Long Hollow Road will lead you to a quiet cabin built by the most hospitable, hard working, family man I ever knew.  Craig Culbertson was a wheat farmer, husband, father, coach, friend and all around good man.  I cannot say the same about my own father, but I can say that my Dad's obsession with hunting, led me to my very first Pheasant hunting trip down Long Hollow Road when I was just 12 years old. 

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Rewind a few years.  As the story is told, my dad and his buddies were exploring the Palouse for Pheasants.  Somehow they ended up lost and sleeping under their truck at the end of a road in a rain storm.  At some point they were noticed by the land owner.  The sympathetic farmer proceeded to offer up his barn to this diehard group of young bird hunters. That is how the tradition of Pheasant hunting down Long Hollow Road began.  For many years to follow my Dad and his friends were invited back to that wheat farm annually by Craig Culbertson and his family, for some of the best Pheasant hunting and Deer hunting that Washington State had to offer.

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Although I have a few vague memories of a Brittany and a Vizsla somewhere along the line.  It was Labrador Retrievers that my father chased upland birds with traditionally.  What I also remember is that the Pheasant numbers were so good back then, that a poorly trained, average gun dog, could make a bird hunter with a monster ego, look like a hero.  Without going into to much detail about my childhood.  When I was 12 years old my Grandpa felt compelled to pick me up one day, drive me from Redmond Washington to Colfax for my very first hunting trip and for a rare visit with my biological father.

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A more vivid and positive memory from my childhood is that of a Black Lab named "Sheen".  Sheen dog was owned by my Uncle Mark who was my Mom's brother.  Mark was in an accident where he had fallen asleep at the wheel in his early 20's and is a paraplegic.  That did not slow him down from his passion for Duck Hunting and Fly fishing however.  Mark was an avid outdoors man and I have fond memories of blowing duck calls, throwing the ball for his dog, riding around in his wheel chair and trips to the lake.  I was always very impressed with Sheen's drive for retrieving and the way she set the tennis ball on his lap after every retrieve.  In retrospect there was something special about that dog that left a lasting impression for sure.

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After my first trip to the Palouse at just 12 years old, it was the hospitality of the Culbertson family, the wheat farm itself, the extraordinary bird hunting, the adventure, the shotguns, and the bird dogs that changed the course of my life forever.  In addition to all the positive memories, there were plenty of opportunities for my young open mind to see and experience things that in my heart, for some reason, I just knew were not right.  Early memories of hunting with my dad and his friends were often a lesson in my life about who I did not want to be, and what I did not want to do...  Learning is always a combination of dos and don'ts.  There are always people in our life that we can emulate in order to learn what to do.  On the contrary, there are those people in our life that are an obvious example of what not to do.  My father was that person for me.  I have felt for many years that all the bad experiences and bad dogs I was fortunate to hunt with as a kid, led me to my ongoing desire to be better.

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As I grew into my teenage years, with my mother moving further from reality, I found myself with no other option than to finally go live with my Dad in Idaho.  This move did not create less turmoil in my life, but at 14 years old I began to find sanctuary living in the country, being in the field with dogs, bird hunting, hanging out with my friends, riding dirt bikes and playing sports.  This was an opportunity to do more of that, and I think I was just ready for change.  I remember my first real experience in training dogs was actually well before I had my own.  A couple summers I spent working on a dairy farm and acquiring dogs out of the local paper to train and sell, so that I could save up enough money to buy my very first Shotgun.  I had no idea what I was doing but I was willing to try.  My first dog training video was a low budget VHS by George Hickox sponsored by Innotek.  George's southern accent and his mild manner, along with the many great dogs he shared, opened my eyes to a whole new world, and I was hooked.  I also remember somehow getting a hold of an old VHS tape of the National Bird Dog Championship at Ames Plantation.  This was all so mind blowing to me at the time.  I was just a teenager whose only experience bird hunting was with untrained flushing dogs and men who only cared about killing anything that moved.  This different perspective created a wealth of possibility in my very young, impressionable mind.

