- [Narrator] Dogumentary TV.
Producing the best breed dogumentaries on YouTube.
(dog barking)
(upbeat acoustic music)
- I'm Paul Cacciatori, Starlight Kennels.
(soft electric guitar)
I use to have another name,
actually Duck Masters
and I didn't wanna be pinned in,
I like doing all of the dogs, all of the breeds.
So I purposely chose a generic name
so that I could attract all dogs.
Because I enjoy doing an obedience dog
as much as a field trial dog.
(soft electric guitar)
So when I was a young boy
I was always attracted
to training of the dogs, just on my own.
I actually saw a dog show in second grade at my school,
and I was just amazed.
At about, I don't know, 12 or 13, a friend of the family
gave me a half coyote half lab
and I trained that dog,
but that dog he wanted to run away all the time
and he did, he'd come back.
Finally my dad bought me my first Yellow Lab when I was 15.
(soft electric guitar)
Then at 23 I broke my back,
I was in a pretty severe accident.
The whole time training dogs
using walking dogs to get healthy
and one day I ran into a gentleman, Paul Shoemaker,
who had won the nationals
and he told me if I'd come
and help him he'd teach me everything he knew.
(soft electric guitar)
I worked for them for a couple a years
and he taught me a lot.
I knew a lot, I was surprised at what I knew actually.
He was a great dog man, refined a lot of stuff.
From there I got into business
and I've been doing it ever since.
I literally had no idea somebody would pay me to train dogs.
When I found that out that's the way we decided to go,
it was never really a plan it just all kinda happened.
People kept bringing them to me
and I needed a bigger truck and a bigger truck.
Been doing it ever since.
(slow rock music)
Always been kind of a Lab guy and it takes over,
I have to fight that image all the time actually.
(slow rock music)
You know I ended up with Labs probably just because
that's the first dog I ended up with.
I have trained dogs of the best
of any breed is a wonderful animal.
I mean Sprinters, Brittany, Pointers,
Shepherds, it doesn't matter.
The best of any especially the working breeds
is a wonderful animal to have around.
I insist on doing all the breeds because I enjoy them all,
especially all the hunting breeds.
I think I got into Labs because
that was just the first dog I had,
I was quite successful with them.
There was a good game developed that I could go play
with the dogs which gave me a reason
to get 'em advanced trained.
And about the time I was just starting with
that we started the master hunter test.
And when it started it was really like cunning
and I really liked it
and I could really tell my clients it's a good game
for your dog to play.
Now, it's since gotten carried away
and it's more advanced.
You're not gonna get these titles just
because you have a good dog it takes a lot of training now.
But it's still a game it's within the average guys reach
if he's serious.
And everything we do is still good
for our hunting dogs, that's what's important to me.
(soft rock music)
I've been doing this a lot of years,
and I've had a few people ask me to write a book,
and if I did it would be,
now that that didn't work try this,
and now that that didn't work try this.
If people can take little steps
and know where they wanna go
and it's not beat it into the ground to get there.
It's keep trying until you're dog understands what you want.
A lot a times there's good reason to seek out a pro's advice
just 'cause he's been there before.
But pressure in dog training is not the answer to anything.
It's show and tell and show and tell and show and tell,
pressure should only be used for reinforcement.
Pressure is a loaded word it doesn't have to be much,
I can yell at my dog, that maybe all the pressure I need.
Timing, timing is more important.
I started training dogs when I was young,
I got a book, I was relentless,
I mean I love my dog, I love being with my dog,
that's probably the biggest key.
(slow rock music)
My philosophy when it comes to dog training,
honestly is to try to make every dog the best they can be.
And every dog does have their limits,
we don't always get to it, but if that dog's giving me 100%,
I have no right to ask for more
and neither does the owner.
Every dog may not be in the right household,
maybe the guy is looking for something different,
and needs another dog.
But there's still a wonderful home somewhere for that dog.
