Ambition to Tradition - Georgia-Florida Shooting Dog Handlers Club

The missing element is the foundation laid down by black bird dog handlers who stood humbly in the shadows of many of the greatest white dog men and field trial dogs on the American field circuit. From Man Rand and Peck Kelly to Leroy Clayton, Albert Cannon Sr., and Malichi Kalip, a number of great dog men have done everything from managing plantations, to breaking horses to pointers and pointers to bobwhites, to scouting for some of America’s renowned talents at every level of field trial history. I once found myself looking through old photos of field trialers, their dogs, and their horses, and every so often I would catch glimpses of black men hidden in the shadows of an already black and white photograph. I wondered who these men were, but seldom if ever was a description left about these figures in the background.