 42:25But she's just tiny.
- 42:26She's super fun.
- 42:28But, uh, she's kind of bearing all the weight of all the hunting right now'cause Yeah.
- 42:32She's Otto's a little bit older and new dog.
- 42:34She's, she the season, the season veteran.
- 42:36Yeah.
- 42:36And she's just, she's money dude.
- 42:38She's so fun.
- 42:40Is she six right?
- 42:41Yeah, she's gotta be about five or six.
- 42:42Five or six right now.
- 42:43I can't remember.
- 42:44'cause I can't remember how old she was when I got her.
- 42:46From my buddy and how long he had her and mm-hmm.
- 42:49So I have her paperwork.
- 42:50I just need to go back through and Yeah.
- 42:52Figure out when she was born, but, okay.
- 42:54So you've, you've, I know you've traveled even quite a bit for upland birds.
- 42:58Yeah.
- 42:58You've killed Huns.
- 42:59Have you killed Huns yet?
- 43:00Huns.
- 43:01You've sharpies prairie chicken chickens, right?
- 43:03Sharp tail.
- 43:04Yep.
- 43:04Sharp tail grouse, prairie chickens, blue grouse, rough grouse, blues, ruffs.
- 43:08Uh, they killed any of the, they have the pine hens or something up in northern Idaho.
- 43:12They're like a spruce grouse.
- 43:14Spruce grouse is on my bucket list.
- 43:15I want to get a, yeah.
- 43:16Done.
- 43:17Chucker.
- 43:18Um, chucker.
- 43:19We did chucker together up in Idaho.
- 43:20That was fun.
- 43:21Yeah.
- 43:21Yeah.
- 43:21Um, I'm trying to think of what else.
- 43:24Ruff grouse, um, I guess, did you kill Woodcock?
- 43:29No.
- 43:30Didn't check that one on.
- 43:31No.
- 43:31Well, you gotta have some.
- 43:32That would be really fun.
- 43:32You have some on the list to, so it just seems, I mean, from what I gather, I've never shot when they, you know, we have the snipe here, the Wilson Snipe in Utah, and they make go ee when they like fly the woodcock.
- 43:42Make a sound like that at all.
- 43:44I can't remember.
- 43:46I have that, like, burned in my memory of just this little tiny, it's like a tennis ball.
- 43:51Okay.
- 43:51And they get up and they just zip.
- 43:53So they're, they're like a, I think they're in the same family as a snipe.
- 43:56They, I don't know.
- 43:57So they just, I've shot Snipe in Utah and they're like the size of a dove, you know, you're like a dead breast.
- 44:02And those ones look, I don't know, two or three times their size or something like that.
- 44:07But yeah.
- 44:08Yeah.
- 44:08It's, it's, it's fun, man.
- 44:10I, I love it all.
- 44:10Like, I love the, I've never killed prairie chicken.
- 44:13I do want to kill, I'd like to hunt some of those.
- 44:15I know.
- 44:15You even bite me out.
- 44:16I just get busy in the fall.
- 44:18I, I, I do big game hunt.
- 44:19I waterfowl hunt.
- 44:20I upland hunt.
- 44:21So it's, it's like just picking, I know.
- 44:23Picking your voice.
- 44:24And I, I like doing, what are we doing this weekend?
- 44:25Yeah.
- 44:26It's like, and then I got a family with five kids.
- 44:28Yep.
- 44:28And it's like, try to keep the wife happy.
- 44:31Yeah.
- 44:31Hot dogs, blah, blah, blah.
- 44:32But yeah, it's, it's tough.
- 44:34It's almost like you have to just kind of figure out like, okay, this year I'm doing big game.
- 44:38Yeah.
- 44:38And I can trickle on some other things.
- 44:40Or this year I'm doing.
- 44:41Yeah.
- 44:41And so for the last couple years, it's like I'm all in on upland.
- 44:45Yeah.
- 44:45And we'll trickle in some waterfowl here and there.
- 44:47Yeah.
- 44:48Um, but have you done much waterfowl?
- 44:50Mm-hmm.
- 44:51Have you?
- 44:51Not a ton.
- 44:52Especially not here locally, which is crazy.
- 44:54Like, okay, we went down to Texas and we did an airboat trip out on the ocean.
- 44:58Mm-hmm.
- 44:59And, uh, one of the guys bought one of our dog kennels, um, and he had drops.
- 45:04Mm-hmm.
- 45:04And we went down with him on this big airboat and we shot like tons of birds.
- 45:10I might be exaggerating, but I feel like there was plural, millions of birds.
- 45:15Really.
- 45:16Like you would see off in the distance.
- 45:17You're like, that's a, that cloud's moving fast.
- 45:20Yeah.
- 45:21And it comes over top of you and it's just thousands and thousands of birds.
- 45:23Oh my gosh.
- 45:24I've never seen that many birds, huh?
- 45:27Yeah.
- 45:27And it's all just these awesome pintails and redheads and yeah, that is tea about duck hunting.
- 45:33The, you see those huge groups of the migrators and thousands of birds and.
- 45:38I the same thing with, I mean, uh, I mean, that's the fun thing about bird hunting is that's so, there's so many species.
- 45:45If you're hunting ducks and geese and upland birds and blah, blah, blah, there's just, there's a lot to hunt and chase with the dogs, you know?
- 45:51So.
- 45:52Yep.
- 45:52That's, it's fun.
- 45:53You could even like really get narrowed down and be like, yeah, all I wanna do is hunt pheasants.
- 45:58Yeah.
- 45:58Great.
- 45:59People can enjoy their entire life and that's all they want do.
- 46:02And then there's guys that are like, okay, I have hunted pheasants.
- 46:04What's next?
- 46:05Yeah.
- 46:05You know, I wanna go figure out that species.
- 46:07I want to kind of hunt them.
- 46:08And, and then some people just go like, all in on chucker.
- 46:11Yep.
- 46:11And that's all they hunt.
- 46:12That's all they hunt.
- 46:13They're like, I'm a chucker nut.
- 46:14And that's kind of how I was, I was more that way in high school.
- 46:17Like, I just loved chucker.
- 46:19I loved, and I still do, like when I was, um, I went out with Callie Parmley with Gun Dog Magazine at the end of the year, and we killed some chucker together and it just, I remember just hiking the hills and it just, it feels good when you're in good shape and you're like hunting chucker.
- 46:32If you're not in good shape, it, it sucks, sucks.
- 46:34But it's like when you're like, feel like you're a mountain goat up there and you're just climbing around the hills and chasing the dogs, and man, those covey come up and they come up right in front of you.
- 46:43You're shooting'em over your head and they, I don't know, it's just, I still do love it, but um, but it's, it's definitely, I think if, if you hunt a chucker every week, man, you'd be pretty good shape.
- 46:54Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 46:55So, yeah.
- 46:55And there's some guys that are hardcore.
- 46:57Um, I feel like mountain grouse, it's, it can be equally as hard.
- 47:03Oh yeah.
- 47:03Um, I just feel so much more at home.
- 47:06I love the view and the scenery of the mountains.
- 47:09Just the smell of the dirt and the berries and the leaves and the pines.
- 47:12Yeah.
- 47:13Yeah.
- 47:13Like that, just like something for my soul.
- 47:15It just does something where like, chucker hunting is fun.
- 47:21It's more like, but it's fun because it sucks.
- 47:22It's dead grass.
- 47:23Yeah.
- 47:24Like rocks.
- 47:25Like you don't go chucker hunting for.
- 47:28The deep timbers and the elk bugling, it's like you're going to chucker hunting'cause it's gonna kind of suck.
- 47:35Yeah.
- 47:35And it has its own beauty.
- 47:36It definitely does.
- 47:37Sure.
- 47:37Um, I prefer chucker and I think most people, it's late season.
- 47:41Oh yeah.
- 47:41And it's like cold and it's colder and it's not, you know, and then early season it's, it's too hot and it's so hot.
- 47:47It can be snakes and it's just like, so that's where I like the grouse where it opens early and you get up in those, you know, a lot of time you're hunting roughs around like streams and creeks, uhhuh.
- 47:56And so the dogs can jump in the water and it's like, and cool off and there's shade and it's just, and like you say, the elk and the deer, it's just fun to hunt'em that time of year.
- 48:05And then that it is a fun transition.
- 48:07And then the pheasants kind of come on and then the, then you kind of finish a lot with the chucker or whatever else, you know?
- 48:12Yep.
- 48:12But yeah.
- 48:14Yeah.
- 48:14That's cool.
- 48:15So scout's awesome.
- 48:16We, we, it's something I've kind of thought about.
- 48:19They had a, a club here.
- 48:21Um, there's a, a local club called Wasatch Wing Clay.
- 48:24And.
- 48:25Ben called me up last year.
- 48:26He was like, Hey, they're just doing like a end of the year hunt where they just let it let go of crap.
- 48:30A load of birds.
- 48:31Yep.
- 48:31And it's like a hundred bucks a gun.
- 48:32And so we went out there with my, I have a little red setter that I took out there.
- 48:37And Ben had, did you have both you, you had scout and hoop, but who wasn't really trained?
- 48:42It was just, who was just like a pup.
- 48:44So we had Otto and Scout.
- 48:45He had Otto out too, too.
- 48:45And then we had, Ben had some other buddies there with, I think we had some wire hairs and some other short hairs.
- 48:51Yeah.
- 48:52Does that sound about right, Uhhuh?
- 48:53Yep.
- 48:54Did we mopped up the birds?
- 48:56I think we, I think we ended up with 60 or something.
- 49:00You kind of feel bad after a while when, so the whole premise with this is these, this game farm, they obviously have to hold and reserve certain amount of birds just to, for anticipating hunts and stuff like that.
