The farm lifestyle has taught me strong work ethics which include being honest and respecting people, nature, and definitely animals. I have had the opportunity to learn a lot about training dogs in the last 19 years. One thing that I learned immediately is that you have got to have respect for your dog without respect you will never be able to work as a team. I graduated from East Carolina University in the spring of 1991 with a BS in Industrial Technology. After looking for a job for a couple of months, I returned home to work on the family farm where I later became a partner in the to***co business . However, all of my spare time and off-season farming time was spent on training my own personal hunting dogs, which I titled Master Hunters. After years of farming and experiencing a lot of success in the retriever training field, I decided to pursue my passion professionally. I trained my first Labrador retriever in 1996, a black female I bought from Black River Retrievers. Her name is Layce and one of the best dogs I have ever hunted beside. In 1999, I decided it was time for another dog. I read about a litter in the newspaper, after talking and visiting with the litter owner I bought Trouble. While training him, I realized at the age of 6 months that I had something special. Researching the internet I found out about AKC hunt tests. Being a little skeptical I went to a trial, and was immediately hooked. Four years later this newspaper dog was North Carolina's first GRHRCH/MH. I am very thankful that Grand Hunting Retriever Champion (GRHRCH) Sin Lake's Big Time Trouble MH picked me. I decided to take my passion to the next level and began taking client dogs in '04. Here at Gold Leaf Retrievers we have qualified over 80% of our dogs since fall of 04'. Juan Rosas joined me in March 05', and has been a very important part of our program. He has more than 8 year's of field trial experience. Juan is known by many as one of the best young dog trainers on the east coast. Because of Juan we are running a limited number of AKC Field Trial qualifying and derby events. I have been married to my wife, Laura, for 25 years. We have three children. Haley, our oldest daughter, is 23; Hannah, our middle daughter, is 21; and Caden, our son is 18 years old.
