Sandhills Quail Habitat Foundation

Ozzie joined SPBC in 2008 after retiring in 2007. Shortly after retirement, he purchased his first bird dog, a Brittany named Bailey, and it was her who taught him all about training an AKC Master Hunting dog. Since Bailey he has had the good fortune to be involved with training just under a dozen Master Hunters of various breeds, including his English setter Chloe.

His most current training challenge is with his GSP, Thor. After receiving an AKC Master Hunter title, he led me into the NAVHDA arena. After many attempts, they received a Utility Prize 1 title, and in September 2024 they will go to Iowa to participate in the NAVHDA Invitational where they hope to achieve the Versatile Champion title.

Ozzie only lives 20 minutes from the club, and his wife will tell you it is a little too close. Since joining, he is at the club almost daily training one of his dogs, helping others with training, and let’s not forget project work.

Right after joining SPBC, he was nominated to serve as Land Chair, a position that he held for over 14 years. He has also served as Vice President and President. As Land Chair he headed up the clearing and transforming of over 30 acres from woodland to native warm season grasses, which has provided larger areas for the training and testing of bird dogs. He led the building of the pole barn, pigeon coop, and transformed the tobacco barn into a storage area for quail.

He believes the future of the club is bright, not to say that there are not challenges that lie ahead such as purchasing the 100 acres and continual land maintenance. Getting younger members involved should be one of the club’s objectives going forward.