- 49:12And then by law you can only hunt to a certain day.
- 49:16Yeah.
- 49:16And as it starts to warm up, you're driving out there, the roads just get super nasty and muddy.
- 49:20And so.
- 49:21Usually before things get too warmed up, they basically just put a cutoff and they say, yeah, by this day we're done.
- 49:26Regardless of how many birds.
- 49:27Yeah.
- 49:28And so then they, they put on this event where they basically release birds all over the property and, you know, you're in your little group, there's like 600 birds or something like that, or, and so you can just hunt all day long anywhere on the property.
- 49:41Yeah.
- 49:41And they're all farm raised, you know, um, pheasants, hens and roosters and whatever.
- 49:47Mm-hmm.
- 49:47Um, but you could just hunt all day long.
- 49:49Yeah.
- 49:50It was fun.
- 49:50It was so fun.
- 49:51It was fun.
- 49:51Those dogs.
- 49:52I, I still have burnout'cause we were kind of spread out at a point and I, I remember you guys had a bird pinned down and there was like three or four pointers, like all honoring and backing around a bird.
- 50:02It was just pretty, like, it was looking over the valley and I could see you guys like, and all your dogs locked up and I'm like, oh, this is, something's gonna die right here.
- 50:10So I have, I had those meta glasses, that record.
- 50:14Yep.
- 50:15And yeah, that exact same scenario where.
- 50:18All of our dogs were on point.
- 50:19Mm-hmm.
- 50:19They were all backing each other.
- 50:21Yeah.
- 50:21And so I turned my glasses on and I'm like, this is gonna be awesome.
- 50:25Mm-hmm.
- 50:25So I have it on video.
- 50:26This bird gets up and I miss you.
- 50:29Maybe I didn't remember that.
- 50:30I'm like, delete.
- 50:31I might have that one on video from a distance too, but it was cool if it's on, if it's from a distance, maybe it looks like I hid it, but I definitely missed it and it was good dog work regardless.
- 50:40I know I wanted to post it'cause it was so cool.
- 50:43But I'm like, that's too embarrassing.
- 50:45It would've epic.
- 50:45It would've been epic if you nailed it then like, oh yeah, well we did that same thing and it was a hen uhhuh and I'm like, I don't want to post that.
- 50:52'cause it's a hen and I don't want to get roasted in the comments of somebody that just doesn't understand the context of Yeah, we're at a game farm and Yeah.
- 50:59You know somebody's, yeah.
- 51:00Where you shoot females, they're not reproducing, blah blah.
- 51:02Yeah.
- 51:03Yeah.
- 51:03So, but I have one where like there's four or five dogs and they all honor each other and the bird gets up and I dump it and it was awesome.
- 51:09The bird, the dogs go get it and all that good stuff.
- 51:12But the really good one with the.
- 51:14Just huge rooster.
- 51:16I totally wh it Maybe for this podcast, when I post it on, uh, Instagram, I'll, I'll use one of those pictures that he took with the dogs.
- 51:23All the dogs.
- 51:24I'll send you the video.
- 51:25I'll, I'll let you, I'll let you post it.
- 51:28Well, at least the picture.
- 51:29And because as your kennels in there and, and it was just fun.
- 51:32We had a big old pack of dogs and we just spread out and let'em Yeah.
- 51:34Let'em do their thing.
- 51:35But actually this year I was, I thought they were gonna do it, but I guess I did.
- 51:39They they ran outta birds.
- 51:40Yep, they did.
- 51:41They ran outta birds, which is, that's kudos to them.
- 51:43That's the plan.
- 51:44Yeah.
- 51:44Yeah.
- 51:44They wanna run outta birds, but every once in a while, if the weather just doesn't cooperate or whatever, they have too many birds.
- 51:50Excess birds.
- 51:51Yeah.
- 51:52Yeah.
- 51:52That was good planning on their part.
- 51:53But, um, I actually had a question about that with you.
- 51:56Like, are you ever worried, um, like mixing dogs on a hunt or.
- 52:03Like, do dogs typically, like we're in their own quote unquote hunt mode mm-hmm.
- 52:08Do they typically get along?
- 52:10Um, do you ever see dogs that just wanna fight each other?
- 52:14Like, that's a good question.
- 52:16Um, so I would say it comes down to a lot like asking the owners.
- 52:20Yeah.
- 52:21Hopefully the owners know their dogs personalities, right?
- 52:23Like yeah.
- 52:24If your dog's a fighter around other males, then mm-hmm.
- 52:27You hope you have enough control on your dog that it's like, Hey, I gotta kind of hunt, keep my dog kind of away from your guys' dog.
- 52:35You know?
- 52:35But I would say in a, in regards to hunting together, if the dogs have experience hunting with other dogs Yeah.
- 52:43And they understand the game, like they understand like, point equals bird.
- 52:47Yeah.
- 52:48Yeah.
- 52:48Reward, shoot the bird.
- 52:49You know, like I'd say generally they honor and, and work together pretty good.
- 52:54Right.
- 52:54'cause like they know, like, it's like you going to.
- 52:58Play basketball and you know how to play basketball.
- 53:01And they're like, Hey, dude, jump in the game.
- 53:03Sure.
- 53:03You're like, all right, where do you want me?
- 53:04They're like, okay, why don't you point guard or whatever.
- 53:06You're like, all right.
- 53:07And then you just, you can just kind of play that game.
- 53:09Now if you bring a dog that doesn't know basketball Yeah.
- 53:12And you're like, jump in.
- 53:13He is like, run around, like pushing people.
- 53:16You're like, double.
- 53:17He is like, what are you doing?
- 53:18Like, that's like a puppy coming to like experience players, right?
- 53:22Yeah.
- 53:22So it's like if they have the game and the understanding you transition, they can play with other dogs, you know?
- 53:28But, um, does that kind of answer your question?
- 53:31Yeah.
- 53:32I get invited to go on a lot of hunts, you know, as, um, being involved in this world and Yeah.
- 53:38Building cool stuff, you know.
- 53:40But, uh, we get into that.
- 53:41I wanna get into that too.
- 53:42But anyhow, keep going.
- 53:43But people invite me and I'm always like, I don't know if I wanna hunt with your dog.
- 53:46I don't know your dog.
- 53:47I don't, you know.
- 53:49It can be.
- 53:50Yeah.
- 53:51There's so much invested in my dogs that I'm like, dog, I don't want being shot yourself, getting shot.
- 53:56Like it is a little, it is a little dangerous.
- 53:59Um, hunting with new people can be, yeah.
- 54:03And their dogs.
- 54:04Um, one, their dog may.
- 54:06Be at a lower level than yours.
- 54:08And it might be like the kid that doesn't, that kind of knows how to play basketball and he's in there and fouling everyone.
- 54:13Yeah.
- 54:14Screwing things up like dude.
- 54:15Or worst case, it's the other way around.
- 54:16Maybe your dog's not up to speed.
- 54:18And I'm like, I don't want to like be.
- 54:20Yeah.
- 54:21It's tough.
- 54:21It depends on the level.
- 54:22I mean with like your dogs, I mean, maybe someone has their dog's steady wing shot and fall through where yours are just steady to, you know, flush essentially.
- 54:31So, I mean, but it, the biggest thing I would say, hunting with other people that, some of them that drives me nuts, is when like I've guided with guys and like my dog, I've had this happen.
- 54:41My dog like goes, gets a bird and their dog comes and just like rips the bird outta my dog's mouth.
- 54:46I hate that.
- 54:47Like, or it spears my dog like, yep.
- 54:49And it's my dad.
- 54:50What the heck?
- 54:51Like just happened.
- 54:52And it just kind of irks me.
- 54:53It's like, dude, put control on your dog.
- 54:55Yep.
- 54:55Keep it away from my dog.
- 54:57Like keep, keep the handle on it.
- 54:59So, you know, I think.
- 55:01I think with, you know, and I, I think I maybe did a podcast on this talk hunting with new hunters, but.
- 55:07Just, uh, I think you need to just kind of communicate, talk to'em like, Hey, how do you hunt?
- 55:12What's your style?
- 55:13Yeah.
- 55:13What's, how trained are your dogs?
- 55:15Like, yeah.
- 55:16And do you hunt a lot?
- 55:17Are you kind of new to hunting?
- 55:19Have you ever hunted these things?
- 55:20And if someone's like, dude, I've been hunting for 20 years and I, my dogs are this and this.
- 55:24And they can kind of like, yeah, they're through force fa, they're through the obedience, blah, blah, blah.
- 55:27And they can kind of walk the talk.
- 55:29Then they're probably o then you're probably pretty safe.
- 55:32But if they're, you know, and it's not that it's, it's fun to take out some unexperienced people.
- 55:37Yeah.
- 55:37But at the same time, you have to maybe.
- 55:39You know, have the gun talk with Yeah.
- 55:41The safety talk, because that's number one, right?
- 55:43Everyone want everyone to come home.
- 55:45The gun shark, we're here to have a good time.
- 55:46And I've hunted with some new people and the gun gets pointed at me and like, whoa.
- 55:50I, yeah.
- 55:50I'm like, you have, and don't ever be, don't ever be afraid to tell someone, even if it's a close friend, you've hunted with the ears.
- 55:57Like, Hey dude, watch your barrel.
- 55:58Like, yep.
- 55:59Just remind each other and whatever.
- 56:01'cause it only takes once to, for an accident to happen, you know?
- 56:04So.
- 56:04Yeah.
- 56:05And it, it, it could be actually a really easy and um, a good conversation and I've done plenty of guiding in the past and mm-hmm.
