The Blast Wingshooting Kennels

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The Blast Wingshooting Kennels

The finest in Retriever Training for: Waterfowl and Upland Sportsman, AKC/UKC Hunt Tests and Upland Bird Dog Tournaments

We are a professional retriever training and breeding kennel. We pride ourselves in training retrievers for hunting waterfowl and upland at a high level. Beyond the hunt we train for both; Waterfowl AKC Hunt Tests and Upland Bird Dog Tournaments. Our Hunt Test Program trains dogs at all levels including Junior, Senior and Masters. With the ultimate goal of training our client dogs and our own pers

onal dogs to be able to participate in the AKC Master Hunt Tests to earn the title of AKC Master Hunter (MH). We are Nationally known for training the top Upland dogs in the country. We are proud members of the Bird Dog Circuit (BDC). We are a Nationally recognized facility as we train, travel and compete dogs in Upland Bird Dog Tournaments across the country. We have trained others as well as our own dogs to be: National Champions, World Champions, Dog of Year Champions and Puppy Of The Year Champions. Beyond the National competitions we enjoy competing in local and state competitions. Our dogs have been featured on the Sportsman’s Channel, Pursuit Channel, You Tube, Local and National news, as well as many social media platforms. Although we enjoy campaigning our dogs in retriever events we are hunters first and foremost! We understand how great it is to have a highly trained dog on a hunt, be it waterfowl or upland. Therefore our first love is to train dogs for people who love to hunt and want a good obedient family dog. After all thats where most of the memories are made with friends and family! We pride ourselves in researching, breeding, raising and training our own line of High Quality Fox Red Retrievers. With Nationally known Fox Red stud dogs. We take great pride in our Yellow and Black litters as well. Throughout the year we raise genetically sound, health tested litters that meet our standards to be a good family companion, a rockstar when on the hunt and the intelligence to compete at a high level. Stud Service: Visit our website to meet our top Fox Red Studs as well as our Black Stud. We offer On Site breedings along with shipment of Fresh Chilled and Frozen semen anywhere in the country. Started or Trained Retrievers: Throughout the year we will raise a dog or two from some of our litters. These dogs will be trained to different levels and be ready to purchase to take afield for the fall hunting season. Contact us for more information on what color, hunting style and training ability you would like in a Hunt-Ready companion. On Site Dog Training Seminars:
Each spring and Summer Annually we have a Waterfowl/ Hunt Test seminar and a Upland/Tournament Hunting seminar. These seminars have become yearly events for attendees to learn about dog training, become a better handler and understanding the ins and outs of each competition venue. Be sure to stay tuned to this page to sign up for one of our next events. Host a Seminar: Host Mike Vaughn and his ever popular “Gaining The Edge” Seminar Series at your Retriever Club or Upland Hunt Club. Mike’s seminars are fun, informative and straight to the point learning that will ensure your members get the most out their experience. Mike caters each seminar with a wide variety of topics in world of dog training for both Waterfowl and Upland Hunting. His sought after coaching style is what sets Mike apart as he helps each dog handler on how to become a team with their dog. Beyond dog training Mike teaches his Practical Shooting Program for sportsman looking to improve their Shotgunning on the hunt and in competition. If you are interested in our training program, buying a puppy or a trained dog, using one of studs, participating in our annual seminars or hosting your own seminar- call us anytime. We are happy to talk dogs and help anyone- anytime
we can. Trainer Mike Vaughn www.theblastwsk.com 608 445 6149

18/07/2025

Your Friday Tidbit: Looking Back to Go Forward

How many times have you heard “don’t live in the past?” It’s as if everything in the past is bad. As if going back in the past is going to haunt your present and future. Now I understand we all have past skeletons in the closet that we have to deal with. Some worse than others. But what about the great lessons or stories of the past that ignite your future? The stories that every time you tell it, gets you excited to relive it.

In my teen years I didn’t hangout with many kids my age. I always found more value listening to the stories of people older than me so I could learn something. Some of my favorite times in life is just swinging my feet on a tailgate as I get engaged in a great conversation. These are the times
people unveil their true selves. That’s when you get the real value from someone. When the conversation just flows naturally.

