ONGOING TRAINING MEMBERSHIP FOR RETRIEVER TRAINERS AND HANDLERS
Learn to see what your dog is telling you.

Confidently train your retriever using proven pro methods. Then go beyond the drills by learning to read your dog, understand what you're seeing, and make better training decisions with guidance from one of the sport's most experienced teachers.
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Enrollment is currently closed
Join the wait list and we'll let you know when Retriever Revolution reopens.
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Led by Pat Burns
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Nearly 50 years of experience
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100+ Field Trial Champions
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50+ National Finalists
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Five National Champions
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Pat brings that experience to helping you notice what matters, think through what you're seeing, and build better judgment in your own training.
Stop guessing in the field.
You didn't get into this game to wing it. You want to understand what you're seeing, make good decisions, and become the kind of trainer your dog can trust. ​But training gets messy.
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It's not just about what your dog is doing. It's about why.
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Is your dog confused, or not trying?
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Does the lesson need to be clarified, or does the standard need to be held?
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Was that a training problem, a handling problem, or simply a young dog working through something new?
When you understand the reason behind your dog's choices, you stop guessing and start making better decisions.
That's the shift Retriever Revolution is built to help you make.

WHY GOOD TRAINERS STILL GET STUCK
​Knowing the drills is one thing. Knowing what your dog needs right now is another.
The further you go in training, the fewer situations come with an obvious answer. Dogs change. Setups change. What worked yesterday may not be what this dog needs today.
01 · THE SITUATION
Real dogs don't follow a script.
Your dog does something you didn't expect. Terrain, wind, distance, cover, pressure, and experience can all change the picture.
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A drill or piece of advice can be useful and still be the wrong answer for this dog in this moment.
02 · THE READ
What happened isn’t always obvious.
Knowing what happened takes more than watching it happen. You have to read the dog, the setup, and the response closely enough to understand why it happened before you can decide what to do next.
03 · THE DECISION
More information isn't the same as better judgment.
You can collect more drills, opinions, and techniques and still second-guess which one applies.
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The next level is learning how to evaluate what matters, choose a fair response, and make the next decision for yourself.
Retriever Revolution helps you develop your eye and strengthen your judgment.

Inside Retriever Revolution, you can access new and archived videos, attend live coaching sessions, bring your questions to Pop-Up Office Hours, and submit your own training videos for feedback. Across those resources, I walk you through what I'm seeing and why I'm thinking about it so you can build the same kind of observation and judgment into your own training.
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The goal of this ongoing training membership isn't to give you my answer every time. It's to help you become better at finding the right answer for yourself: to get better at noticing what matters, understanding what your dog is telling you, and making a thoughtful decision from there.
Enrollment is Currently Closed
Join the wait list and we'll let you know when Retriever Revolution reopens.
This isn't a single course you finish and put on the shelf. It's an ongoing training membership designed to keep growing with you.
Once you have the basics, the work becomes less about following steps and more about learning how to adapt them to the dog and situation in front of you. Retriever Revolution gives you a place to keep developing as your training gets more complex.
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The 500+ Video Training Vault keeps growing, Monthly Training Concepts give you something new to study, and live coaching, feedback opportunities, Expert Discussions, and the Private Member Community keep the membership active and useful as your dogs, goals, and training challenges change.
Here’s exactly what your Retriever Revolution membership includes
You don't have to work through Retriever Revolution from top to bottom. Start with the dog, question, or training challenge in front of you, then use the part of the membership that helps you understand it, work through it, and decide what comes next.
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Learn it.
Use the videos, monthly concepts, and expert discussions to build a stronger understanding of what you're seeing and why it matters.
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Apply it.
Use live coaching, Ask Pat, video feedback, and the member community to turn what you're learning into better decisions with your own dog.
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Keep building.
New videos are added every month, and your questions and feedback help shape the topics Pat covers next.

500+ Video Training Vault
Use more than 500 searchable training videos as an on-demand reference when you need to understand a concept, study a setup, or work through a problem. New videos added every month mean the library keeps growing with you. The value isn't watching everything. It's being able to find the right lesson when your training gives you a reason to need it.

Monthly Training Concepts
Each month gives you a focused concept to study through selected videos, setups, examples, and instruction. It keeps you looking closer, thinking about why things work, and continuing to develop instead of training on autopilot.

Pop-Up Office Hours
Every month, Pop-Up Office Hours gives you a live opportunity to bring your questions and listen in as we work through real training situations. Every other month, Ray Voigt joins me, giving you the chance to hear two experienced perspectives and compare how we think through the same kinds of decisions.

Ask Pat + Video Feedback
Submit questions and training video from your own work so we can apply the thinking directly to the dog in front of you. This is where general instruction becomes specific observation, feedback, and better next decisions.

Pat's Power Hour
Bring your questions into a monthly live coaching session where I break down concepts and work through the problems members are facing. You get to hear not only what I would do, but what I'm noticing and why.

Expert Discussions
Hear how respected trainers, handlers, judges, veterinarians, and other experts think about the retriever world. Different perspectives help you notice more, understand the game from more angles, and strengthen your own judgment.

