Sumner, MO – Habitat Flats, LLC is proud to announce the opening of Habitat Flats Kennels (HFK) in March 2021. Habitat Flats has enjoyed unprecedented success, rising from humble beginnings in 2008 to the highest level of respect and recognition in the waterfowl outfitting community in North America in just over ten years. This announcement comes after years of consistently voiced desires by hunters for a Habitat Flats service extension which trains and breeds world-class retrievers like those found at Habitat Flats. In uniting their passion of waterfowling with this love of retrievers, HFK will offer three program objectives: retriever training, retriever breeding and sales, and education and special events for clientele. HFK will develop an equally strong brand in the retriever game, just as their sister division has in the outfitting business.

The primary focus of HFK’s training program is to develop the ideal hunting retriever. The products of HFK’s highly structured training regime will be obedient, well-mannered, steady, focused, and well-conditioned. A unique feature of the program is that HFK will seek out clients’ visions, preferences, and hunting style(s), and train their dogs with that in mind. A 6-Day/Week Training schedule offers the complete program: Basic, Intermediate, Transition, and Advanced levels, and even preseason tune-ups. Dogs will enter the program at the appropriate stage, depending on their age and experience.

With groundbreaking underway this October of 2020, Habitat Flats Kennels is constructing a state-of-the-art training and breeding kennel facility at a conveniently located site near the home lodge in Sumner, Missouri. The purchased acreage can best be described as perfect for training retrievers. The site is being developed to provide ample technical features offering a safe, efficient, and challenging training environment. It will have five technical training ponds and three training mounds in addition to a twelve-acre lake and six other ponds of various sizes. With the main HFK focus being duck dogs, a pit and several blinds of various descriptions are being constructed to expose retrievers to a wide array of gunning situations. The HFK training grounds will be a Crown Jewel.

Also under construction are cutting-edge kennel facilities. Initially two kennel buildings will be built, with a plan for a third to be added. Each building has been designed to house forty dogs, space for an office, equipment storage, and a feed room. The finest kennel and training equipment will be added. Fenced grass exercise yards will be located adjacent to the kennel buildings. The efficient buildings will provide the ideal environment for the health and safety of retrievers, while facilitating the seamless conduct of business.

The objective of HFK’s breeding and sales program is to, through selective breeding, produce the ideal hunting retriever for hunters across the country. The qualities expected in an HFK retriever include, at a minimum: intelligence, boldness, athleticism, endurance, aptitude and ease with people. The model HFK retriever will be mid-size (55 to 85 pounds) with perfect conformation, biddable, pin-point markers; have keen eyesight, excellent noses and hearing; and possess a balance of style and control. As the offspring of some of the nation’s finest gun dogs and top competitive performers, the HFK puppy will become a behaved family dog at home, and an elite hunting retriever in the field. HFK will offer puppies as well as started and finished dogs for sale.

Clint Mann has been engaged to be the Kennel Manager and Lead Trainer. Mann has owned and operated a successful training kennel on the family farm near Philadelphia, Missouri for over ten years. Mann has been a dog man all his life, born into a family that raised champion coonhounds and pointing dogs. When he isn't training you can usually find him spending time with his family or duck hunting. Habitat Flats Kennels welcomes and congratulates Clint on this outstanding achievement and position within the Habitat Flats family of brands.

For full information about the Habitat Flats Kennels training programs, facilities and educational services, visit www.habitatflats.com/hf-kennels.

Habitat Flats (www.habitatflats.com), the #1 Waterfowl Lodge in North America, was formed in 2008 to provide the pinnacle in waterfowl hunting for outdoor enthusiasts. The commercial guide service led by Tony Vandemore (www.tonyvandemore.com) expertly maintains and manages some of the most diverse habitat available to duck and goose hunters, holding beautiful locations in Missouri, Arkansas and Saskatchewan. With an expansive array of waterfowl hunting opportunities – Teal, Upland, Ducks, Canada Geese and Snow Geese – Habitat Flats welcomes hunters from around the globe to the “experience the ultimate sportsman’s destination.”