Maurice Lindley
Maurice has been training for almost 20 years. Hed wanted to train pointers and retrievers since he was in his early teens.
"Being around people in the business, watching others, its exciting because every dog is different", he says. "I had dogs I trained for myself, then about 20 years ago, I started training dogs for others."
He learned his trade not only from reading every book available, but also by pestering other trainers such as Paul Long in North Carolina and Canadian Collier Smith.
He said the most important things he learned are what not to do and to teach the dogs through repetition.
"Its an everyday job, and you cant get the repetitions taking a dog out a couple of times a week", he says.
This trainer of pointers and retrievers, so respected hes been featured in the magazine Quail Unlimited and the television show "Country Sportsman", is also deaf.
Four years ago, he lost all hearing in his right ear. He was diagnosed with Menieres
syndrome, what he jokingly calls "some French disease"
Not much is known about the illness, other than that its caused by allergies. There
is no cure, but the person normally loses hearing in only one ear.
Lindley proved an exception when he lot hearing in his left ear and became completely deaf last year.
A new method of training the dogs needed to be learned. A Texas trainer taught him a silent way to work.
Its a technique he actually finds better than his old method.
"To me, the silence is the best way. I wish Id been doing it 20 years," he says. "You think about it, dogs dont know a word of English so its better to show them than to tell them."
Lindley's Kennel sits on 260 acres "where he could turn the trainees loose to be sure theyd learned well." It includes a boarding kennel, grooming and training facilities.
Maurice is has a wife, Kaye, and a step-daughter, Sonya.
Borrowed from THE GREENVILLE NEWS, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1998.
by Jimmy Cornelison
Maurice Lindley
Lindley Kennels
803-243-4979 (Home)
803-243-3583 (Kennel)
SouthernGunDog@aol.com
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