Sundance Retrievers

Sundance has been working with my started gun dog Bell. They have been terrific in providing me with updates on her progress and what exercises and drills she's been undertaking to get ready to be the perfect hunting companion. Thank you so much to the Sundance team! Edit: My above review was posted early on in my experience with Sundance, prior to receiving my dog. Up to that point communication had been good, but I ultimately posted as they offered additional solo pictures of Bell for a positive review on Google/FB/Yelp etc. I ended up receiving my dog, Bell in October of 2021. This was a few months after I had initially been told I should expect to get the dog(June/July). As Bell's ship date approached Sundance's communication got worse and their tone became frustrated that I was asking for updates on her. I was informed that only they could decide when Bell was ready and to stop asking. I accepted that they were the experts and patiently waited for the next steps. Sundance told me that once she was ready they would provide me videos of Bell performing commands with their trainer as an instructional guide for her first 30 days with us. I used an animal transportation service recommended by Sundance. This was a cross country trip from PA to CA. Bell arrived in the evening and was very skittish, which I expected after several days of travel. Bell had on just a standard collar and leash. I was instructed by the transportation team to pick her up out of the van, upon doing so Bell bit me on my hand, struggled out of my arms and slipped out of her collar taking off down the street, ignoring the calls of both the ladies who had transported her as well as my own. The transportation service workers spent about 15 minutes helping me look before they left when I went inside to make a phone call. Before the dog was shipped to me I had offered to purchase a harness style collar/vest and Sundance had declined reassuring me that it wasn't necessary. Bell was missing for almost a MONTH. She had been spotted a few times by neighbors, but she would bolt anytime people called for her. Communication was fairly decent with Sundance during this stressful period, but I began to have my doubts about the advertised training and sociability of the dog. After Bell had finally been caught by a neighbor and returned to us it became obvious that she at this point retained VERY little of what she was advertised in having been trained on if she was trained on them at all. She did not respond to sit, stay, or heel commands, she was not house trained and she was gun shy. I asked for the instructional videos with the trainer and Bell they had claimed they had taken prior to shipping. Sundance then sent me 3 videos of their trainers working with another dog through commands that Bell had no response to. She's a very pretty and healthy dog, but the level of training and socialization that Bell had purportedly received was not at all in line with what they advertised or the price paid. (With birds and all Bell cost upwards of $6,500 as a "started Gun Dog" before transportation) I'm continuing to work with her in the hopes to get her to a level where I feel comfortable taking her with me as a duck hunting dog. My training efforts have essentially started from ground up as she had retained none of the advertised traits or skills. I would not recommend purchasing from Sundance and do not feel their online presentation or reviews match the service they actually offer, especially when considering their practice of requesting incentivized reviews. I feel that I was ultimately misled by Sundance and while I did receive a dog that I will continue to train and care for Sundance financially took advantage of my good faith in them being a reputable breeder and training facility.

Sheryl was pleasure to work with from my very first contact. We decided after much research to get a trained Labrador from Sundance, and after almost a year after bringing home our sweet Dakota our family couldn’t be happier. Quality of breeding was of utmost importance to us, and we were extremely satisfied. Training was top notch as well. We visited during training when our girl was still young and our visit was very pleasurable. I can happily say I recommend Sundance to friends :)