Customer Letters

Jan -

Thought you might like to see a recent photo of Huck (out of Indie and Brook, born 11/08/2007.) He's doing great and retrieves like a dream. Learning hand signals now. His first hunting seson will be in October when Thomas takes him to South Dakota.

Hope things are going well. We are so happy we found you and Huck!

Louise & Thomas Block
Twin Bridges, Montana

July 8, 2008

Dennis and Janice,

21-month-old Max (Bonnie and Ben 10/30/06) has surpassed our expectations. We set out to find a quality huntiing dog that was adaptable to sharing time at our son's condo, our home, the cabin, camping, and traveling for extended periods in a kennel. No problem! The first night (7 weeks old), Max slept in his new kennel, never whined or barked, and woke us only three times to relieve himself ourdoors. He loves his kennel and Kuranda bed also. House and obedience traning has been effective, thanks to your British Retriever website--excellent return on investment.

We are still in awe of Max's personality and traits. When it's hunting business, he is patient and obedient, clearly driven, marks exceptionally well, and is becoming steadier at the line. He appears keenly aware of scents and his soft mouth returns table-ready birds. In his first hunting season, Mac retrieved grouse, pheasant, and ducks. Several avid hunters have invited Max to hunt next season. We are just not quite certain whether we have been invited along or just Max! What a compliment to the dog's abilities.

When Max is "off the clock" and just being a family companion, he is respectful, calm obedient, patient, yet entertainingly "puppy playful". His facial expressions are priceless; his eyes melt away any tension we bring home from work. He eats quickly and neatly, does not drool, and curls up next to the fire, at our feet, or in his kennel. Mac does not bark. At the sound of the morning alarm, he greets us with a sock, ball, or other object in his mouth, tail wagging, and ready to please. When exercising Max, other dog owners comment on his lustrous coat, beatiful features, attentiveness, calmnet, size, and overall obedience.

At the top of this letter is an InStudio montage of Max at 10 weeks, six months, and a year. We thought you might enjoy the age progression. As always, feel free to use us as a reference. Thanks for your dedication to careful breeding and continued involvement in canine research.

Warm regards,

Steve, Pam and Erik Nelson,

Maximus (Max) Sentry of Stillwater

Mohtomedi, Miinnesota

Dennis and Jan,

I thought I would drop you a note and give you a quick update on "Sir LeRoy of Leadburn". LeRoy was whelped June 13th of last year out of Apache and Haggisbank Jet.

At his one year check up LeRoy was 58lbs, very athletic build on the slighter side. My vet seems to think he is done growing and might fill out a little more. I have not had him neutered yet waiting until he is done filling out. He is the perfect size for us. My vet, Fran Smith, asked me where I got him as she was impressed with his disposition as he sat calmly at heal in her office. He is very athletic; meaning extremely fast and can jump like no lab I have ever seen. The best way to describe his personality would be "Goofy", everything is fun for LeRoy and everyone and everything is LeRoy's buddy. He is a very happy and good boy and has become a very important part of the Willett clan. As you might remember we have nine and four year old girls and a boy that is now 10 months and LeRoy gets along great with all of them. LeRoy is a house dog when we are home and he has been a very good house dog as well.

On the training/hunting front:

I purchased and followed your on-line training from the internet and as much as it pained me not to start throwing bumpers right away I was able to resist. I trained my last lab using Mike Lardy system which is a very aggressive American Field Trial technique which worked very well for me taking my lab through his master hunter certification. I am not planning on field trialing LeRoy and want an awesome family/hunting dog and the British way makes a lot of sense to me. LeRoy's obedience training came very easy as he was a very quick learner and eager to please. I did no formal retrieving or bird introduction and with great angst sent him to Carey at Grouse Point for intro to gun and bird. Carey had him for a month and LeRoy did an outstanding job taking to the training and bird work like a champ. LeRoy is very birdie and eager to please in the field. When I got LeRoy back I took him out and shot chukars and pheasants over him. field work was outstanding and found all birds and delivered all to hand.

LeRoy is back at Grouse Point now working on some water work and early handling drills and the reports back from Carey are very positive and I am looking forward to a very fun fall.

I have attached some pictures for you to review. We spent the July 4th weekend out in Bozeman with my family and I saw Nacho, out of Red Lucy and Brooke I think. He is my little brother's dog you sold him about 6 months ago and he is doing great as well. I have also hunted over Belle, Darin Millar's pup and she is doing great. We will have 3 Anderson British Labs this year hunting and I will let you know how everyone is doing.

Thanks for the wonderful dog,

The Willetts, Jeff, Gigi, Lily, Ruby, Henry, and Maxwell

Janice,

I enjoyed talking with you yesterday.

As I explained my dog "Sir Winston of Bowie", offspring in 1999 from Ras's Lucky Penny and Elmbrook Lancer of Tweedshot was the best hunting and family dog I've had. I shot many ducks, geese, doves, woodcock, ruffed grouse, pheasants, sharptails, and Huns over him during our 8 years together. Just too bad that he died last October of Kidney problems stemming from Rocky Mt. Sported fever. I thought I'd send you this photo taken following his AKC Senior Hunter title.

Regards,

Jerry Serie

Dennis and Janice,

Thought you might enjoy these pics of Maisy (out of Broadlaw Griffin and Tintoview Fay April 2003).

Maisy has been a great dog in the field and at home. She is a great pheasant dog and gentle as a lamb with the little ones.

These pictures are from a pheasant hunt in South Dakota last November and a Christmas card we did with my son.

Best Regards,
Tom

Thomas M. FitzGerald
President
Carbonair Environmental Systems, Inc.
Brooklyn Park, MN 55428

Dear Jan and Dennis,

I am forwarding some recent photos of our beloved Lucy (Bonnie & Ben, 10/30/06). We could not be more pleased!! She is exactly as your website says! She is excellent with the kids, very trainable, calm, and very easy to have around the house. She accompanies me on many of my marathon training runs. She insists, actually. Not to worry as I only take her on shorter (40 minutes or so) runs. Lucy adores our swimming pool year round. It is hard to keep her away from the water!

We are so pleased that I am mailing a deposit today for a puppy!! Thank you for your care and dedication to a quality breeding program. We look forward to welcoming another wonderful dog in to our family!!

Sincerely,
Betsy Welp

To Dennis Anderson;

I have recently put a deposit for a puppy for one of your 2008 breedings and I am looking forward to it. But the reason I'm corresponding is to comment on your online training lessons which I have subscribed to, particularly the intro and first 6 lessons.

I have owned and trained Labradors since 1971. First and foremost I'm a hunter. I hunt with my dogs from mid-September to the end of Waterfowl season in mid January. Years ago I started running hunt tests and then I got into running and judging field trials. Over the years I have seen many changes in the trials and the dogs, most of it not good.

I agree with almost everything you wrote in those chapters. The breeding and the methods of training of American trial dogs has tunnel vision. There is one goal in mind and other things are ignored.

I was fortunate to have success competing but some of those dogs took a lot of work. I am going back to the reason I have always has Labs for, to hunt. My training methods will change. I will put the e-collar away. I will not start the dog on things at the age I started before.

I have found your training lessons to be a good wake up call.

Your online training lessons are a wonderful source,

Thank you,
Joe Braverman
Bozeman, Montana