Ken Witt: I'm Kenneth Witt and welcome to Gun Dog Nation. Gun Dog Nation is much more than a podcast. It's a movement to build a community of people around the world that like to watch a well-trained dog do what it's bred to do. Also, we want to get our youth involved into the sport of gun dogs, whether it be hunting, sport or competition. We want to build a community of people united to preserve our gun dog heritage and be better gun dog owners. Tune into each weekly episode and learn about training, dog health, wellness. and nutrition. will also offer tips for hunting with dogs and for competition ⁓ hunt tests, field trials, and other dog sports that involve gundogs. Please go to our website gundognation.com and subscribe to our email list. We will keep you up for them weekly with podcasts that are coming out. We also will be providing newsletters with training tips and health tips for your dog. You can also go to patreon.com forward slash gundog nation and become a member. There's different levels of membership on there. Just go check that out. Also, we'd like to thank Sean Brock providing the music for this show, the introduction and the outro is Sean Brock. He played everything on there except the banjo by Scott Vestal and the bro by Jerry Douglas. Sean is a neighbor of mine from over in Harlan, Kentucky. I'm just crossing mountain in Highton, Kentucky and he's a super talented guy. But most of all, once you guys to check out the Kreekers. They are also from Highton, Kentucky and this is an up and coming bluegrass and country band and these guys are hot. They're all over TikTok and YouTube. You will hear these guys because in a year or so they will be on the radio. They are very talented. Their videos are going viral on the net. These boys are family. Two of the lead singers. One grew up with my daughters and the other one is my cousin's son. So he's family. Check them out, check out the Kreekers. Also, last but not least, if you want to buy a hat, koozie, t-shirt, or even gundog supplies, go to shopgundognation.com and you can purchase any of those items. Thank you so much for listening. It's a privilege to have people that want to put up with me talking about dogs all the time. I actually enjoy what I do and I'm so glad to have this opportunity and thank you. Hey, everybody, it's Kenneth Witt. Welcome back. I'm coming to you from Fort McCavitt Tech's day gun dog nation. I have a nice young lady here, Carly in South Carolina. And ⁓ I saw ⁓ a skit that she did on Instagram. And I absolutely loved it. It was about, she was like stereotyping people that own certain breeds of hunting dogs. And it was dead on. So I knew this girl knows some stuff about dogs and I reached out to her and wanted to get her on the podcast. Then, After you answered, then I started seeing all your other posts, Carly. And I loved it. I I was like, I told my wife, you got to this girl out. So, uh, anyway, I thought, man, what an interesting person. You have a lot of great causes that you support. You're certain you can do so many things. We probably got a lot to talk about, but I'm going to shut up, Carly, let you introduce yourself. Tell everybody where you're from. Um, my name is Carly and I'm from San T, South Carolina. I'm actually six miles south of there in a town called Utah Ville, but. Utahville with an E, not a U. Yeah, we don't have stoplight. So I'm a first generation hunter, but I'm also a hunting education instructor and a shooting sports instructor. So that's where a lot of my interest in the dogs come into play is having some experience both behind the gun ⁓ in the field and also just watching dogs work while I'm hunting with other people. And it's been a good time. And I've learned a lot about these breeds and a lot about the people that work them. Well, one thing is you got so much I want to talk to you about, Karlie, but you said something before we started. I know that you you're an instructor for a lot of things, but you were at duck camp. You said for eight weeks that I hear that correctly. One more time. You were saying something about being at a duck camp. It was like for kids. Yes, explain that to me. That sounded fun. So my sophomore year of college, I went to a job fair and I saw this summer camp that was right across Lake Marion from my house. I was like, ⁓ okay, sign me up. And then I read a little bit further and it was a duck hunting camp by the Waterfowl Association. And I was like, okay, sign me up. I was already working out at the Clemson shotgun range that year. So I was like, okay, I want to get a little bit more involved. I love kids, but I don't like spending all of my time with them. So I applied to be a shooting instructor at the camp. So that is what I did and I had six to eight sessions a day where I was teaching kids incoming birds, going away birds, 22s, ⁓ know, shotguns, this and that from literally seven years old kids to 15, 16 year olds. So it was just, that was an exciting time. And how long does that last? Did say eight weeks? I thought you said eight weeks. Yeah, that was the entire summer. So about eight weeks. That's insane. So if I were a kid, I could go there for eight weeks. and learn. No, it was different set of kids each week. Okay. You rotate them in. Okay. Yeah. What was the time I guess? Yeah, it was a fantastic time. And these kids come every year. So once they start coming, they're hooked and they come for the rest of their age, like that they're allowed to. And you have your junior weeks and your senior weeks. So you have your senior campers that have been five, six times that all know each other. They booked the same weeks and they're all ready to go. And then you get a class of brand new kids or like a certain cabin full of brand new kids. And they're like, oh my goodness, those eight year olds, how are they out shooting me? And I'm 11 years old. And it's just because they've been out there and they've grown a passion for it through a summer camp. And that's just, that's something you can't find everywhere. That is so, I never had anything like that as a kid. That sounds so cool. How many, it's funny. I'm sorry. How many do y'all run? We probably saw 800 kids that year. And two of the kids that I taught at that summer camp ended up on the high school team that I coached post-graduation. So I got to see them develop from a summer camp a week there learning how to shoot to being on my championship trap team. So that was good. So you teach high school shooting? You're a coach? I don't do it right now. I've helped with a couple of teams and I coach my own team for two years, but I've kind of... run out of time right now, so I'm waiting until I get a little bit more before I commit to a whole other season. You're a busy lady. I am. So I know that you are, you know, I'm Kentucky graduate, so we're not competitors. You're not in the SEC, so you're a crimson. I'm Clemson. The Crimson is those other boys. Well, I did a podcast with an Alabama dog trainer. So who went to Alabama? So I've had that on my brain. So you are a Clemson grad. So you're a Trevor Lawrence fan? I am a Trevor Lawrence supporter. Okay. He kind of supports your hairstyle. He does. He does. We got confused a lot in college. ⁓ Of course, let's talk sports assists for a second. I know you won't So you guys were, I know your coach, you, I respect, you know, y'all have good football coach decided not to participate initially in the NIL, correct? Yes. And I'm sure that that had a detrimental effect on your team. think? Not necessarily. well, that's a hard question. I think it's because we were on such a high note for so long. And then to, because Dabba wasn't one of those coaches that immediately wanted to change everything as soon as the opportunity came around, as everybody knows, I he was the last one to want to support that, obviously. So I think having not only losing so many key members of our team, but also having that other aspect of every team being able to stack, stack, stack, that was just two negatives at a time. I don't really think that 100 % reflects on the natural abilities of the team. Nice. And he's still there, correct? He's still there. But no, he's a great coach. I y'all have had a good run. And like you said, it's hard to stay at the top. Right. mean, anyway, but no, all right. I had to ask you that. ⁓ So back to hunting. I thought it was neat, Carly, that you didn't grow up in a hunting family. You you told me your dad hadn't, you know, hunting experience once or, you know, actually shot a deer and stuff. ⁓ What got you into it? Because you seem like your heart. I grew up in the booties, so I mean, I really didn't have anything to do other than country girl redneck stuff. And I mean, once I got