Happy Customers 2

Dear Drew and Kim

 I don't know how many times we have thought of getting in touch with you.  We are IN LOVE with our Fritz.  I can't imagine life before he came to us.  He spends most of his time in the house, but is accustomed to the outside kennel about three hours a day when we are busy or out.  He also feels very comfortable in his big indoor kennel.  We have graduated to the biggest size.  He has always spent the entire night in there every night since we brought him home.

We have been on a very active training program.  We have a kennel in town who helps with hunters who want to do their own training.  He works with Paul and Fritz every Tuesday and gives them 'homework" for the following week.  He retrieves remarkably.  He has retrieved clipped wing birds and last week retrieved a shot pigeon.  The trainer is Morgan Haglin at Pine Shadows.  He is nationally recognized for his training of Springers. 

We took Fritz camping with us to a lake in Northern Cass County and exposed him to water.  He did his job!!!!   He even worked through heavy waves and loved it.  Hooray!

We have a Kong filled with treats that Fritz works with daily.  He has figured out that if he drops the Kong down the stairs, the treats will fall out.  He gets them and then drops the Kong down the stairs again until all are emptied.  We have to get some bigger ones I guess, but you have to admit that is pretty smart. 

Attached are two of his latest pictures.  We have a whole file of them.  He now weighs 40 pounds and eats four cups of food a day.  I think he will be big like his daddy. 

Thanks for your interest.  How are you all doing with your other pups?  Many people have asked us where we got Fritz, including the Pine Shadows kennel   They think he is going to be a remarkable hunter, even this fall.

Keep in touch,  Marcia and Paul

Hi Guys!

Here are a couple photos of Sasha from today.  Her training is going very well.  She's 6.5 months old, very bright, completely healthy, and very well adjusted.   She's pointing a ball in Lisa's hand waiting for her to throw it so she can retrieve it.  So far, she heals on leash, comes when called or by silent hand signal, sits on command or hand signal, stays on command or hand signal, and is doing pretty well with whoa.  She loves to train and will play fetch with you until your arm about falls off.  Our neighbors are quite impressed with her and she's a favorite with the neighborhood kids.

Thanks!

Don Abbott - Big Lake, MN

Kim,

Things have been very busy and hectic these days, and of course it's 'hunting season" which makes it even busier. I've been thinking about sending you a short note to tell you how Rufus is doing, but today I'm actually doing it.

Rufus has been one of the easiest dogs that I have ever trained for hunting. He just wants to please and loves to hunt.

As I've trained several different breeds, I've found these Griffons to be a delight. They are very smart and very easy to be around. Everyone who comes in contact with Rufus just falls in love with him. Between the look in his eyes and his warm gentle personality, who could resist.

I worked with Rufus doing mostly yard work until he was six months old. He was retrieving, healing, sit, stay, things that many trainers say to avoid at an early stage, but I've learned after training many dogs, that you have to look at each dog on an individual basis. That's another long story for another day!

When Rufus was six months old, I took him to a Pro Trainer whom I respect highly as he believes in many of the same ideals as I do. He was with him for four weeks. What I told him I wanted was a rating of 1-10 in several related hunt categories. When I was driving in his driveway, he was holding up both hands indicating a 10 plus in all categories. I know Brain well and if there were problems, he would tell me. Let's face it, no dog is perfect, but he passed the tests.

The girls who work at the kennel liked Rufus so much, they hated to see him leave. He does that to everyone!

Now, let's get down to the hunt! I spent 7 days pheasant hunting in Mott, ND this year with Rufus and two of my Gordon Setters and we had a "blast". As I discussed with you in the past, I was looking for a retriever, as Gordon's are not known for retrieving. Well, it's like this, Rufus retrieved every bird I shot, plus everyone else that I hunted with. I would venture to say Rufus retrieved 50- 60 birds, including another half dozen hunters of course. He made running bird retrieves that he was gone for about 10 minutes, but he always came back with the bird. Most dogs will look for a minute or two and loose scent or loose interest. Not Rufus, he was relentless. Now that's get down to other things that he did that I was not really counting on or that concerned about this year as he is still under a year old. He initially was following my Gordon's around in the field and figured out, number one he couldn't keep up with them, and number two he wanted to find his own birds also. But the best part was when I saw him backing the Gordon's at hard point. I mean he was locked. It was a beautiful site to say the least. He continued to do this thru-out the hunt.

