On July 14, 2024, Lt. Col. Robert Milner Jr., US Air Force, Ret., passed away, leaving a tremendous void in the gundog world. Milner fought a rare kidney disease for five years, and he died peacefully surrounded by his family. He was 79.
Milner cut his teeth training bird dogs with his late father. When his Vietnam War draft card was punched, Milner enlisted in the US Air Force and served five years of active duty. He then joined the USAF Reserves, and while stationed in Washington State met legendary Lab trainer Roy Gonia. Milner got a Lab pup from Gonia, and the pair won derbies and field trials. That experience redirected Milner’s focus from bird dogs to retrievers.
A few years later Milner moved to Grand Junction, Tennessee, and launched Wildrose Kennels (currently owned by Mike Stewart) as an American Lab breeding and training kennel. But that changed in 1980 when he visited England and met Maj. Morty Turner-Cook. Turner-Cook introduced Milner to British Labs, which were smaller in size, athletic and had a calm-at-your-side, hell-in-the-field disposition. Milner introduced British Labs and positive training methods to the US through Wildrose Kennels.
Milner’s quest for knowledge about training methods and working dogs of all disciplines was constant and relentless. He shared his learnings in thousands of articles and three books.
In the early ’90s Milner designed and implemented a disaster-search-dog program for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and served as the Tennessee Task Force Leader. Milner launched his second facility, Duckhill Kennels, and worked with the UK’s Robin Watson of Tibea Gundogs. Their goal was to breed better retrievers to be used as gundogs and in scent detection and disaster search work. With Milner’s passing, Duckhill Kennels will close at the end of 2024.
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