through the experience of the frog gig and everything else that I could do without a gun, I was like, OK, I need to take it up a notch. What else can I do? And by that point, I was a young teenager. So all of my other friends were starting to get more into hunting with their families. And then I saw them do that. I was like, I want to go. So I remember standing in friends' kitchens and talking to their parents and be like, can I come with y'all one time? Can I come just sit in a stand with you? And I didn't shoot a deer until I was a senior in high school. But I'd gone several seasons and just watched. I just liked being out there. I liked being outside. I liked seeing the animals. I it's just, I like nature. And did that evolve into duck hunting after it was deer hunting first? It was, I sat in the deer stand first, yes. And then I went on my first duck hunt junior year of ⁓ high school. ⁓ It was the weekend after I got a really bad car accident. So I didn't have a car. I couldn't do anything else. And my guy friend was like, we're going duck hunt. And if you have nothing else to do, just come spend the night with us and go with us. And I was like, okay. I mean, I have a concussion, but I will go stand out there with y'all. That's fine. And for the remainder of that season, I went with them every morning they went before school. didn't carry a gun with me because I had that concussion and I was taking that seriously. ⁓ So I just continued to go and I didn't go in the next season because I was dating a boy that we dog hunted instead of duck hunted. ⁓ And then I started in college again and I've been hot and heavy ever since. Nice, nice. Now define dog hunt. Deer hunting with dogs. ⁓ so I didn't know South Carolina could do that too. Yes, yes, and we can do that for a full season. Okay. I knew some parts of Arkansas, some parts of Alabama. I didn't know South Carolina, so you've educated me. At least in our region. I cannot speak for the upstate because I haven't looked into that heavily. But we still do it. The farm down here at the end of our street, the fields that my husband farms, we actually, the dog club hunts right there. So I see them every single weekend during the season. Okay. Now are you, are you in the par South Carolina with Gators? Yeah. Yeah. What's it like dodging Gators to hunt with? Um, well we dodged them bow fishing, hunting, and in the literal road, I was telling somebody yesterday, I ran one over on the way to work one morning because I go to work at five o'clock in the morning. Um, and I came around a corner and there was a Gator in the road. So I just right over it and kept going. Um, but really our Gators, you see them, you ignore them. ⁓ they really won't mess with you unless you're being stupid, unless you got a dog that's acting a fool, like making a lot of noise. They're not going to come towards you, but they will for a barking little yappy dog. ⁓ interesting. Yeah. I know. We lost a springer to one when we first moved up here. ⁓ he had jumped in the water and we didn't know there was a gator right there. It slapped him with his tail and broke his back. And I mean, that was just taught us one of those lessons that we never know what's under that water. Yeah. Yeah, that's a I've never I've been to one hunt test down on the Louisiana, Texas line where there's some with dogs, but I've never hunted with turkey hunting in Florida. But that's really about it. I'm really I've Gator hunting Louisiana once, but I've never been hunting where there's alligators present. So, yeah, during duck season, we just pretend like they're not there. Because we don't hunt out of blinds down here. We stand in the water the whole time. I was getting ready to ask you that. So y'all hunt flooded timber? Yes. ⁓ Yes. And that's probably something I didn't realize when I first started hunting that people sat down, like that people had blinds that they could sit in and get in. And then I went and hunted my first one and I was like, ⁓ this is nice. Like I like having somewhere to put my stuff. Yeah. Yeah. That's you know, I only I don't did my first flooded timber hunt this year. Well, this season. And I was really, I like it. was fun. We had a good time. mean, you know, I had a good hunt, but I'd never done that before. Totally different. It definitely teaches you how to appreciate your waiters. Yeah. Yes. To make sure they don't leave. So you got to, I hate to ask you and put you on the spot, but you got to do that skit for me about the dogs. I mean, I love it. That's dead on. I mean, I was fired up one day. I don't even remember exactly what the kid posted, but it was a boykin owner posted something. And I know he has a boykin because his boykin is one of the most annoying ones I've ever met my entire life. And I was just thinking in my head and I said, you are acting like your dog right now. You are just acting flashy, acting like you're the biggest dog out there. And I was like, you know what? That's a good topic right there because bird dog owners, they are a reflection of their dogs. And if they're not, then their dogs are reflection of the person they want to be. And I don't really know how to put that part into more kindergarten terms, but that just makes sense in my head. each breed is definitely, definitely its own character. ⁓ So said you had the Cocker Spaniels? Yeah, yes. They're little curly ears. My friend growing up had a black and white Cocker Spaniel. those, to put up with a Cocker Spaniel, you have got to have some of the most patience. You've got to be light-footed because you're going to kick that thing across the house because it's kind of small. ⁓ You definitely let it sit in your lap regardless of whether other people let their dogs on furniture or not. That dog owns a place on the couch. And it's your seat if you're not sitting there. ⁓ What's another one? What's another one? I'm trying to think, because I'm thinking of every Cocker Spaniel I've ever met in my entire life. ⁓ If they had a choice to swim an Olympic merit, like an Olympic, whatever you want to call it race and is in a bathtub, they would do that. If they had the choice, they would do that. And I mean, I think that just says that you, you're a patient person. They're different. ⁓ and I've just, I've only been a Cocker owner for less than a year. But it's like nothing else. you know, ⁓ minor females and I learned because I had people on the show that really experienced trainers that you gotta be real careful. You'll hurt their feelings and they'll hold a grudge on you. Like, they'll just freak out. I'm done, you know. So that's, you know, that's, and I'm used to, I had years with protection dogs and big old, you know, dogs that you could, you know, you can manhandle a little bit. You can't do that. You can't holler and scream at them. know, like it's like a pout in the corner. Yeah. It's a delicate situation. So luckily I knew that in advance. So I have it like, you know, hollering, screamed and been loud and, you know, shut them down. anyway, one of the things interesting too is you talk to me about you and your husband having you all got labs, but it's impressive that you train one of your own. How did you learn? Did you learn from somebody? I was at that same summer camp that I was talking about. So was a sophomore in college when we got him and he was a backyard bread, just chubby little Teddy Graham looking puppy. And I was like, okay, if we're getting really big into hunting, what can I do to prepare him to go out there with us? And I was like, well, since I'm working with the guns, the first thing I need to do is gun breaking. Because that's last thing I need. That's one of the first things I've ever read about training a gun dog is to gun break them. So the first thing I did was I had The kids out there shooting BB guns. So I had him laying on the table in between the BB guns, listening to just the pop, pop, pop. And then we moved up to 22s and then we moved up to the shotguns and he would just be sitting right under my feet as I was sitting right behind the kids. from the top, literally the day I brought him home, he was laying under the guns the whole time. And I kind of think that also prepared him to be a dog with a baby in the household because that baby can do anything and make any noise and he doesn't react. Hello, this is Kenneth the Whip with the Gundog Nation podcast, and we're proud to announce that we are now partnered with Ducks Unlimited. Since 1937, Ducks Unlimited has been on a mission protecting the wetlands that waterfowl call home, from the northern breeding grounds to the southern wintering havens. Thanks to the effort of passionate volunteers and supporters, Ducks Unlimited has conserved millions of