Let me preface this post by saying I may be a little biased as I am a client of Mark Smith and Southlake Kennel. But is there a better professional trainer who consistently places his dogs in the Open more than Mark? He typically has 5-7 dogs entered and routinely places 2-4 of them. It's one thing to have 20-25 entries and place 2. But it sure is impressive to have only six bullets in your gun and hit the target so consistently.
Percentage best Pro Trainer?
rsfavor
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Let me preface this post by saying I may be a little biased as I am a client of Mark Smith and Southlake Kennel. But is there a better professional trainer who consistently places his dogs in the Open more than Mark? He typically has 5-7 dogs entered and routinely places 2-4 of them. It's one thing to have 20-25 entries and place 2. But it sure is impressive to have only six bullets in your gun and hit the target so consistently.
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Mark does a great job. His 5 or 6 are as good as anyones top 5 or 6. With the results I would think his five or six would be up in the future!!
Aaron
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If Mark was in Texas, he'd have 25 all-age dogs!
SM
SM
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He's not in it for the money but, for the women!
P S
Chief is going to Brazosport in pursuit of the 2011 High Point Derby designation. If he were to get that designation, that would give Mark two High Point Derby dogs, Ronfleaux being the first.
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I have never met the man, but as I have kept up with the various trials that he has participated in, I have been extremely impressed.
It's really a headscratcher as to why he doesn't have more dogs. If I was local to that area, he would be at the top of my list.
It's really a headscratcher as to why he doesn't have more dogs. If I was local to that area, he would be at the top of my list.
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It is fun just listening to him & Mr. Danny talk about old stories and what not. They both crack me up. Mr. Mark is obviously a top notch pro as well.
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They can't all place at the top, and I may have read this wrong, but if you are implying Mark's success is because he only has to focus on "6" dogs you obviously have never trained with him.
Bobby Boudet
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There are a lot of great trainers around.
Most A-List Pros don't do Basics, they either get the dog after or have someone else do it. I don't recall many A-List Pros that consistently win and place in all the stakes they are eligible for.
Plus, he doesn't have the clientel with deep pockets buying hot two years olds to place on his truck. Not that it has never happened but, it is not a regular occurence like many big named Pros have thier clients do.
Couple of years ago I was shopping for a Toyota car. In the salesman's office was a picture of a black Lab female. I made the comment, "Nice looking dog". The guy didn't know me from Adam. He says to me, "she was a FT dog and won 5 Qualifyings". I said, "That's impossible, they can't run Q's after they have won two". His eyes got really big and said, "you don't believe me and you know what a Qualifing FT stake is"? I said, yes I know what a Q is. He said, Mark Smith trained her and Ill get him on the phone. I said, "no need I talk with him on a fairly regular basis, which I did back then.
The story is; Mark won all 3 Q's at the Triple D/Q with her and had her entered in two more, which she won.
Most A-List Pros don't do Basics, they either get the dog after or have someone else do it. I don't recall many A-List Pros that consistently win and place in all the stakes they are eligible for.
Plus, he doesn't have the clientel with deep pockets buying hot two years olds to place on his truck. Not that it has never happened but, it is not a regular occurence like many big named Pros have thier clients do.
Couple of years ago I was shopping for a Toyota car. In the salesman's office was a picture of a black Lab female. I made the comment, "Nice looking dog". The guy didn't know me from Adam. He says to me, "she was a FT dog and won 5 Qualifyings". I said, "That's impossible, they can't run Q's after they have won two". His eyes got really big and said, "you don't believe me and you know what a Qualifing FT stake is"? I said, yes I know what a Q is. He said, Mark Smith trained her and Ill get him on the phone. I said, "no need I talk with him on a fairly regular basis, which I did back then.
The story is; Mark won all 3 Q's at the Triple D/Q with her and had her entered in two more, which she won.
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Shayne, can you elaborate on your statement? I guess what I'm asking is, why would Mark living in Texas matter.
Thanks
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Are you saying the top trainers around the country are not giving their top 6 dogs enough training?
I find that pretty hard to believe.
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Mark Smith is simply one of the best trainers in the country and he should be on anyone's short list who is looking for a professional retriever trainer, it wouldn't matter if he had 6 dogs or 60 dogs he would give it his best with every one of them, hard work and dog savvy is what makes him successful regardless of the number of pupils he has..........and does anyone remember a few years back he had a detached retina and his future as a pro was in question?
He recovered nicely, I consider him a friend and I applaud him for his success because when I first knew him when he was just a kid training dogs, not very many of them and not many of them very good.....
Good goin' Mark....your success is not accidental
He recovered nicely, I consider him a friend and I applaud him for his success because when I first knew him when he was just a kid training dogs, not very many of them and not many of them very good.....
Good goin' Mark....your success is not accidental
Mark ran a Ht I was judging about 20 years ago. I only saw him that one weekend and have never seen him run again. His dog did exceptional work and so did he. When I first saw him run,,,,I said to myself 'this guys got something special going on" He left a lasting impression for just the one time he ran that I saw. I didn't know him from Adam. And I can picture his dog work that he did this very day as I type this.. if I can still remember that today,,,then I would say what a great first impression he made.
And he seemed like a really good guy too.
Pete
And he seemed like a really good guy too.
Pete
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That was the wrong Mark Smith or wrong time interval, Mark was running field trials before there were hunt tests, he was handling dogs in the National Championship stake more than 20 years ago
Lets compare ITrain..tell all of us how many dogs have you titled ???OOOH! almost forgot.. you have only 45 post...so you know nothing about Mark....I been knowing him since 1998 had dogs with him,trained with him plenty of times all day, everyday i promise you that it doesn't matter if he's got 6 or 20 each dog gets his undivided attention.. from force fetch to open dogs everyone gets his expertise...when he is not traing he is raising a 5 yr. boy and that is a full time job alone..
BobbyB
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·You don't know better so I am going to be kind.
A pro will run every all age dog he/she has every weekend unless he/she can't due to a health issue or something like that. So no, Mark is not bringing different dogs to each event.1 - 20 of 33 Posts
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