Chesney, Jaxon, and Zachary Jacobs are busy fellows.  They are the children and grandchildren of schoolteachers;  they are expected to meet a high bar in the classroom.  All three are fine age-level (and higher) soccer players.  But in between all of that, the boys are kept busy helping their parents turn out class gun dog prospects.

Chesney, Jaxon, and Zachary were raised to the job, haunting whelping boxes, doing chores, following their father around the training fields about as soon as they could walk, learning how to properly handle proto-grouse/woodcock/quail/pheasant dogs at every stage.  

That's an invaluable piece of the Jacobs' breeding program, as each puppy gradually becomes accustomed to various kinds of contacts and stimuli.  The boys are innately careful with this job because they know what is riding on the process:  a puppy that arrives to its new family already conditioned to learn.

This learning how to learn is an underrated aspect of shaping companion gun dogs.  Puppies learn from every human contact, from every environmental agent.  Bigger operations that churn out litter after litter after litter may or may not have the personnel to constantly be in those whelping boxes or puppy pens, may not be able to give each litter - and more importantly - each puppy optimal exposure to everything from being gently restrained, to navigating tall grass and light brush, to the drag of a string check cord, to pigeons, gunfire, confinement, travel, etc.  At every stage, Blizzard's Huntmore puppies are positioned to succeed, gain confidence, and look to people for leadership, companionship, and comfort.

By handling these puppies from birth, by constantly studying their behavior and interactions with their mother, each other, and with the Jacobs kids, the family gains a sense of litter pecking order, of individual personalities, that goes a long way in helping match a pup with a potential buyer's description of what she or he is looking for in a companion gun dog.  As the popular insurance company ad goes, "We know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two!"

One mating at a time, one litter at a time, one puppy - every puppy - gets the Jacobs family's careful consideration, a foundation secret to seven generations of gun dog success.