acres. But the truth is, the work isn't done. Come be part of the next million-acre year. Visit ducks.org forward slash volunteer. today and join a team making a real difference. Because when it comes to protecting our continent's waterfowl, that's what Ducks Unlimited does. Hello, this is Kenneth Witt with the Gun Dog Nation podcast. We are so proud to be sponsored by Dog and Hunt Supply and Equipment Arkansas. Many of you know Summer Reynolds and she runs the best dog supply store in United States. I've been there, I buy from her. She has everything you can imagine. Her store and her workers, they are Garmin experts. Matter of fact, Summer herself can work on your Garmin collars. She's also a lifelong hunter, a generational hunter. She owns hunting dogs. She doesn't just sell dog equipment. She backs it up. She's the real deal. And actually, I think she actually might own more dogs than I do. Whether you hunt coon, rabbit, hogs, predators, or your turkey hunter, you name it, they have supplies there for you. She has Sitka, Filson, hay bowl, outdoors, all kinds of clothing, boots, boat boots, deck boots, hunting boots, you name it, they have it. It's dogandhunt.com. Check out Summer Rentals. They're on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. and we are so proud to be sponsored by them. I think what you did was brilliant. And it's funny, I've only heard, there's a girl named Kenzie Kelly that's a hunting guide up in Illinois at Heartland Lodge. she was telling me that, I think it was that she lived right close to a shooting range, like a sporting clay range, or she would take the dog to a sporting clay range as puppy. It was actually a cockerel. And that dog's just oblivious to shotguns, you know? And what you did, you eased it in with a BB gun and a .22. I mean, that was really smart. So how did you, can you work hand signals and stuff with your dog? I cannot because I'm not that far deep into dog training. ⁓ The closest I've gotten is I've practiced a little bit with the whistle ⁓ and the black lab I was telling you about, he understands what I'm trying to do. It's just, I haven't put enough time into that to get him to that level yet. But my father-in-law, he has his dog whistle trained. He has an English Cocker, or yeah, English Cocker Spaniel. ⁓ And they are so much fun to watch because I'm like, he doesn't say a word. He doesn't move. just whistles. I'm like, okay. okay. Carly, I'm fine. And just from doing this podcast and I haven't guessed from all over, it appears to me and all my, I've got friends in Georgia and Carolina, North and South, that the, the Cockers are really popular in the South in the Southeast U S more than any place else. Do you see that there? I do. I do. know a lot of people with different types of spaniels. Like I grew up with Springer spaniels. My friends grew up with Cocker spaniels and then my father and I have an English Cocker spaniel. I'm like, okay, we just have a lot of spaniels. And I think in South Carolina, at least from what my experience and assumptions are, is that since the Boykin is our state dog, everybody's like, ⁓ I want a spaniel, but I don't want to be basic. Don't want to get a Boykin. So let me just Google a spaniel. And we actually have a lot of Springer spaniel breeders in the area. So I think that's kind of where that stems from. Okay. And I didn't know that either. So you taught me something there. You know, at least I spent my almost my entire life in Kentucky, but I've been in Texas 14 years and I'm just now seeing Cockers here. It's just, Brittany's were real big when I got out here, especially West Texas. And, but now, and I'm sure you've seen this probably more, way more than me, but it seems like from my podcast, from all my social media posts about dogs that the fork in popularity has just blown up. It's like a cult. Yes. And to kind of tie both points in, I think both of those breeds are so popular, at least here and other Southern states, because we do hunt that timber. So a smaller dog's easier to get in and out of that timber and get back up on the pad. I mean, I understand the bigger dogs out in at least Texas, Oklahoma, where they're running those long distances. That makes sense, you know, biologically to me. ⁓ But I mean, like I said, I'm a lab owner, so I can't speak from experience for why I would get one of the smaller spaniels. But I mean, that makes sense to me. Yeah, yeah. And it's like everybody that I talk to, because I talk to people daily in the dog world. And man, it's just there's a lot of cockers in Georgia and a lot of the cockers in North and South Carolina. More so maybe than anywhere else I've seen in the US. And I do this every day. I'm always talking dog. So yeah, but yeah, you know, I can remember Carly like, oh, 10 years ago, outside of North South Carolina, most people didn't know what a boykin was. And in Texas, it was rare. I remember I saw my first boykin ever. I was in Midland, Texas, someone was walking down the street and I stopped, on the window and said, is that a boykin? Because I'm a dog nerd, you know? And they were like, how did you know? But now, It's it's even a hunt test. Well this is a hunt test ⁓ Last weekend we get four last and there was four there So that's that's a high number at a retriever hunt test, you know, I guess I'm just spoiled though. It's same thing with wood ducks around here It's words over saturated with boykins and wood ducks in South Carolina. That's what it is See, I haven't killed a wood that I actually saw and they could shoot one in my timber hunt But so you probably saw you see them regularly That was my first duck, was a wood duck. Now, where you're hunting out there, your normal, you know, around your home hunting, is it wood ducks and mallards mostly, or is there anything else? You're about 85 and a half percent wood ducks, and then the rest are mallards. The occasional McGanzer, occasional. And then you might get a rare something else through there on a blue moon. But granted, once you go to the coast a little bit, you're going to get a little bit more variety. But right here in the middle, I mean, my mom has pet mallards in her backyard that I've been trying to get on for multiple seasons. They just won't leave the cove. But mostly Woodies. That's why every every time we hunt out of state, we make a comment about being tired of Woodies, tired of Woodies. And our guys are always like, well, we want a Woodie so bad. And I'm like, I will ship them to you. We are tired of them. Give us some variety. Yeah. Yeah, because you out here in you just don't see them in Texas period. mean, I take that back. saw one a county south of here in a creek bed. We killed a Woody in Texas during an ice hunt. It was two years ago and we had the most mixed bag that we've had in a very long time. And Woodies fly over and we're hollering at each other not to shoot the Woodies. Don't waste the limit. And of course we ended up with Woody anyways, because people don't listen. We just like to pull the trigger. But they follow us everywhere. Where were you at? We were in Tyler, south of Tyler, believe. So that's probably, was it you timber hunting there too, or on, or puddle? We were on a lake. So I couldn't tell you exactly where we were. It was covered in ice. There were three inches of ice that year and it was thick. It was thick enough for the dog to run over. Like we had Teal landing on the ice and just sliding. It was crazy. So do you all get to travel and hunt a lot? We go at least once a year as a group. That's a good time. I guess with your husband's occupation, it's probably a good thing after harvest time, he's probably free to hunt, right? Typically, typically usually by December they're kind of done for the year. Um, so we try to take that trip around Christmas time and, um, the other boys that go with us, they're taxidermists. So of course they're busy during waterfowl season. So it's just, we make something happen. Do you get a discount? Uh, yeah. Yeah. My first Woody, he actually mounted for me for our wedding. Nice. ⁓ That was good. Now you got me wanting more these again. That's on my list. ⁓ But yeah, so, so, you know, one of the things I thought was unique about you, Carly, is like you have these certifications, safety, hunting, boating. Is there something that happened in your life that made you want to help others and teach them safety, hunting, boating? Or has it just been a drive for you? I've always had a passion for talking and teaching and just helping other people get to a level that they weren't at before. I think I'm so passionate about the hunting and boating education, one, because I grew up on Lake Marion. So I've watched so many accidents happen on the water. And