Top Dog

>>When Corey Burke’s dogs compete, you won’t find a ribbon or a painted paw nail anywhere around. These dogs can hunt, and they show their stuff in field events through marsh and rugged terrain.

The 44-year-old andrologist works in a lab at Specialists in Reproductive Medicine and Surgery, but it’s another kind of Lab that takes him to competitions all over the country—a 92-pound Labrador retriever named Tank.

Tank has earned top honors as a hunting retriever, including such titles as Master Hunter and Hunting Retriever Champion.

Since Burke started duck hunting at 12, he has worked with retrievers, but it wasn’t until he was in his 20s that he started staking their skills against other dogs’. It’s a test of talent, smarts and teamwork; dog and handler work together in the field events, with the dog looking to the handler for cues, whistles and hand signals to locate and retrieve the bird.

"Marking" is one of the most challenging skills Burke has taught Tank. "They throw three or four birds, and the dog has to remember where each of the birds landed," Burke says. "It’s kind of instinctive; they are retrievers [and] know how to pick things up, but they really need to hone those skills to remember where [all] of the birds are."

Burke and his wife, Tracy, travel the country with their dogs—they have three competitors and one retired—to compete as well as to train; alligators make it dangerous to train in Florida’s ponds and lakes, says Burke, a Florida native.

He also lends his time to judging competitions, and he still marvels at the dogs’ abilities. "It’s pretty remarkable to actually see these [competitions]," he says. "You see it and go, ‘Wow, I can’t believe a dog can do that.’"