From Suisun City to Rio Vista for gun dog training

Suisun City is a Solano County town of 29,286 people with a median age of 35.7 (Census ACS 5-year 2024), built on the edge of the largest brackish marsh in California. If you hunt that marsh with a dog, you are already a few minutes from where Richard works.

A very short drive for a dog owner

At about 30 minutes each way, a Suisun City owner can drop a dog off in the morning and be home before lunch. At that distance a round trip fits easily in a day; ask Richard about visits.

Hours as listed on Google run Monday and Wednesday through Sunday, 8 AM to 2 PM, with Tuesday closed. Call first; Richard sets drop-off times by phone, and Wednesday to Saturday are the days he prefers.

Denverton is in your own backyard

Richard sometimes trains retrievers at Denverton, in the Suisun City area of Solano County. The California Retriever Training Association grounds there host hunt tests that appear on the 2026 California calendar, and Sagehen's Retriever Club is listed at an address on Denverton Road in Suisun City.

Hunt tests are where a trained retriever shows what it learned. The California hunt test calendar explains how to check current dates on AKC Event Search before you plan a Saturday.

Hunting the marsh next door

Suisun City borders Suisun Marsh, roughly 116,000 acres of brackish wetland that CDFW and private duck clubs manage mostly for hunting and wildlife (Aquapedia). Our Suisun Marsh page covers what the ground is like for a working retriever.

Grizzly Island Wildlife Area, about 12,900 acres with about 7,900 open to hunting, sits in the same part of Solano County. CDFW allows dogs there on a 10-foot leash when you are not hunting, so it works for exposure walks. Read the Grizzly Island page before you go.

What board-and-train looks like from here

With board-and-train, your dog stays with Richard while the work happens at Hastings Island. Because you live close, the visits that matter most are easy: you can come out during training and learn the commands your dog now knows.

That second half is the part many owners underrate. A finished dog still needs a handler who can run it, which is why Richard teaches handlers as well, one-on-one or in group lessons. See the handler lessons page.

Questions to settle on the first call

Richard books by phone and picks the program that fits each dog; program lengths and weekly rates are on the board-and-train page. The how-to-book FAQ walks through the same conversation so you know what to expect.

• Which breed, how old, and what the dog already knows.
• Whether the dog is headed for the marsh, the uplands or the hunt test field.
• Which days Richard is working, since Google shows him closed on Tuesday.
• How you will stay involved: visits, progress updates and a lesson at the end.

A note on the bigger picture

Dogs come to Richard from all over California. Suisun City is the nearest end of that range, which makes it the easiest place from which to meet him in person. The other end of the range is described on the drive-time page for every city.