MIKE GOULD

The phone rang one evening in Mike Gould’s farmhouse in the panhandle of Idaho. A lady that Mike had never met was on the line. “Are you the dog whisperer?” she asked. “I have a problem with my dog. Can you talk to him?” That’s because Mike Gould is known as perhaps the finest dog trainer in the world today, one who can bond with a dog, form a team with a dog, understand a dog and inspire a dog to great feats. In fact, he even has teamed up with wild coyotes for 45 minutes at a time, influencing them to do his bidding.

It all started when, as a boy growing up in the mountains of western Colorado, one day Mike Gould walked out of his father’s elk hunting camp with a grouse dog and a shotgun instead of an elk rifle. His life was never to be the same. Since that fateful day, Mike has trained over 3,500 dogs of all breeds, has guided over 2,800 bird hunts, and has become known worldwide for his thoughtful and innovative training methods. As well, he is a leading authority on the development of shooting venues and game habitat.

Mike has been featured some 15 times in the Gun Dogs column of Field & Stream; he has also been profiled in Retriever Journal, Pointing Dog Journal, The Denver Post, The Rocky Mountain News, Shooting Sportsman, and Outdoor Life. He has been featured on 9News in Denver, Doug Miller’s Outdoors in Utah, The Babe Winkleman cable TV show and The Outdoor Life network. Mike has demonstrated for the public at O’Laughlin, Toro, and Safari Club International sports shows and he has given seminars to hundreds of owners of both hunting dogs and household pets. His Grand River breeding program is famous for producing intelligent, devoted, athletic, and talented Labrador retrievers and English pointers.

His good friend Bill Tarrant (now deceased) was widely respected as the senior dean of dog writers worldwide. Bill was the author of 12 dog training books (seven of them featuring Mike and his training methods) and is the gun dog columnist for Field & Stream magazine. His book The Magic of Dogs was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Said Bill, “Mike Gould is the most brilliant gun dog trainer in the world. He has raised dog training to a higher plane…Mike’s dogs are happy dogs, enthused and birdy dogs, hunting fools, who love their human companions and bond with them so the two of them become a hunting machine miraculous to see.”

More than that, however, Mike is a keen observer of life. His thoughts about dogs, the outdoors, habitat, people, and places are sure to delight anyone who enjoys the outdoors. He is the author of Plateaus of Destiny, a collection of short stories, and The Labrador Shooting Dog, a treatise on the Labrador retriever as an all-around hunting dog. Born in 1949, Mike lives in Kamiah, Idaho.

contact: grandriverwebster@comcast.net