duckhill kennels????

[lucky521]

Has anyone ever bought a dog from duck hill kennels outside of Memphis TN? I am looking into getting a British lab, and have heard nothing but good things about Robert Millner's training techniques and his dogs. just want to get some first hand advice if any of y'all have bought one? thanks

[EvanG]

No, but I've trained several. To be fair, I would simply say you'll do better for yourself to keep looking. Do more research. Talk to more people. See more dogs for yourself.

EvanG

[claimsadj]

I too would look elsewhere. I've not heard much positive from the few people I know that have dogs from him. Personally I would only have one if it was free and came with a lifetime of food.

[mfalkner]

You won't find a lotta love for Brit dogs on this forum in general, with a couple of notable exceptions. One breeder who does get high marks for his dogs out of British lines is Haynes Floyd at TT Kennels. He's in Kansas but has MS ties and several DS folks either own or have watched his dogs work.

[B3]

I get the impression most of duckhill customers are satisfied. Milner has different goals for his training methods using clickers and very little aversive. If this is the way you want to train then I would expect his dogs to be a good choice. If you are planning to do complex high level us style training then I would look elsewhere. If you do go with the duckhill program and get a dog from there then you can expect to get a lot of help from Milner down the road. You might need it because his methods are entirely different than mainstream professional training and it would be hard to integrate in with the typical pro or amateur training group

Bill

[B3]

Btw I am a fan of Brit dogs

[Northbigmuddy]

I think it really depends on what you want at the end of the day. If your looking for a US trial style dog then Milner's training methods and maybe even the dogs won't be a good fit. I have one of his pups and have been very pleased. I am not a hardcore hunter or an accomplished trainer. My dog has plenty of raw talent and if I were a better trainer I expect that he would be a more accomplished dog. I have watched Mr. Milner and his son work several of their dogs and have not seen any major issues in my opinion. The dogs were well behaved and did what was asked of them. I would agree with a previous post that you need to research and be clear on what you want and how you want to get there. Once you figure that stuff out your choice should be clear.

[cheeko]

Whislting Wings Kennel in Union Grove, AL. They have English and American parent dogs.

[EvanG]

To be clear, I have no axe to grind with British dogs, or British trainers...at all. I'm not a British dog fan. I'm not a US dog fan. I'm a dog fan. If it's a quality dog I'm his fan. But in your opening post I got the impression you needed to do more research so you can make a better informed choice about a dog, no matter what spot of dirt his parents may have come from.

By seeing more well trained working retrievers in more venues you should get a better idea of something very important; what a quality dog can really do with real training in them. If you only have exposure to one strain of dog, trained only one way, you aren't getting enough of a cross section of exposure to really know what you want living at your house.

Shop wisely. You'll live with your dog for about 12-14 years if you're lucky. Hopefully they'll be happy fulfilling years.

EvanG

[mfalkner]

I have liked many of the Brit dogs I've hunted over, whether from Wildrose or Duckhill. My partner has a Duckhill pup that seems like its going to turn out ok. I've been to his place and found it to be a nice operation, but as Bill said your best chance of success is to use a positi e training program.

[GulfCoast]

Hello Lucky521. I have a "British" HRCH/MH who has picked up thousands (literally) of birds in the blind and would have been running (as opposed to winning) in the Q/AM right now if she had not blown out her knee in a fence war a few months ago. I also have an FC/AFC x SRS/MH*** puppy. I have no bias one way or the other. I just like nice dogs. B3 has a very nice HRCH/MH brit dog as well. There are 5 others withing an couple hours drive. And there will be more highly HT titled UK-line HT dogs as "first time buyers" of "british dogs" discover the dogg games and train to a higher level than "running blinds with noses to the ground." Results come much more from how the dogs are trained than where they are from, since they ALL came out of the UK at one point or the other.

Don't buy "British" or "American." Buy a puppy from a set of parents that you have seen work, from a breeder that competes in some sort of arena to prove their dogs have the genetic capability to work, and the trainability to be a good partner. Consider why you want "british." There are fine american litters that will do the same work, probably somewhere close. If "british" is what you want, more power to you. DO YOUR HOMEWORK. Especially on the dog's water attitude. You can end up with a really nice dog, but none of them train themselves, despite the implied marketing of some folks.

If I personally wanted a puppy out of proven "do most everything" imported UK lines, I would look very hard at Tom Hamilton at http://www.brackenfen.com or Haynes Floyd at TT British Labs, and not much of anywhere else. YMMV.

This board can provide you a lot of information.

Good luck with your puppy.

[simplepeddler]

[lucky521]

Thank all of y'all for the advice. it really was a big help! I will take it all into consideration when selecting! as far as the pup goes, what are some qualities to look for in such a young pups? I'm talking about the actual physical characteristics of the puppy? ( sorry to change the subject but you all have more knowledge on this subject than i do)

[Mark Sehon]

What GulfCoast said. X2

[claimsadj]

You need to be concerned with health clearances first. Get an understanding of that and then worry about the pedigree second.