the hunting education, the passion for wanting to teach that is the fact that I'm that first generation hunter. I didn't have somebody posting videos on TikTok for me to scroll through and learn little tips and tricks that you don't get in your lessons or that somebody wouldn't think to tell you on your first time or that your dad just knows his third nature. So he just doesn't think to tell you and you're just wondering why are we doing that? So really just all that. I like that. You know, would think, know, do you know the sisterhood of the hunt, that group? You know, I've had them on here and I've had a couple other you know, female hunters that are really good, really active hunters. so I would think you being on social media and posting so much good content about, about hunting. And you also are funny, you know, I would hope that a lot of young ladies or ladies of all ages reach out to you. Hey, I want to, I'd like to do that. Does that happen to you? Right. I was actually at the Dixie Deer Classic yesterday in Raleigh and at least 15 kids came up to me and half of them were little girls. And they were coming up to me talking to me about gun safety. And I had a grandpa bring a two-year-old up to me to just say that they watched my gun safety videos and they're excited to see more about how to raise kids safely around guns. And I was like, that is what matters right now, because if I would have had somebody teaching me at eight years old, imagine what I could have been at 16 instead of going from my first time at 16. I love that. You know, one of the, one of my goals on the podcast, you know, I do this for fun. It's obviously not my living room. I'd really start to death, but I want to see young people get in the dog sports and hunting with dogs in particular. And just like I was at the hunt test last two weekends row, want to know that this week, I didn't have a good weekend last weekend, but the weekend before, but that it's all gray hairs like me. You know what mean? It's there's no. There's not many young people and, uh, we're all talking about it, you know, and all the retriever clubs where all the members, they're all my age and up or, you you don't even have a lot of 30 year olds. So, you know, I want to do my part. I don't know if I'm doing enough to try to get more youth involved in hunting and especially in hunting with dogs, right? You kind of hunt dog, you know, upland waterfowl, you know, coon hunting. rabbit hunting, all that. you ever done other types? I know you deer hunt with dogs. You've also waterfowl hunt with dogs. What other types of hunting have you done with dogs? So I was the intern for the 4-H Shooting Sports Boss for the state. And so through that, I was responsible for teaching his turkey hunting and then the hunting traditions courses. And through that, we had a section on falconry. And so I got to go on a rabbit hunt with beagles and a falcon. And that was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had in my entire life. Like just that bird came and landed on my arm and I was like, that thing could eat my eyeballs right now. But this is fascinating watching the dogs and the bird work together. I can't even describe that. Like I don't know how you train an animal to work with another species as well as they did because that was impressive biology and an ecosystem all in itself working like a, I felt like I was watching a Broadway show. Like that was fantastic. ⁓ my gosh. Were they locals or was it somebody from away out of state? It was, it was somebody. So from around the Columbia, South Carolina area, he came about two hours up to Clemson and we ran on a WMA land up there. I've never witnessed that rabbit hunting for years with Beagles. But still tell me how that worked. Cause I'm trying to picture that. So we were out there and it was short pines and briars and just typical little woods. And he let the dogs out of the box and he had the falcon and let it go. And the dogs ran and I guess as they would jingle around and the bird would be flying from tree top to tree top and it would just swoop down. I don't really know exactly what the bird was seeing because we never got a rabbit out of it. I just watching them all work together. And as the dogs would move this way, the bird would just hop over and then it would occasionally just fly all the way around and then go back and have a little bell on it. it was just mathematically in my head. I don't think I actually got to appreciate what was actually happening because my brain just couldn't keep up with all of this moving parts. And I was like, this is fantastic. So did they shoot the rabbit or did the falcon catch it? I was assuming that the Falcon was going to catch it. We didn't get any rabbits. We were only out there for an hour. But just, I assume the Falcon was going to grab it. That's something I'd love to see that. I know I've never seen that. I've heard of a guy that was using Falcons with bird dogs and hunting in combination like that. But you know, to me, it almost is contradictory because a bird dog, you know, most of these bird dog pointers, Brittany's Cockers, they see a bird, they're gonna grab it. Pheasants. I've seen a lab grab a pheasant, it takes off. how do you, I don't know, it just seems, I'd like to see it happen, but I'd be afraid my dog would take out the falcon, which is probably an expensive bird, I don't know, but I would assume that. Yeah, because you have to have special licenses to own them. So I mean, I can only imagine how much training you have just to own the bird. Now, I know. again, I you went to Clemson, so ⁓ tell us what you studied there. I was agricultural mechanization and business. So basically agricultural engineering. Okay, but that has, I'm not trying to be a smart aleck, but that has little to do, I think, with what you're doing now, correct? Correct. I do medical research for Alzheimer's now. I was a high school teacher for two years. I taught agricultural mechanics and heavy equipment operation. And that's where I got forklift certified, I'm OSHA 10 certified and a lot of other accolades to go under the resume already. ⁓ But I just- Do you a wall in your house without your certifications? I wanna see it. Dude, when I tell you my resume is three and a half pages long, and I try to sum it down to one page and I'm like, that doesn't- Okay, I just I get bored easily I get bored I'm an ordained minister online Have you married anybody I'm waiting I have it written down. I mean, I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm gonna dress like Elvis. I Love it. Carly know what you got to do. You got to offer a wedding package. I'll give you gun safety, voter safety, dog training, and take you hunting and guide you and marry you. I mean, that's a package. That's a red bag. Yeah, because then there's the honeymoon right there is the guided hunt. Perfect. Perfect. I'll give you five percent commission for that idea. I love it. And you got to do it. You'd be good at that. ⁓ So I was a many years ago, I was a county judge, executive in Kentucky, and I You know, county judge is not a real judge. Even though had a law degree, wasn't a, you know, I didn't sit with a robe and sit in court. was basically the mayor. But anyway, one of the powers that I had, which is very few, is I could marry people. And that was so weird to me. Like I married, I married a couple on Christmas. They come to my house, knocked on door, judge. So I ran into the courthouse and threw on a t-shirt and jacket, you know. So anyway, it was, it was interesting. It was interesting. Hey, it's Kenneth Whip with the Gundog Nation podcast and I'm very proud to have as a new sponsor, Cable Gangs. That's spelled G-A-N-G-Z. Brendan Landry at Cable Gangs has developed, in my opinion, and I'm a customer, the best tie-out systems on the market. 