And the idea of beating these dogs
trying to get what you want,
if the dog's giving you his best,
is going the wrong way on a one way street.
Always encouraging.
(slow rock music)
I can honestly say that in all my years training,
I've never tucked a dogs tail.
And that means happy dogs and happy owners.
And I think that, we've full by word of mouth
for over 40 years, never advertised.
Matter fact I try to hide advertising
'cause I don't wanna answer the phone all the time.
(upbeat acoustic music)
You know we have our philosophies and our rules
and they're pretty stringent,
mainly in our breeding program.
All of our health, we insist on all the DNA,
we won't breed any carriers of any kind,
the dogs have to be clear on all the genetic diseases.
We also insist on good or excellent hips
before we'll breed a dog.
And as a result if somebody does get a dog from Starlight,
they're getting a dog that everything's been done
possible to make sure they get a healthy pet.
That translates,
you know none of this stuff was really thought of as a plan,
it wasn't a business plan,
it was just out of love for dogs
and our respect for the breeds.
It translates into always being full
and having a waiting list.
(upbeat acoustic music)
We breed very hard for temperament,
you know the thing I learned years ago
when I was young running field trial dogs,
I had a dog go out on a weekend and win,
and it's like isn't my dog great aren't I great?
But that dog might have been a pain in the ass
when he wasn't in the field.
I have found that most the time people just want their dog
to hang out with them,
whether it's in their truck, or by the couch,
or in front of the fireplace.
I learned that when I was young
and I learned that probably the hard way,
but we tried very hard to breed for temperament,
we call it an off switch.
When that dog's on I want all the effort he can give me
but when he's off he's off.
Lay down, take a break, let dad give you a hug
and be happy with that.
That's kinda in the Labrador temperament anyway
or most all the retrievers not just the Labrador.
(upbeat acoustic music)
We want our dogs to be proven some ways,
especially the males.
Most of the males have some kind of a title.
It's not all that important to me it just
helps down the road you know,
it helps to see it on the pedigree.
(upbeat acoustic music)
Last year,
somewhere about August I'm not sure,
well even before that,
we were just heading to a trial,
and up popped open field trial news
and low and behold we had nine dogs in the top 10 positions
in the United States for the huntin' test.
That was kind of a fun surprise,
it wasn't something we tried for.
I think the biggest reason for our success in the game
is just the fact that my owners have given me the time
to develop the dogs.
And we've got good stock.
(upbeat acoustic music)
The thing about genetics,
genetics just tip the table in your favor.
I mean there's great dogs sittin' in somebody's back yard,
their parents have no titles whatsoever that's for sure.
But when we're gonna get a pup
and we plan great things for him
and we're gonna invest a lot of time and money,
if we can get it out of good genetics
we tip the table in our favor.
(upbeat acoustic music)
(midtempo acoustic music)
We were over in the field, we were doing blind retrieves,
and blind retrieves you start from your hand,
you go to a pile, you go to a farther pile.
Basically you can handle the dogs anywhere
off just hand signals.
We cue them dead bird that means give yourself to me,
we're gonna run a blind.
Takes a lot of time to teach a dog hand signals,
they enjoy it because it's teamwork with dad.
It's really important if you're a duck hunter,
unless you feel like swimming a lot
or you're in shallow water.
For the uplin' dogs it's nice to have,
it's not life and death,
but if you're a serious duck hunter
you really need a dog that can handle.
Besides handling there's marks,
what we did in the water,
we did run a blind over here,
but marks are where the dog sees what goes on.
If we're out wing shooting,
anytime a dog sees a bird
and we shoot it,
that's called a mark he has seen it.
We send that dog on his name,
his job is to go out and retrieve it.
Not allowed to leave until we send him.
His job is to bring it back, deliver it to hand.
A dog in the water is not allowed to shake
until he delivers that bird.
And if he's ever got your prized wood duck
in his mouth you'll understand that.
We don't want him ever destroying the birds.