Now after hunting ND for seven days I met another group in Aberdeen SD for the opener there. We hunted another five days there. One of the guys I met there is a pro trainer and when he saw the Gordon's and Rufus work together he was quite impressed. All he said was, you have what every hunter dreams of having. Your dogs are well behaved and trained and are all excellent hunters. Not bragging too much, I must agree!!

Keep in touch. Hope all is well with Family and all.  Thanks Again, Joe    Golden Valley, MN 

Drew & Kim,

Has been a busy summer but hunting season is here and Zeus is ready.  This is the second Vizsla that we have gotten from your kennel and we have been very happy with them.  They have lot of natural ability, are quick learners and eager to please their masters.  Zeus was only 8 months old last fall when we took him out pheasant hunting for the first time with our older dog Storm.  He picked up on what to do right away and is very determined to find the birds. He started retrieving them right away too without any real training.  He loves to hunt like his master.  Storm was just like that too.

They make great family pets as both dogs were in the house all the time when we are home and at night.  Zeus loves attention and both he and Storm were the kid’s favorite dogs at the lake resort we go to in the summer.  Everyone comments on what beautiful dogs they are. 

We lost Storm at ten years old last November, and he is missed by many people especially our family.  Zeus has many of the same personality traits that Storm had that make him just as loveable and just as valuable in the field.

Larry & Sandy O. - Enderlin, ND

Well Dino and I have to say HUDSON is the most handsome boy in all of New York. We get stopped all the time because of his striking presence. Even as a grown adults, we cant wait to get up in the morning and cuddle with this precious pup. Thank you for blessing us with this little miracle of life.  We love, and adore him more life itself.  He couldn’t possibly be loved any more than he is. When is your next litter?????

Hi everyone,

I know I have not e-mailed since I got Hunter. School started when I got her and I have been trying to keep up with my work and stay on the honor role. I have also have had to adjust to having a puppy with lots of energy. Hunter has been the best. She went hunting with Dad and I twice and she was great. She is learning very fast. She is such a character I swear she is half human; she drags her chew bone ad blanket around just like a little kid I am always picking up after her. She has gotten along with our other dogs even seems she has brought some puppy out in the too. We have a Weimaraner (Luke) that lives across the street from us who has lots of energy to so they play for hours at a time. When I go to my grandmas Hunter comes too, she loves to go and play with grandmas dog, and play (chase) the cat around the house. She even has a Vizsla friend to play with and loves him as much as Luke. We love her so much and are having so much fun with her so on my sister (Haley's) Christmas list she has put now she is saving for a Vizsla. My mom is excited to be having another one join our family within the next year.  I will try to send pictures of Hunter soon.  I am going to try to stay in touch more, sorry I haven't e-mailed lately.

Hannah Thompson and Family 

Drew. How are things going up north? Reno has been doing very well. We are preparing for the Natural Ability test the weekend of August 26, 27, and 28^th.  (Reno scored 110 pts on his Natural ability test). He loves the water, has been pointing both pigeons and we started him on chukkas this weekend. He did real well pointing them. He doesn’t range too far and is holding the point till we get there. He seems to track real well; I hope we get some good condition in August for the test.