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But also, they make dog tie-outs, a way to safely secure your dog if you're at a field trial, a hunt test, a coonhound competition, whatever that might be. ⁓ Beagles these guys make the best product on the market check it out for yourself cable gangs calm Hey, it's Kenneth Witt with the Gun Dog Nation podcast and we are so proud to be partnered with the National Shoot to Retrieve Association, also known as Nastra. Nastra has a common love for producing the best bird dogs possible. It's a great community that builds and bonds everlasting friendships. I've actually got to meet a lot of the Nastra members and who's taken me hunting and some other grouse hunting and stuff in different places. So I can honestly say I'm a member. and I'm proud to be partnered with them. Nassar hosts national and regional field trials that emphasize the working ability of bird dogs. They have been around for over 50 years. There's a reason that Nassar has been around that long. Please check them out at www.nstra.org. And, bong, support your local Nassar club. They do have national and regional events, and it's a good place to help learn to be a better dog trainer, a better dog owner, and to compete with your bird dog. Thank you. I'm still waiting on it. That's on my bucket list is to marry somebody. Do you advertise your services? Not. mean, I've advertised it to the group chat, but nobody's taking me up on my service. I'm trying. You get them married now to the divorce, but I'm not licensed in South Carolina. Perfect. I'm licensed. none of my friends get divorced. Hopefully none get divorced anytime soon. ⁓ So I know you're it takes one to know one. So I know you're like crazy driven. I know you've got so many certifications, I will never be able to list them. What's 2026 hold for you, Carly? What's in store this year? 2026, I've already been to two shows this year. I will be going to the Wisconsin Waterfowl Expo in August to do some mini clinics with them for women and children. I haven't figured out exactly what I'm gonna be doing, but something with gun fit, gun safety, shooting sports. Word on the street is I may possibly be going up to North Carolina to help with another kids summer camp in June. Fingers crossed that actually happens. ⁓ I got a couple more shows planned out. I have the Palmetto Sportsman's Expo this month in Columbia and I'm going to be helping out with their little scavenger hunt for the kids. So got a lot of shows coming up. I am going back to Africa this year to do some hunting and some educating. So lots of travel. Where are you going? Yes. We're going to the East Cape in South Africa. I'm going for the first time with a real famous dog trainer in England. I'm going in June. I've never been. It is so much fun. I went two years ago. How was it? When I tell you, which I've been to a couple of different countries and if you've ever been out of the country, then you know the first 20 minutes somewhere is the most impressionable. And I got out there and I was like, Their roads are better than South Carolina. They've got Red Bull and everything is cheap. I love it. I love it. And they put butter on their cheeseburgers. Oh, okay. Butter on that. I was sold. was sold. The food is phenomenal. They put butter on everything. I mean, the wildlife itself, just being able to see a giraffe in person from small town South Carolina. I looked up at that giraffe and I was like, this is terrifying but fascinating at the same time because it's it's hoof could just squash me. Yeah. But I mean, some of the toughest shots I've ever taken, but so much fun. Did you what what caliber do you use? New Riddick? I'm curious. I've seen people use I used a 30.6 and a 308. What all did you get over there? I got a blue wildebeest, a blessbuck or bleasebuck, however you say it, and a Steinbuck, which is one of the tiny tin. I'm not familiar with that one. The tiny tin are the 10 little horned, I guess you want to call them antelope creatures. ⁓ There's 10 species of that and not too many people in the world have completed their tiny tins. So that is what I'm after. Interesting. ⁓ It is how long did you stay? We were there for eight days. Okay. I'm excited. I've, know, I got to do kind of a dream hunt this year. did that Alaska St. Paul Island, C duck, and ⁓ it was, it was an experience. It really was it. And I, I do it again, but probably won't, but it was fun. But yeah, I'm really, so you're going, you must really like it and everybody I've talked to are like you, they want to go back. And some people go back and go back. So it must be something else. It really is. just seeing all I know it's a ton of hard work going into planning for the trip and the anticipation and waiting for it. And of course, the 16 hour plane ride over the Atlantic that you just want to jump off the plane. But you get there and you meet these people who are also so passionate about hunting, but in their own way and just the. preservation that they have over there and the giving back to the communities that the rest of the world over here that we don't know about. And it's just a whole new ball of just surprises. And you're like, wow, I didn't know about this and I'm pro hunting and I was researching this and I still didn't learn about it like this, but it's crazy. Did they use, I've heard some people using tracking dogs over there. Did they use tracking dogs? We didn't for, This is going to sound cocky, but I didn't give them a chance to have to. I dropped all of my animals right there on the ground. I don't expect less because you're a shooting coach. You probably would put me to shame. So I don't want to compete, but that's good. But so they didn't even keep dogs on hand to track. There were dogs at the lodge, but like I didn't get close enough to where their pins were. So I don't know exactly what they had. I'm pretty sure I saw a lab out there somewhere, but I can't. It could have been something else that solid color like a lab. Okay. You know, reason I ask you that I've got some buddies here. I have a hunting ranch here, which is for sale if you want to buy it. And I have exotics and you know, so I've always used tracking dogs and train track my own dogs. But a friend of mine was a guy in South Texas at a big ranch and they were using these little hunt terriers. I'd never seen one. It looked kind of like a Dachshund. and kind of like a Jack Russell. You can Google it. But they also these guys also got it in Africa and they would use these little dogs to track because these horned animals, you know, like a gimsbok, which I have here at the ranch, you shoot one of them, they're not dead and the dog runs up and they're they're down. They can kill a dog in a second. So can a or an addicts. I mean, it's not. So they'd lost a dog and they went over there and they were using those not tears. And they're so little on the ground that they can't horn me like they can't. really hurt them. It was neat. But I went and got one and brought it here, kept here for a long time. And it just track and machine and track naturally. I didn't have to train it, you know, but I just was curious. That's why I was asking that. So you're going back this year. Are you going to try it? You're trying to get you're trying to get your list. Yes. OK, I know you will. I hope so. I really hope so. Have you hunted other countries besides Africa? No, I've built robots in other countries, but not hunted for agriculture. For high school, I was on a competitive robotics team. ⁓ my God. We're at Canada. ⁓ Yeah. To Waterloo. It's my first time seeing snow, too. ⁓ wow. You never get snow. We've gotten it two years in a row, surprisingly. Last year, we got about two and a half, three inches. And that was phenomenal. The rabbit pins across the street were just white. And I was like, that is the prettiest thing I've ever seen in my entire life. You know, right here where I'm at and I'm pretty far south. One year they had three inches. We had three inches here. That's never happened again. That's crazy. It terrified us. Yeah. Nobody knew what to do. Literally everything shut down. I bet. Yeah. they raid the stores or grocery stores are all. Shells empty and stuff? ⁓ yeah. ⁓ yeah. It's crazy. Now, let's talk into this because you're going to educate me. I don't know a lot about the boating stuff. I mean, I know how to run a boat, basics, right? So you teach boating safety. Yes. How did that come about? So I grew up on Lake Marion and I didn't get a boating license. I just, never had one. was, I was the only kid my age that grew up on my part of the lake. So me and my dad spent every single afternoon and basically every single morning that it wasn't freezing cold on the water. We'd kneeboard behind, before school and go fishing after school. So I was, I was more comfortable driving a boat than I was a car. My job has never been to back the trailer. I can, but it was always pulling the boat onto the trailer. And I think that says a lot about me as a daughter. ⁓ But like I said, I've seen so many accidents happen out here. So as soon as the opportunity came to me to get that, in addition to my hunting education instructor card, was like, absolutely, because I've been in a jet ski accident. I've watched people in boats hit trees, hit people, just do stupid stuff. And if I can save one person for knowing how to recognize another stupid voter, then I've done my job. Is that a big lake like Marion? It is one of our three big lakes, yeah. So that's where they do the Bass Masters up here. This is the Santee Cooper Lake. OK, OK. That's that's your that's a