About DJ & K’s Kennels

<h2>What the site says</h2><p>DJ & K's Kennels trains retrievers at 947 Legion Road in Lovington, describing its location as "Central Illinois, 60 mile East of Springfield." The stated audience is broad within the discipline: "whether it's a family dog, a reliable hunting companion or a competitive hunt tester." The site invites owners to "come and watch our training and learn with your dog," and lists hours as by appointment only.</p><h3>The three-phase program</h3><p>The training page sets the program out in stages. <strong>Phase 1, Basic Obedience</strong>, is described as the foundation for everything else – "sit, here, and heal are the basic commands," plus force fetch, collar conditioning, and stopping and coming in on the whistle. <strong>Phase 2, Gun dog</strong>, adds exposure to "duck and goose calls, decoys, dog stands, layout blinds, gun fire and another dog working," and works up to multiple marks, whistle stops and hand signals to a blind retrieve on land and water. <strong>Phase 3, Advanced</strong>, extends the same work over much greater distances with technical marking setups and more complex blind retrieves. The site states that yard work and field work are done daily, with bumpers used for drills and birds, live or dead pen raised, used daily in field setups.</p><h3>Competition record</h3><p>The site states that "we compete in both AKC and UKC hunt tests" and credits the kennel with producing "numerous Grand Hunting Retrievers Champions (GRHRCH), Hunting Retriever Champions (HRCH) in UKC, along with Junior (JH), Senior (SR), and Master Hunters (MH) in AKC."</p><h3>Who trains</h3><p>The About Us section is written around a trainer named Dave James, and says "Dave has been training his own dogs since 1980. In 1993 he started competing in hunt tests and started training professionally in 1996." The site also names Cassidy Retrievers and Round 2 Retrievers as training partners. The site directs training inquiries to Dave at the number it publishes. Ask about prices when you call.</p>