- 56:13It's one of the first things that we talk about is just, hey, you know, typically when you go out to the gun range, there's a lot of different directions that you can point the gun that are safe out here.
- 56:22The only safe direction is up.
- 56:23Yeah.
- 56:24When we're walking, that gun is only faced up.
- 56:26Yeah.
- 56:26Unless it's a break action, which that's a whole different topic, but typically the gun's only pointing up away from your feet away from dogs.
- 56:33That way you're not swinging up.
- 56:35Past your dogs.
- 56:36Mm-hmm.
- 56:36You're not flagging your dog, you're not flagging other people.
- 56:39Mm-hmm.
- 56:39You know, just, and then it just kind of sets the tone for the Yeah.
- 56:42For the rest of the hunt.
- 56:43Just, Hey, we're here to have fun.
- 56:44Yeah.
- 56:45But watch your barrel.
- 56:46Yep.
- 56:47It goes off that accidentally, it's still in the right direction.
- 56:50Yep.
- 56:51Yeah.
- 56:51The only thing that always got me nervous and I guided a lot was, you know, little kids would show up.
- 56:56Yeah.
- 56:56Because you just worry.
- 56:57You're like, man,'cause you get caught up in the moment, you're fall, you're tracking a bird or something.
- 57:01Yeah.
- 57:01They can hardly lift a gun and they're just swinging it around and, you know, those pheasant farms, you get birds that just go all sorts of directions and Yeah.
- 57:08Typically when I would guide and there'd be little kids, I would, I would be right next to that kid and his dad.
- 57:14So you're kind of like, that's, it's hard wherever the dogs, the dog's doing its thing.
- 57:18Yeah.
- 57:18Yeah.
- 57:18The dog will find the birds.
- 57:20It'll point safety and being close.
- 57:21Yep.
- 57:22But I'm gonna be, and one, it's like I want that kid to have a good time.
- 57:25I could care less about the brother-in-law that's hunted.
- 57:27Sure.
- 57:2850 times, you know?
- 57:29Yeah.
- 57:29If he gets a bird, great, but, mm-hmm.
- 57:31Hey, if, if a kid shows up.
- 57:34He's the star of the show.
- 57:35Yeah, yeah.
- 57:35Or she's the star of the show who lives that for sure.
- 57:37Yeah.
- 57:38And uh, obviously that's obviously to keep safety in mind as Yeah.
- 57:41As well as make sure that he can get in on some good Yeah.
- 57:44Action.
- 57:45Have a good experience.
- 57:46Have that first bird ingrained in his, yeah.
- 57:48In his head.
- 57:49Um, was there any other, I think I answered those questions.
- 57:52Yeah, no, that was perfect question.
- 57:52Right.
- 57:53Um, okay, let's talk about, let's talk about the last one, man.
- 57:57Who, yeah.
- 57:59So where'd that name come from?
- 58:00Honestly, it, it's, I don't give a hoot or I don't, I, she's kind of a goofy dog as far as like personality.
- 58:07And I like that breed a lot.
- 58:09It's this wire hair, ula, and they're just a super fun breed.
- 58:13Mm-hmm.
- 58:14And I feel like, and, and you might experience this too, where, where guys get multiple dogs and they kind of have like a theme for their, their dogs.
- 58:22They're all short hairs or whatever.
- 58:24Short hair, is that what you mean?
- 58:25The breed?
- 58:25Yeah.
- 58:25Or like the, the way that they name things.
- 58:27Oh, okay.
- 58:28That they're all follow like a pattern or whatever and Yeah.
- 58:31Um.
- 58:32They're always trying to be like some super tough name of mm-hmm.
- 58:35Whatever, right?
- 58:35Yeah.
- 58:36Yeah.
- 58:36I would obviously the same way with Sure.
- 58:38You know, um, you don't get to name your kids whatever you want, name your talks, whatever you want.
- 58:44But I was always like, what would be kind of a fun word to just be yelling out in the field?
- 58:49And I was like, who would be kind of fun?
- 58:51Yeah.
- 58:51And I have, I might be the odd man out here, but I have in my notes section of my phone, just a running list of cool dog names where it's like, I dunno, 70 or 80 names.
- 59:05And, uh, so is there more dogs in the future than you think?
- 59:08Oh, up to 70, I guess.
- 59:09Yes.
- 59:11But, uh, yeah, it just kind of came down to hoot and I was like, that's such a fun name.
- 59:16And it's already such, such a fun dog, kind of a fun breed.
- 59:19Mm-hmm.
- 59:20And I'm like, yeah, this will be perfect.
- 59:21So it's funny how, I don't know what it is.
- 59:23I don't know if it's like the way it's just meant to be, I swear dogs kind of grow into their names, but Totally.
- 59:28A lot of times you.
- 59:30You have like these like crusher or something?
- 59:32Yep.
- 59:32He just generally seems like he's a hardcore dog.
- 59:35But yeah, I don't it, it seems like I see that a lot.
- 59:38So I always try to name like, I want that champion, you know?
- 59:41It's like I have a dog named right now, a golden retriever.
- 59:44His name is Patriot.
- 59:45Oh yeah.
- 59:45And I'm like, Patriot, I don't wanna be like this.
- 59:47Tough.
- 59:47Yeah.
- 59:47It's just different.
- 59:48Yeah.
- 59:48And I hear a lot of the same names, so it's like who?
- 59:52Obviously we've never had a hoot.
- 59:54Yeah.
- 59:54Probably never will.
- 59:55But, so it's fun to have like client dogs with like rare, like different names.
- 59:59Yeah.
- 59:59That I'm like, like one a guy.
- 1:00:01It was an African name, but he, it was, her name was Shaka.
- 1:00:04Oh, that's cool.
- 1:00:05And I thought it was kind of a cool name.
- 1:00:06It was like Shaka and she just like, and she was an awesome dog and yeah, that's a cool name.
- 1:00:11Anyway, so it's fun.
- 1:00:12Like some of those names, like as a trainer you get a lot of, you know.
- 1:00:16Similar auto.
- 1:00:17I don't know if we've had, I think we've had definitely had some scouts.
- 1:00:20'cause it's a scouts like the most It's a sweet car.
- 1:00:22Yeah.
- 1:00:22Sweet G Truck or whatever you want.
- 1:00:24Scouts are super popular.
- 1:00:26Auto I didn't realize was as popular as it was.
- 1:00:29Like I thought, I was like, oh, this is such a clever name.
- 1:00:31And it's not.
- 1:00:32I, but I honestly, I'm surprised we haven't had, we've had, we get a lot of like gunners and Oh yeah.
- 1:00:39Um, Ruger and Ruger and Remy and, you know, a lot of, of the standard names, but, so it's fun to have an off, you know, we get bears and blues and reds.
- 1:00:48Yep.
- 1:00:49Or blue.
- 1:00:49A lot of blue lately.
- 1:00:51Maverick and Goose have been big.
- 1:00:52Yeah.
- 1:00:53And the Top Gun came out.
- 1:00:54Tons of Mavericks and Goose we're like, oh, another Maverick.
- 1:00:58Yeah.
- 1:00:58You have to like select them.
- 1:00:59Maverick, golden Retriever, Maverick.
- 1:01:01Short air, like in training, you know, because we just get it.
- 1:01:04It's funny how like, and humans were the same way, right?
- 1:01:07Yep.
- 1:01:07Like my kid, my son's name's crew.
- 1:01:10Yeah.
- 1:01:10And that time there was a ton of crews.
- 1:01:11Like there were Oh right.
- 1:01:12Yeah.
- 1:01:13There were names.
- 1:01:14That's kind of funny, but yeah.
- 1:01:16Anyhow, so you got a Wired V so you kind of picked my brain I think a little bit too.
- 1:01:19You're like, Hey, what do you think about him and stuff?
- 1:01:20I'm like, ones I've worked with have been pretty cool dogs, so, so kind of a fun shout out to the breeder.
- 1:01:27His name's Ben, Ben frets up in Canada.
- 1:01:29Um, he's doing something pretty cool with this breed where, um, historically over the last little while this breed, this Wirehaired Vila has been, do you know much the background on'em?
- 1:01:39Not like a ton.
- 1:01:40Okay.
- 1:01:40Share what maybe, you know, or it sounds like you're going into, from just talking to other breeders and other people that have been around them.
- 1:01:47This breed was, it's supposed to be this really, really tough, awesome, awesome bird dog.
- 1:01:54Kind of think of like aroha mixed with a vila.
- 1:01:57Mm-hmm.
- 1:01:57Which is kind of the, the origin, a little bit of it where they have like that, those furnishings and the beard and mm-hmm.
- 1:02:02Like the tougher coat, a little bit of a stacked, little bit more stout body a.
- 1:02:08What do people ask you?
- 1:02:09Do they, when people do they think it's a doodle?
- 1:02:11They think it's a doodle all the time.
- 1:02:12Yeah.
- 1:02:13Yeah, yeah.
- 1:02:13I figured that was probably the case.
- 1:02:14Yeah.
- 1:02:15What kind of doodle is that?
- 1:02:16Yeah, but they're kind of like a hair.
- 1:02:17They're like, they look like a vla, but they're, I dunno, they're more, they're more beefy than a VLA though.
- 1:02:22Yeah.
- 1:02:22Or think of like a German wire hair that's red that rusic gold.
- 1:02:25Yeah.
- 1:02:26That, yeah.
- 1:02:26Yeah.
- 1:02:26Um, but a lot of the breed has kind of gone the way of a lot of other breeds where they're almost more of like a show dog.
- 1:02:35Mm-hmm.
