"When people have hundreds of Facebook "friends" the word loses its meaning.  But not for me.  I know what a friend is, and Mel Milton has been my best friend and training partner for over 17 years.   Mel's encyclopedic knowledge of field trials, along with his infinite patience with me, has made my success as a professional trainer possible.   Mel has helped me train countless dogs on the Derby list, many, many Qualified all age pups, made a few FC's and qualified for the past five Nationals in a row.  

"Mel's generosity in allowing me to purchase the Niland property will raise the training of the wonderful retrievers on the Justin Time truck to a new level.    Mel's pure and infectious love of the dogs is a constant reminder to me to enjoy each day I am training these amazing animals.  Our countless years of day in and day out enjoyment of field trial training have been some of the best days of my life.  Like Mel, I have dedicated myself to making the best dogs I can:  dogs that thoroughly enjoy their work toward becoming a top notch field trial competitor.    

"I would not be where I am today, realizing my life's dream, without the support of my family, wonderful clients and their amazing animals, and true friends like  Mel and Joan Milton.  

"Thank you Mel and Joan for your continued support and encouragement for me to go forward just one more giant step toward becoming all that I can be in this life." - Patti Kiernan