Stewart and Whiskey

Over the last 30 years, Stewart has trained just about every sporting breed from pointers to beagles. Since 1996, he’s overseen Wildrose’s three facilities: in Oxford; along the Buffalo River near Jasper, Arkansas; and starting last year, on Clear Creek, in Granite, Colorado. Stewart specializes in training British Labradors (the bloodlines actually come from across the United Kingdom) and more importantly, their owners, using positive reinforcement. His goal is to produce dogs that are determined hunters in the field and equally calm and pleasant to be around at home, on the trail, and in the office. Stewart’s black Labs Drake and Deke serve as mascots for the conservation group Ducks Unlimited, while Stewart has appeared on numerous dog training TV shows and on the April, 2009, cover of Forbes.

Here, he’ll answer your training questions and write an ongoing series applying what he’s learned from his hunting dogs to your adventure dogs that are at home on the snow, in the water, and on the trail.

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Danger seizes opportunity; Schaffer seizes Danger

Schaffer, a senior editor at Outside, has been a wannabe dog trainer for the last year or so, spurred mostly by his attempts to turn his chocolate Lab, Danger, into a serviceable hunting dog. He’ll be the guinea pig for Mike and Sue’s teaching. With Sue, he’s training Danger—a professed vegetarian (see photo)/ pacifist/hydrophobe—into a service dog; with Mike, he’ll be starting on a new pup, Cooper, that will primarily be used for hunting. Believe us, if Grayson can do it (and we’re not saying he can) you can too.