Last March, Manda Michaelis saw a bird dog dream come true in the piney woods of Thomasville, Georgia. At the forty-third annual field trial of the Georgia-Florida Shooting Dog Handlers Club—a group of about thirty-five prominent Black dog trainers, many descended from a long line of handlers and trainers guiding hunters through the Red Hills’ famed quail properties—Michaelis competed as the club’s first female member.
“I’m just really proud that I came into this community and can do what it takes,” she says. “I wanted to show them that I can work as hard as everyone else and that my dog is as good as everyone else’s, and now I can open the door for others.”
The bird-dog bug bit Michaelis hard after she got her German shorthaired pointer Benny…
You're reading a preview of
Garden & Gun (Digital) - 1 Issue, October/November 2023