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Cozad trainer proves a well-trained retriever is a beautiful thing

True communication between man and animals is a rare and wonderful thing to watch. Most of us are satisfied if we can teach Fido to come when called, fetch a ball and not pee in the house, but some people have a much deeper sense of what really communicating with another species means.

One place to see this inter-species communication brought to its pinnacle is at retriever field trials such as those frequented by trainer Bart Peterson and his wife Nola. At these events, a team consisting of a dog and a handler compete to earn points they hope will take them to November’s National Retriever Championship.

The trials are organized to specifically to evaluate the dog and handler’s skill and training in retrieving game birds. Among the tests, dogs are judged on their marking skills, in which a dog must see up to four birds go down, remember where each bird is and return them one at a time to his or her handler. Another series is called the blind retrieve, where only the handler knows where the bird went down and must direct the dog to the bird using audible and visual cues. Field trials also involve water tests where dogs must swim out to retrieve a downed bird. The best dogs at regional field trials qualify for the National Retriever Championship, and, as Bart Peterson says, “Watching a dog perform at the AKC championship level is a beautiful thing.”

A special connection.

Bart Peterson has had his share of dogs compete at the national level. He hunted as a boy growing up in South Dakota, but it soon became obvious to others that he had a more than usual connection to hunting dogs.

“Hunting led to dogs; dogs led to more dogs; more dogs attracted more attention from other hunters and dog handlers who asked me to train their dogs. What started as a sideline turned into a career.” Bart started training retrievers as a business in 1997.

Today, Bart and his wife Nola own Bar Ten Kennel in Cozad, Nebraska, a facility that specializes in handling and training retrievers for competing in AKC licensed field trials and for those who want a highly skilled hunting dog. The Petersons also board dogs in their newly built and state-of-the-art kennel which features 40 spacious runs, heated cement flooring, outdoor runways, and an outdoor exercise and play area.

Bart says, “We provide a quality of care that is second to none. The dogs aren’t cramped for space, they relax better, they’re happy. We give them food, water, exercise, companions, and if they need it, we even dispense their medicines.”

Nola adds, “Our kennels are supervised seven days a week and 24 hours a day. We live on the premises so we know the dogs are safe and well cared for.”

The Peterson’s moved the professional retriever training, field trial training and handling, and gun dog training business to central Nebraska in 2005, and the kennel was ready for borders in April of 2006.  Peterson says, “We specialize in dog training and boarding, but we like all animals, and we are planning on building a cattery so we can board cats as well.”

A range of services.

Training retrievers is only a part of the Bar Ten Kennel business. Nola and Bart offer diverse services including injury rehabilitation, and occasionally manage breeding and whelping services, and custom-raise retriever puppies. They also accept dogs for obedience training. Bart says, “We bring them in and teach them to be good citizens.” The Peterson’s are also skilled in problem solving for individual dogs and behavior modification.

They selected central Nebraska as their business location because many of their clientele live here or in adjacent states, and Nebraska’s culture is friendly to hunters and hunting. Bart said, “We researched locations on the Internet and looked at a lot of areas, but we decided on central Nebraska in part because the competitions are no more than a half day or at the most a seven-hour drive from Cozad. We participate in seven events a year in Colorado.”

Bart trains mostly retrievers — Labradors, Golden Retrievers, and Chesapeakes — to compete in field trials in Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. He trains for both dog breeders and individual dog owners. One of the tricky parts of his job is determining which dogs in his kennel are of the quality to compete at the national level.

Tough decisions.

“We make tough decisions on which dogs we train for field trials,” he said. “Sometimes we decide in 10 minutes and sometimes it takes 10 months to decide that a dog doesn’t have it. We want great vision and the ability to mark. We like personable dogs that are people-friendly, outgoing, and animated.”

The specific characteristics Bart says he is looking for include, trainability, the dog’s willingness and ability to be trained; desire, what Bart calls “an innate desire to retrieve birds”; marking, exceptional vision and the ability to locate a fallen bird; and memory, the ability to remember after four birds are down where each may be found.

Sixteen or twenty dogs are being trained at any one time throughout the year at the Bar Ten Kennels.

A “good life”.

Most of the retrievers trained at the Bar Ten Kennels are Labradors, and in Bart’s opinion, Labrador’s are the premier species. Sprinkled in Nola and Bart’s conversations about dogs, hunting, and dog training are statements about dog owners who provide a “good life” for their retriever. To the Peterson’s a good life for a Labrador  includes hunting.

“If a Labrador doesn’t get to hunt, life is a little disappointing for them. Labradors like to retrieve and swim. They like to live in a house with their best friend and be spoiled. They like to be treated fairly and to be a dog. Even if the Labrador never hunts, he or she can develop into an outstanding Frisbee dog.”

Nebraska has ample opportunities to develop the hunting industry, Bart says.  Currently, the state falls behind other prairie states in preserving prairie habitat and providing public access acres.

“In South Dakota, the state manages land to grow the hunting and fishing industry, and state dollars offer incentives to farmers to reserve strips of land on their farms for wildlife. In Nebraska farmers plant ditch to ditch and fencerow to fencerow.  Nebraska has smallest percentage of public access acres compared to surrounding states, and the message to hunters is to go somewhere else to hunt.”

Bart hopes that will change in the future, and there are some organizations seeking to increase habitat and public access in Nebraska. But in the meantime, there are plenty of dogs that need to be taught the right way to mark a bird, find it, retrieve it, and deliver it gently to its master’s hand. And that’s what Bart does best.

Who to Contact

Bart and Nola Peterson
Bar Ten Kennels
75398 Road 425
Cozad NE 69130
(308) 324-2878
(308) 661-2825
bartenkennel@cozadtel.net

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