Pat Nolan

Retriever training covers the whole arc, from puppy development through advanced competition work. Retriever from the Pup Up builds early obedience, retrieve drive, marking, and a foundation for running blinds during a puppy’s most formative weeks, across 7 modules and 56 video lessons. E-Collar Conditioning for the Field teaches collar work as a motivational tool rather than a correction tool, reinforcing come, sit, kennel, and stay. The Complete Retrieve walks through play retrieve, shaped retrieve, and force fetch as one progression. Basics in Drive combines the most popular courses into a single platform.

On the tactical side, Pat runs Tactical Directionals, a combined push-pull e-collar and remote directional program for detection, surveillance, and postman work, plus a detection training course built around the problems handlers actually hit. Both are offered as one- or two-week courses, or as a two- to three-day seminar.

Pricing Summary

Online courses are one-time purchases. The Complete Retrieve is $97 and carries a 14-day money-back guarantee. In-person tactical canine courses run $1,250 per week, delivered at Pat’s Virginia facility or on-site at your location, with one- and two-week options. Two free trainings, the Bucket Marking Drill and the Memory & Marking Drill, are available at no cost.

Policies

The Complete Retrieve comes with a 14-day money-back guarantee: if you are not satisfied within the first 14 days, you get a full refund, no questions asked. Course purchases include 24/7 access for as long as the course exists, and lessons are closed captioned.

Pat Nolan has spent close to 50 years working with animals, and more than 40 of those training dogs for hunting, field trials, and hunt tests. Working out of Berryville, Virginia, he teaches handlers how to get consistent results from a retriever without the battle of wills that so often creeps into field training.

His background reaches well past the field. Pat has trained detection canines for military, police, and anti-poaching work, birds of prey for falconry, and dogs, deer, and other animals for television and commercials. He has instructed handlers and trainers for units including BORTAC US Customs, ATF, the Netherlands Police Agency, and several US Special Forces groups.

The thread running through all of it is principles over techniques. Pat’s view is that a handler who understands how animals actually learn is never stuck following a recipe, and he is known for translating current research on animal learning and cognition into plain language a working handler can use.

Today he teaches through online courses, webinars, a limited number of in-person weekend seminars each year, and one- and two-week tactical canine courses run at his Virginia facility or on-site with a unit.

Accomplishments

Pat has worked with an unusually broad list of agencies and units over his career, among them GSG9 der Bundespolizei, BORTAC US Customs, ATF, the Special Operations Group, the Netherlands Police Agency’s Special Operations Unit at Driebergen, the US Air Force Office of Rapid Product Development, and the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 10th Special Forces Groups, along with training US and international special operations units at Fort Bragg.

Alongside dogs he has trained birds of prey, chickens, deer, and pigs, and has worked animals for television and film commercials. He also designed the TDK9 Detection Training Scent Wheel, a training carousel built for detection handlers and now sold to trainers.

How to Get Started!

A good first step is one of the free trainings on Pat’s site, the Bucket Marking Drill or the Memory & Marking Drill, which show how he teaches. From there you can buy a course outright for 24/7 access, or use the contact form on his site to ask about a weekend seminar, booking an event, or custom training. Say which one you are after and he will follow up.