Keith Allison has enjoyed the companionship of many great dogs, but he knows that in order for his dog to be a good companion, he must be disciplined and well trained.
Allison, of Pea Ridge, trains dogs -- duck retrievers mostly. What began as a hobby culminated in a career which includes championships and titles for the dogs he trains.
One of the dogs, Lucas, a hunting retriever champion, was featured on the 2010 Arkansas state duck stamp. He was the first Labrador featured on a federal duck stamp, Allison said.
For many years Allison worked as a physical therapist and trained dogs as a hobby.
Training his own chocolate lab, Cosmo, became the impetus for a second career for more than 20 years ago.
"I had people who started asking me to train their dog because they saw Cosmo run and liked what they saw. It wasn't long before I started taking a few dogs realizing I could earn a bit to help pay for duck hunting," he said.
Even though he's worked with many dogs registered by both the American Kennel Club and the United Kennel Club, Allison said the dog's pedigree registration is not as important as his desire to work.
"That dude could look like a zebra as long as he wants to work," he laughed. "I like dogs that want to work and enjoy what they're doing and they're willing to cooperate."
Allison said he assesses the dogs before he accepts them as clients.
"I've got a pretty good eye," he said. "Before they ever come in, I assess them. If I don't think it's worth the owner's time and investment, it's not worth it to the dog. If the dog has it in them, I can bring it out. But if it doesn't, I can't put it in them.
"Their DNA tells them to like ducks," he said, explaining that he has seen well-bred dogs with great pedigrees who don't have it in them and some without a good pedigree who turn out to be great hunting dogs.
"I've got a pretty good system of weeding out dogs," he said, adding that it's not fair to the dog to train one that is not cut out for it.
The same process doesn't necessarily work for every dog.
"They're just like kids -- you can have 30 black labs and every single one of them is different in terms of their drive, temperament, toughness, softness, train-ability," he said.
Allison's program begins with a four-month minimum training to get the pups to a "started level" in which they learn to sit still, watch a bird thrown or shot, run out and pick it up and bring it back to hold at the hunter's side. "They are not to drop it or spit it out," he said. "I want to get them to where they'll stop on a whistle and change directions with hand signals."
"To really finish a dog out, depends on the dog ... it can be 12 to 16 months of training to get a dog to a finished level," he explained. "There's no such thing as a finished dog. You're always fine tuning them, polishing them, keeping them in balance, to get the skills it takes to get them developed."
Allison said handler education is as important as the dog training.
"They have to understand how to handle the dog. If not, they're wasting their time and their money," he said.
"People treat dogs like they're people. Dogs treat people like they're dogs." Allison said, explaining that people have to understand the psychology of a dog in order to gain respect and obedience from the dog.
"In order for us to communicate effectively with a dog, we have to speak their language. I can't treat them like a person, they don't understand that. It makes us feel good. But, you have to communicate with them on what they understand -- the pack mentality."
Too often, people want dogs to be their buddy, Allison explained. "You have to be a leader. Somebody in the pack has to tell the pack what to do."
"I've seen extreme cases," he said, recalling a situation in which a dog, trained somewhere else, was brought to him. The owner could not control the dog. Once he assessed the dog, Allison realized the dog was "food aggressive" and could be a danger to the family. He accepted the dog for training and realized the dog was not a dominant personality, but was in a family in which no one was being the leader. The owner and family members did not know how to handle the dog. Once they learned, the dog became a fantastic family pet and hunting dog.
"You're a source of something to that dog -- if it's excitement only, and you're just a big play toy, then the dog will come unglued and be out of control."
"You have to teach them they don't have to be wild. You have to be calm and assertive as a handler," he said. "Be firm, but fair. I do a lot of teaching -- teach, teach, teach! I use treats and other tools. There has to be a consequence for a dog that you mean 'no' when you say 'no.'"
There is a curriculum involved, a step-by-step process and it isn't a cookie cutter process. "Every dog gets the same information, but we tweak it for each dog," he said.
Essentially, Allison said people need to realize the purpose of a particular breed of dog and work and train it according to its DNA.
"Any breed has to have these three things -- rules, boundaries, limitations," Allison said. And, those are achieved through exercise, discipline and then affection. "No matter what the breed, affection has to come when they're calm, not out of control.
