Scott Greer - the Handler

Posted on October 2, 2006 by J. Tackett 

Professional dog trainers are a lot like NFL wide receivers. Heck, dog trainers in general are a pretty strange bunch overall. Most that have owned a whistle lanyard and 5 gallon bucket of bumpers for more than about 6 months are the very best dog trainers they've ever had the privilege to meet. Humble is not a widely used word in the inter workings of most tests, and trials. It's nothing new; Cotton, Paul, Tommy, and Orin were all the best they knew as well.

I know that's a strange paragraph above. What I mean is almost every dog trainer is the very best he knows. So many can hand out advice quicker than you can introduce yourself; it's mind-boggling. I think the guys that amaze me the most are the ones who invented this drill or that drill. You know the guy, the one who invented this particular drill, that once it's explained to you, or drawn for you, it looks exactly like what the rest of the world calls a swim-by! We even have guys writing and maybe more importantly selling books on training competitive retrievers that have never titled a dog? As my southern Louisiana padna Scott Arceneaux says as he shakes his head: "Tackett, he's a snake oil salesman, nutn' but a snake oil salesman."

You can't do it…but you're dying to say: "That's great man, but you're about 25-30 years late on that neat little training breakthrough you got there."

That's why I could spend all day long for days on end with Scott Greer. He's one of the most talented dog trainers in the world. The most wonderful thing about Scott is that he's one of the most humble guys in the world. I have seen him ask the most rookie duck dog trainers on numerous occasions a serious training question. I'm convinced he's being sincere….every time. He has no ego and because of that he has an incredible amount of patience. He understands that a retriever is going to make a mistake and he's completely okay with it. He works as hard as Danny Farmer, and Chris Akin. He's the only guy I can say that about.

Big effort is all he asks from his dogs. Although Scott has known which end of a dog to put a food bowl in front of for a relatively short time (8 years) he's had an amazing amount of success.

Think about a smidgen of his SRS record alone. Remember; Scott has only been a professional dog trainer for 3 years.

1. Scott is tied for qualifying the most different dogs (3) for the Crown Championship/GOG. Liza-Addie-Candy

2. Scott won the first SportDOG Team of The Year Race in 2004.

3. Scott has finished in the top 12 places at SRS Stuttgart every year of its existence; without a doubt it's the toughest of the SRS events.

4. Scott and Liza won the Stuttgart event in 2004.

5. Scott has qualified for the big dance 4 of the 7 years it's been held.

6. Maybe the most impressive note is that Scott has done 100% of the training on all the dogs he has taken that far. Chris Akin can't claim that. Not even "The Dean" Jerry Day has that one in his belt.

I remember when I called him and asked him to run the first SRS event some 5 years ago. He sincerely thought I had him confused with someone else and spent 5 minutes trying to convince me I had the wrong dog in Liza.

Scott Greer is a fine fellow, and I'm jealous I'm not more like him.