Aht
I actually think it would be a cool idea for him to catch the squirrel squad and train them up. Make it so he really does have a turtle squad and have him catch all the turtle Pokémon he can find like shuckle, the turtwig line, Chewtle, tortanator, torkoal, and others. Those are only the ones I remember right now. But it could make a super interesting back up squad, or his specialty like how there’s the serpent mistress in the frontier brains.