Good natured dog, I have a Springer and he is like night and day from my Springer. My Springer used to run like the wind when he was a pup. But Reno likes to work close and see where you are before he gets to far.   Will keep you in the loop when we are done testing, I feel confident in his abilities, you just never know what might go wrong !!  Later. Phillip G

What a nice dog.  We have had some barking problems but nothing that we couldn’t fix. We brought her into the house last night and let her sleep in his porta kennal. She didn’t make a peep.  Loves to be near us.  Next week I plan to start more rigid training but so far I am just letting her get acquainted to us and her surroundings.    I will let you no how it goes and keep me informed as to how the pups do.   She is going to be easy to train as I can see already that she learns easily.  Hope I can sell you some pups in the futures. Larry

dear drew, 
hello I'm Adam Sander,I purchased a griffon puppy from you last year. Just to jar your memory I'm the guy from Indiana my griff is a male from Brandi and spunkys litter born 1/14/05.his registered name is prairie amigo but we call him scout.sorry it has taken me so long to get in touch with you but as you can imagine with training this pup,work and family i have been pretty busy.but let me give you an update of what we have been up to. as you may remember this is my first hunting dog and i am a rookie in every sense of the process.but thanks to hard work alot of books and advice,and of coarse good breeding i have what i and all my hunting buddies consider a great dog.all summer we trained at various locations and right of the back scout loved the water i don't even consider the work we have done training because he has loved the water from a very early age(it didn't hurt having to small boys to swim with all summer) he never misses a chance to fetch any thing from any body of water.Luckily with me being such a novice trainer he has been real easy to train.He works the field real well and he has a ton of desire.he retrieves all shot birds but sometimes he remembers he is still just a pup and drops the bird 5 yards away or runs around with it to have a little fun.Beings there really is no wild birds in Indiana i did quite a bit of preserve hunts with him and the DNR does a put-n-take hunt on state land and i have never gone hunting with scout and not shot a bird.and every bird i have shot he has retrieved and brought it back to me; like i said sometimes its to hand and others its with in 5-10 feet from me.but anyway i took your advice and got involved in the navhda testing.Last September I ran scout in the central Indiana chapters fall NA test.all his physical attributes were OK he received a 4 for water,a 4 for his nose 4 for search 4 for desire, 3for cooperation,4 for tracking but unfortunately a 1 for pointing totaling 97 points but no prize.now i take alot of the blame for his pointing because about 3 weeks before his test i trained him alot on the tracking and he has such a great nose and desire he caught to many birds and that messed his pointing up.But i was still really glad he did as well as he did considering it was the first test i had ever been to.So i went back to the drawing board and worked a little more whoaing him and i built a small recall trap for quail.and also around this time my buddy rich hoof bought a giffon pup from Wisconsin the breeders name is Gary engebretson richs'dog is a male named Gus.so rich and i have been training our griffs together.Gus has alot of natural point so that helped with scout, we have even done a little backing exercises.and since rich got Gus just before fall when the weather was cold and most pups don't like that cold water scout helped Gus learn to have fun and play in the water . so rich and i decided to do another NA test this past weekend up in Michigan.Scout is 15 months old and Gus is 10months.well we trained pretty hard these last to weeks but i tried to learn from my mistake and only let scout track dead birds.The test finally approached this past Saturday 4/9/06and rich and i were pretty confident but still nervous and anxious after every part of the test.To make a long story short Gus had a stellar day he received a perfect score 112 prize 1. and scout received a score of 106 with a prize 2. scout pointed 4 birds in that field and held steady every time; but this time he didn't do as well in the tracking he only got a 2 but that was all he needed to get a prize 2.and i was extremely happy and proud of him.of coarse i was hoping for a prize 1 but for this being my fist dog i have ever trained I'm just glad to get a prize and a navhda prize 2 in any test is respectable.well any way i hope i have caught you up on this fine dog your breeding has produced.I have attached some pictures of scout as you will be able to see he looks almost just like his mother Brandi. he has very little outer coat and little furnishings but that's  what i was looking for and the burs are nothing to him out in the field.  in closing i just want to thank you for being so helpful when i purchased him and i wanted to let you know how he was doing if you would like to use me as a reference for future owners please feel free. Also if you would like to contact me for any questions on how he is doing please get in touch with me. for now scout and i are gonna take a brake for a little while and then get ready for the UPT!! I will keep you up dated on how he does in the future.

Thanks again Sincerely Adam Sandefur 

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