Who are we?
Hello! Thank you for coming to our website and wanting to learn more about us. We are owned and operated by Cole and Haylee Jensen. Below you will learn why we do what we do.
How did I get started with dogs?
Growing up in South Dakota has been a blessing. I was lucky enough to grow up in a state where bird hunting is treated as if it's a national holiday. I knew at an extremely young age that I had a huge passion for dogs. Not just any dogs, birddogs. As I got older and got into high school it went from something of a passion to something obsessed over. Going into college I majored in business. I somehow managed to write every single business paper I had about either dogs or hunting. Luckily for me, a couple of my professors were also hunters so I passed with flying colors!
I owe everything to my grandpa. We all have a person or moment in our lives that changes everything. For me, it was him. There's a true difference between people who have dogs, and people who are “dog people''. They are wired differently, it's almost as if they are on the same frequency as the dogs they are training.
My grandpa, Dave Black, owned and operated Top Gun Kennels for over 30 years. Over the years he has had every type of dog. From every pointer, versatile, flusher, retriever, and hounds. He was so dominant back in the day running field trials that they asked him to stop coming to events. My grandpa and uncle Jesse would enter trials and get 1st, 2nd, and 3rd with separate dogs. It was once mentioned to me from a highly respectable figure in our NAVHDA organization, who has had multiple VC GWP’s himself, “It was bad day when Dave and Jesse would show up to the time trials, might as well just save time and go home”
I was fortunate enough at a very young age to absorb information from him like a sponge. It was easy to sit around and listen to him tell stories. Some of my favorites consisted of hosting Ted Nugent, the Minnesota Vikings, and the governor's hunts. With all this knowledge and dog experience it then became time for him to make a very important decision. I neared the age of 10 years old, my first hunting season where I could carry a firearm. The question became “What breed of dog should I get my grandson for his first hunting dog?”
I will never forget the day we drove to Freeman, South Dakota. It was cold and raining, a truly miserable spring day. Out of the box came this tall shaggy dog. Looked like something out of an 80’s rock band. We ran him in the field and he pointed multiple birds. My grandpa said “We will take him”. That dog was a German Wirehaired Pointer who later became known as Remme.
My grandpa and I spent the whole summer training him and getting him on birds for the upcoming season. I learned a tremendous amount and it was so much fun. The following summer my grandpa unexpectedly passed away. It was a truly life altering event. The only good is he left me with a piece of him that I will never forget, the hunting dog we trained together. Remme truly became my best friend and I owed it to him to hunt as much as possible. My goal as a breeder is to allow families to have a dog that leaves a legacy. Every dog that comes out of Badlands Kennel is a dog that I would want to hunt with behind my grandpa and hear him say “that's a nice dog”. That is and always will be the goal. I want a dog that you will tell your grandkids about.
