Welcome to Fire Storm Retrievers

First and foremost, I am a hunter having hunted a myraid of game over the past 40 seasons: however I am also extremely active in the hunt test game. It should be understood that our training methods apply equally to hunting and hunt test. Hunt test skills given to your dog will be readily applied to hunting for both upland and waterfowl.

I started training my own dogs 20 years ago when I just couldn't take hunting behind other hunters' dogs especially when the dog had no idea what it was in the field for.  To watch a dog wander aimlessly in the field bumping game birds far from the gun, or having to be walked out to the fall area while waterfowling became excruciating.  I had enough, and that's when we bought our first Lab Shadow.  This old girl turned our fun and games training into a passion which just grew exponentially when we bought Jake.  Jake quickly became a dog handler's dream. Size and athletic ability second to none with tremendous focus.

Jake quickly led to Tess. Tess was brought to us through our partner and great friend Jim Thompson at Blue Sky Retrievers. Tess is out of Jim's Grand dog Cody and his brother's hot little female Sadie. Tess taught us how to handle a fast dog. While I've never put a watch to her, I've yet to see a dog run marks and blinds faster than Tess.

My wife Betty assists greatly in trainng and is often times my conscience, and my advisor in many ways that most people just don't recognize. Betty is able to provide a level of attention to detail by thoughtfully questioning my approach to a given situation which greatly aids in getting past problems in the field. Betty has received more freshly shot pheasants, thrown more ducks, and planted more blinds than perhaps a wife should, but she's done it all without complaint even when we have a long evening afield training dogs and dinner still isn't on the table.