- 1:02:35Where they've lost a little bit of that hunt drive.
- 1:02:37Mm-hmm.
- 1:02:38And this breeder up in Canada, he's doing a phenomenal drive, phenomenal job where he is trying to put that drive back in them.
- 1:02:44So he's importing different dogs from all over the world.
- 1:02:48Cool.
- 1:02:48From Hungary, from, you know, Czech Republic, like all these crazy places.
- 1:02:52And he's getting these really, really.
- 1:02:54Super, like tough hunting dogs.
- 1:02:57Mm-hmm.
- 1:02:57And he's starting to breed them together to try to get his own line.
- 1:03:01Yeah.
- 1:03:01And try to bring that dog breed, make the breed better.
- 1:03:03Yep.
- 1:03:04Yeah.
- 1:03:04So he's doing a lot for him and he's taking a little bit of flack just'cause of the way that he's going about it, of like, I don't care what other people think.
- 1:03:13I want this breed to be a really good bird dog.
- 1:03:16Mm-hmm.
- 1:03:16Or a really good hunting dog.
- 1:03:18Cool.
- 1:03:18So we got hoot from him.
- 1:03:20And what's, so if people are looking for a Wired, what's the name of his company?
- 1:03:24So he's North Country Sporting Dogs up in Canada, north Country Sporting.
- 1:03:27Okay.
- 1:03:27And he breeds these wire hair vula as well as German wire hairs.
- 1:03:31Okay.
- 1:03:32All bearded dogs.
- 1:03:33But he's just a phenomenal, I can't say enough good things about him, but um.
- 1:03:38Just kind of a fun, fun breed.
- 1:03:41Mm-hmm.
- 1:03:41And I wasn't really looking to get that breed particularly.
- 1:03:45Mm-hmm.
- 1:03:45But somehow we got connected on, on social media and he was like, Hey, I'd love to get one of your dog boxes.
- 1:03:51And I was like, well, what if we just did a trade?
- 1:03:53Like, I wanna get one of your dogs.
- 1:03:55I think they're super cool.
- 1:03:56Mm-hmm.
- 1:03:56So we worked out this, this great trade, um, built a great friendship and, uh, but yeah, we have this super fun wire hair vila that this was her first real hunting season.
- 1:04:09Yeah.
- 1:04:09Um, after training.
- 1:04:11Yeah, after training.
- 1:04:12And she did great.
- 1:04:14She's starting to connect it on wild birds.
- 1:04:16Yep.
- 1:04:17Um, she's picking up wild birds, maybe a little bit faster than the other dogs.
- 1:04:20Mm-hmm.
- 1:04:21But what's her opinion?
- 1:04:22What, yeah.
- 1:04:23What's your hunting with her now and putting her on wild birds?
- 1:04:26Mm-hmm.
- 1:04:26And just training.
- 1:04:27Is she, she stick closer.
- 1:04:29Yeah.
- 1:04:30And that's the hard part is I'm used to like scout.
- 1:04:32I'm used to short hairs that covers some serious, like Otto, his comfortable distance is like 200 yards away.
- 1:04:39Yeah.
- 1:04:39Like if he's a couple hundred yards away, he's like, comfortable scout.
- 1:04:43Run bigger than that though.
- 1:04:44Nope.
- 1:04:44Scout runs maybe 80 to a hundred and some odd.
- 1:04:49Fairly close.
- 1:04:49Okay.
- 1:04:50Not, not right next to you can't, I can't remember.
- 1:04:52And who is like, like I'm almost like trying not shotgun range in type thing.
- 1:04:58Yeah.
- 1:04:59Where I'm almost like, I don't want to say anything to her because I don't want her to like, oh, what?
- 1:05:03And turn around and focus and like just go almost sometimes I'll stop and I'll just let her keep going and keep going and keep going until she realizes pushing, pushing away.
- 1:05:12And so it's kind of hard'cause it's just a different breed and I'm, I'm trying to figure that out, but I'm also like, just go.
- 1:05:18Yeah.
- 1:05:19Like I will never reprimand you for going further.
- 1:05:22Yeah.
- 1:05:23Whereas like Otto is like, dude.
- 1:05:25800 yards.
- 1:05:26Come on buddy.
- 1:05:26Yeah.
- 1:05:26Go back, drill it in.
- 1:05:27I wanna be hung with you still to some level.
- 1:05:29Yeah.
- 1:05:30Yeah.
- 1:05:30I think that that, and I think that is it, is it, it can be challenging'cause you have a mindset of a way a certain breed works.
- 1:05:37Like if you go from like a short hair to, I've had some people go from like short to a lab and so, oh yeah, dude, your dog's going to naturally stick in shotgun range, like Yep.
- 1:05:46And, and they don't have the dr the, the all day long generally that a short hair is gonna have.
- 1:05:51Yep.
- 1:05:51Or you know, they're just, each breed has their strengths and weaknesses, but you can take that lab and go kill ducks that afternoon.
- 1:05:57Yeah.
- 1:05:57Where your short hair is generally not gonna want to do that, you know, so, um, so it is fun to, you know, the, but each, each, but I would say yeah, the, the Wired vs.
- 1:06:07I think we've only trained three of them.
- 1:06:09Yeah.
- 1:06:09Three or four.
- 1:06:10But I, yeah.
- 1:06:11The ones we worked with and generally they're still a young dog, so we don't, we just let'em kind of open them up as much as mm-hmm.
- 1:06:17When we're doing the training, we're not like way open, huge open chuck or country for sure.
- 1:06:21Where we just let'em go, you know.
- 1:06:23And we're kind of, and we're working on the mechanics and all that stuff.
- 1:06:26But, but yeah, I would say the ones we've worked with have been, have been kind of a closer esque breed.
- 1:06:33Yeah.
- 1:06:33You know, a hundred yards and in type stuff.
- 1:06:35And even, but even Ben, the breeder, he's like, it kind of takes'em a couple years to really get confidence and maturity.
- 1:06:42Whereas like a short hair is like, you know, 12 weeks they're, they just wanna run around.
- 1:06:47They just wanna run.
- 1:06:48And he's like, and she does, she has a phenomenal point.
- 1:06:52She has a great, great drive.
- 1:06:54Yeah.
- 1:06:54When you shoot something, she'll go good wherever, however far it needs to.
- 1:06:57She'll go get that bird.
- 1:06:58She's really soft mouth.
- 1:06:59She'll bring it right back to you.
- 1:07:00Mm-hmm.
- 1:07:01Very eager to please.
- 1:07:02She trained good.
- 1:07:03Like there wasn't any like major.
- 1:07:05It was like, yeah.
- 1:07:06She's like doing it.
- 1:07:07She just kind of would check the boxes and go through it.
- 1:07:09Yeah.
- 1:07:09Like I don't remember her being like, dude, she's a pain on her force fetch or whatever, you know?
- 1:07:13Yeah.
- 1:07:14So the big thing with her is I'm just trying to get her to just like, and.
- 1:07:18Maybe there's a different tactic, but I'm almost like, I don't wanna say anything to you while we're out, because I don't want you to even think about having to check in with me.
- 1:07:25So do you feel like if you say stuff, she's, she kind of checks in on you?
- 1:07:29Yeah.
- 1:07:29'cause if, even if you're like, good girl, she turns to see mm-hmm.
- 1:07:33What you're talking about.
- 1:07:34And so I'm just like, does she come?
- 1:07:35You're nervous, she's gonna come towards you.
- 1:07:37So I'm just trying to give her back.
- 1:07:38Do you feel like, could you hunter with auto?
- 1:07:39Does she range A little bit more, but she'll, like, she'll range to a certain point and then she's, it's almost like she hits this wall and she's like, I have too.
- 1:07:46I'm too far away.
- 1:07:46I gotta turn around.
- 1:07:47Yeah.
- 1:07:47She's definitely kind of attached to you.
- 1:07:50Yeah.
- 1:07:51So part of that, I attached to their handler a little bit more like, like my, my setter that I have, like, he's probably a hundred ish yard dog.
- 1:08:00Like he, he, he generally, he's getting more confident as he gets out every year.
- 1:08:04And he matures though too, kind of like you're saying.
- 1:08:06But he generally kind of likes to check in, kind of keep me in eyesight a little bit.
- 1:08:11Yeah.
- 1:08:11You know, I think they almost like, crap, where's my pack?
- 1:08:14You know?
- 1:08:14Yeah.
- 1:08:14Like they get a little nervous and so.
- 1:08:16I'm sure she continues to gain confidence.
- 1:08:18You hunter on birds and other dogs.
- 1:08:20She'll continue to open up.
- 1:08:21But yeah, sounds like you're still killing plenty of stuff with her and she's just fun.
- 1:08:25Like, she's very obedient.
- 1:08:26She's great.
- 1:08:27So yeah, it's just one of those things where mm-hmm.
- 1:08:30Just timeout.
- 1:08:31Yeah.
- 1:08:31How many times can you go out with her?
- 1:08:33How many times can you Yeah.
- 1:08:35You know, and all that stuff is just good.
- 1:08:37Just to, yeah.
- 1:08:39Okay.
- 1:08:39We talked a lot about dogs.
- 1:08:41We gotta, we don't have a lot of time.
- 1:08:42We gotta get Ben here.
- 1:08:43Yeah.
- 1:08:43Still we're still good kids.
- 1:08:44Volleyball on time.
- 1:08:45He has kids volleyball.
- 1:08:46That's, you know, I played volleyball in college.
- 1:08:48Right.
- 1:08:49I wish there was volleyball in high school for, for men's.
- 1:08:51Yeah.
- 1:08:52I know.
- 1:08:52I think there is now, but some places.