Wingmasters has made me relive so many great things and bad things. The reason being is that I needed to remember what it was like when I first started learning each process of dog training. That way when I write a manual and film each process I can remember what it was like when I was first learning it. Those feelings of frustration I had in the past is what i’m trying to not let happen to the people who buy any Wingmasters program. Clarity is my ultimate goal. Let me tell you finishing editing a 68 page Fetch Process manual, clarity is what you are going to get.

Rumorville can’t help itself! At recent Hunt Test there was a rumor floating around about me being hard on dogs with a E Collar. The person told a story about me 10 years ago. So when I was asked about it from someone who heard it, I simply said, “yes, I WAS”. I WAS is the key word there!! I was honest with them and myself that in the past I was harder on dogs with the E Collar. But the key phrase there is IN THE PAST. I learned along the way. When you learn your suppose to evolve. The only way the rumor would bother me is if the past was still the present. It simply isn’t. If someone holds something on you from your past it’s because they are too ignorant to evolve themselves and they want to hold you there with them…. Sound familiar???? They only hold you there if you let them. They can stay back there, i’m not there anymore.

I’ve always been 100 percent honest with myself of my past. To me the past is like a reflection of oneself. I look back there to remind myself what I don’t want to repeat and what I do want to repeat to continue being successful. The past is where you acquired your knowledge. That knowledge is what makes you who you are and how successful you will become, provided you use your past to propel you forward.

Past dogs taught me what I need to do to train the present dogs. The reason anyone is good at what they do is because of past experiences. I get all the calls of people wanting to give up on their dog. They call me as some last ditch effort. I usually have the answer. Why? Because in the past I had to deal with that problem, figured it out, worked through it and logged how I accomplished it.

There is a famous line of a kid that is sad looking out the back window of a car as the family is moving away. The father driving the car says, “son, don’t look back there, we’re not going that way.” Great advice for the kid at the time. But I would hope later on in life the father would say, “look back there, so you know where you came from, and where you are going.”

Wingmasters
Michael D Vaughn

Annual Upland Seminar August 9th and 10th! Post will be this weekend! All the itinerary is complete! Reserve your spot early by texting 608 445 6149

11/07/2025

Your Friday Tidbit: Believing in “Yourself”/ “Their-self”

Believing in yourself means having a deep-seated confidence in your own abilities, judgment, and potential, along with a willingness to act on that belief. It's not about blind optimism or arrogance, but rather a realistic assessment of your strengths and a trust in your capacity to face challenges and achieve your goals.

Now what if you have up and down confidence along with in and out beliefs? How does that hinder your ability to learn and grow? Believing in one self is something many people struggle with. Many people get into something, or work at something, for a period of time then just quit. They want everything to happen RIGHT NOW!

Dogs teach us a lot. Their general attitude towards life is always upbeat. If you give me a dog with a good attitude and great try I can almost teach them anything. Now if you give me the dog who each day his attitude changes, then it becomes much more difficult. I have to try to figure out if the dog is being lazy, defiant, not feeling well, has a genetic flaw of trainability or if the information i’m presenting is just too boring or advanced for him.

So how do I get an inconsistent dog to be confident and believe in himself? Teach him to believe in me, the process i’m teaching him and extreme consistency. A dog with low or intermittent confidence I have to keep reassuring that he is doing the right thing. A dog with a high level of confidence I can just mold into teaching him what I want.
The beauty is when a low / intermittent confident dog starts to believe in himself being a bird dog. Then all of a sudden it’s like a “snap of a finger” and they got it. Once they have it you keep repeating that same thing until they’re good at it. They simply learn by little successes which show them how not to fail. What you do in training is simply make the successes easier than the failures by teaching properly. You consistently hold them accountable for their actions. Soon they know what the standards are and become a team with you. Then you get to watch them hunt or compete with a belief system in themselves. Because the dog now understands what his training is all about. He performs it at a high level while continually improving. Believing in himself becomes a by product of the “act” or “action” of being the best at something that we taught them to do.

