Trailwind Acres is a small acreage in rural Iowa which provides Randy and Cheryl the enjoyment of spending time with their English Springer Spaniels, Golden Retrievers, and Welsh Springer Spaniels in a variety of activities. Fortunately it also provides Cheryl and Randy the opportunity for others to participate in training with their dogs in various venues. Over the years we have been fortunate to provide assistance for agility training, obedience training, various field work and training needs, tracking, and scentwork.
While the activity with the dogs takes up a great deal of time, we have enjoyed being able to enhance wildlife habitat in various areas of the property. This has added to the enjoyment of the visits and company of many different birds and mammals during each season of the year.
Randy began competition training in 1981 primarily in obedience and field trial venues. He grew up always having an English Springer Spaniel in the household, with his parents having introduced him to English Springer Spaniels in the mid-1960’s with the purchase of their first Springer. He feels fortunate to have those early experiences with a dog being conformationally sound while also possessing a high drive in the field during pheasant hunts. Those early experiences instilled the appreciation and importance of maintaining the versatility of various breeds. He continues to enjoy time afield on upland and waterfowl hunts with his canine companions.
He participates in obedience, rally, agility, hunting tests, tracking tests, and as time allows the conformation ring. Over the years he feels fortunate and blessed to have been able to achieve a combination of Utility Dog titles, Master Hunter titles, various tracking titles including Champion Trackers, Agility titles including multiple MACHs, as well as breed Championships accompanying many of those performance titles. He feels especially blessed by his canine companions having qualified multiple times for the National Agility Championship, National Rally Championship, and Agility Invitational. He began judging field events in the late 1980’s, adding obedience judging in 2000, and during the past few years also adding agility to his judging privileges, with the goal of giving something back to the sports for which many fantastic judges have contributed to his competition experiences over the years.
Over the years he has served numerous committee and/or officer positions for the English Springer Spaniel Field Trial Association, the Welsh Springer Spaniel Club of America, as well as the local Ames, Cyclone Country Kennel Club all-breed dog club, and regional breed clubs.