A good bird dog on point may conjure the mysteries and wonders of nature in those watching, but, like any athlete–human or canine alike–instinct and talent need direction.
Enter the bird dog trainer, who harnesses the dog’s raw talent and sharpens its skills in the field or woods.
This year, there is no better bird dog trainer than Lake Orion’s own David Grubb.
In February, Grubb was inducted into the Bird Dog Foundation’s Field Trial Hall of Fame in Grand Junction, Tennessee; a trainer’s equivalent to a ballplayer getting into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
He is the only Michigan-based trainer to have ever been inducted.
‘It was quite an honor,? Grubb said. ‘It makes you feel good and humble you’ve done all this.?
Grubb has travelled nationally and even internationally with bird dogs, competing in–and winning many–field trials.
‘I’ve had several dogs that have won several competitions. That was quite an achievement,? he said.
In 1996, he won the Purina Award with the English Pointer Miller’s Silver Ending. He has also won in the Midwest, the South and on the West Coast.
Grubb is the only handler in field trial history to have won major championships on five different game birds: quail, pheasant, prairie chicken, chukar and ruffed grouse.
While Grubb is now a hall-of-famer for training setters and pointers for field trials, he mostly trains dogs for bird hunting, a pursuit he was introduced to on the moors of Scotland, where he was born.
When he was 12, his family moved to the United States. He now speaks with no identifiable accent.
‘I had to lose the brogue or no one could understand me,? he said.
Grubb won his first field trial when he was only 16 or so years old with a Brittany named Rabe the Hunter, the first dog he trained.
That was in 1956. Since then, Grubb said he’s trained around 10,000 dogs, mostly English Setters and English Pointers, but also other breeds like Brittanys, German Shorthair Pointers and Weimaraners.
‘I get dogs from all over the country to train,? he said.
Since moving to the township in 1961, when he married his wife, Henrietta, most of that training has taken place in Orion, though Grubb now spends winters in Selma, Alabama to get away from the cold.
He has 19 dogs with him there right now.
Grubb still hunts in northern Michigan, but said he and sons, David and Dean, head out to Dakota each year.
But Orion is still home and the base for his operations. Grubb has bred dogs and still runs a healthy bird dog training operation from home.
It’s what he loves the most.
‘I like being outdoors,? he said. ‘I get a kick out of it when the people come to pick up the dog and they are able to see what it can do. It’s satisfying seeing the way a dog develops.?
For more information about Grubb’s kennel, call 248-391-1446.