Times, Friday, Feb 2, 2001
North Country Kennels of Prescott best friend for 'man's best friend'
By Stacy Estes
PRESCOTT- Everyone knows dogs are 'man's best friend'. They are loyal, loving and intelligent.
Various breeds of dogs are bred for specific tasks, like the Australian Shepherd made famous in the movie "Babe" about the pig that learns to herd sheep.
Most dogs today are family pets and are not used to their fullest abilities of what they were bred to do. Not so for the North Country Kennels Labrador Retrievers of Prescott, WA.
The dogs are owned and trained by Rick and Robin Steenhoven, who are in their 8th year of business. They operate North Country Kennels where they offer boarding and training services. Dogs are trained to assimilate as a family member as a pet, and also further training as hunting dogs. "We are currently the only retriever trainers in the area" said Rick.
The Steenhovens' have 5 Labrador Retrievers and "we run them all through to the highest title" said Rick. He means the dogs are trained to compete in hunt dog trials through the North American Hunting Retriever Association. There are three levels; started, intermediate and senior. "Each level the test gets a little harder," Rick said. "In the senior test, they are not just testing the dog, but the handler as well, by the demonstrated teamwork".
For the highest title; Grand Master Hunting Retriever, the dog needs 300 points. "Each senior qualification is 20 points towards that title", said Rick, who not only campaigns his own dogs, but is also a judge. "I've been judging for nine years" he added. "I go to Edmonton, Alberta, Puget Sound, Portland, and I've been to Georgia to judge dogs."
They also offer stud services from North Country's Super Sport, Grand Master Hunting Retriever, or Sport for short. Sport is 10 years old and is retired from Hunt Dog Tests five years ago when he "had all of his titles afforded by NAHRA (North American Hunting Retriever Association)." Rick noted. "He finished his career at 90% success while the national average is somewhere around 30%." Meaning the average dog takes 50 tries to get 16 qualifications, Sport achieved his Grand master in 18 attempts, failing only two.
"Precious Pearl went 15 for 15" said Robin. Pearl, another Black Labrador, "was my 13th wedding anniversary gift" Robin added. "Thirteen is the black pearl anniversary, and I got my black pearl"".
Pearl was bred after much searching, to the Jazz Time line in Montana, and had Bailey and Kelly, who at two years old will be vet certified this spring and bred with Sport. This means they will have hip and eye certification.
The Steenhovens buy only carefully selected dogs- in fact they are so selective, they have been looking for our own yellow lab breeding for almost seven years now. They also make sure they breed only carefully selected dogs. This can mean a big loss of income when the heart gets involved like it did with Maggie, their Chocolate Lab. Maggie did not pass her hip certification, and although the breeder offered them their money back they opted to keep their beloved dog. "She's a sweetheart," said Robin. "There is no other dog like her. She warms your heart and puts a smile on your face". Unfortunately Maggie's' wonderful disposition ends with her. The Steenhovens had her spayed to keep the hip displasia trait from being passed on.
It is this high standard that ensures the Steenhovens top dollar for their puppies. They offer a 30-month written warranty, plus eye and hip certification, and a certified copy of their pedigree. Simple training begins almost immediately.
"We have them swimming at 3 weeks old, and by 49 days, we have them retrieving live pigeons" said Rick. Formal training begins with simple obedience training, as young as 6 months old. "Our goal is to send home a well mannered pet that is a pleasure to be around" their brochure states. The training requires a minimum 2-week stay at the cost of $125 per week. Verbal praise and physical petting are used as rewards for learning the commands; here, sit, stay down, OK, no, heel, and kennel in/out. The dogs are disciplined with a simple pinch of the ear tip. "This gets their attention without harming the dog" Robin said. "We train the dogs and then bring the owner and family out and train them as well". It does no good to send the dog home and have the family neglect enforcement. The Steenhovens advise being very strict in the early stages to reinforce the training.
Some owners may want to return for Basic Retriever Training. The basic retriever program is an introduction tot all of the sights, sounds, sensations and experiences a hunting dog will be exposed to in real life hunting situations." The Steenhovens said. This program also runs two weeks. "Right before hunting season, we get real busy" Robin said. "Hunters bring their dogs here for tune-ups". The dog may be a pet all year and not keep up its training, bringing up the need for a refresher course.
The next step after basic training is Force Fetching. The dogs love the training and the work involved. "In force fetching their morale level goes from a 10 down to a 2" said Robin. It is a program of mandatory repetitive fetching and holding, "long after they have decided to quit for the day" according to the brochure. It is the first and most important step in teaching a dog to handle, or take hand and verbal commands to complete blind retrieves. A blind retrieve is one where the bird goes down unseen by the dog. The last stage of training is Advanced Retriever Training consisting of "teaching a dog to handle, run blind retrieves, quarter, trail, flush and honor. This is the Ivy League of training for retrievers. As Rick noted "You get out of your dog what you put into them."
In the middle of the acres of blinds, decoys and obstacles at their farm, Rick demonstrated the dogs' capabilities. With all five dogs sitting and watching, he yelled "Mark" and threw a hard rubber object called a training bumper. Each dog waited ram rod still as Rick called each dog one at a time to race across the bumpy ground and retrieve the bumper. "They will honor the other dogs fully" Rick said.
Next he demonstrated hand signals to direct the dogs when they don’t see the bird fall. Having previously placed a bumper 100 yard away, he sent the dog off; running is a straight line, with a simple forward hand motion. With a superb compass, the dog stayed "on line" following the line set by Rick's hand motion. When the dog had run far enough, Rick whistled and the dog sat, waiting for a hand motion to the left or right. At the left motion, the dog ran that direction until it heard another whistle to stop. Rick then yelled "Back" with another hand motion- a "go away" gesture. The dog ran back, sniffed for a couple seconds and promptly returned with the bumper. The dogs reward is a fun bumper. "A good retrieve is rewarded with another retrieve" said Rick. "It is quite a thrill to be able to do it (work with the dogs), and to show it is very rewarding" said Robin. I firmly believe the dogs need that discipline, they need the structure. They need mind stimulation too".
Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote "The leading distinction between dog and man is that one can speak and the other can not". Yet the Steenhovens said that most hunters don’t know what it is like to hunt with a fully-trained hunting dog. Many pet owners don’t know the joy of a relationship with a well trained animal, either. The Steenhoven have made it their business to see that the dog/person relationship is all it's capable of being.