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Apex Retrievers

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United States
Elm Creek, NE
Apex Retrievers

Apex Retrievers is a fully licensed and insured retriever training facility in central Nebraska.

06/01/2026

What a big, successful and WET weekend!

Dane took a group of dogs to Central Nebraska Retriever Club to run Master. It rained a good bit Friday but we got things done!

Picking up passes were:

GRHRCH Ginger MH
Owned by Josh and Sara Bathke
*Qualified for Master National*

HRCH Brix MH
Owned by Jason and LeAnne Larson
*Qualified for Master National*

HRCH Teeter MH
Owned by Dane and Kara Johnson

HRCH Pepper MH
Owned by Jet and Sheryl Thompson

GRHRCH Bean MH
Owned by Cory and Makennah Kienow

HRCH Rudy
Owned by Jack Lindstrom

HRCH Flounder MH
Owned by Dane and Kara Johnson

HRCH Cinch MH
Owned by Dane and Kara Johnson

Thank you Larry Kimble and Ty Johnson for judging as well as the rest of CNRC for putting on the test!

Nate and Ashlyn took a group of dogs to Custer South Dakota to run HRC at Rushmore hunting retriever club. They had quite a tough weekend weather wise with multiple weather delays causing the Saturday finished test to run into Sunday forcing some dogs to run 3 finished series on Sunday. Quite a challenge for the 7 dogs we had running their very first Finished tests!!

Picking up Finished passes were:

9xGRHRCH Cash MNH4
Owned by Cory and Makennah Kienow

9xGRHRCH AL MNR
Owned by Travis and Jolene Bock

HR Jack
Owned by Kent Wright

HR Arrow
Owned by Travis and Jolene Bock

HR Hook
Owned by Mike Martin

HR Zyn
Owned by Sami Strutz

HR Tex
Owned by Ethan Kerk

HR Chief
Owned by Eric Talley

HRCH Koda
Owned and handled by Ashlyn Christner

Picking up Seasoned Passes were:

HR Riley
Owned by Clint Didier
***NEW HR***

Dani
Owned by Jet and Sheryl Thompson

Sammy
Owned by Mike Jansen

Luna
Owned and Handled by Ashlyn Christner

Thank you to all the judges, volunteers and club members on MRHRC!!

On a proud side note we had LOTS of clients running this weekend. All the way from Oklahoma to South Dakota past Apex Students were running with their owners and picking up ribbons!!

In Oklahoma Kirby Lloyd titled HR Queen!!

In Nebraska, Tanner Benash passed Drake and Brock Thorburg passed Ace in Senior and Doug Brown passed Junior with Laynie at CNRC

In South Dakota Mark Stites passed Rip in Finished!

Super weekend for the entire Apex Family!! Congratulations everyone!!

05/22/2026

After arriving home last night from the Grand, I got word GRHRCH Hawk MNH crossing rainbow bridge while I was in Kentucky.

A talented marker, steady, as well as stable; but always the squealer.. Hawk made hard things look easy and sometimes easy things a bit tougher than they needed to be. He was a challenge from day one, but a talented dog throughout. He was loyal and sweet. After failing his first Master test he was a perfect 24/24 including 3 Master Nationals as well as being a Grand Champion. Dads personal hunting dog and buddy, he will be missed. Rest in Peace Hawk. Love ya bud.

GRHRCH King’s Hillside Shadow MNH
4/13/15-5/18/26

05/20/2026

Today was the final day of the 2026 Spring Grand in Paducah, Kentucky. And let me tell you it was a finale! We ran the monsoon of all uplands. We were blessed to carry seven of our dogs through four very challenging series and we are extremely excited to announce all seven passed the Upland test today!

Thank you to the Grand committee, site coordinators, judges, and all volunteers! The Grand was run as good as any I have seen even with the challenge the rain posed today!

Pictured L-R

HRCH Cinch MH
1st Grand pass
Owned by Dane and Kara Johnson

GRHRCH Ginger MH
NEW GRHRCH
Owned by Josh and Sara Bathke

4xGRHRCH Blue MNH
Owned by Travis and Jolene Bock

4xGRHRCH Cash P MNH
Owned by Jason Pflasterer

9xGRHRCH Cash K MNH4
Owned by Cory and Makennah Kienow

GRHRCH Bean MH
NEW GRHRCH
Owned by Cory and Makennah Kienow

9xGRHRCH Al MNR
Owned by Travis and Jolene Bock

Kara and the boys got to come down to cheer us on, and the boys thought the puddles today were pretty fun!

Now we will head home and get ready to continue building upon the success we had here and building the next generation!

Thank you everyone!

05/06/2026

After leaving the trailer in Hays at Legacy Truck & Repair Saturday evening and hauling all 12 dogs home in the truck 🤪 , I spent Sunday gathering my thoughts, messaging Chad with Ainley and coming up with a game plan. Monday morning I spoke with the boys at Legacy, they removed the bad axle and took it to Steel Fab in Hays where they were able cut the damaged spindle off and welded a new spindle on. Tuesday evening the trailer was ready to be picked up so I went down and got her.