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By default, the first few dogs that I actually owned were Labrador Retrievers.  Labs are what I knew, I was comfortable and familiar with them, and I was an upland bird and waterfowl hunter.  After my first exposure to those old VHS tapes my curiosity about Pointing Dogs was growing.  However, shortly after graduating high school I heard of an AKC Hunt Test.  That sounded like something I wanted to do.  I had a female yellow lab that was capable of running in a  Junior Hunt Test.  So I attend my first event, she passed, I got my first orange ribbon and the rest is history as they say. That yellow Lab, along with the guidance of Mike Lardy's Total Retriever series DVD, helped me train and handle my first dog to an AKC Junior Hunter title as well as a Senior Hunter title.  Somewhere along the line I had met a guy by the name of John Greer.  John owned Tiger Mountain Pointing Labradors, but had got his start in Arizona training and campaigning more traditional pointing breeds and developing a successful program based on practices perfected by guys like Bill Gibbons.  While John was training pointing dogs and competing in NSTRA field trials in Arizona he had a client from Issaquah Washington.  Vinny owned and bred Pointing Labs.  John's time training those Labs and his desire to relocate created the perfect storm.  I think John saw the dollar signs and moved to Ellensburg Washington to start Tiger Mountain Pointing Labradors.  Jump forward a few years;  John Greer was a very good pointing dog trainer and business owner that liked to make money, hunt birds, and drink beer.   I believe somewhere on his journey, he realized in order for his program to grow, he was going to have to prove that his Pointing Labradors were versatile. So he needed to start retriever training and to get involved in the waterfowl hunting and AKC hunt test community.  And that is how our paths crossed. 

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Prior to this I had actually bought a dog or two from John, and my wife at the time had been on one of those trips to Riverbottom road in Ellensburg Washington.  In the winter of 2003 I was married, my first born son was about 6 months old, I was working as a Journeyman Plumber in Seattle Washington.  Ironically we had already started looking at homes in Ellensburg with the intent of moving out of Seattle area.  Which meant I would have to commute from eastern Washington to western Washington over Snoqualmie pass for work.  One miserable rainy day in Seattle I was sitting in my work van, taking lunch, and dreading the thought of going back into that wet crawlspace under the house I was working on at the time.  My phone rang and I recognized the number.  It was John Greer of Tiger Mountain Pointing Labradors in Ellensburg Washington.  Of course I answered the call and he proceeded to tell me that he was looking to hire a dog trainer.  I was totally caught off guard but he continued.  Explaining that there was an empty house on the property I could live in, and he would pay me a salary to train dogs for him full time.  It was an interesting phone call for sure.  I think I spent the remainder of that day sitting in my warm van consumed by contemplation.  To date, the thought of training dogs for a living had never crossed my mind.  So that evening was like any other, but in conversation with my wife, I brought up the strange phone call I had received from John Greer.  Her instant response went something like this... "you mean that guy with the pointing labs that you bought that dog from?  You mean that place in Ellensburg right along the Yakima River?  That place is so beautiful.  You hate your job.  We are moving"...  So I called him back the very next day.  We had an in person meeting at some point and that December I moved my family into that little red house on Riverbottom road.  

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So I handed in my amateur status, and my career as a professional dog trainer was under way.  Starting with a kennel full of Labs, bred, raised, and trained to run, hunt, and point upland game birds.  I was faced with the challenge of putting every one of John Greer's pointing labs through force fetch and basic retriever training that first winter and spring of 2003.  I vividly remember being very overwhelmed, and not sure what I had just gotten myself into.  But in hindsight, the challenges I was faced with in the very beginning of my career helped to lay a foundation for what was to come.  I wouldn't have had it any other way.  During that 6 years I was contracted to manage the kennel and train all the dogs, I was given so much responsibility and opportunity to grow.  My Job was to manage the kennel, train the dogs, and everything in between.  It was a large operation and I worked many long hours with very few days off but I have no regrets.  I used my knowledge and experience with Retrievers to help his program grow into one of the top Pointing Lab producers in the country, and John reciprocated by paying forward to me, his passion and experience with pointing dogs.  I acquired my first English Setters during that time.  My job was training bird dogs and campaigning Labs in AKC and APLA hunt tests but in my free time I was developing my own passion for Setters, Chukar hunting and NSTRA field trials.  So much learning and fun was had during that time and I will be forever grateful for the time I spent with John Greer of Tiger Mountain Pointing Labradors.  We accomplished a lot together having titled some AKC hunt test dogs and a few of the very first APLA Grand Master Pointing Retrievers in the Northwest.  

