Laura Matzke has been training dogs for performance events for 15 years, beginning with her very first springer adopted from the Humane Society. Since then, Laura has multiple advanced obedience titles on her springers and setters, many of whom have achieved national rankings in their respective breeds, along with multiple all-breed and National Specialty HIT’s. Laura’s dogs have also achieved titles in tracking, agility and AKC’s newest performance event, rally. She has taught pet and competition-level obedience classes, privately and in group settings. Laura’s training and teaching emphasizes attention as a foundation and motivational, positive step-by-step methods to teach the desired behavior. Her dogs are known for their happy, precise performances in the ring. Laura frequently attends seminars on training and behavior to keep her methods up-to-date, and enjoys sharing her experience with others.

Richard has been training and hunting sporting dogs since the age of 15, and grew up in a family of springers and dual champion shorthairs. He was shooting in pointing dog field trials by age 17, and trained with the renowned GSP trainer, Bob Holcomb, as a teenager. He’s been training and running dogs in hunt tests and field trials since 1980, and has been judging both events since the mid-80’s. Since 1990, Richard has earned 24 field titles on personally-owned dogs in hunt tests and field trials, in both AKC and CKC events. These include 5 National Champion titles and 2 National runner-ups. For friends he has trained and placed shorthairs, wirehairs, pointers, all three varieties of setters, vizslas, weimaraners, brittanies, wirehaired pointing griffons, and springers in AKC field trials and hunt tests, as well as NSTRA and NAVHDA events. He’s also helped friends learn how to successfully handle their dogs in competition. To judge field events and compete with his dogs, Richard has traveled from Washington state to New York state, and all points in between (often making stops to go hunting along the way).

Richard enjoys the natural abilities of both pointing and flushing dogs. He trains using praise, repetition and correction. Dogs are clearly taught the exercise first, and the electric collar is only used if necessary for later correction. Several of Richard’s dogs have never and never will experience the e-collar. One of Richard’s gifts is his ability to tailor his training method to the particular dog, rather than impose an identical regimen on every dog. His overall goal is to enhance that dog’s natural abilities. He believes ALL breeds can retrieve, and enjoys demonstrating his pointers’s retrieving abilities on both land and water. Richard looks forward to sharing his learning experiences with others.