- 1:08:54California, it's huge.
- 1:08:56Yeah.
- 1:08:56Like volleyball's such a fun sport, but yeah.
- 1:08:58Oh dude, I love volley.
- 1:08:59I used to play so fun hours.
- 1:09:00Fun.
- 1:09:00But I played for UVU on their, on their, uh, their club team.
- 1:09:04And we took third in the nation that year.
- 1:09:06No way out in Louisville, Kentucky.
- 1:09:08Oh, that's awesome.
- 1:09:09I played middle.
- 1:09:09Yeah.
- 1:09:10Yeah.
- 1:09:10So I'd love to, I would rather be outside opposite, but I, but I played middle and I love, man, when you block it.
- 1:09:16When you block a spike, it just feels so good, man.
- 1:09:19You slam that ball down coming 90 miles an hour and you just stop it.
- 1:09:22Yeah.
- 1:09:22Just stop it.
- 1:09:23Or when you just, or a nice set, like a one right over the net, you boom.
- 1:09:27That's, so I love volleyball that.
- 1:09:28Yep.
- 1:09:29Um, so that's cool.
- 1:09:30Your kids do your daughter or daughter playing?
- 1:09:32Yeah.
- 1:09:32Yeah.
- 1:09:32My oldest daughter.
- 1:09:33Does she have some good height?
- 1:09:34No, no.
- 1:09:35She's tiny.
- 1:09:36Does she play a Lao I mean, all of them are like That's true.
- 1:09:38They're, it's just like hit it over the net at this point.
- 1:09:40Yeah.
- 1:09:41We, it's funny.
- 1:09:42She has this, uh, big Samoan coach.
- 1:09:45Mm-hmm.
- 1:09:45And he's just this giant teddy bear.
- 1:09:48Mm-hmm.
- 1:09:48And literally he practices twice a week, and all he's trying to do is get him to serve over the net.
- 1:09:55That's, that's all we're working on.
- 1:09:57Volleyball's.
- 1:09:57Definitely for young kids.
- 1:09:58It's kind of a harder, it's a harder sport.
- 1:10:00Yeah.
- 1:10:00It takes some power to hit it over or, yeah.
- 1:10:03Basketball, you kind of dribble it.
- 1:10:04They can bring the hoops down.
- 1:10:05Yeah.
- 1:10:05They bring the net down too, but, yeah.
- 1:10:08Okay.
- 1:10:08Well that's awesome.
- 1:10:09Um, I want to get into though your, so a little background on Ben.
- 1:10:15How well did you have you weld?
- 1:10:17Did you weld in high school?
- 1:10:18High school, right.
- 1:10:18Uhhuh.
- 1:10:18You took welding classes or something?
- 1:10:20Yep.
- 1:10:20Okay.
- 1:10:20Yep.
- 1:10:21Welded in high school.
- 1:10:22So,'cause I don't remember you being a welder when you worked at the car dealership.
- 1:10:26I was probably in welding.
- 1:10:28You probably knew how to do it, but you were like, but he, you were hired to do like detailing and stuff like that.
- 1:10:33But anyways, Ben is a phenomenal welder.
- 1:10:35He is taken it, obviously you've done it for a lot of years now.
- 1:10:39Yeah.
- 1:10:39I don't know how many years.
- 1:10:4115 years more than that.
- 1:10:43I mean since high school, I guess even longer than that.
- 1:10:45Yeah.
- 1:10:45I mean professionally though, probably since, yeah, probably over 15 years.
- 1:10:52Probably a long time.
- 1:10:52Yeah.
- 1:10:53But he's weld since high school, so he is had a, anyways, he's done some awesome stuff for me and he's, I mean you've built like hand an amazing, like handrail.
- 1:11:02I mean you pretty much, you kind of do whatever, right?
- 1:11:05Uhhuh, if someone says like, Hey, I need this.
- 1:11:07You could probably So build it for him.
- 1:11:10In welding school?
- 1:11:12Well, so when I was a little bit younger, about 1920, um, in our church you go on a, on a mission trip, so you're gone for two years.
- 1:11:20So when I came back, I was just kind of bouncing between different jobs, trying to figure out what I wanted to do.
- 1:11:24Yeah.
- 1:11:24Finally landed on doing welding school.
- 1:11:27Okay.
- 1:11:27And it's a little bit more of like, um, it's a little bit more intense.
- 1:11:32Like they, they know that's kinda what you're picking as a career.
- 1:11:34Mm-hmm.
- 1:11:35So it's not like high school where it's like just pass or fail, like come show up, whatever.
- 1:11:39It's like you're paying to be there, so take it serious.
- 1:11:42And they take you through all the different processes of welding and like aluminum and aluminum and all that.
- 1:11:48There's stick welding and mig welding and Okay.
- 1:11:50You know, um, TIG welding and just all these different processes.
- 1:11:55Mm-hmm.
- 1:11:55And they go through each one as its own subsection of its own sub course, so to speak.
- 1:12:00Okay.
- 1:12:01And what ends up happening is, is a lot of welders will kind of find something that they're good at.
- 1:12:07And that's kind of what they ride.
- 1:12:08Mm-hmm.
- 1:12:08So if they're good at stick welding, maybe they go out in the pipeline or they go work in a, in a shop that builds bridges and Okay.
- 1:12:15And big structural stuff.
- 1:12:17Or if they're good at mig welding, maybe they'll go to like a job shop and they'll just burn little brackets together and mm-hmm.
- 1:12:23Um, I was fascinated with all of it.
- 1:12:26And so, um, when I was at school, I really tried to become good at all of'em.
- 1:12:32Mm-hmm.
- 1:12:32Because I liked, I liked just welding in general.
- 1:12:34Yeah.
- 1:12:34It was just super, super fun.
- 1:12:37Um, and then from there I went and worked for a couple different job shops and got a bunch of experience traveled all over the country.
- 1:12:45Um, had some really great experiences and then after a while I'm like, I wanna just try doing this on my own.
- 1:12:51Like mm-hmm.
- 1:12:52I was already picking up more and more just side work.
- 1:12:55Just, it's one of those things like if you're a welder, you are never without work.
- 1:12:59Yeah.
- 1:13:00Neighbor break something, neighbors, buddies, uncles, cousins, like everybody just needs something fixed.
- 1:13:05Yeah.
- 1:13:06And so I was already starting to pick up a ton of side work and I was like, let's just give this a shot.
- 1:13:10So I went out on my own, started my own shop, and the thing that made it really fun, but also really successful is we could do anything.
- 1:13:18Mm-hmm.
- 1:13:18So a lot of job shops or a lot of shops kind of suffer because they don't know how to do, you know, tig welding, aluminum too, isolate.
- 1:13:27I only train pointers or whatever.
- 1:13:29Yeah, exactly.
- 1:13:29A certain breed or something.
- 1:13:30Yep.
- 1:13:31And, and they can get really good and they can become successful, but it's also.
- 1:13:36Hard because you can only take on certain jobs.
- 1:13:39Sure.
- 1:13:40And the thing that made it fun for us was we were like, we will take on anything and everything.
- 1:13:45So we would be doing, like some contractor would have us come put this giant steel beam in a basement of a house one day and then we rushed back to the shop, we put all the tools away.
- 1:13:55'cause the next day we're doing, you know, stainless steel handrail.
- 1:13:59Mm-hmm.
- 1:14:00And then the next week after all the tools get put away and we bring out new tools'cause we're doing, you know, aluminum cabinet boxes or something.
- 1:14:07Yeah.
- 1:14:07And it made it really fun because you're always on your toes, you're always trying to remember how to do certain things and you're always getting brushed up on your skills with different things.
- 1:14:15Mm-hmm.
- 1:14:16And over the years, um, we had a ton of success and when I started to get my own bird dogs, I would see guys that would have these kind of diamond plate aluminum dog boxes.
- 1:14:26Yeah.
- 1:14:26And they kind of look like just toolboxes and like the Owens or whatever.
- 1:14:29Yeah.
- 1:14:29I think Owens is a brand.
- 1:14:30Yep.
- 1:14:31Owens is a big brand that, that builds that stuff.
- 1:14:33Mm-hmm.
- 1:14:33And as a fabricator, I was always like.
- 1:14:36Like, I wanna try, I wanna build my own.
- 1:14:38Mm-hmm.
- 1:14:39Kinda like a rite of passage almost like Sure.
- 1:14:41I think I could build one that's cooler, has different features.
- 1:14:44Yeah.
- 1:14:45And so I started dabbling with one.
- 1:14:47I built one, it was like, it was okay.
- 1:14:49Um, it was kinda rushed.
- 1:14:51We were going on a big hunt, so I just kind of threw it together, but I, you gotta start somewhere.
- 1:14:55Yeah.
- 1:14:56And by doing that one, I kind of figured out like, oh, okay.
- 1:14:59I kind of have what I would want to do for a revision of like actually a kind of polished one.
- 1:15:05Yeah.
- 1:15:05So we came back and then that whole next year we weren't gonna go on a big hunt until that next, that next fall.
- 1:15:10So that whole next year I was kind of designing different stuff and different parts and really kind of putting together, um, this dog box.
- 1:15:18And it turned out really, really pretty sharp.
- 1:15:21Mm-hmm.
- 1:15:21Put it in the back of my truck and I was guiding a lot at the time and.
- 1:15:25So the clients were like, that's a sharp looking dog box.
- 1:15:28Yeah.
- 1:15:28And I was like, where'd you get that?
- 1:15:29Yeah.
- 1:15:29And inevitably it turned into, yeah, I, I built it.
- 1:15:32That's what I do for work.