 

As my family and confidence grew along with my lack of interest in pointing labs.  It was clearly time to for me to move on.  Long Hollow Retrievers was truly established many years prior, but the kennel opened and the business license went on the wall at our new place on Schnebly Road in the spring of 2009.  During this time my passion for English Setters and all things pointing dogs was continuing to grow.  But at that point in my life, the only thing I knew I could make money at in order to support my family, was breeding and training Labrador Retrievers.  I also had not yet trained, campaigned, and titled an AKC Master Hunter or qualified a dog for the AKC Master National.  That became the goal and it proceeded to consume my life for the next 3 years along with raising my kids, and coaching baseball.

 

With some AKC Master Hunter Retrievers under my belt in 2011.  I qualified two dogs for the Master National event in Maryland.  This trip was the beginning of a big turning point in my life.  I proceeded to make that trip by flying Mac, Delta, and Myself all the way to the East Coast for what felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity to run dogs at the highest level, rub elbows with other great people in the industry, and see a new part of the country.  Although the trip was a success having come home with my first AKC Master National Plate.  It was on the trip where I began to feel the burn out, and I began to start listening to the voices inside my head.  The ones that were telling me that I was not passionate about what I was doing and that I was just not a happy person.  As I reflect, I am not exactly sure of the timeline but from 2009 - 2014 my tunnel vision had allowed me to accomplish a laundry list of things in my life that some might equate to success.  I started my own business as a professional dog trainer and breeder, I was married, owned a home, owned a horse, had dirt bikes, had 3 beautiful children, qualified dogs for the Master National, Championed dogs in NSTRA field trials, bought a new truck, built a fancy kennel, I was coaching and winning State Championships with my son's All-Star baseball team, building my own website and I was filming, editing, and producing a Waterfowl Hunting TV show for the Pursuit Channel.  Then it all came to a screeching halt...

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Turns out if you are not the best version of yourself, there is a good chance people don't like you and you are not reaching your potential.  Turns out it is not about the journey or the destination.  It's about the company that you keep.  Turns out I knew a lot less about life then I though I did.  But I did know this.  I was not happy, I did not feel good, and it was time for a change!  My wife and I divorced amicably, I closed the kennel, I moved to town, I took a job as an Electrician, I started Crossfit, I changed my diet, I tuned out the noise, I became present and began to focus on myself and my kids.  That was the break, the time, and the wake up call that I needed for sure.  I found myself and my happiness in simplicity, fitness, and the unknown. 

 

