Westrock Kennels

I'm very happy with our results from West Rock's training - I brought my dog in to learn retrieval. Steve and Marrisa instantly understood her natural instincts and worked with them, the results are night and day compared to other classes I've signed up for. They also taught her foundational obedience with distractions like other dogs, birds, water etc! I'll be using them again :) Thank you!!

I met Steve & Marissa through mutual friends several years a go. We instantly bonded over our shared interest in versatile hunting dogs, specifically GSPs. I have followed their journey closely as they've established themselves as passionate, knowledgeable and successful dog trainers who have built a beautiful life together in southern Alberta centered around the development and advancement of versatile hunting dogs.

After getting to know Steve & Marissa more and learning about their training philosophy for versatile hunting dogs, breeding and love for GSPs in particular, my partner and I were inspired to get a dog of our own. We ended up getting a female GSP and instantly reached out to Westrock Kennels for advice as we began our own journey in training our pup to be a versatile hunting dog and family companion.

They selflessly took the time to compile a list of resources and shared their knowledge to educate us on how to develop our new pup.

Our GSP, Frankie is now 8 months old with some basic obedience training but still lacking many of the trained attributes only an experienced and knowledgeable versatile hunting dog trainer can provide.

In December 2022, we reached out again to Steve & Marissa to see if they would be willing to board and train our pup during a 6-day holiday we had planned and they graciously accepted to intake Frankie.

They took the time to ask what our goals were for our dog and ran through the program they had planned during her stay. Upon pick-up, we sat down together to get honest feedback on Frankie's progress (and more importantly how we can become better trainers) before taking Frankie afield to demonstrate what she had learnt; I can honestly say, we could not have been more impressed.

Prior to her visit, Frankie was not crate trained, could not heel and had never been exposed to live birds in the past, so we had no idea what she could be capable of. Steve and Marissa spent time with us and Frankie on their acreage and we were amazed at how far she had come in just a few short days.

Frankie was heeling on command (and loving it) and was able to track closely with Steve as they tracked through the field; Steve took the time to explain his training philosophy and demonstrated its effectiveness for Frankie's personality which showed.

Following that, Steve had pre-planted some birds in the field and we took Frankie out to see how she would track and point on live birds. She instantly knew she was hunting and began tracking back and forth ahead of her handler (Steve) until she was able to pick up a scent. She was able to quickly locate each scent and demonstrated she could get on a bird and hold a steady point before we flushed the birds; this is the first time we had seen Frankie hunt and were amazed at how well she performed.

We cannot thank Steve and Marissa enough for their time and services. Their passion and knowledge is infectious and we learnt so much in just a short visit and we already have a better dog for it.

We would highly recommend Steve and Marissa at Westrock Kennels to anyone looking for quality versatile hunting dog training that shows results (all done in clean and loving environment), gain more knowledge about their breed and versatile hunting dog training or if you're considering getting a high-quality GSP of your own; they have beautiful dogs which are hand selected and trained by them backed by sound training and breeding principles they live by and continue to develop.

We are already planning our next trip back to Westrock and look forward to continuing our relationship with them!

PS - there may even be a second addition to our family when litters become available ;)

I first met Steve through NAVHDA. It was approaching my first day with a new NAVHDA club and my first time training at the utility level with my dog. Steve was in charge of running the utility training days and he knows his stuff! Before the first training day, he called me to discuss what goals I was looking for from NAVHDA and what things I wanted to work on for the year. Steve mentioned he calls every Utility member to discuss this and it just shows how much he cares for the people and the dogs. When it comes to training, he knows every dog learns better in different ways and can adapt to each different need of the dog. I always found my dog and I got the best results from coaches when they have different methods to execute and Steve would be up there. This is what led to more 1 on 1 training with him. I hope to continue my training days with him in the new year. Thanks for everything Steve.

The passion for GSP's and the NAVHDA training is something that Steve and Marissa have in abundance. They helped Otto reach many milestones this year in training - learning to swim - duck retrieve. They selfishly gave their time numerously over the training season to help those that needed it. This a kennel to keep an eye on - your'll be hearing a lot more about them.