Private Member Community
Train alongside people who take learning seriously. Ask questions, share challenges and successes, and learn from other members' dogs and experiences so you don't have to work through every training question in isolation.
See what changes when you train this way.
Better results matter. So does becoming more confident and capable in the decisions that produce them.​
"Retriever Revolution membership didn't just improve my dog's skills, it transformed how I train. I feel confident and supported every step of the way."
Scott G.
MORE CONFIDENCE · BETTER TRAINING DECISIONS

"Rocket became an FTCH today. We won the Open in Brandon! Every darned weekly theme Pat has provided in the membership has been just what the doctor ordered for me and Rocket. People deserve to know how much Pat is helping guys like me."
Peter Dozois & Rocket
2025 CNAFC FTCH

"Eider had a great weekend, earning a 2nd in the Amateur and a JAM in the Open. I've learned so much about how to train and handle a field trial dog from all the materials made available through the membership."
David McGuire & Eider
2ND AMATEUR · JAM OPEN

"Bluey brought home the blue from the Tallokas Spring Trial Qualifying stake! Thank you, Pat, for getting us here with your instruction in Day School and the weekly Retriever Revolution content. We used every bit of it."
Jean van Seventer & Bluey
1ST · TALLOKAS QUALIFYING
Enrollment is Currently Closed
Join the wait list and we'll let you know when Retriever Revolution reopens.
More perspectives. Better judgment.
​​One of the best ways to sharpen your own eye is to hear how other experienced people think through the same game. Expert Discussions are included with your membership so you can compare reasoning, notice more, and learn without assuming there is only one right way to look at every dog or setup.
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Expert Insight Forum
In-depth conversations with trainers including Mike Lardy, Danny Farmer, Jim Van Engen, Wayne Curtis, Pat Nolan, Judy Aycock, and others.

Retrieving for Love Seminar
A special seminar with Mike Lardy, Dave Rorem, Ray Voigt, and me about something that can get lost in the pursuit of performance: the relationship we have with our dogs and why we started doing this in the first place.

Judging & Competitive Insight
Special discussions with experienced judges, trainers, and handlers that help you understand what judges are seeing, what a test is asking, and how that perspective can make you better.
Meet your mentor, Pat Burns


Experience that helps you see more clearly
Early in my career, I spent time in California working with Rex Carr. I would run twelve or fifteen dogs a day, and many of them I knew little or nothing about.
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Without history to fall back on, I had to watch the dog in front of me and make decisions based on what that dog showed me. That experience changed the way I looked at training.
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Don't let what you expect to see get in the way of what the dog is actually telling you.
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That lesson followed me throughout my career as I trained alongside Mike Lardy at Handjem Kennels, co-founded Esprit Kennels, and contributed to the success of more than 100 Field Trial Champions, 50 National Finalists, and five National Champions. The value of that experience isn't simply the titles. It's the thousands of decisions, dogs, setups, and problems that taught me what to notice and how to think through what happens next.
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After nearly 50 years in this game, the dogs are still what keep me interested.
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That's a big part of why I created Retriever Revolution: not just to share what I've learned, but to show you how I read a dog, think through a problem, and decide what comes next, so you can develop that judgment for yourself.
The goal isn't more information. It's better decisions.
You can find drills, setups, techniques, and opinions almost anywhere.
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What's harder to find is help learning how to evaluate what's happening and decide what actually applies to your dog.
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That's the role I want to play inside Retriever Revolution. I'll show you what I'm seeing, explain why I'm thinking about it, and give you opportunities to apply that thinking to your own training. The goal isn't to make you train like me. It's to help you become a more observant, thoughtful, capable trainer and handler.
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"Pat has helped us learn to evaluate our dogs and balance our training."
Scott A.
Ready to join Retriever Revolution?
One membership. Two ways to join.
MONTHLY
$47/mo
ANNUAL
$474/yr
Save $90
Cancel anytime. You'll continue to have access through the end of your current billing period.
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Choose the payment option that works best for you. Either way, you'll receive full access to Retriever Revolution.
​Your membership includes full access to:
✓ 500+ Video Training Vault
✓ Monthly Training Concepts
✓ Pat's Power Hour
✓ Pop-Up Office Hours
✓ Ask Pat + Video Feedback
✓ Expert Discussions
✓ Private Member Community
Enrollment is Currently Closed
Join the wait list and we'll let you know when Retriever Revolution reopens.
Frequently Asked Questions
Retriever Revolution is a school you never want to graduate from. I'd be glad to have you in it.
After nearly 50 years in this game, I’m still learning too—and that’s part of what keeps it interesting.
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There will always be another dog that teaches you something you didn't know. Another setup that makes you look twice. Another decision you wish you could make over again.
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You don't need to have all the answers. You need to keep looking, keep asking questions, and keep getting better at reading the dog beside you.
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Another training season is coming either way. Use it to sharpen your eye, challenge your thinking, and become a confident, empowered, insightful, and successful trainer.
Enrollment is Currently Closed
Join the wait list and we'll let you know when Retriever Revolution reopens.

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