Give me a group of people training in martial arts and it’s exactly the same thing. The confident or upbeat human is willing to try and keep trying until they get it. They are very coachable all the time. The intermittent person has a battle within themselves daily of whether they believe in themselves or not. My job as the instructor is to help them find their inner strength, to grab onto something they can believe in consistently. Any person who can grab onto something that gives them purpose can believe in themselves. The struggle comes when doing NOTHING eats you alive. That’s the killer of believing in yourself. If you grab onto something stay consistent and have a good attitude, you might find yourself being like your dog one day.

Just as sure as we taught your bird dog, how to become a bird dog, that believes in himself. You can find your inner bird dog (purpose), become a bird dog (confident person) that believes in yourself too.

Wingmasters
Michael D Vaughn

*** Upland Seminar Information and Itinerary coming this weekend! Save the date August 9th and 10th 2025***

04/07/2025

Your Friday Tidbit: “The Sweet Spot”

It’s the night before the 2022 BDC World Championship finals and i’m back at the lodge unwrapping a bandage. I had bought a new gun. The lightness of the gun and the “hot” loads I use for competition had caused my middle finger to literally have a hole in it by the knuckle. Every time I shot the gun, the trigger guard slammed into my middle finger. I was trying to just zone the pain out but by this time it was effecting my shooting. As I peel off the bandages, after days of the same thing happening, puss comes out and I can see the inside of my finger. No amount of bandages or padding could help me to ignore the pain, the damage was done. I was uncharacteristically missing shots that I would normally make. What was I to do? I was in the finals multiple times in doubles and once each in the pointing with Magic Mike and the flushing with Journey.

I wake up on finals day and I’m nervous as consciously I can’t get the pain out of my head. I had developed a flinch anticipating the pain each time I shot. During one of the finals runs in doubles, I missed a shot on the final bird -“the money bird” over one of my buddy’s dogs. Now I was mentally wrecked I needed help quick!! Journey and Magic Mike were still counting on me. I got away from everyone and sat down trying to mentally check myself in. As i’m sitting down with my hands on my head and my finger throbbing I thought to myself, “find the sweet spot” and pull the trigger so you can win this. The “sweet spot” is that perfect distance in which you can control when to shoot the bird.

I was called to run Mike first. I had decided to kick the bird to my “sweet spot” which is my highest percentage shot for me to make. The reason I told myself this was because I knew if I kicked the bird to my “sweet spot” the probability of me making the shot even if I consciously flinched a bit, was very high. I kick the first bird while finding myself mentally pausing to shoot and end up making a long shot that brings my confidence up a bit. I told myself, “count to two and pull the trigger.” Magic Mike puts on a flawless run and I knock every bird down for 2022 BDC World Championship win.

In the pointing Division it’s easier as I flush the bird before shooting. It would be completely different with Journey one of the
hardest flushing dogs I ever competed behind. I told myself that I was going to whistle sit Journey to every bird even if it meant it would cost me the win. It for sure would cost me the win if I missed a bird. So 5 more birds was the goal as the pain in my finger was almost unbearable.

Journey screams out of the gate and instantly smells the first bird. I whistles sit him walk up next to him and see the bird in its nest. I release Journey and dust the first bird. I continue to do the same on the next three birds and now Journey is zoning in on the final bird of the run, the “money bird.” I blow the whistle look down and the bird is starting to run. I release Journey and he puts the bird up and I pound the final bird. I was never so happy to have completed a 5 bird run in my career. My finger felt like it was going to fall off. When the boards came out I had swept the BDC World Championships on both sides, Journey had won by .10th of second.

Both wins were obviously special for the dogs. It ended up being Journeys last win before his career ended due to an injury, so it was more special than I knew at the time.

On the drive home I was thinking about all the doubt that crept in my mind during dealing with the injury my finger. I thought about how being able to control Journey into each bird, which created the perfect process on each bird, which mentally held me in the game on each bird, which ultimately gave me the opportunity to find the “sweet spot” on each bird.

