Yadkin River Pointers and Retrievers

     Wonderful hunting dogs are our overall goal but we also pride ourselves in our dogs being great companions as well. We believe these qualities go hand in hand. Eddie is in his 50s and has been bird hunting his whole life. When he was a boy there were a lot of quail in North Carolina, where we have always called home, so this allowed almost daily hunting opportunities. It was pretty neat to live in a place where you hunt a covey of birds in the morning and grouse hunt in the Appalachian Mountains that evening. Eddie was raised on the Yadkin River, not very far from where we are currently located. This location provides us with wood ducks and teal throughout the fall. Anytime during the year in which we are not hunting, our dogs are part of the family and we carry them most everywhere we go. One year we even had a litter of pups on Harkers Island. The mom and the puppies had a view of the Shackleford Banks, and the puppies even had their first swim in the Core Sound. 

      We have been blessed to go out west hunting for many years. This all started with Eddie’s father, who started going in the 60s, and Eddie started going as soon as he was old enough. The first place they started going was Nebraska to go quail, pheasant, duck, and goose hunting. This tradition of bird hunting is still going strong in our family today as Eddie’s son, Jake, is an avid bird hunter and the whole family has tagged along on their trips. We are fortunate to have taken many hunting trips to Wisconsin, the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas over the years. Our labs, shorthairs, and springers accompany us on all of our trips. We pride ourselves on only hunting our dogs on wild birds, as we do not hunt them on liberated birds. With that said we do use the occasional pigeon to get our dogs started. In the early fall and winter we are fortunate to shoot a lot of doves, and this really helps the dogs with manners and to keep them in shape.

      As briefly mentioned above we live on a small farm on the Yadkin River, which gives us a great place to work the dogs on a daily basis. Sarah is the main person who spends the most time working our dogs. She exercises and works our dogs’ daily, this includes but not limited to long walks, bumpers thrown in the river, obedience training, blinds, and teaching a pointer to whoa. This daily activity creates a daily routine, and dogs are creatures of habits so they enjoy having a routine to follow. Within this daily routine a bit of fun is also included, whether it is a boat ride on the lake, a hike on Grandfather Mountain, or simply a fun game of fetch with a stick. The dogs seem to put more energy into things when fun aspects are included in their day. A dog that wants to please verses constantly being forced to do something is in our minds more of a joy to be with. Since we live in the country an evening Jeep ride with a dog is not uncommon. We have found this makes the dog excited to see you the next day and puts more of an effort into learning. The dogs we currently have are the dogs we have hunted with for years. In our travels we meet a lot of people, thru this we have found some very good dogs to breed to. Our dogs have a great drive to go hunting but are also a joy to be around, great with children, other dogs, and have a good temperament.