Robert Milner

•  1972 - I established Wildrose Kennels in Grand Junction TN. I

began training gundogs and field trial dogs. I trained 2 dogs which

became Field Champions and attained qualified all age status with a

number of dogs. I Began teaching dog obedience at

Memphis State University

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• 1982 - I ceased training field trial dogs and concentrated on

gundogs. I travelled to England in search of examples of original

Labradors imported from England. I imported the first British

Labradors to Wildrose Kennels in 1983.

 

• 1983-84 - I Established relationship with Maj. Morty

Turner-Cooke, a well recognized British Field trailer and gundog

trainer and breeder. Morty was my principle source for British

Labradors at Wildrose Kennels. Maj. Turner-Cooke remains my principle advisor on all things concerning British Field Trial Dogs and British Gundogs. He is aided today Robin Watson (Tibea Gundogs), a noted British Labrador trainer and an A Panel judge for British Retriever Field Trials.

 

• 1995 - I sold Wildrose Kennels in order to focus my attention on my Commercial Real Estate Business. I sold Wildrose Kennels to Ed Apple in 1995. He subsequently sold Wildrose Kennels to Mike Stewart in 1999. I mentored Mike Stewart for several years to help him get started with British Labradors. I gave him his logo (a piece of the artwork from my first book) and some guidance on gentle training and the value thereof. I also went to England with him and introduced him to Morty Turner-Cooke and several notable British gundog trainers. I also introduced Mike Stewart to the folks at Ducks Unlimited and suggested him for their retriever focused marketing program. Mike Stewart has subsequently done a superb job of growing Wildrose Kennels and continuing Wildrose Kennels' tradition of breeding high quality British Labrador gundogs and conducting gentle training.
  Over the years, I have probably trained around a thousand American bred Labradors for Field trial and gundog work and have trained a similar number of British Bred Labradors for gundog work. Along the way I have trained a fair number of explosive detection dogs and Disaster Search (USAR)

 

• About Robert Milner founder of Wildrose Kennels and founder of Duckhill Kennels

 

• 1996 - Retired from USAFR as LtCol with 26 years active and reserve duty in Disaster Response, Radar, Logistics

  • Retriever Training for the Duck Hunter

  • Retriever Training, A Back to Basics Approach

  • A Disaster Search Dog Training Manual (FEMA)

 

• Designer and Implementer of Disaster Search dog program for

FEMA's Tennessee Task Force One, former Program Manager, Canine

Manager and Task Force Leader for Tennessee Task Force

One (FEMA US&R)

• Winter Olympics at Salt Lake City

• Columbia Space Shuttle Recovery

• Hurricane Francis

• Hurricane Ophelia

• Hurricane Ivan

• Hurricane Rita

 

• 2007 - I established Duckhill Kennels to breed better dogs for gundog work, scent detection work, and disaster search work. I am using almost exclusively British Labradors for these functions because of the great hunting initiative and trainability of British Labradors. I also established and designed DuckHill to serve as a laboratory in which to develop and improve the training processes for the above three functions . A primary goal of this training exploration is to remove as much force as possible from the training process and replace it with operant conditioning/positive reinforcement training techniques.

 

• As I develop these gentle training techniques and protocols, I will post them on the Duckhill website in written and video formats. My goal is to develop a simplified, gentle training process which will be easy for the typical hunter to apply to his dog and produce a well trained, effective gundog.