I have a buddy with a know nothing 8 month old lab. If money were no concern where would you send him?

Southern oak

It would highly depend on your goals for the pup..

I would send mine to Justin Jackson with Texoma Retrievers for gun dog or hunt testing.

FIeld Trials I would go with Handjem or Vinwood

He just wants an obedient well trained hunting dog that will ride around his ranch with him on his mule and do what he says. She’s well bred but has had no training. His grandson was killed and he inherited the pup. It’s important that she makes a good dog.

I would talk to Justin Jackson with Texoma. I'm not certain he has room at the moment. He will also be at the Grand in KY until the 17th.

Dog trainers are booked now because everyone wants their dog trained before hunting season, so after duck opener, there should be room and probably great time to leave pup with trainer during hunting season.

I will not say he is the best, I do not know enough to say, but I will recommend Chuck Hastedt, google him "Camp Chuck - Soaring Heart Kennels" on facebook. He will train any dog to fetch, he trained me to train my dog, he is great. His dog kennel is in his house, he lives with his clients dogs. Some trainers run pups through their program, if they can't handle the pressure, they say "dog is soft, not a good hunting dog, needs to be a pet". Chuck will not say that, he will have that dog fetching. Look at his web page, he takes pride in training any dog to fetch.

Best Retrievers Inc in Giddings Tx trained a bunch of Master Hunters check out their website

Brady Buck on here can do it.

They are in my training circuit. Rody and Kristen have built one heck of an operation.

He finished one of my old dogs. I thought he did a great job. Essentially you couldn’t go wrong with him in my opinion.

I recently used Anderson(a lot closer) to work on my chessie. Thought Christine did a great job given what she had to work with

dont mess that fireball up

Best Retrievers in Paige, Tx. Rody and crew have trained 3 dogs for my family. All have been great hunters and even better in the house.

Eddie Noga at Zion Kennels.. Bonham area.. Ive had 3 dogs with him over the years.....

If he has a "connection" to the dog, I recommend Water Dog or

Gun Dog book

I made a pretty dang good hunting dog in college following these books (only need one IMHO). It's not rocket science, nor is it hard and the result is extremely rewarding. His deal was he'd do all the retrieving, but there was no sleeping outside.

Charlie

No one said it’s hard or complicated to train a dog. He doesn’t have the time or want to. That’s why he’s looking for a trainer.

So he is not interested in force fetch, casting, etc... Just obedience training, and probably e collar conditioning and formal obedience...

He wants a finished retriever, trained by an honest professional.

And the best professional is Barton Ramsey at southern oaks imo. There's a reason there's a year long waiting list for their pups

That's great, best thing you can do for a dog is give them the best training. Good luck.

In my eyes the best in texas and arguably in the country is Danny Farmer in Anderson. Chances of getting a dog in Danny’s kennel are probably slim. Danny is one of the most successful field trial trainers in the country. Kirk Wichman is a friend of mine and also has a kennel in Anderson. He used to work for Danny and learned from one of the best. I used to take my old lab to Anderson and trained with Kirk at Farmers place when she was young. Kirk trains hunt test dogs and I can recommend him with confidence. Kirk guides at the moody ranch and may be busy through the end of duck season.

I like Barton but I have to disagree...

Yes, they produce nice pups but the #1 reason they sell a lot of puppies is marketing.

But we aren't even talking breeders anyway.

We are talking trainers..

What has SOK accomplished or proven when it comes to training dogs?

I personally would choose and recommend a trainer with a proven track record that isn't subjective.

Both Justin at Texoma and Rody at Best have proven they produce some the best dogs in the country.

Very proven as trainers. They also own and run cornerstone gun dog academy.
If I'm correct they have a minimum of 5 months with then to train dogs.

I honestly don't think they have done a lot with marketing. They blew up bc of how good they are and by word of mouth.

I don't mean to bash SOK but they have not proven anything. Almost all of their breeding stock was trained overseas.

5 month minimum also sounds to me like they don’t work all of those dogs every day. You can’t put a time limit on how long it takes to train a dog. Some are easy and some aren’t. Do they expect every dog at the same level in 5 months? At 5 months are they proud of what that dog is trained to do for your money?

Just look them up and see what you think. They work their dogs hard. They have a5 month minimum bc they want the time to make sure the dog is trained well and to really get acclimated