"Most people give affection at the wrong time," he said. "Our human nature gets in the way."
"I grade excitement on a level from 0 to 10 -- 0 is asleep, 10 totally out of control. I want my dogs, especially obedience, at a 3 or a 4."
He said duck dogs are a little bit different because he wants drive in them that will push them to get in the cold water and go get a duck.
"Don't praise an excited brain. If you're rewarding the dog in that excited state of mind, you're actually fertilizing excitement, and you're going to get more excitement. Praise them when they're calm," he said.
"I can't change their DNA and who they are. I can shape their behavior," he said.
"I like to be very upfront with people. I don't want them to pay for more than they should," he said. "Most issues with dogs are because of the owner.'
With a duck dog, Allison said the first thing he wants is for them to be "crazy about retrieving."
"If they're wild about retrieving, they love it, everything else is background noise. Before long, they start associating that shot," he said. "No dog is born gun shy, you created it."
Allison and Bradshaw take the dogs to a lot of different places providing different concepts, different environments.
"Dogs are very environment oriented. You have to teach them -- use different ponds, different shaped ponds, different properties. With duck dogs, they want to get to duck as quickly as possible. We teach them that anything that's between them and the bird, they've gotta run over, under or through it."
He said young dogs may try to go around a pond or pile of brush. "We teach them to go straight, as long as it's safe. We put a lot of tools in their tool belt prior to getting to that point.
"We have a young dog set up, an intermediate dog set and an advanced dog set up. It's just like teaching a kid algebra, you have to start with the basics," he said.
Allison said he has dogs that will work as upland flushers and will retrieve.
"You have to teach them to sit still a while waiting for the hunter to shoot the bird, then go when commanded. They must stop at the whistle and follow the hand signal," he said, adding that sometimes a bird is wounded but not dead and may kick or dive. The dog has to know how to respond. "The whole purpose is to conserve game."
"It doesn't matter what you tell them as long as you're consistent. A lot of it is the drive in them. Some dogs tend to let their excitement get them in trouble," he said, reiterating that the dog has to want to obey its handler.
"Dogs don't need a buddy, they need a leader."
"Just because you bought the plane, doesn't mean you know how to fly it. You might have bought an F16, but you're only licensed for a Piper Cub," Allison said, using the analogy to re-emphasize the need to know how to handle the dog.
Hunter Bradshaw, a Pea Ridge High School graduate, assists with the training.
"He's got a knack for it. He's leaning to being an electrician. He's been a huge asset for everything we've been doing here. The business has really grown."
Allison and Bradshaw train the dogs five days a week.
"This is one of those professions, where, if you're not careful, it can take over," he said, noting that the dogs' owners would love to be there "all hours of the day."
"I learned a long time ago to put limits to maintain good balance between this and family time."
"The average person only gets to hunt five to 15 times a year, the rest of the time, the dog has to be a good companion, a good citizen," he said. "Duck dogs get exercise and discipline through training."
Allison has trained hundreds of working retrievers and has a multitude of hunt test titles to his and his clients' credit from Grand Hunting Retriever Champions, Hunting Retriever Champions, Grand Master Hunting Retrievers and Master Hunters in AKC, HRC and NAHRA Hunt Tests. He has also set records in the Super Retriever Series Events (SRS).
Allison was the first handler to make it to the SRS Finals with two different dogs in two different SRS events and had the first chocolate male to be an SRS finalist.
He is one of only three handlers to ever score a Perfect Score of "0" at an SRS event and owns the second lowest two-day total score of "0" and "4" in SRS history, he said.
Allison has made the SRS finals/semi-finals with over seven different retrievers throughout the history of the SRS events and was a semi-finalist in the 2004 ESPN Great Outdoor Games.
Dogs Allison has trained showcase their talents and skills in Arkansas' flooded green timber and in the water and fields of Oklahoma.
Each duck season, Allison hunts at one of Arkansas' flooded timber duck clubs -- the Greenbriar Club. He guided for more 10 years at Prairie Wings Duck Club near Stuttgart.
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Editor's note: This is the second in a two-part series, the first of which was published Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020.