busy like him. Very busy like an I-95 rules right over it. OK, then I've driven right through there. OK, yeah. So. I'm trying to make sure I haven't not covered something with you because it's just such a broad thing here. ⁓ You're going to Africa to hunt. Do you, and you've waterfowl hunted in Texas, because I know you live in real good waterfowl area. Are there other states that's on your list to hunt? Yes, we want to go up and hunt the Chesapeake. I want to go hunt somewhere out in the Midwest, you know, above Texas. They went and hunted Kansas and I was so jealous because I couldn't go. And I want to go hunt an open field like that because I haven't done that yet. And then the West Coast, I want to go hunt the Pacific Northwest really bad. I want to upland hunt up there, like in the Hills Canyon area. I've got a guy I've had on here that does it. I'd love to go, but it's pretty challenging. I'm going have a knee replacement done this summer, so we'll see how it comes. But if you all haven't ever done this, I suggest this South Dakota pheasant hunt. ⁓ The state puts out a lot of pheasants, you know, and they really, it's their tourism, pheasants, they're bread and butter. So they really have a lot of birds, especially in that Southern Southeast part. It's fun. I started doing that and I've never missed since I went. Anyway. I'm actually going, go ahead. No, I was going say it's, it's, fairly affordable. You know, I think pheasant. Pheasants are my favorite tasting bird. I'm actually going to shoot pheasants, not this Saturday, but the next Saturday. We don't have them natural like they do up there. We shoot them out of a tower. But I mean, the more that they let go eight minutes away from here, the more that we will potentially have naturally. So I just hope that the shoots that I'm not on, they have some pretty poor shooters. But ⁓ we got some people around here working on it, trying to build some populations back up for the quail and the pheasants. Have you ever tried to? hunt upland with your dogs, with your labs? I haven't, I haven't had that opportunity yet. ⁓ we went, there's a fellow over in North Carolina that he raises gun dogs and we've been on a home with him before. And that was pretty fun to watch. It is. I don't know what I like. Well, I probably liked the plan better than waterfowl. I like them both, but you know, I like to walk in and move in and I need to walk. So, but yeah, it's, is there another Is there another hunting dog, since you're exposed to so many dogs, Karlie, and you're on social media like me, you see a lot of people's dog posts, is there another hunting breed that you've kind of always wanted but haven't? I love this question. Yes. I want a Nova Scotian Duck Tolling Retriever. So bad. So bad. They're just beautiful dogs. She looks like her name would be Sally. I just... put little pink and yellow bows in her hair and that I want one so bad. I saw one this weekend at a test and it it's almost a description. You said it looked kind of feminist, you know, and real small stature. I bet the dog didn't 30 pounds, maybe that'd be so nice. It was pretty. And I've seen it seems like every year, usually when I go to the east, southeast Texas, for some reason, those hunt tests, someone always has tolers there. which I made a mistake, call them a troller and in front of a toller owner. Oh wow. It's like, okay. But anyway, it's a toller. Yeah. But they're a neat dog. and uh, I don't, you know, I honestly, I know a lot of dog breeds. I just don't know the temperament and stuff of them that much. Like I do like Chesapeake's. It's so funny in your, in your, in your post, you know, that they're those dogs are, love them. I don't have, never owned one. But they can be aggressive and they're actually that was kind of they were bred for. You know, they were bred to guard fish is what I've been told on the docks and protect your catch. So so you've obviously had an experience with the with the just Pete. Yeah, yeah. No, I based that one based off the actual owner's personality, because him and his dog were a lot alike. Yeah, yeah, a lot alike. It's funny, you know, I had a. guest on here the other day NFL, formerly a football player who's actually a friend of mine. And he's a dog guy, hardcore. He's like a dog is a reflection of its owner. And I think it's vice versa, right? mean, the other can be a reflection of the dog too, just like you said in your, in your video, but, ⁓ So, you know, I guess what I wanna ask you is you obviously have gotten crazy popular on social media. You're well liked, everybody follows you. When did that start happening for you? Was it an overnight thing? Did something go viral? How did you do that? I mean, some of your videos have ⁓ over a million views. Probably more than, I've only just seen a few that was insane. I mean, I started on TikTok. Obviously I've had an Instagram since Instagram came around because I was in that generation that started it. So I started posting on TikTok back in COVID and I blew up on there in college and then I quit looking at it. I got bored. And then I picked it up again and grew some more and then gave up again. And then I was like, okay, this past summer I was like, okay, I'm gonna start taking this a little bit more seriously. Had my son. and stayed home for a couple of months and posted on TikTok, posted on TikTok. And then I was like, okay, I'm bored. I want to go get another job. Started back working again. And then one of my other friends that does social media, he was like, you need to go onto meta platforms. He was like, you need to go on your Instagram, go on your Facebook and actually start posting. And I was like, no, no, nobody's going to, it's not going to get any traction. I've tried it before. It's, that's not going to build. And the last week of January of this year, I posted some of my TikToks onto my Instagram and within 28 days, it went from 18,000 to 90,000. And my Facebook went from zero to 90,000. And I was like, okay, maybe he was right. Maybe Nick was right. I should have started posting on Instagram sooner. Purina Pro Plan. Here at Gun Dog Nation, we use pure propane for our dogs. We actually use the sport performance addition, which is 30 % protein and 20 % fat, the beef and bison. It contains glucosamine, omega-3s for their joints. It also contains amino acids for muscles and antioxidants. It also has probiotics. It's guaranteed to have live probiotics in each serving. There's no artificial colors or flavors. We see the difference in our dogs. We see the difference in their coat, their performance, their endurance. and also in recovery. Be sure to use Purina ProPlan dog food. The reputation speaks for itself. There's a reason that Purina has been around for such a long time. We suggest that you use it and we are so proud to be sponsored by Purina dog food. When you're getting ready to go on your next hunting trip, make sure you pack the most efficient and reliable ammunition on the market. Migra ammunition brings you the most diverse loads on the market. Migra's patented stacked load technology is the epitome of efficiency. Two shot sizes stacked together to create the most diverse and efficient line of shot shells in the industry. It doesn't matter what flyaway, what state, or what the weather, the standard remains the same. At Migra, reliable loads that perform in any condition every single time. We're proud to have Migra ammunition as a sponsor for Gun Dog Nation. Hello, this is Kenneth Witt with Gun Dog Nation and I've got to tell you guys about something that I've gotten hooked on lately. It's Fauxlicious. These are gourmet instant faux and ramen bowls that actually taste like the real deal. When I'm out in the field all day and the last thing I want is to settle for bland camp food, Fauxlicious is what I go to. It's authentic, the flavor, it's real ingredients, it's ready in just minutes, it's perfect for hunters, fishermen, or anyone on the go. and can get them over 1900 Walmarts nationwide, your local HEB here in Texas, or you can just go online at folicious.com. Trust me, once you try it, you'll keep a few stocked in, in your bag, in your pack pack, or for your next adventure. I just want to say this, I'm going to add this to this commercial, because I know the owners of this company. They've hunted on my ranch, ⁓ Joseph. He and I actually met in Colorado on a hunting trip that was a real adventure. They are true hunters. They've hunted at ranch, you know, and I've hunted with them. And Ana, she is just amazing. She is the one that came up with this idea. They were both on Shark Tank. They are amazing people. So I love seeing people like this have a business. And I just had to say that in addition to the