Training at Hastings Island Hunting Preserve

The preserve is the setting for Richard's training days: open grass fields, birds and the Delta's weather. It is its own business, and it states on its site that it is not a dog training facility, so this page describes it as the place where Richard trains, never as a program the preserve runs.

About the preserve

Hastings Island Hunting Preserve says it was established in 1969 and is state licensed, per its own website. It is a pheasant club in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and its season runs mid-September to mid-March, per its page.

Fields and seasons

The preserve says about 800 acres of natural grass fields are available for member dog training in the off-season, mid-March to mid-September. From mid-September to mid-March, training stays out of the hunting fields, and the preserve notes that a designated alfalfa field opens after farming, around mid-October. Rules and hours are the preserve's to state, and its own pages are linked below.

What this means for your dog

Birds, open fields and real hunting scent give a dog a realistic setting for Puppy Camp, Formal Gun Dog Training and the Basic Waterfowl Program. Retrievers are sometimes trained at Denverton, near Suisun City. Owners bring dogs from all over California for board-and-train, and drive times are on the from your part of California pages.

Booking and visits

Visits and training days are arranged through Richard. Use the form on this page or the call button, and ask what to bring. Questions about training go to Richard directly, since the preserve handles its own hunting club business.

Directions and getting there

The preserve publishes directions from Dixon and Highway 113, from Fairfield and Highway 12, and from Rio Vista on its own site. Please use those directions, and call Richard before you drive out, because hours on Google show Tuesday closed and the other days 8 AM to 2 PM.

Drive times from cities across California are on the from your part of California pages, using OpenStreetMap routing with no traffic.

Why a preserve works for training

Preserves keep birds on the ground and fields in good shape, which is useful for teaching a dog to find, point, flush and retrieve. A dog meets scent and wing in a way a backyard cannot match. That is the reason Richard trains on this kind of ground, and why the work is bird dogs for the hunt. See the Formal Gun Dog Training page for more.