- 1:15:34And I thought this was gonna be a great way to get clients from my welding shop so I'd be out.
- 1:15:39'cause a lot of the guys that come out to those pheasant farms, they're contractors or their, you know, um, real estate people.
- 1:15:47And so I'm like, oh, this will be a great, like, if I had this really polished, good looking dog box, then they'll trust me with their, they know you can do Yeah.
- 1:15:53Welding work.
- 1:15:54Yeah.
- 1:15:54So then they maybe will trust me with, with different work.
- 1:15:57Yeah.
- 1:15:58And then I built another one and I got flagged down.
- 1:16:02I was driving back and this guy flags me down.
- 1:16:04We meet at this gas station and he's asking me all about it.
- 1:16:08And he's like, yeah, I have bird dogs.
- 1:16:10You know, how can I get one of these?
- 1:16:12And yeah.
- 1:16:13So sold him one.
- 1:16:15And then we started to have more and more friends and family that were like, dude, I think you kind of have something here.
- 1:16:20Yeah.
- 1:16:21Like.
- 1:16:21This is pretty cool.
- 1:16:23Mm-hmm.
- 1:16:23And I was kind of pretty dismissive.
- 1:16:25'cause I'm like, surely there's like other cool stuff out there.
- 1:16:27Like Yeah, I just built this for me.
- 1:16:29Yeah.
- 1:16:30Um, but after a while you're like, okay, maybe, maybe we do, let's try this.
- 1:16:34Yeah.
- 1:16:34And I remember I was listening to some different podcasts and they mentioned this, uh, trade show that was put on by Pheasants forever.
- 1:16:40And that year it was gonna be in Omaha.
- 1:16:42Mm-hmm.
- 1:16:43And I wanna say that the show was like three weeks from when I was hearing this podcast.
- 1:16:48Mm-hmm.
- 1:16:49So I was like, okay, let's, let's see if we can make this happen.
- 1:16:52So I call Pheasants forever.
- 1:16:53The, the organizer's name's Luke.
- 1:16:56And I'm like, what are the chances that you have a booth?
- 1:16:59A booth available?
- 1:17:00Yeah.
- 1:17:00And he's like, we have, I think it was two booths.
- 1:17:02We have two booths that are available.
- 1:17:04If you can commit one of'em is yours.
- 1:17:06Mm-hmm.
- 1:17:08And the dog box that I had at the time was just raw aluminum.
- 1:17:11It was kind of hammered, it had a bunch of blood all over it from birds and I'm like, I can't take this one.
- 1:17:17And you should have been, dude, I'm a hunter.
- 1:17:19Yeah, I should, I actually probably should have taken that one, but I was like, I gotta scramble.
- 1:17:24And I whipped one together.
- 1:17:25I got it.
- 1:17:25Powder coated.
- 1:17:26Looked really, really nice.
- 1:17:28Um, but we weren't like a brand, it was just bpro welding.
- 1:17:32So we have all this banner about welding and like, because we were a little bit disruptive in the sense that like.
- 1:17:38We have a very unique design style mm-hmm.
- 1:17:41Compared to a lot of the other dog boxes.
- 1:17:42Yeah.
- 1:17:43That a lot of people didn't know what we were.
- 1:17:45Mm-hmm.
- 1:17:45And we had no branding.
- 1:17:46We had no marketing.
- 1:17:47Like, literally it was like it was your first time.
- 1:17:49First time.
- 1:17:49Yeah.
- 1:17:49We were like, yeah.
- 1:17:50Kind of getting out there, throwing it out there, barely making it to the show.
- 1:17:53Yeah.
- 1:17:53So a lot of people thought we were like, barbecue grills or like, like they just didn't know what we were.
- 1:17:59This is actually a dog box.
- 1:18:00Yeah.
- 1:18:00Oh, it was great.
- 1:18:02It was really funny.
- 1:18:03Um, but that kind of opened the door and the people that were there that saw it and they're like, Hey man, this is pretty cool.
- 1:18:09Like, there's not a lot of other people that are doing stuff like this with the custom colors and mm-hmm.
- 1:18:14The way that we basically build a roll cage first, and just a lot of the, the kind of fun stuff that we were doing.
- 1:18:20Mm-hmm.
- 1:18:21And that was kind of, it, it just kind of snowballed to where that next year we built, I don't know, 15 of'em.
- 1:18:28And next year we built 40 of'em.
- 1:18:30Mm-hmm.
- 1:18:31And over the course of the year, our work building stuff tried to shift from doing job shop stuff to boxes.
- 1:18:37Man, I'm reallocating all my guys to building dog boxes.
- 1:18:40Yeah.
- 1:18:41And now that's all that we do.
- 1:18:42That's more, I mean, I assume it's more fun to do that.
- 1:18:45It's your passionate, you're probably more passionate about a dog box than a rail or something.
- 1:18:49Totally.
- 1:18:49You know, and because it's the clientele base too.
- 1:18:52Yeah.
- 1:18:52You get a, it's like me and a trainer, I, you know, meet, well obviously I met you beforehand, but you meet so many cool people Yep.
- 1:18:59Through that.
- 1:19:00'cause you have, you share a common passion Yep.
- 1:19:02Of dogs, you know.
- 1:19:02Yep.
- 1:19:03And it, the, just the customers are super, super fun.
- 1:19:06It's obviously a great industry.
- 1:19:08Yeah.
- 1:19:08Super fun clients.
- 1:19:09Here's the only problem though, is they all invite you to go hunting and he is like, dude, I wish I could go hunting.
- 1:19:14I know, but I'd be hunting full time and I wait every time to work.
- 1:19:18Yeah.
- 1:19:18I've had clients, but I'm like, man, I would love to go to Canada with you.
- 1:19:21I'd love to go to Dakotas.
- 1:19:23Like, but I just, I just logistics and time and family.
- 1:19:26Yeah.
- 1:19:27Yeah.
- 1:19:27That's, it's, but it's fun.
- 1:19:28Every once in a while you can go and so it's such a cool clientele base, but Yep.
- 1:19:33But yeah, that's, that's kind of our origin story.
- 1:19:36That's how we got to where we are and it's basically all that we do now.
- 1:19:39So.
- 1:19:40So when I think of your crates Okay.
- 1:19:41I am thinking of all the crates I've seen out there.
- 1:19:45Yours definitely do have a different look.
- 1:19:46Yeah.
- 1:19:47Like,'cause they're kind of like you say, the custom colors mm-hmm.
- 1:19:50And the way you've designed them.
- 1:19:52Yep.
- 1:19:52They look awesome.
- 1:19:53Yeah.
- 1:19:53Like, by the way, he does phenomenal job on his crates and, and, um.
- 1:19:57Because a lot of stuff's just like, you know, like your ainleys and some of they're just kind of aluminum.
- 1:20:02Yep.
- 1:20:02You know, just stamped aluminum diamond plate, just kind of aluminum or diamond plate raw.
- 1:20:06Yeah.
- 1:20:06Just kind of, or you get into obviously your plastic crates, so you kinda have obviously the aluminum or the metal, you know, whatever it may be.
- 1:20:15Tell us a little about your crates.
- 1:20:16Are they all, are they all aluminum or what are they?
- 1:20:19Yep.
- 1:20:19Okay.
- 1:20:19So start to finish.
- 1:20:20I think there's maybe a, just a few tiny little components that are either stainless steel or just regular steel.
- 1:20:27Everything else is all aluminum.
- 1:20:29Mm-hmm.
- 1:20:30The way that we work, the way that we build them is we start, so if I want, if I want to buy one, what do I do?
- 1:20:35Or if I'm interested in like, yep.
- 1:20:36Yeah.
- 1:20:37Tell, walk me through the process.
- 1:20:38So about them and also, sorry, cut you off.
- 1:20:40No, you good about them.
- 1:20:40And then you're, so the, the way that we build them is we start from a roll cage basically.
- 1:20:45So our big three hole, it's called the havoc.
- 1:20:48Mm-hmm.
- 1:20:48That has a little over a hundred feet of tubing.
- 1:20:51It's all one inch heavy wall.
- 1:20:54Aluminum tubing.
- 1:20:55And the idea with that is that the dog has to be safe.
- 1:20:57Mm-hmm.
- 1:20:58It's one thing to look good, but it has to keep your dog safe.
- 1:21:01Mm-hmm.
- 1:21:01So we build this really elaborate dog kennel, um, out of a roll cage.
- 1:21:06It's all hand tig welded together.
- 1:21:09Um, and then because of the way that we construct it, we're able to do double wall, which means that you can have an outside wall and an inside wall, which means you can stuff insulation, one inch thick insulation between all the walls.
- 1:21:21Okay.
- 1:21:21And most of the competitors, most of the other brands, they're putting like quarter inch plastic and they're calling that insulation.
- 1:21:27Hmm.
- 1:21:27And I'm sure it does something, but it's basically negligible.
- 1:21:32Yeah.
- 1:21:32And so we're putting a full one inch thick construction grade, what you would insulate your home with in between the walls.
- 1:21:40Um, and then the fun part is, um, we typically, we rarely leave them as raw aluminum.
- 1:21:46Mm-hmm.
- 1:21:47Aluminum's a great.
- 1:21:48Um, great material.
- 1:21:50Um, it won't rust, it won't corrode, it won't deteriorate, but it will oxidize and it'll kind of turn like a dull gray and it's lighter, easy to lift out your trucks and everything.
- 1:22:00The other, yeah, and that's a great point, point too, is the standard dog kennel that's made out of aluminum or metal rather.
- 1:22:07It's either aluminum or it's stainless steel.
- 1:22:10Mm-hmm.