commercial because I really believe in the product and I believe in the people that made the product. Be sure and go to Fauxlicious.com or go to Walmart or HEB and try their product. I promise you, you will like it. Well, you need to educate me. course, know, I do it to kind of honestly, Carly, I do it and I'm asking for advice on a podcast. So I do it to drive traffic to the podcast. Right. You know, ⁓ and and it's worked to a degree, but I've never been able and I've had a few like one YouTube podcast is to two lady hunters in Kentucky. ⁓ And heck, you might know Hannah Hall and Abby. Abby Skinner were on there and it went, it blew up on YouTube channel. Crazy, like 38,000 the first two weeks, but it didn't do that on other platforms, right? But yeah, I've just never figured that out, you know, ⁓ but I'll have to say you have very interesting content and it's, it's funny, but it's also important. It has a, it has a good message. ⁓ so yeah. So I guess that's the secret, right? ⁓ It's just the, it's your stuff. It's what you post. A lot of people have asked me now, like, how did, how did you figure the algorithm out? How did you figure it out to get all these followers? And I was like, I pay zero attention to an algorithm. I get on there. I say what I want to say. I post it, lock my phone, put it down, continue about my day. I mean, there, I feel kind of bad because I'm not one those creators that's spending all day responding to people in the comments and doing this and that. At the end of the day, the video is up there. It's gone. I don't really, I'm not spending hours editing a video. The message is more important than the quality of the video. So it's just out there. How it's going to do is how it's going to do. And you can't let one flop video make you stop posting. So you just have to be consistent because once you hit that first million view video, just keep going, just act like it didn't even happen. Just keep posting like normal because if you hit one and then you get discouraged that the very next one doesn't hit a million too, that's you're missing the point. You're missing the point. So it happens. To me then, after listening to what you've said and what I've seen on there, think it's just that you're genuine and you have a good message. I appreciate that. That's my goal. Yeah. And it's not some fancy produced thing. It's just you, you know, saying something that has a positive message. So I like it. Yeah, maybe I may have to start copying you now, but yeah, you copy what you do. You got to be at the gas station at 530 in the morning to record that. Hey, yeah, yeah, you are pretty pretty early there. Why so early? What are you doing that early in the morning? I know you got to leave my house at four fifty to get to work around. I'll leave at four fifty so that I have about 30 minutes in the morning to record content now. But I work about 50 minutes away from where I live. So I leave so early so I can get there, beat traffic, avoid everybody else that doesn't know how to drive, drink my coffee and peace. And I go clock in about 6, 36, 45. Wow, okay. And that's a drive every day. Oh yeah, it used to be longer. My last job was an hour and a half away. Oh wow, five days a week? five days a week. That's a lot of a lot of windshield time. But no wonder you post content, probably keep you from going insane, you know, from driving all day. Yeah, I mean, the job that I have is a very heavy job. So just also just being comedic on social media is just a chance for me to Get my words out. Yeah. Well, I like it. You have really good stuff and it grabbed my attention ⁓ and now I'm kind of following like every time I turn on, you know, I get to see some more of your stuff because I hadn't seen it before. So now it's really live in my feed, but it's good. like it. But anyway, so when does a, you're off season now. No hunting season is open. What do you do to kind of stay fresh and be ready for when season begins for you? ⁓ Well, the sporting clays and the other shooting sports really comes in pretty heavy. This time of year, we have an almost one year old. So this year has been a very different year for us. ⁓ He is, we have a three year old and almost one year old. So we're dealing with them in the off seasons, but normally, especially during the summertime in the off season, we're shooting sporting clays tournament. Like we have one in Clarksville in Tennessee for the Night Stalker Legion and Memorial shoot. That's in June. So that's a good fundraiser. It gets to fill our cups while also getting some trigger time, doing a lot of that, a lot of giving back. Just trigger time wherever you can get it. That's what I'm doing to prepare. ⁓ Breeding the woods, that type of stuff. Okay. I like that. Do you scout much yourself? I do a lot of driving up and down the farm roads. And my three year old now knows when I slow down and I start making turkey noises that we're looking for turkeys and squirrels. So. What is your so now you turkey hunt because we didn't talk about that. What's your favorite hunting? Is it deer, turkey, ducks? What's your favorite? It's it's got to be the ducks. And I know that nowadays, duck hunting is oversaturated. It probably sounds cliche, but I think I just found duck hunting at a point in my life and Like I said, I didn't shoot my entire first season. So I got to grow a relationship with duck hunting and myself out there without getting the reward out of it. If that makes sense. I got a set. got a different reward out of it than just a harvest. So I learned and I'm a morning person. I love being out there bright and early and I love watching that sunrise. Love being on the water. I don't like beavers very much. So that's really the only downside of duck hunting is the beavers. I did see your post about beavers. So tell us what prompted that. I cannot tell. We had this one hole that we would hunt when we were younger. And I swear every time I would go in there, I was minding my business. And this beaver, he sounded like he was two yards behind me every single morning. And he would just smack his tail on the water. And then I'd feel something go against my leg, but I couldn't actually tell if it was actually something against my leg. So then the entire morning would be ruined because I'm just sitting there thinking, okay, now's the day that he's going to bite through and just teeth through my shin bone, he gives me the heebie jeebies. So now I don't like any beavers because of that one beaver that just freaked me out. Well, you have me, I guess if I was in flooded timber and they were swimming around where I'm standing and they can bite a tree down, that probably would be nerve wracking. I have chopsticks for legs. So like my friends already joke about my legs breaking randomly. just a beaver come up, no, no. Okay, now that brings something else that I saw on your stuff to mind. You had a post about what you eat, because you're slim. ⁓ I guess maybe people were asking if you were dieting or something. What was that? What did I see on there? You were talking That was just my girl's lunch for the day. I had homemade street corn. What else did I have? ⁓ chips and salsa. or pico or whatever it was and just a couple other snacks. I I'm not a, I sit at a desk so I don't really move around a lot. So I just kind of keep a bag of snacks there and I'm not really a huge meal eater. I'm more of a bird. So I like all the different options, but a buffet take me to a buffet any day of the week. So I can just get a little portion of everything. Okay. Do you, do you do any physical activity? I mean, like, are you, are you a gym person? Do you jog or? Do anything like that. I've tried to be a gym person. I was an athlete in high school, but I don't like physical activity very much unless I am in the woods somewhere. Like we hiked nine miles one morning in Africa and just having a great time. I didn't even realize we were walking that much and I was fine, but walking around the Walmart, I get tired of walking because I'm really not getting anything exciting out of it. I tell them we'll do really quick. My wife had to fly out for work. while ago, so she always takes care of my lighting and it's getting dark here now. I'm gonna go turn the light on real quick. I ⁓ feel like I'm in a closet. ⁓ All right. Plus I've got this funky background going on. It's still freaking me out. Yeah, I don't think it looks bad though. All right. It has looked better than my half banner that was kind of off center. ⁓ all right. You said you, I know you teach shooting, you've coach shooting, but you told me that you were DNR certified. So what is that? So as a coach for a youth league, you have to be some sort of certified to obviously coach your