If you’re passionate about hunting dogs, get to know the one man in dog training today who stands above others.

Follow the man’s advice and you’ll learn about positive training through repetition, association, and point of contact. One of Delmar’s maxims is, “To train like a pro, you have to think like a dog.”

He’s a cowboy poet, a rail-fence philosopher, and, in the words of his great collaborator, the writer Bill Tarrant, “the best friend a dog ever had.” In his long, storied, impossible-to-duplicate career, he’s undoubtedly trained more bird dogs, and trained more trainers of bird dogs, than anyone, ever. His holy trinity of concepts—repetition, association, point of contact—has become part of the lexicon, but perhaps his most important contribution has been his incomparable ability to demonstrate the superiority of humane, positive training, while exposing the folly of methods that rely on punishment and coercion.

Equal parts showman and preacher, he’s spread this enlightened gospel to thousands of dog owners in the 55 years since he held his first training seminar for a gathering of Brittany enthusiasts . . . . –Tom Davis

At 90 years young, Delmar Smith is your go-to dog trainer.  In “Delmar,” author Tom Davis emphasises Smith’s charm and charisma through Delmar’s training methods, which result from positively giving the commands.  According to Delmar, training means molding the dog’s brain just as an artist does with clay.

The full “Delmar” feature is published in the February- March 2016 issue.

Photographs by: Terry Allen