Also on Tuesday, Chad with Ainley ordered me two brand new axles from Dexter. These axles are all made to order so a ship/receive date was in serious question of making it here prior to me leaving for the Grand this weekend.

Well thanks to Chad, the relationship Ainley has with Dexter as well as Dexter themselves; two brand new axles were just delivered.

We plan to install in the next couple days and make the trip to Kentucky riding on brand new Dexter axles with brand new Greaseable/serviceable hubs.

I cant thank Chad with Ainley enough. He was emailing me on Sunday at 8 pm going over things. While this hub failure is not their fault Chad 100% worked tirelessly to help me on this.

Thanks also goes out to Legacy truck and Steel fab in Hayes for their quick timelines, those two days of training were rough without the big trailer, but we made it through it and thanks to their hard work, we didn’t have to do it for more than just those two days.

Everything happens for a reason and we are thankful to be back on the right track!!

04/25/2026

After going perfect 12 or 12 this weekend at Sunflower retriever club in Kansas, we had a wheel bearing fail on the way home. Grace be to God we saw it before it was a major catastrophe. While we do carry a new hub with us, the damage to the spindle was enough we will need to replace the axle. So I left the trailer in the care of some young men that own a shop in Hays, Kansas and the 12 dogs that ran the master test are loaded in the truck and we are headed north. Four are doubled up in the two hole box in the back of the truck and we have eight in the cab!

Video of the cab Rodeo in the comments. 🤦🏻‍♂️

04/21/2026

Drill work… it can be boring to some dogs… but not Rudy. Its just another game he loves to play. 😂

04/20/2026

Today is another sad day for
us here at Apex Retrievers. Another legend is gone. Trig was and always will be one of my favorites. Small in size but huge in heart. The long bird was never his problem, checking down was his nemesis though; that boy loved to send it! He always did his best for me! RIP buddy. I look forward to sitting at the line again someday. 14 years is a dandy of a run!

GRHRCH NPG Quick Draw Fast Action Trigger MH “Trig”
1/19/2012-4/19/2026

04/12/2026

The team is on their way home from Pueblo Reservoir, the site of where we ran southern Colorado HRC‘s 40th anniversary hunt test.

Can’t thank the club enough for they’re 40 years of dedication to the sport. There are a lot of great folks down here, and they always put on a first class event. From the organization, all the way to the banquet was top-tier. Thank you, Southern, Colorado HRC!

Thank you to our judges, Faron Eddy, Jeremy Lowry, Aric Hanson and Mary McNeese. We had a great tests and a great time all weekend!

The big news for the weekend was Bug picked up her final pass required to officially be a grand hunting retriever champion! She was 15 points short last fall so she ran one day this weekend to finish that up! She will now go home and have a litter of puppies on her next cycle! Be on the lookout for the next litter of GRHRCH Bug pups!

Picking up passes were:

***NEW GRHRCH***
GRHRCH BUG MNH
Owned by Tim Fehringer

8xGRHRCH AL MNR
Owned by Travis and Jolene Bock

3xGRHRCH Blue MNH
Owned by Travis and Jolene Bock

***NEW HRCH***
HRCH Koa MH
Owned by Matt, Hudson and Colby Larson

HRCH Cinch MH
Owned by Dane and Kara Johnson

HRCH Flash MH
Owned by Libby Milroy

HRCH Piper MH
Owned by Libby Milroy

HRCH Flounder MH
Owned by Dane and Kara Johnson

HRCH Bean MH
Owned by Cory and Makennah Kienow

HRCH Pepper MH
Owned by Jet and Sheryl Thompson

HRCH Ginger MH owned by Josh and Sarah Bathke

HRCH Rex MH
Owned by Theresa Bilava

HRCH Brix MH
Owned by Jason and Leanne Larson

Next one weekend, we are home running master only! Thank you, everyone!

04/11/2026

Low this morning in the mid/upper 30’s.… shorts and T Shirts by 10am, rain gear and rubber boots by 2:30. Welcome to Southern Colorado HRC. The teams first test of 2026!

03/28/2026

What started off as a great morning training turned scary real fast for us! What I believe was a powerline issue just southwest of the kennel caused a fire to break out and with our drought conditions, it grew extremely fast.

Things got a little scary when the sheriff deputy walked into the kennel and asked if we need anything and told us “don’t wait too long”

Ive seen blizzards, ice storms, tornados you name it. Nothing compares to a fire straight upwind headed right for you…

We cannot thank Elm Creek fire department and all of the other fire departments that came to provide mutual aid as well as all the farmers who showed up with machinery to help mitigate potential losses. The fire never got within a half mile of our property, but men were here with no trucks and farm machine doing work to save our property! I mean imagine, strangers, pulling in your driveway with their own personal machinery, and all of them asking “what can we do?” “what do you need help with?” Bless you all!

A few hay bales are still burning but the fire department is keeping a close eye on it. We are safe now by God‘s grace and hard work and dedication of all the volunteers. We are safe and sound and ready to boil a few mud bugs!

I am super proud of the staff, we had every dog loaded in trailers and hooked up to trucks ready to evacuate at any time!

Address

7804 Custer Road
Elm Creek, NE
68836

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Website

http://Www.ApexRetrievers.com/

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