Pro Talks: with Elite Field Master, Bill Gibson
Sportsman’s Pride Elite Field Master, Bill Gibson, is the Head of Gun Dog Operations and Master Trainer at Mossy Oak Gamekeeper Kennels in Mississippi.
In 2004, Bill was part of the first US Gun Dog team to participate in the United Kingdom and won the International Gun Dog Challenge beating out England, Scotland, Wales, and more.
We sat down with him to learn more about his work in training some of the worlds best hunting dogs.
When you tell people what you do for a living, what do you tell them?
I manage Mossy Oak Gamekeeper Kennels and train British bred Labrador Retrievers.
What other dog/animal related work have you done leading up to what you do now?
For many years I trained American labs and in 2000 I started training British Lab puppies that belonged to me. In 2006, I started breeding British Labs, selling the puppies and taking them in for training when they turned 6 months old.
What was your goal for this past year with your dogs?
My goals this year are as follows:
1. To complete construction on a second kennel house.
2. To double the number dogs coming in for training.
3. To begin and complete construction on a new puppy whelping facility.
4. To increase the size of our water training area.
What would you consider to be your greatest achievement in your field?
Being selected as a member of the US Gundog Team, taking our dogs to the United Kingdom, competing in working test against gundog teams from England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland. We ran very well and won both the P&O Irish International Gundog Championship and the Atlantic Cup.
Why do you trust/feed Sportsman’s Pride?
Sportsman’s Pride is a high-quality dog food. We get excellent weight retention, shiny coats, small/firm stools, and no food allergies. Our puppies are weaned using Sportsman’s Pride Field Master Puppy. Using this puppy food, the pups are weaned off the mother in a short time and meet our desired weight gain every day.
What do you or your dogs do that set you apart from the rest?
The thing that sets us apart from the rest is our attained goal of consistently producing the finest hunting dogs one can own.
Tell me about the best dog(s) you’ve ever worked with.
During my career, I have worked with many outstanding dogs but, two stand head and shoulders above the rest. The first was my dog Loughbrook Fern call name “Jet”. He was absolutely astounding in the field yet, a gentleman in the house. We won numerous awards in British style trials here in the US and he was a major contributor to winning the P&O Irish International Gundog Championship and the Atlanta Cup in Northern Ireland. The other is Mossy Oak Timbo, a fox red British Lab. He was the most biddable and trainable dog that I ever trained. He went from a 6 month old untrained pup to a brilliant hunting retriever in one month. He still lives in the house fulltime and has hunted doves and ducks for years. He has retrieved literally hundreds of birds in his stellar career.
If we spent a couple of days with you during season, what would we see during that time?
Here at the kennel you would see me planning breeding’s, checking to see if the females are in season, putting the breeders together, feeding dogs, washing kennels, cleaning puppies, sanitizing puppy houses, recording puppy weights, feeding puppies, giving dogs the heartworm preventative and flea and tick meds, and training dogs on basic obedience, intermediate and advanced retriever skill sets.
How do you like to spend your days off?
I work seven days a week, so I don’t have much time off. Some days I take off an hour or two to go fishing in the spring and summer. I also take a few days off in the fall and winter and drive out to Quinter, Kansas for a few days of upland hunting and in January for a couple of days duck hunting on the Chesapeake Bay. In addition, this year, I am taking a week off in October to hunt pheasant, partridge, snipe, woodcock, ducks, wood pigeon, and rabbits in the Stonehaven, Scotland area.
