Ray has been training retrievers since 1975 when he received his first Chesapeake, Rainy, as a birthday gift. He bought several books and together, he and Rainy became a great hunting team. His knowledge and love of training grew as he trained his own dogs and those of his friends. He enjoys training retrievers and pointing dogs.
In the late 80's, Ray and a few friends founded Backwater Retriever Club. He had been a board member and an officer in Michiana Retriever Club, a field trial club, but he wanted a club devoted to hunting dogs. He now judges at all levels in AKC Hunt Tests, so knows what a dog needs to master.
The opportunity to build his own kennel came in 1987 and so began another chapter of his life. He offered obedience training and classes as well as training retrievers and handling his dogs and client’s dogs in hunt tests. Operating a boarding kennel with fifty runs is very time consuming so he made some changes.
In the year of 2006, Ray and Kathy, his wife of 35 years, sold the Bristol property and built a home on the farm in Pierceton. Ray spent many summers on this farm with his grandfather and now proudly owns it himself. His kennel houses twelve dogs so that he can devote his time to fewer dogs at any given time.
Ray loves training dogs and treats each individually. He has completed a course in “Solving Canine Behavior Problems” at Cornell University, so he can solve most problems early in training.