It didn't take long before a young high school kid by the name of Blake Gibson started blowing my phone up with text messages.  He was working as a fly fishing guide and he was an avid Waterfowl Hunter.  I had given him a black lab when I closed the kennel.  He was eager to learn more about retrievers and he wanted to ask about having a litter of puppies out of her.  Long story short... We bred her to my dog Delta, he had a litter, kept a male, named him Gunner, and from then on, there was no stopping that kid.  Every day after baseball practice, his senior year, he would be out in the neighboring field training his puppy.  Still blowing up my phone with questions.  So I started meeting him out there periodically to show him a thing or two.  Some time went on, and as Blake's passion for retriever training grew from an ember to a flame, there was no avoiding the inevitable.  One day he asked me how to become a professional dog trainer.  The perfect storm was brewing.  I was getting the itch for another change myself and there were other things drawing me back.  In my short time getting to know Blake, I saw a little of my younger self in him, I was not ready to hang up my tool belts working for Catlin Electric just yet, and I did not want the headache of an employee, so I began contemplating the idea of making him my partner.  In the fall of 2017 I think, we began filming our Waterfowl Hunting season, which you can see some of on our Long Hollow Outdoors YouTube channel.  We took a trip to Nebraska to pick up a dog, spend some time together, and for me to share my thoughts on how to make him my partner.  The trip went great, we arrived home on the same page, eager to get started.   So if my timeline is right Long Hollow Retrievers opened back up in the spring of 2018.  I was still working as an Electrician and enjoying my simple 9-5, working out, dating, coaching baseball, and spending time with my kids on the weekends.  So Blake was tasked with managing the kennel and training all of the dogs.  My job was to manage the business, quality control, and continue mentoring Blake from the sideline.  That went great for a while but in my realization that the business would not grow in order to feed a partnership, at some point I was going to have to get back to it full time. 

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So after about a 4 year hiatus I was back to the dog training and breeding business full time.  Blake Gibson was my partner and he was setting sail with our Retriever Training program.  With similar levels of competitive nature and overall approach to learning, we butted heads at times. But we had the perfect amount of love, respect, and gratitude for each other to create a great environment for both of us to grow.  It did not take long for Blake to not need me looking over his shoulder anymore.  This made room and time for me to finally pursue my passion for Pointing dogs and Upland bird hunting the way I always wanted to.  It also created room for Blake to breath, and incorporate his own personality into our Retriever training program.  To take what I had taught him and do what he wanted with it.  The years to follow would be the most fun, the most growth, and the most success I had ever had in my life as a dog man.  Blake took Long Hollow Retrievers and his own passion for Waterfowl Hunting to the next level.  I was in the best shape of my life, training and breeding Setters and Pointers, networking with like minded people, hunting new places and running up and down the Chukar hills here at home.

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As we sit today.  Blake has started his own business called the Northwest Retriever Camp where he is training and qualifying many dogs for the AKC Master National every year and operating one of the best Hunt Test Retriever Training Programs in the country.  

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As for me... I am back to being a Sole Proprietor operating what is now Long Hollow Bird Dogs full time.  Still focused on living a happy, healthy, active life style in pursuit every day, of the best version of myself and our program.  I am married to my best friend "Destiny".  Together we bought our current home, kennel and training facility in 2024.  We are working toward developing one of the best English Setter and English Pointer breeding programs in the country and Long Hollow Bird Dogs is still the source for bird dog training and breeding here it the Northwest.  In the spring, summer, and fall I am here training dogs full time.  I always look forward to meeting new people and I am happy to schedule a visit anytime with anybody eager to learn.  In the Fall and Winter I am still actively pursuing new places and my passion for Upland Bird Hunting and the Pointing Dogs that make it possible.  

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I would like to close by saying this is a very condensed version of my life as a dog man and the history of our program and I would like to thank and mention some very key people and dogs in my life.

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I have so much gratitude for each and everyone of you... Billy Ward, Todd Thayer, Sean Bryan, Matt Tuttle, Traci Russell, Paul Harrington, Brent Catlin, Choral Jeffries, James Whitescarver, John Greer, Darcy White, Martha Lowry, Trish Russell, Blake Gibson, Sergio Velez, Brad McCardle, Tim Powell, Destiny Fortier, Brit Forrester, Tyler Sladen, Dallas Murrey, Steve Joyce, Colton Honey, Leif Kvinsland, Tyler Bell, Joe Gamble, Ryker Fortier, Grady Fortier, Kylee Fortier, and all of our Long Hollow Retrievers and Long Hollow Bird Dogs family.  

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Dakota, Delta, Mac, Hershey, Rufus, Gunner, Ringo, Luke, Teigen, River, Lottie, Cash, Denny, Jett...

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​We are not done yet...  Still history to be made...

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Ryan Fortier

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