This is what Mental Management is all about. When something in your process gets disrupted you must be able to adjust, even when things aren’t going your way. It wasn’t even the Championships I was most proud of. It was the ability to be able to win and not let my dogs down when I was doubting myself. Having the ability to mentally reset myself in the face of self doubt. In this case it was two World Championship wins. In other cases, it was to just to make it through one more day of period of life that was beating me down.

As Always, We Be Rockin at Godspeed!

Wingmasters
Michael D Vaughn
National Bird Dog Circuit

Save the date! Annual Upland Seminar! August 9th and 10th 2025. Itinerary will be posted soon! And, trust me you’re going to like the Mental Management segment this year! Text for a early spot 608 445 6149

27/06/2025

Your Friday Tidbit: There Is NO “Magic Pill”

If I was to ask you how to be good at something, what would your answer be? You’d first answer good at what? Good at anything. A person doesn’t know they’re good at something until they “try”. Try usually means to fail over and over until you start seeing small successes add up. Let’s say you want to have more energy, feel motivated and attain self confidence. How would you accomplish this? You would have to slowly change your nutrition. Cut out sugar, cut down on wasted carbs, drink more water and coffee, eat less, meal prep, eat healthy snacks etc.. You’d start to realize that what you put in your mouth is either helping you feel better or worse!! Overtime you would start to feel better, which would give you motivation to do more, which would build your self confidence. Not to mention starting to do marital arts or any type of Fitness along with resistance training to look good to yourself. Yes, I said look good for yourself first. Our own mind plays tricks on us. First look good to yourself not for others. You’re the one battling within and no one can fix that but you. There is NO “magic pill”
or is there??

It’s kind of crazy how when you start to build something you come up with your own quotes rather than quoting someone else. Alec reminded me of quote I used at the beginning of the Wingmasters Fetch Process videos that we are about to release to mentor students.

“You have to bring out the bird dog, within the bird dog” - Mike Vaughn

So now I ask you, How does your dog know he or she is a bird dog? If you never showed the dog a bird in its life, it would just be “a dog”. He wouldn’t even know he’s a bird dog! Now some dogs it’s easy to show them they are a bird dog because they have genetics with hidden talents. It’s what they were born to do. Others you have to give them small doses and “micro step” them until you unlock “the bird dog within the bird dog” to show them how to be one. How do you know if the dog can be an average hunter, a great hunter or National Champion in competitions? You don’t!! Until you start training the dog properly. How do you train the dog properly? By showing them incrementally what it takes to bring the best out of them. The is NO “Magic Pill” that just “Magically” makes them bird dog. Hell, if you never show them a bird, they won’t even know they are a bird dog. Many bird dogs are just pets their whole life.

Well there is “Magic Pill” in all of us as well as our dogs. It’s just not in a bottle, it requires something that most people fail at! So simple, yet so hard!

Watch the video to get yourself some of this formula and get on it!

As Always, We Be Rockin at Godspeed!

Michael D Vaughn
Wingmasters

Save the Date!! Annual Upland Seminar August 9th and 10th for Retrieving and Pointing Breeds. The Wingmaster Way: Shotgunning, Dog Training/Dog Handling, Field Management and Mental Management for Hunting and Upland Bird Dog Tournaments. Text 608 445 6149 for early sign up. See flyer in comments.

20/06/2025

Your Friday Tidbit: When you change environments, you change dogs

Allow me to start this off with the most popular sayings i’ve heard over the years.

“He doesn’t do that at home” or the opposite “He does it perfectly at home”

“He never does that in training”

“I’ve never seen him get mean before”

“He totally lost his mind”

“He wouldn’t listen to me at all and would not come”

I left these comments vague for a specific reason as they all could be elaborated on. However let’s dive into the transition of training to environmental changes.