And the rest of it's control,
what we did in the water when the dog was halfway back
we threw another bird over his head.
His job is to mark that bird,
he's not allowed to drop the one in his mouth and go to it.
He's still gotta come back in, deliver the bird,
and then when sent go get the other bird.
Sitting quietly is a very important part
of our retriever breed.
It's actually one of the first things mentioned in the book.
We want these dogs to sit quietly when they're in the blind,
otherwise they'd be scaring the water fowl away
and that's not their purpose.
(midtempo acoustic music)
Whether we're on water or on land, when we hit a whistle,
a dogs job is to turn and sit.
Now, if he's on land he's gonna sit a hard sit,
if he's on the water he's gonna tread.
But still his job is to look at you
until you give him the next direction.
We're always gonna cast our dog towards
the bird if we know where the bird is.
(midtempo acoustic music)
If I hit a sit whistle,
and the dog looks at me
and the bird's to the right,
I'm gonna cast out to the right.
If the bird's behind him I'm gonna cast back,
same thing if it's the left.
If I need him to come in I'll use
that multiple beep on the whistle,
if it's coming to the right beep, beep, beep, beep, beep,
to bring the dog in.
We're basically we're always putting our arm in
the direction of the bird.
Once again, one of the biggest mistakes
I see is guys are doing this.
If you look at things in one dimension there's not much
to see there over my shoulder.
Reach for the sky, let the dog know
which direction you want him to go.
I think you gotta remember when you've got a dog
at that level they're a willing worker.
So show him what you want, make it clear to him.
Most of dog training is just making things clear to the dog.
I mean the dogs are wonderful beings
and normally just wanna make us happy.
It's our job to set them up so that they understand things,
and that starts right from the basics of training.
Things get more and more evolved.
(midtempo acoustic music)
I've been doing this a lot of years
and I've had a few people ask me to write a book.
If I did it would be, now that that didn't work try this,
and now that that didn't work try this.
If people can take little steps,
and know where they wanna go
and it's not beat it into the ground to get there,
it's keep trying until your dog understands what you want.
A lot of times there's good reason to seek out a pros advice
just 'cause he's been there before.
But pressure in dog training is not the answer to anything,
it's show and tell and show and tell and show and tell.
Pressure should only be used for reinforcement.
Pressure is a loaded word it doesn't have to be much.
I can yell at my dog, that may be all the pressure I need.
Timing, timing is more important.
Be patient with your dog,
dog training starts when they're young.
The idea is to become a team with that dog.
So he's gotta have faith in you.
A lot of the stuff we do is because the dog believes in us.
Not because the dog is forced to do it.
The most important thing I need is a dog with play drive
and that's something we teach our young dogs
as puppies to have fun.
We get that, then we can start putting rules on it
and our dog philosophy is whatever makes you happy dad.
You give me what I want, I'll give you want you want.
And then there's a point when we come to reinforcement,
reinforcement might take pressure
but pressure a lot of times can just be
the sound of your voice.
It's about being consistent
and if your dog looks lost, he probably is.
Slow down, back up, help him out.
(midtempo acoustic music)
This dog next to my side is Truck,
he's my dog I only ever own one male at a time.
I didn't get him to live in a kennel,
I got him to be my sidekick.
Pretty good dog out of great blood.
I think he's got over 60 Master Passes,
finished a couple of nationals,
but this dog's not here just to compete and show,
he's my huntin' buddy.
And he is important to me for those reasons.
He's also at an age where I need to take care of him.
I could run his hips into the ground at 10 and a half,
and that's not what I wanna do.
I wanna spend our miles huntin' ducks, not training.
(upbeat acoustic music)
♪ Ah uh ah uh ah ♪
♪ Baby ♪
♪ Ah uh ah uh ah ♪
♪ Baby ♪
♪ Meet me where the meadows grow by the waterhole ♪
♪ Use the dreams of you and me ♪
♪ Sky high busy life, I wanna leave ♪