league and be allowed to coach on a public range. ⁓ So I am dual certified. I'm one of the few people who are dual certified in both DNR and 4-H. So those are both of our youth certifications. ⁓ So obviously I could coach at Clemson on the private Clemson range for Clemson students without having either of those. I did get those in college. I could go coach adults without either of those certifications, but for children and high schoolers and stuff like that, you have to have one of the two of those certifications in South Carolina to coach publicly. You could probably do private lessons, but I liked having both of the fundamental backgrounds and being backed by both organizations showing that I am what I am. Were you on the shooting team at Clemson? I was not. My husband was, but I was not. I was the shooting coach's intern. Okay. Is that how y'all met? Shooting? We met through, we actually had this conversation yesterday. ⁓ He Instagram DMed me about chemistry notes that I asked for on my story and we were in Ducks and Limited together and we were both the same major. ⁓ So we were bound to meet somehow, some way. Nice. And y'all always hunt together, right? Yes, sir. Well, he's been on one or two hunts without me and that is the one thing that I will pout about in heartbeat. Do not go hunt without me. You can go eat without me. You can do whatever you want, go to a party, do not go hunt without me. I bet he won't do that again. He will, he will. ⁓ Is there anything that you'd like to tell, you cause ⁓ you obviously have a huge audience, but you know, through this podcast, hopefully you'll reach out to some people who haven't got to see you before and know about you. Is there anything you'd like to tell my listeners? I mean, I think coming from my side of things where I have seen a couple of the different dog hunting techniques, whether that be deer, coon, rabbit, whatever species you're hunting dog, hunting with dogs, there's always something new to learn about a different hunting industry within the industry, if that makes sense. Like I didn't know half the stuff about gun dogs until I started listening to some of your stuff. And I was like, wow, like. You guys know your stuff. And then I'm sure there are people who look at my stuff on sporting clothes and are like, wow, this girl knows her stuff about this. I didn't know it came out of that 47 mile an hour out of the high house. But that might not actually be accurate. But you know what I mean? But you know, you know your stuff and it's just impressive. The relationships you build with these dogs and the relationships you build for other people to crave for their future dogs, because you guys are like, it's like the parenting books. We're looking at you guys with your gun dogs saying, I want that type of relationship. I want my dog to trust me like their dogs trust them. And that's, mean, it's a role model in a whole different type of way. Carl, you hit it. I mean, it's a teamwork, right? Like when you're hunting with your dog, whether it's a duck dog or I'm working my bird dog and I've got trackers that beats when he's on point and, know, and I go over there and flush bird and then he retrieves it. It's he and I are a team where I may have, I may be running two or three. I only run two dogs at the same time. And then they'll back each other like one a point. And that's just, it's just something about it. And you know, I was a huge, huge, huge deer hunter, big game hunter. really all I did. And I think it's cause of where I lived. There wasn't a lot of birds, you know, ⁓ in Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky. So anyway, you're right. And it's, but I have guests on here that are experts in their field. And I learned from every guest I have on to learn from you. Matter of fact, I tell you something I need to be better at is a better shotgun shooter. That's my goal this year. So yeah, I mean, you speak the language that I'm trying to learn. Well, if you ever want to come out here and shoot, you just let me know. Yeah. And heck, if your husband shot for Clemson, I mean, he must be something too. Does he ever coach or he probably doesn't time to do that. Does he? He does. He has his 4-H certification as well. So we kind of coach as a team. And we've done that since the beginning of time. I am your fundamentals, beginner, intermediate coach. And then he goes further into the techniques, ⁓ getting on your, you know, just helping you tweak who you are as a shooter and stuff like that. I'm kind of the, get the cookie out of the wrapper and he's the turning into crumbles type of person. ⁓ So he does very well with that. And he works better with our taller shooters because I'm an average height person. And I try to coach him sometimes and he's six inches taller than me. And I'm like, yeah, that was, that was good. I saw that one. Yeah. see his chin. Exactly. Well, I liked it. Well, Hey, you know, I know you're a busy person. I know you're a mom and I really appreciate you taking time to be on here. was such a pleasure. And I look forward to seeing more of your stuff on there. I've enjoyed it. Like it's, uh, uh, actually got on a roll watching a bunch of them the other day or Sunday. Because we for the is the only day in weeks that we haven't both had to do something. Even as you know, I'm always on the road. I'm sure you're the same. Actually, you travel and have a lot of irons in the fire. But hopefully we'll get to meet one of these days in person. I'm going to try to go to see we I was going to. Oh, yeah, I was going to talk to you about that. But we might do that on another show sometime. Because that was so interesting. What's going to how that unfolds there and what it's like. But I think that she and I are going to We're going to go there next year. I don't, and just, to see, I'm going to be an exhibitor, but yeah. And maybe bring one. It's T we write like they walk around. You have to have a dog at seaweed. I'm a healer and I were posted on their Instagram. So you got to go do that. We're taking a healer to a bird dog conventions, like a ride in a Honda to a Harley convention. it kind of the same time though? He loved downtown Charleston. And I bet it drew attention. You know, I was like, It's not a bird dog. It's not, yeah. I like it. He doesn't like people, so they kind of stayed away from him. Yeah, you were telling me about that. know, yeah. Listen, you know, I told you I did protection dog work. I've actually seen a blue healer in protection dog club. Doing bite work. That will be my next dog breed. That's I will get another healer for sure. They're so intelligent. I mean, they really are. I think. I honestly think and gosh knows I mean, I'm not a dog expert, but I've had a lot of experience and I think a border collie healers up there. There's some really cocker to me is probably in my opinion. I'm going to get criticized. I'd say cocker's in the top five. I do think I think blue healers. Those are, like I said, I found mine on Craigslist. I knew nothing about the breed and that was the perfect dog. A freshman girl in college could have ended up with. Regardless of what the haters said that I shouldn't have had that dog in college. I didn't know what I was doing. He was perfect. He was a regular at the Bubba Gump's in Charleston. He went everywhere with me. He did everything. He went to the parties with me. He went to the shotgun range. He went to classes with me at Clemson. So he, he did everything. Yeah. mean, yeah, there's so many haters on social media, know, nothing you can do is please everybody. So it's just the way it is. Well, Carl, it's been a pleasure. ⁓ Thank you so much for taking time to be on here. Tell everybody how they can find you. My name on social media is Carly Fornia on Instagram and Facebook and the Carly Fornia on TikTok because I got banned on my first one. So really? I did. I've been kicked off. Well, some somehow some reason I got kicked off Facebook after years and my account now is like a year, two years old. But yeah, you can't put you. You know, TikTok's real strict. You posted a dog carrying a bird, ⁓ F-likey. Yep. So I'm pretty sure that's what happened. It was either one of my videos at the shooting range or it was one video of me holding some doves. So it was one of the two and is what it is. You know. At least Instagram let us post hunting pictures, you know? I Exactly. Exactly. I'm a fan, so I'll be checking on your stuff there. My wife's now a fan, so we'll be checking you out. Carly, thank you so much for being on here, and I look forward to seeing what you're doing in the future. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. This was fun. You're welcome. Likewise, it sure was. Good evening.