Francalia Retrievers

What Rex Carr understood

Rex Carr trained more Field Trial Champions than almost anyone in the history of the sport. Handlers traveled from all over the country to watch him work. Pat Burns was one of them.

What Pat took away from Rex wasn't a set of drills. It was a way of seeing. Understanding what the dog was actually telling you. Knowing the difference between a dog that had learned something and a dog that had learned to avoid something. Recognizing when smooth reps were building real foundation and when they were just rehearsals waiting to fall apart under pressure.

Pat spent the next four decades putting that into a system that regular handlers could actually use. Not professional trainers with 24 dogs and eight hours a day. Regular people with one dog, a few days a week, and a real goal.

On May 13th he's sharing the core of that system in a free live workshop. If your dog is in basics right now or starting to show cracks, this is the session that changes how you see what you're working with.

Free. Live. 8 PM ET.

https://www.eliteretrievers.com/bb-spring-webinar-register

One thing I’ll always stand by… working bred dogs need more than love alone.

So many people are drawn to gundog breeds because they’re clever, active and eager to please… but those natural instincts come with responsibility too. You can’t expect a dog bred for generations to hunt, retrieve, problem solve and work closely with humans to simply switch all of that off because they now live in a family home.

Training isn’t something you do for a few weeks and move on from. It’s part of everyday life with a working dog.

Every walk, every retrieve, every boundary and every interaction is shaping how they channel those instincts. When we don’t give them an outlet, frustration, overstimulation and unwanted behaviours often follow. Not because they’re “bad dogs”… but because they’re dogs doing exactly what they were bred to do, without guidance on where that drive belongs.

For me, good training has never been about control or perfection. It’s about harnessing natural instinct in a healthy, productive way. Giving dogs clarity, purpose and the skills to settle when needed, while still allowing them to use the parts of themselves they were born with.

A well trained gundog should still look and feel like a gundog… just one that understands how to live calmly alongside you too.

That balance matters.

"He is not here; for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay". Matthew 28:6