TALA Building its business, not name, on word of mouth

By Terry Moore
Amarillo Globe-News Sports Writer

LOCKNEY - The business will always be the same, but the name is subject to change.   TALA Kennels and Gamebird Preserve, located 12 miles north of Lockney on FM 378, got it's unusual name from a logical source.  Owner David Frizzell took the first letter from each of his four grandchildren's names (Todd, April, Landon and Amber) and put them together to come up with TALA.  But what happens if another grandkid pops up?   "I've been asked that a lot," Frizzell said.  "I guess we'll just call it TALA Plus."

Frizzell, a lifelong trainer of his own hunting dogs, has been putting others people's dogs through hunting obedience training for about six years.  TALA started when Frizzell was farming in the Lockney area and was taking friends hunting.  After watching Frizzell's dogs work, the hunters started asking him to help train their dogs.   One thing led to another, and Frizzell opened a smaller version of TALA near Lockney.  He moved to his present 25-pen location about four years ago.   "The only regret I have is that I didn't start doing it as a younger man," Frizzell said.  "I really love it".  "We are beginning to spread out pretty good.  I've got calls from Indiana and Canada to train dogs."

David's son Chad, who is given credit for coming up with the word TALA but has no offspring's initial in the name, is an equal partner in the training business.  Chad also handles the quail, pheasant and chukar hunts TALA offers.  "The main reason I do it is because there aren't many guys that can say they work with their dad," Chad said.  "Nobody can ever take that away from me or put a price on it.   I really enjoy that."  Chad graduated from West Texas A&M University in 1993 with a degree in kinesiology.  He worked as an athletic trainer at WT for one year before moving to Oklahoma Panhandle State University in Goodwell, OK, in 1994 to work as a trainer.  Chad moved back to Lockney, and TALA in May 1996.

The Frizzell's have built up TALA by producing well-trained dogs of all breeds for clients.  Simply put, they rely on customers bragging about their hotshot dogs to bring in business and bolster their reputation.  "Rarely do we do any advertising."  David said.  "It's all been word of mouth.   Twenty-five dogs is what we call full, and the past year we were full just about all year long.  It was amazing."  David said during the summer they had 35 to 40 dogs on the waiting list to go through TALA's training regimen, which usually takes two months or longer, depending on what the client wants from the dog.  They figure they lost three or four dogs because clients did not want to wait for an opening.   "We were three or four months behind," David said.

TALA rarely takes a dog younger than eight months for training.  During that eight months, it is very important for the puppy to be a puppy, both said.  "I strongly, strongly recommend, and we get a lot of calls about this, socializing that little dog to no end," David said.  "Take it everywhere you can and expose it to everything you can.  Take it out in the country and let it run.  Make it your best friend.  Let us be the bad guys.  That make training so much easier."  "If you don't socialize your dog when they are puppies, we have a hard time getting the dog trained," Chad added.  "Dogs are just like we are.  They want to know they are loved.  If they are not played with and petted every day, they get real timid and shy and very difficult to train."  David said if a dog won't retrieve naturally it can take an extra month to teach the dog to retrieve, but that process can also be speeded up, if not avoided, by play-retrieving when the dog is very young.

TALA started offering hunts as a side business to dog training and a filler for the hunting season, a time that in previous years was slow.  Both David and Chad say they enjoy the hunters who come.  "Hunting is a break from training and a little extra income," David said.  "We get about as much enjoyment out of the hunts as our customers for the simple reason I've never met too many people who love the outdoors that aren't nice people."  "I enjoy watching my dogs perform for other people," Chad said.  "To an extent, I think we've got away from the values of outdoors.  I like when dads bring their sons, daughters or whoever to allow them to experience the outdoors."

TALA can be reached at (806) 652-2540 during the day or at (806) 652-3697 in the evening.   They offer hunts through March and year-round dog training.