- 1:22:10Stainless steel is a great product as well, a great, uh, material, but it's literally three times the weight as aluminum.
- 1:22:16Well, stainless steel, is it, it, maybe I'm wrong.
- 1:22:20Doesn't it absorb heat better than aluminum?
- 1:22:22They both absorb it kind of a lot.
- 1:22:25Stainless steel is able to kind of hold onto it and reflect heat a little bit better, um, than aluminum.
- 1:22:31So that's one kind of downside to us, but.
- 1:22:33The flip side to that is we can put really thick insulation.
- 1:22:36Yeah.
- 1:22:37So the outside might get pretty warm, but by the time it reaches the inside, it's pretty well been dissipated throughout the, the body of the, the dog box.
- 1:22:44Mm-hmm.
- 1:22:45But we can put way more structure in our dog box making it safer and still be lighter than stainless steel or the other competitors that make'em out of aluminum.
- 1:22:57It's literally just folded aluminum that doesn't really have a frame or a structure and they're really not that tough.
- 1:23:04Yeah.
- 1:23:05And they're really not that safe.
- 1:23:07Yeah.
- 1:23:07If we're being honest.
- 1:23:08Mm-hmm.
- 1:23:08If you get into some rear end or flip your car or something like that, they're not gonna do anything for you.
- 1:23:13Yeah.
- 1:23:14Yeah.
- 1:23:14Um, and then that's, that's why a lot of people go with those plastic crates is'cause they are crash tested.
- 1:23:19Mm-hmm.
- 1:23:19The way that they're rotomolded they can be really, really durable and strong.
- 1:23:23Yeah.
- 1:23:23And so we kind of tried to hybridize that where we want super safe dog kennels, but we also want the customization, not deal with the plastic.
- 1:23:30Yeah.
- 1:23:30And not deal with the plastic.
- 1:23:32Um, and so we have three main models.
- 1:23:35They all start with a roll cage.
- 1:23:36They're all double walled.
- 1:23:38Tell us the, so you have the havoc, the three hole, what are the other ones?
- 1:23:41Yep.
- 1:23:41So the, the big one is the three hole, that's called the havoc.
- 1:23:44And then we have, does that fit between a wheel, the wheel wells of a standard sized truck, or does it usually go on top or what?
- 1:23:49Or what do you guys Yep.
- 1:23:50That fits in, in the bed of a full-sized truck, but it has to sit above the wheel wells, so it's 58 inches wide.
- 1:23:56So it'll fit a full size pickup, but it just has to be above the wheels.
- 1:23:59So do you build a little platform or do you, or do some people put'em on roll decks or?
- 1:24:03Yep.
- 1:24:03A lot of guys will have like a decked drawer system put their guns and all this stuff underneath and put the crane on top, or, or we can build you a platform.
- 1:24:09Or a lot of guys are like, yeah, just gimme the box.
- 1:24:12I'll handle building, I'll build something.
- 1:24:13Yeah.
- 1:24:13Which we, we try to advocate that like, we're happy to build you stuff, but it's gonna be way cheaper if you just run to Home Depot and some, grab some lumber, throw some wood in there or something.
- 1:24:23Yeah.
- 1:24:23But a lot of guys are like, I want this all to be fit and finished and I want this all to look great, so Great.
- 1:24:27Sure.
- 1:24:27We're happy to, we're happy to accommodate that.
- 1:24:29And then we have two other models and they're both two holes.
- 1:24:32So they'll fit between the wheel wells.
- 1:24:34One of'em fits a full-size pickup.
- 1:24:35One of'em fits the mid-size trucks.
- 1:24:38Um, so those ones are called the Dauntless and the Warden.
- 1:24:41Mm-hmm.
- 1:24:41But those are both two holes and the smallest one that we make, that warden fits a Tacoma, you know, Colorado.
- 1:24:48And my buddy had a big 80 pound short hair that could get in and outta that no problem.
- 1:24:53Mm-hmm.
- 1:24:53So really all of them fit pretty large dogs.
- 1:24:56Obviously you get some, some pretty big beastly dogs that are, you know, a hundred pounds or stuff that, that might give you some issues, but all of them are de designed around standard, standard hunting dog.
- 1:25:06Yeah.
- 1:25:06Breed, standard, big hunting dogs.
- 1:25:09All of them will fit.
- 1:25:10Yeah.
- 1:25:11Yeah.
- 1:25:11It's always fun.
- 1:25:12Yeah.
- 1:25:12It's interesting.
- 1:25:13I, I think sometimes when people see a crate in general, like, I'll have someone drop a dog, like my dog go in there.
- 1:25:18I'm like, yeah, I could fit like five dogs in there.
- 1:25:20Yep.
- 1:25:21People don't realize until they get in there.
- 1:25:23Now, is your dog living there full-time?
- 1:25:25No, but it's like, if it's in there temporarily, you're traveling to a hunting location or whatever, overnight it's gonna, it's totally fine.
- 1:25:32Yeah.
- 1:25:32I mean, dogs live in, like, some guys that travel for like hunt tests and stuff nonstop.
- 1:25:37They'll live in a little hole like.
- 1:25:39For months, like most of the year, you know, so they can, as long as they get out at least twice, three times a day, they're okay.
- 1:25:45But yeah.
- 1:25:46And there really is something like to the psychology of that, where like the dogs feel more safe, they have less anxiety and a little bit more of a confined area.
- 1:25:54They travel better.
- 1:25:55Yeah.
- 1:25:55Um, their stress is down.
- 1:25:57They're, and then when it gets cold, if you can double'em up, just all those things just help.
- 1:26:01Yeah.
- 1:26:02You really don't want your dog in a big, huge space in compartment.
- 1:26:05Yeah.
- 1:26:06They trouble, I mean, you think in the wild, right?
- 1:26:07Like they're, they don't dig a huge cave, right.
- 1:26:10Like a coyote or something's gonna dig a little dent and they're literally like probably laying down in there.
- 1:26:14They're curled up.
- 1:26:15Yeah.
- 1:26:15They're curled up and they're touching the top and touching the bottom of the sides almost, you know, and they just kind of D up.
- 1:26:21Yeah.
- 1:26:21Yeah.
- 1:26:22And that we kind of did a little bit of thinking through on that, where the depth of all our boxes are 34 inches, and the idea behind that is we want them to be able to get in, turn around and they want them to, to be kind of tight.
- 1:26:33We want them to lay down.
- 1:26:35Yeah.
- 1:26:35But we want them, and we want the the box to be deep enough that if your dog wants to, he can lay flat and not have his spine Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 1:26:43Curled up.
- 1:26:43Mm-hmm.
- 1:26:44Especially on those longer trips where Yeah, they can kinda stretch a little bit out.
- 1:26:47Now, if your dog just chooses to curl up, that's totally fine.
- 1:26:50Sure.
- 1:26:50But we want them to be able to lay relaxed straight, have a straight spine.
- 1:26:55Yeah.
- 1:26:56Not have to be jammed into this little, yeah, little hole.
- 1:26:59I've, I've seen Ben's crates and there the hole size are awesome.
- 1:27:02So I, yeah, I don't think you need to worry about, and, but I'm sure you get, people have all sorts of Oh yeah.
- 1:27:07You, you know, the dog world, there's opinions on Yeah.
- 1:27:09Everything, you know, the right way.
- 1:27:11Like, and it's kind of fun.
- 1:27:13I just, I and that sometimes go, Hey, this is the way we do it.
- 1:27:16It works.
- 1:27:17Yeah.
- 1:27:17I mean, you've obviously put it to the test.
- 1:27:19You've traveled all over the country.
- 1:27:20You put your personal dogs in them and you know, obviously if there was something better you could do, you'd do it.
- 1:27:25But like, Hey, this works.
- 1:27:27They're bulletproof, they're awesome.
- 1:27:28Yeah.
- 1:27:29Ben, Ben brought me a crate the other day out.
- 1:27:30A client just ended up, uh, you know, it didn't work out, but he returned it and he's like, and he had it, like we had it like on a trailer and he is like.
- 1:27:38I was a little worried.
- 1:27:39You drop the whole back on the ground.
- 1:27:42He's like, these things are tough.
- 1:27:43And he just boom drops it from like, yeah, three, four feet.
- 1:27:46I'm like, damn, I, I was worried something was gonna break.
- 1:27:49And it was like, just solid.
- 1:27:50I'm like, I'm like, okay, this guy builded them.
- 1:27:52So, you know.
- 1:27:53But yeah, I can vouch.
- 1:27:54It just was like a rock.
- 1:27:56Yeah, it was like, it was solid, man.
- 1:27:58Yeah.
- 1:27:58We had a client who upgraded.
- 1:28:00They, they got more dogs and so as part of that they were like, well, we don't want the old one.
- 1:28:05Yeah.
- 1:28:06And I was like, well, I don't have room for it.
- 1:28:07So I called Tyson.
- 1:28:08I'm like, Hey, do you want this really cool dog box?
- 1:28:10Yeah.
- 1:28:10It's like, it's kind of an odd shape, but it's, yeah, because it's built what they built for.
- 1:28:14Yeah.
- 1:28:14Yeah.
- 1:28:15So, but yeah, it's great.
- 1:28:16They're, they're super, super tough.
- 1:28:17We're doing this whole.
- 1:28:18Series right now where we're trying to destroy one of'em.
- 1:28:21Oh, cool.
- 1:28:22We built this one for a trade show, I don't know, five years ago.
- 1:28:26And since we built it, I bet I've only had it in my possession for maybe a handful of weeks.
- 1:28:31Oh really?
- 1:28:31We just give it to anybody and everybody.
- 1:28:33Mm-hmm.
