Karen was nominated for this HighlightHer segment by her client, Laureen Quarry. Laureen says, “I met Karen in 2009 when I was searching for someone to help me train my first bird dog. Fast forward 14 years and 4 dogs later, she has been instrumental in every aspect of our training. She even face timed with me 5 months ago to talk me through whelping puppies. Karen always makes herself available to help in any way she can and works tirelessly at her business of training and guiding.” Read on to learn more about Karen.
Describe a typical day in your life
I wake up at 6 AM and feed my four GSPs. My fiancé and I eat breakfast then I take care of dogs again. If I am guiding a hunt which is 2-3 days a week September-April then I get the dogs ready to hunt and go do my hunt. After the hunt, I take care of the dogs, eat lunch and work with the dogs, do other chores, maybe a training or help with hunts. If it is a training Sunday, we are doing 2 trainings in the AM and two trainings after lunch. In the evening, I do my email which includes all training correspondence.
How did you get into hunting and/or dog training?
I hunted wild Pennsylvania pheasants with my Dad back in the 70’s before all the pheasants disappeared. Back then my Dad had “hunting dogs” English Setters that lived in kennels outside and my Mom had “house dogs” Boston Terriers that lived in the house. When I graduated from college, I bought my first Boston Terrier and showed them in conformation for years. A little over 20 years ago, I went on an upland hunt and realized how much I missed hunting with dogs so bought my first GSP. After I trained her with NAVHDA and hunted with her myself, got her NA & JH titles I started guiding with her at Pheasant Valley Farm. I bred her once kept two puppies, then trained them did the NA test and JH tests and started guiding with them. In 2010, a customer I had guided several times bought a lab and asked me to help him train her which I did and he successfully hunted with her. After some other inquiries for training, Mark Wolfskill, the owner of PVF & now my fiancé, and I started offering hunting dog training. The big difference between our training program and many others is we work with the owners and their dogs in individual sessions to help them reach their goals. We have now worked with over 1240 dogs!
What’s your Bird Dog Breed of choice, and why?
I have and love German Shorthair Pointers. When I decided to get a hunting dog 20 years ago, my daughter and I were showing Boston Terriers and we wanted to show and hunt the hunting dog we bought so we didn’t want a coated dog, that eliminated my first love English Setters. My now ex-husband was raised with GSPs so he suggested that breed. I was very lucky to find a well bred bitch and she was my foundation bitch.
Name one thing you’d like to accomplish with your dog in the next year.
I have an 11 month old puppy, the great, great grandson of my foundation bitch that I am starting to guide with. I definitely want to help him learn to be a good reliable guide dog. I may show him in conformation and run him in some hunt tests. Those things are tough for me to get to because they are weekends and I work weekends, but maybe I’ll make the time!
What is your favorite upland or bird dog product on the market right now?
My dogs often wear the Dogtra T & B 2700 collar. I also love the Prois Pradlann Upland Vest and wear it in the field all the time.
