Godfather Gundogs

After reading many rave reviews I decided to let Steve work with my two boys. I had taken many bird-training classes from other trainers, in addition to working with them for two years on my own. However, I felt they lacked exposure to birds on a daily biases, due to not having the resources myself. I signed them up for the 4-week training/boarding with Steve. At that time they were pointing, retrieving, responding to some whistle commands and working the field well, but were just not zoning into birds fast or with confidence. I asked Steve about the dogs having separation anxiety, but was reassured when he said, “They will be busy chasing birds all day I’m sure they will be happy”, that put my worries to rest. knowing my dog would be out being worked and training all day, I was even a little nervous they would not want to come home! Steve wanted two weeks to work with the dogs and bond. After that time, I was to come out to work the dogs with him and be taught how to handle the new skills they had learned. When I was there we loaded up three pigeons in remote bird launchers and placed them around the property, then pulled a dog out of the kennel to work them, after that the dog went back into the kennel. We went through the process once for each of my boys. At that time neither dog seemed like they had improved, and even seemed intimidated at times. I brushed that off, thinking they were just starting to warm up to all of the training. They seemed like they both lost a little weight, but that’s to be expected from running around all day…right? I asked Steve tons of questions about training, how, what, when…etc. and as I follow him around he starts working another owner’s dog, exact same process. As I drove away I felt like I made the wrong decision, leaving my dogs with him for another two weeks. That was it, the dogs came out of the kennels for 30 min, ran though the drill and went back in the kennel. This was not an action-packed day of fun, chasing birds. But I paid for the four weeks and he’s the expert. The next weekend I tried to schedule a time to come train with them again, however Steve wasn’t be able to meet with me because he wouldn’t be back from his 5 DAY HUNT….WHAT!? My dogs sat in their kennels in 20-degree weather with no training for nearly ¼ of the total time I paid for. He did not even try to hide that fact. In the 4-weeks he had my dogs he had spent a total time of no more than 25 hours with them. When I picked them up they both had lost about 20 lbs, were covered in dirt/feces and had multiple bed sores. I hated seeing them like that, but thought at least after going through boot camp they were new and improved soldiers, right? Not so much, one dog that had a solid point before all this was creeping. He learned a command for quarting however. The other one really had no noticeable improvements. This was just my experience…I hope it may help others with their decision when they are considering where to send their dogs. This is my professional review of Colorado Godfather Gundogs. Personally, I liked Steve just not the service I received. I liked talking with him he seemed very knowledgeable and was friendly.