- 1:28:33Somebody calls up like, Hey, I'd love to try one.
- 1:28:35Great.
- 1:28:35Come pick it up, take it for the whole season.
- 1:28:38Beat the snot out of it.
- 1:28:39Mm-hmm.
- 1:28:39And it, you can tell like it's been through the ringer, like, you know, powder coats chipped off outta trucks, latches are all banged up.
- 1:28:47But it, it works flawlessly.
- 1:28:49It's still awesome.
- 1:28:49Yeah.
- 1:28:50Um, but now we're like, let's just retire this thing and let's literally destroy it.
- 1:28:54So we're having this whole series where we stack more and more weight on top of it and eventually we're gonna probably shoot it with some shotguns and see how close we can get before shotgun shells, you know, go through and we've got some really cool stuff planned for it here in the next couple of weeks.
- 1:29:08You gotta, you gotta bite me on that one.
- 1:29:09Oh yeah.
- 1:29:10Destructions.
- 1:29:10I'll come out and shoot some, some stuff.
- 1:29:13That's cool.
- 1:29:14That's, that'll be fun to kind of.
- 1:29:16Put it through the ringer and Yeah, they, they're tough man.
- 1:29:18I mean, like, say we put dogs, we have client drop dogs off, we'll put'em on some of the crates, we'll put'em out there and we've, I mean, never had a dog.
- 1:29:26Yeah.
- 1:29:27Do it.
- 1:29:27I mean, looks just like the day you dropped it off.
- 1:29:29Yep.
- 1:29:31Yeah.
- 1:29:31They've been great.
- 1:29:32But it's been fun.
- 1:29:33People see it like, oh, what is that?
- 1:29:34And it has some huge compartment.
- 1:29:36We had a big dog that dropped off the other day and they wouldn't even fit in my other aluminum crays.
- 1:29:41Oh, right.
- 1:29:41Like there's, this one has a big hole, so we put it in there.
- 1:29:45Yeah, the battle tank.
- 1:29:46Yeah.
- 1:29:46It was a big old, it was.
- 1:29:47Yeah.
- 1:29:48It was nice.
- 1:29:49So anyhow, yeah.
- 1:29:50Well dude, thanks for coming on the podcast today.
- 1:29:53Um, you guys, if you're looking for like a high quality like custom crate, that freaking looks awesome.
- 1:30:00That your buddies are gonna be like, dude, where'd you get that at?
- 1:30:03You know?
- 1:30:03And I think, I think in the upland world and in, in hunting in general, it's just fun.
- 1:30:07'cause like we, like our, it's fun to have nice dog and nice guns and nice.
- 1:30:11Great.
- 1:30:12That like you can, you can match people's kind of almost trucks, right?
- 1:30:15Yep.
- 1:30:15Or they're kind of, and, and we like that, like, you know, companies, they'll put dogs names on their, you know.
- 1:30:20Yep.
- 1:30:20You kind of can customize your rig to how you want it to look.
- 1:30:24And it's just, I mean, we work hard and we want to spend money on the things we enjoy.
- 1:30:28And so it's just fun to have kind of, you know, get the cool camo and the dogs and the dog box.
- 1:30:33But I mean, your dog, your boxes are awesome.
- 1:30:36They're unique, they have cool lights built into'em.
- 1:30:39I mean, all sorts of customization stuff, obviously you can go into Yep.
- 1:30:44Go into that with people if they're, if they're interested.
- 1:30:46But if you're looking for something that's just not the typical, you know, um, aluminum crate, you want something that, some cool colors that you know is gonna be bulletproof, keep your dog safe.
- 1:30:58I, I mean, I think you're, that's kind of where your niche is, I think, you know, so.
- 1:31:03Yep.
- 1:31:03High quality, high custom.
- 1:31:05Yeah.
- 1:31:05And Ben is a stud man.
- 1:31:07He will do anything.
- 1:31:08He has to make a living.
- 1:31:09But he's always like, he's always such a giver and uh, you know, so easy to work with.
- 1:31:15I mean, I work with him, obviously, train his dogs.
- 1:31:17Like, here you go, here's the month.
- 1:31:19Just get my dog.
- 1:31:19I'm like, all right, cool.
- 1:31:20Like, so, so he's, here's three months in advance, like I know it'll happen, you know?
- 1:31:24And so anyways, we have a good friendship.
- 1:31:27But I know he's that way with everyone.
- 1:31:29Yeah.
- 1:31:29I've heard your name on other podcasts and everyone's like, Ben Proctor's such a stud and blah, blah.
- 1:31:33And that's the truth.
- 1:31:34Like he's an honest, good guy.
- 1:31:35Thanks.
- 1:31:36So if you guys are looking for just a good company to support, um, you know, he has a young family just like support a awesome company.
- 1:31:44Like look at Bpro kennels.
- 1:31:46Tell us where people can find your Yeah.
- 1:31:49Find you or all that.
- 1:31:50Yep.
- 1:31:50We're most active on Instagram, bpro kennels.
- 1:31:53Um, we do a little bit of Facebook bpro kennels.
- 1:31:56Um, email us ben@bprokennels.com.
- 1:32:00Um, both all of our socials have my cell phone.
- 1:32:03That's my personal cell phone.
- 1:32:04So call me, text me, um, if you have any questions and we'd love to get you taken care of.
- 1:32:10Yeah.
- 1:32:10Any, how, what, maybe we should talk about this lead time.
- 1:32:14What do, yeah, what is it generally, roughly we're about three or four months out.
- 1:32:18Three or four months out.
- 1:32:19Okay.
- 1:32:19Start to finish.
- 1:32:20So if you guys are thinking about this, do they usually give you a deposit of some sort?
- 1:32:25Yep.
- 1:32:25So everything to kinda lock it in, probably.
- 1:32:27Yep.
- 1:32:27Everything's just done through the website.
- 1:32:28And so because we're so customizable, everything payment's just all upfront because we ran into a couple issues in the past where somebody would pay 50% and we powder coat it, you know, canary yellow, and then they're actually, I don't have time for this.
- 1:32:40I don't have the budget anymore.
- 1:32:42Yeah.
- 1:32:42I'm like, I can't, I can't resell this to anybody else.
- 1:32:45Yeah.
- 1:32:45Like, yeah, you're the only person that wanted it this way and we built it for you.
- 1:32:49Yeah.
- 1:32:49Yeah.
- 1:32:49So anyways, we got burned a couple times.
- 1:32:52So now payment's all just upfront.
- 1:32:53Okay.
- 1:32:53Yeah.
- 1:32:54And um, makes it easy.
- 1:32:55Yeah.
- 1:32:55Makes it easy.
- 1:32:56Yeah.
- 1:32:57Okay.
- 1:32:57Yeah, if you guys are looking for an awesome, that's good to know though.
- 1:33:00So if you guys are looking, you know, obviously looking in advance, same thing about people call up and like sometimes like, Hey, can I have a dog trained today?
- 1:33:09I am like, dude, I'm like two months out right now.
- 1:33:11Yeah.
- 1:33:11Like, I can't get your dog in.
- 1:33:13So plan in advance if you're wanting to get a, a, a super nice kennel from Ben, um, and support his company and, and he'll come through and build whatever you want.
- 1:33:22And then last thing, I know you sometimes are into like.
- 1:33:25Planes like the World War.
- 1:33:27What's, what's, is that something you've always been passionate about or what's that?
- 1:33:31Yeah, I mean, just as a boy, like, you know what, boy doesn't love World War II planes and tanks and guns and Yeah.
- 1:33:37Um, but honestly, the, the naming and all that stuff kind of came from, there's some cool planes, right.
- 1:33:42The design of those planes.
- 1:33:44Okay.
- 1:33:44Back in World War ii, everything was riveted together.
- 1:33:46Yeah.
- 1:33:47Yeah.
- 1:33:47So you would see these planes and there's, you know, 10 million rivets in them.
- 1:33:51Hmm.
- 1:33:51And they all look just super crisp.
- 1:33:53They just look really cool.
- 1:33:55Mm-hmm.
- 1:33:55And the rivets add kind of the aesthetic to it.
- 1:33:57Okay.
- 1:33:58And so that's why we build them the way that we do mm-hmm.
- 1:34:01Is with all those rivets and just to, so it's kind of a spinoff a little bit.
- 1:34:04Yeah.
- 1:34:05Yep.
- 1:34:05So all the names are from old airplanes.
- 1:34:07Inspired kind of from that.
- 1:34:08Okay.
- 1:34:09Yeah.
- 1:34:10Yeah, that's cool, man.
- 1:34:11Yeah.
- 1:34:11Cool.
- 1:34:12Well, folks, uh, thanks for listening to the show today.
- 1:34:14Ben, thanks for coming on again.
- 1:34:16Yep.
- 1:34:16Appreciate it.
- 1:34:16It's always fun to talk dogs and your dog boxes and or your dog crates, kennels, whatever you wanna call'em, they're awesome.
- 1:34:22So check out Bpro kennels on Instagram.
- 1:34:24He, he also, he take some cool photos and thanks, fun to see those.
- 1:34:28And I, I enjoy falling along and seeing the dogs that we gotta work with too in action and all that stuff.
- 1:34:34So remember to train for the Hunts, train how you're gonna hunt and, uh, get out there.
- 1:34:38Hunts are, I mean, heck, we're only a matter of months away.
- 1:34:42Couple months, yeah.
- 1:34:43Yeah.
- 1:34:43From September one grouse hunt.
- 1:34:45We'll start rolling around and we'll, uh, be able to get out in the hill.
- 1:34:48So have a great day, everyone.
- 1:34:50We'll see you in the next show.