The History of Dusty Rose K-9 Trainers
In 1971 I got my 1st dog, a male black lab named pride (David's Pride). We were the same age. I had my 1st duck hunt over him, but at 12 years old he just could not do it anymore. Pride passed away the next year.
Then in 1993 my mother gave me my 2nd dog, a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, for my birthday. Dusty (Dave's Dusty Delight MH) became my constant companion. I hunted him that 1st fall and he retrieved a few ducks and geese for me. I quickly realized that I needed help training him as he was nearly out of control when hunting.
In the summer of 1994 I enrolled him in a Basic Retriever Class at Windy Acre's Kennel. By the end of the 8 weeks Dusty had come under control (for the most part) and graduated from the Advanced class. We continued to train with Darrin through the fall and winter. Michelle my girl friend (now wife), and we also bought our 2nd chessie in February of 1995 Lil ( CH Michelle's Little Idyl Rose MH CD). By the summer of 1995 Michelle and I were working for Windy Acres'. Michelle was kennel help and I was helping with maintenance.
As time went by I trained with Darrin and his father Dave almost daily. It took time and a lot of hard work but I handled Dusty to his Master Hunter Title. Michelle worked hard and became the manager for Windy Acre's and I was Assistant Trainer. I did Obedience Training, concentrating mostly on older and small dogs, a very rewarding and educational experience, as old and small dogs are not very compatible with standard training techniques, so I had to learn new ways and be adaptive in my training.
Dave M. only ran Field Trials, so when Darrin and I trained with him we ran the same set ups. Dave was in Michigan from Mid-May until September, so Darrin and I spent most of the summer running Field Trial set ups in training. We would occasionally train without Dave m.., so we could run hunt test set ups. I feel cross training like this really helped the dogs and me to be at our best in Hunting Tests, especially at the Master Level.
I also learned a lot about setting up tests for both training and testing at all levels. Dave, Darrin and Bill M. (long time friend of Dave and Darrin) taught me such things as "bird Placement" and which throws are easy and hard for dogs to mark. This knowledge helps me to set tests to meet a dogs needs in training and to set level appropriate tests when Judging Hunting Tests.
We bred our Lil to Decks and decided to call our "kennel" Dusty Rose Chesapeake s. This name is derived from the registered name of our 1st 2 dogs, Dave's Dusty Delight and Michelle's Little Idyl Rose.
In September of 2000 Michelle and I got married. The wedding was held on a 2 acre apple orchard that was on and leased from Windy Acres Kennels. Kim and Darrin were our Matron of Honor and Best Man. By Mid-October Michelle and I decided that working for Windy Acres was no longer feasible for us and gave them notice. We had planned on staying until the end of November, but Michelle's replacement was found and trained in and we were asked to leave a couple of weeks early.
By 2002 I had decided to go into training full time on my own. Thus Dusty Rose K-9 Trainers was born. I started doing Obedience and Retriever Training in both class and in house formats. We live on 10 acres and train on both private and state grounds.
In 2008 I started to take a training trip to Tennessee to shorten winter and give me a head start on the summer Hunting Test season. When in TN I stay on a 100 acre farm and train on surrounding state and private lands.It seems I spend more and more time "south" every year.