About Us

Rainmaker Labradors started with my first purebred Labrador in
1998, Riverside's Hunter Hudson, Senior Hunter. I had no idea what
I had in store when I picked out that little chocolate puppy at the age
of three weeks and then brought him home at seven weeks. I had
bought Richard Wolters' book, Game Dog, and followed it step by
step until at 6 months of age, Hudson was quite the trained dog, sit,
heel, come, steady as a rock to gunshot and hand delivering
bumpers. Until we took him hunting real birds for the very first time.
Then reality set in as we chased him over 40 acres of flushing
roosters and I sought the help of a professional trainer, John Flink of
Monday Lake Kennels in Sarona, Wisconsin. From there, we were
launched into a whole new world which belonged primarily to the
AKC Hunt Test. While I still endorse any and all of Richard Wolters'
books and tapes as a fabulous beginning to training a pup, I feel,
beginners particularly, will benefit hugely from either having their dog
professionally trained at some point and/or utilizing other training
sources such as the voluminous tapes and books available. A
puppy class and basic obedience class will do wonders for any dog,
even if it is meant solely as a pet and companion and not a hunter.
Hudson spent about 8 weeks with John initially and I was then
introduced to things such as marks, blinds, handling, distraction
birds, duck calls, e-collars, swim bys, T-patterns, cheating, live fliers,
hidden gunners, go-birds and a whole lot of other words that would
later become embedded in my vocabulary. As well, I spent many
hours standing in cold, heat, bugs, rain, swamp, more bugs, to learn
how, along with my ever trusting Hudson, to retrieve really smelly
ducks in a manner that would pass for his Junior Hunter title.
Hudson then went back for more training and the following season
succeeded in getting a Senior Hunter title, both of us learning an
amazing amount along the way, while I fell in love with the Labrador
breed and the game of Hunt Tests. I owe a great deal to John Flink
and the rest of the Monday Lake training group for having the
patience to deal with a complete beginner to the Labrador game and
it wasn't until I moved away from Wisconsin that I truly realized the
value of such a group and how fortunate I was to have enjoyed their
company. Now having returned to our hometown of Hayward,
Wisconsin, we are back in training with the Monday Lake group,
running tests and once more enjoying the full capacities of our dogs.