When a dog comes to my facility the number one goal is for the dog to be the best it can be within the time frame of which program the owner chooses. I specifically know that this dog has to respond to me 100% of the time because the transition to the owner we automatically lose 25% or more in transition. Why you might ask? Because the owner isn’t a professional dog trainer or handler. They don’t understand why dogs do what they do in different environments and anticipate them doing it like trainers do. They tend to over look the little things and the little things start to add up. Therefore 25% is lost. The best owners invest in their dogs by coming to one of my seminars to learn how to become better handlers and understand their dog better. I have such a passion for watching an owner and a dog “sync”
up as a team. It’s one of the reasons I started Wingmasters.

If a dog is not trained to a standard, you have no way to control that dog when the environment changes. Let’s look at some examples.

- The dog only takes a “level 2” on the collar when at home hanging with the family. I get a call, “Mike this dog won’t stay in range when we are pheasant hunting”. My response “What level are you running the collar on?” “Level two”. The dog is in his element operating at the highest level in the pheasant field full of adrenaline, a “level two” will just tickle him in that environment. You must adjust the level of the collar to the level of excitement in that environment.

- My dog always retrieves everything I throw at home. They come to my place or my seminar and I ask them to show me what the dog does. It does exactly what I thought the dog would do, it doesn’t retrieve at all. The person is embarrassed and makes excuses. I tell them don’t worry i’ll have that all cleaned up for you once the training is complete. That will happen because I’ll train the dog to the fetch standard and test it in many different environments, distractions and situations.

- I take a group of Hunt Test dogs to a new property. I throw a standard set of marks and all my dog mess up what should be rather easy for them. How can that be? The marks aren’t that hard, they’ve done harder earlier this week. New environment equals new challenges.

- A Hunt Test dog trains horrible all week and goes to a Hunt Test and smashes the test.. How can that be, he trained horribly all week?….. Vise versa… A Hunt Test dog trained beautifully all week only to blow up at the test. Different environments bring out different personalities.

- Company comes over to your house and your normal relaxed dog suddenly becomes obnoxious. How can that be? He’s normally so calm. A big change to his environment.

When you change environments, you change dogs. How do you control your dog in different environments? You must train to a standard, then pressure test that standard in different environments. The dog will learn to adapt the same skills to all different environments. Some environments you want them to calm down. Some environments you want them to step up. This is a lot for a dog to take in. Only training, changing of environments, maturity in training and maturity in age will get you to the level you desire.

Once you get to the level you desire you must maintain it. These are not AI dogs….. They are actual living beings..

As Always; We Be Rockin at Godspeed!

Wingmasters
Michael D Vaughn

13/06/2025

Your Friday Tidbit: Advancing - Stepping Out Of The Comfort Zone

There is so much discussion about advancing a dog. When is he ready to advance? This is a common question. The simple answer is; when the fundamentals are solid. Fundamentals give you a structure in which you teach new skills upon.

When advancing a dog in any skill people tend to do the “trial by fire” method. “Let’s see what he can do?” This is a sure way to break a dog’s confidence or worse embarrass yourself. Teaching is a build up and drop down process. I want to teach them how to “rise up” to a new level and go outside their comfort zone, then drop back down if we go over their head. This is going to require incremental steps of teaching the new skill. Once the skill is going relatively well then it needs to be tested in different environments.

For example let’s look at Marking. If you are teaching a long land mark with different cover changes the dog needs to navigate the line. You want the dog staying as true to the line as possible as the terrain presents challenges to throw him off his destination. If the terrain really gets him lost a long the way, you break the mark down into incremental steps of distance and difficulty. When the dog is attacking the line fighting all the factors that are trying to throw him off course is when you see his confidence growing. Maintaining the best line from point A to point B, is a beautiful thing. A dog so focused on where the bird fell that he will literally will go through anything to get there properly. This however has to be taught. Although some dogs do it naturally, which is why genetics is so important.

Now take that same distance and add in water. Now that distance becomes harder as the water slows the dog down on the way to the destination. When the dog is “slowed down” it gives them more opportunity to think about giving up as the resistance from point A to point B is much harder. A dog has to learn to fight the factor of water and remain focused on maintaining the line to the destination regardless of what’s in its way. This is why a good water dog is usually as good or better on land because there is less resistance to the destination.

