Hunter, Trainer, Handler, Breeder
Official Gun Captain CKC & AKC
Judge, Spaniel Field Trials & Hunt Tests CKC & AKC
President, Eastern Slopes Spaniel Association (ESSA)
Member (past Director), Wild Rose Hunting Retriever Club (NAHRA affiliate)
Spaniel Council Representative Alberta, NWT, Nunavut. CKC
Upland Test Judge & Founding Development Committee, United Kennel Club
Facilitator & Developer, Spaniel Field Trial & Hunt Test Gunning Seminar
Instructor, Alberta Hunter Education Instructors Association (AHEIA)

Some of my personal performance indicators:
North American Shooting Dog Championship
Pheasant Championship
Brooks Kinsmen Ringneck Classic Champion
High Point Shooting Dog Alberta
High Point Puppy Canada
High Point Puppy Western Canada
Upland Stake Championship
Field Trial Champion
Master Hunt Test Title(s) AKC CKC
Alberta Sporting Clays Champion

I recently discovered my Irish grandfather "liked to hunt most things that were in season", after his emigration to Canada in 1911. Though it was my Canadian born grandfather who led the way into the world of Spaniels, with a Cocker Spaniel and later his son’s purchase of the family’s first English Springer Spaniel. They both hunted over the dogs and the Spaniels were constant companions of all the family members.

At fifteen years old I acquired my first Spaniel. He was a Springer. I found him while I was walking home from school. I tried my hardest to find the owner through the tattoo registry and newspaper, to no avail. I begged to keep him and my grandmother gave in pretty easily. How could she refuse!

My older brother and I took him out to see if he was "gun shy", by using what I know now to be a truly foolish method. This dog was definitely not gun shy, as he nearly tore the door off the car he was tied to when he hit the end of the rope on the way to retrieve what he most certainly believed must have been killed when the gun went off. Apparently he had heard a gun go off before!

I determined much later in my life where this quality of dog had come from when I managed to obtain his pedigree from the CKC and determined that my childhood dog was the "grandson" of a British National Field Trial Champion. He became my fast companion and improved our whole families hunting experience immensely. We chased all the game birds young men could chase in Alberta; Canada geese, Snow Geese, all the ducks, grouse and pheasants we could find.

After losing him to cancer at a well rounded age, I put off getting another dog until after University. My wife and I went to look at a litter, still not knowing enough about pure bred dogs, we purchased our first dog. I wanted to train him to hunt properly like my first spaniel. This started the slow decline into the world of purebred spaniels. I joined a local CKC club that focused on field work. I trained him with the club and he became a very successful hunting companion and competitor.

Now I had truly been bitten by the competitive bug and wanted to train dogs. I purchased a puppy from an eastern US breeder after doing exhaustive research with a knowledgeable friend on various pedigrees and the performance of the line. Well, this puppy did not disappoint me, she placed in many field trials and also became the first (and only to date) Spaniel in North America to hold both Master Hunt Test titles and has also passed the "Beyond Master Test" in the US. She was Brickburn Everest Pika MH MH. (Pika). As a novice handler we managed to also achieve High Point Puppy in Canada, High Point Puppy in Western Canada, High Point Shooting Dog, North American Shooting Dog Champion, several times.

So, from the auspicious acquisition of a dog in a back alley coming home from school; I am still hunting, competing, training, judging, handling, gunning and instructing in the company of English Springer Spaniels and hope to for some time to come.