Hello! I would like to welcome you to the Stonewall Boarding Kennel. Let me
tell you a little about myself. My family is mostly from Columbia County New York State.
At one time Columbia county had more diary farms per square mile then any county in Wisconsin
I was born and raised in New York State. For most of my childhood we lived on a 500 acre dairy farm.
I have always loved animals and the outdoors. I love to fish and hunt. For the past 20 years I
have lived in New Fairfield, Connecticut working as a Senior Systems Programmer in Information
Technology. I have worked for many fortune 500 companies such as IBM, Duracell, and
Pepsi.
When did I get involved with Dogs?
I have grown up with dogs my entire life. I got interested in the sport of field trialing retrievers
and breeding them in 1980 and it has been my passion ever since. In 1994 I decided I wanted to
purchase land to have a place to train my own dogs. So I purchased 106 acres in the town Carlisle
in 1994. I built ponds a year after I owned the land for training my retrievers. It was always my
intention to move and build here.
What made me decided to open a boarding kennel?
After the tragedy of 9/11 the world and many people have never been the same. I remember I was
oncall that week as I worked for IBM and many of the people we worked with died in the twin
towers. Business changed, and people changed and not for the better. So I decided live is to short
and it was time to work at something I love DOGS. In April of 2004 I sold my house in New Fairfield
CT and started to build a home along with the boarding kennel and grooming shop. I wanted to build a
a business that I can retire into someday. I still work in IT and I am starting the business slowly with
help from my family.
I have been actively training and campaigning my labs in the American Kennel
Club Field Trial and Hunt Test programs since 1980. And I have had two field champions
My Two Field Champions
I feel all years experience of training, breeding and field trialing my dogs successfully gives me
an excellent background. I also love living on my farm and when I look out the windows the only
thing I see is my own land, the deer and turkey.
My background with dogs
As a kid growing up I had a collie. In 1980 I bought my first retriever a golden. I named this
dog Stonewall Lady Bird. This dog is who I named my kennel after. I have shown Golden Retrievers
in breed and obedience. Then a friend took me to my first field trial and I have been doing that
ever since. Then after seeing it was easier to field trial labs I bought my first Labrador in 1981.
In that time I have campaigned many different dogs in the US and Canada. Since I have been
field trialing I have a American Field Champion FC Esprit's Cool It and a Canadian Amateur Field
Champion Stonewall Sweet Smell Sucess. Both of these dogs have run in nationals in Canadian and
the USA. I have two dogs on the national derby list. I have also had 16 all age qualified dogs.
The dog below is Triple K Geechee. I ran him in the US and Canada, but I was not to have
Geechee long as he developed bone cancer and I had to him put to sleep at age 2 1/2.
This almost broke my heart as Geechee was a wonderful dog to me. Below are the ribbons
& 2 Ducks Unlimited prints he won in a Canadian trial, all these before age 2. Geechee
was on the derby list in US & Canada. He also finished the very first open he ran in.
TRIPLE K GEECHEE
American & Canadian Derby list. All age qualified in both Countries.
FC ESPIRIT'S COOL IT "CHILL"
Handler JJ Sweezey AT 1996 National Open
This is a picture of my first Field Champion "Chill". Chill died in the spring of 2004
at age 13 years (THEY NEVER LIVE LONG ENOUGH).
The picture below is Chill running at the 1996 National I could not get away to run him in the
National Open in Texas. Chill also qualified for Canadian National Open in 1998.
CAFC STONEWALL SWEET SMELL SUCESS
Bud is a CAFC and was on the '97 National Derby list with 23 points. Bud is CAFC working
towards his AFC and qualified for the Canadian 2000 & 2002 National Open and 2000 &
2003 National Amateur. Bud ran the 2002 Canadian National Open with me and we went 8 series
that was the first national for him and me. Below is a picture of Bud with some his derby ribbons
the first year I field trialed. Bud died in March of 2005. This was an extremely hard loose, as
Bud was only 11 years old. But he wagged his tail to the day he died.
De my yellow has completed and gotten jams in US Opens and Canadian Field Trials.
I have gotten obedience titles on my dogs, do a little agility, and have run in hunt test and
run field trials for 25 plus years.
This was a very exciting weekend up in Canada, we only ran one Canadian trial in 2001. I Won the
Amateur with Bud, I won the Qualifying with Punk, and got a third with De. This was in New Brunswick,
Moncton. This was the first time I had ever been there. The grounds are super it was the same place they
held the Canadian 99 national amateur. That weekend we saw three moose, the black flies where so bad
they drive the moose out of the woods. I have placed two dog in one stake. And that weekend was the
third time I have placed two dogs in one stake. I have done it with Bud and Kix in derby and qualifying.
Now I have done it with De and Punk. But this was the first time I have ever won two different stakes
at a license trial.
I am also an AKC judge for performance events,(Retriever Field Trials) and have been for 27 years.
I have breed many litters and have written many articles on breeding
and raising puppies and training of retrievers. These are my views and what I have done for the
past 20 plus years in raising puppies. If you care to read any of the articles on dog training. click here .