So how do you know when to advance? When what you are presenting them is completed easily for multiple days in multiple environments. It’s as if the dog is saying to you, “is that all you got boss?”
That is tell tale sign. What happens when you are presenting them with a set of marks, at a certain distance and they are only getting it right 50 to 70% of the time? You must stay at that distance until that percentage rises to the 85 to 100 percentile. That’s called advancing.

Let the math do the work for you. If you go to do a set of marks and the dog is failing the training session, you need to back down the distance of that training session for that dog. When they are slamming the training sessions (85% to 100%) then it’s time to challenge them. Be careful of training for failure. You don’t want your dog failing more than being successful. That is your reference to back off on your advancement.
The quickest way to shatter a dog’s confidence is to train above their head all the time. There must be a balance of pushing them outside their comfort zone while maintaining their confidence.

The funny thing is that’s exactly how we maintain our own confidence.
Ohhhhh….. that’s right….. we’re both trying to become a team that unifies?? Yes! Now you get it!

Train smart and be fair at all times!

As Always; We Be Rockin at Godspeed!

Michael D Vaughn
Wingmasters

06/06/2025

Your Friday Tidbit: Teaching Properly- The 3 -I’s Principle!

The heart of training is underway right now. Everyone is excited to train their dog during the summer months. Some are preparing for summer Hunt Tests, some are preparing for this falls Hunting season and some are preparing for both. During training many things start popping up. I receive many messages looking for a lifeline as they are running into road blocks during training.

In horse training “ground work” is similar to our “fundamentals” is so crucial. Why? Because if you push a horse too fast they can seriously hurt you. So teaching the fundamentals til they are solid is a must. Since there isn’t a fear of getting hurt in dog training we somehow think we can just throw the dog “in the fire” and he’ll figure it out because he’s a bird dog. That’s like saying I’ll just get on a horse and he’ll figure it out because he’s bred to be ridden. Sound ridiculous? Of course it does but I see it all the time in dog training.

-People shoot a gun over the dog “just to see if he’s gun shy” 🙈

-People run marks with a dog before he’s taught how to Fetch and wonder why he won’t bring the bird back

-People run marks with a dog before they’re steadied and wonder why the dog whines and is crazy at the line.

-People run multiple marks before the dog can pick up complex singles and wonder why he can’t remember the memory bird.

-People run “blinds” before the dog can even sit properly to whistle and wonder why he gets so far off line.

You get my point! The list is endless! You wouldn’t be able to do any of that if you were training a horse until he was trained properly. Then he must have “x” amount of rides to be considered “reliable”.

In my first mentorship course (being released next weekend) there is a set of teaching principles to help you coach your dog better. One of the principles is called the 3 - I’s. Introduce, Isolate, Integrate.

Introduce: You have to first show the dog what you want by introducing and teaching the progression of the skill.

Isolate: You must isolate that skill until the dog understands the skill thoroughly and set a standard required with that skill.

Integrate: Now you must integrate the standard of that skill along with other skills to build towards your goal.

The 3 I’s must be used in every process of training.

- The Fetch Process
- The E Collar Process
- The Steadiness Process for waterfowl or The Hunt Em Up Process for upland
- The Process of Land Marks
- The Process of Water Marks
- The Process of Whistle Sit for waterfowl and upland
- The Process of Multiple Marks
- The Process of Casting on Land
- The Process of Casting on Water
- The Process of building Blind Confidence
- The Process of putting Blinds with Marks
- The Process of Diversion Birds
- The Process of Poison Birds
- The Process of maintaining it all
- The Process of fixing problems along the way.

This is just dog training, I haven’t even went into the Process of becoming a better Wingshooter.

Each of these above mentioned Processes have to be built properly with the 3- I’s in order to get a dog to the highest level. If you “throw the dog in the fire” here’s what’s going to happen……

“Instead of compounding successful skills, you compound successful problems. Both are successful, but which one would you rather choose?”

As Always; We Be Rockin at Godspeed!

Michael D Vaughn
Wingmasters

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http://www.theblastwsk.com/

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