April Joy All Star: Bicknell Bunch

Jay Bicknell has three sons and three daughters that he has raised out on his beautiful farm in Kentucky with his wife. Jay works at a waste water treatment plant as a plant manager and spends all his free time training working dogs; mostly bird dogs and retrievers. To fully understand how Jay Bicknell and the Bicknell Bunch got to where they are today, we must go back to where it all started.

Jay bought his first dog in the 3rd grade from his neighbor for $175. It was a pointer named Jake (he would go on to name his firstborn son Jake) and he worked with that dog all the time. Every chance Jay got he would be out in the fields hunting bobwhite quail with his dad and grandfather. His mother would always get on to him and tell him to keep the shell in his pocket until the dog was pointing at the bird.

He had difficulty with the dog at first due to his age and small voice, however, his dad helped; over time, Jake and Jay got into a pattern and flowed effortlessly. Jay also ran some hounds throughout high school, but his true love always lay with bird dogs. Jay always hunted with a dog by his side and never had the desire to hunt anything that didn’t include a dog next to him.

After his college years when he got married, his wife wanted a dog of her own – specifically a lab. They had setters and pointers and she had wanted a pet for herself. This had struck a lightbulb moment in Jay’s head. He thought “why yes, we could get a lab and I could teach it to duck hunt with me.” It was genius. He found a breeder’s ad in the classifieds for some lab puppies in their area and he went and picked up a female not too long after his wife had made the comment. He named her Teal and they got to work on basic obedience and some retrieving.

He went to a local library to see if they had any content on training and turns out they had some old VHS tapes on retriever training! He watched them over and over and worked with Teal repeatedly. Once she was older, he took her out to hunt tests and eventually it was time to take her duck hunting. Training Teal was the beginning of Jay’s passion for training dogs and truly working with them as a career. She set the bar for so many others and although she may have trained him at times, with every dog after it got better.

Jay studied Wildlife Biology in college and worked as a Wildlife Biologist for years studying the conservation of bobwhite quail, however after having six children and training dogs, he decided to switch jobs to work for the water department instead and he is now working as the wastewater treatment plant manager. He did back away from training dogs for the public a little bit, however, he has now started back and is currently working with a Weimaraner to do horseback field trials and a labrador retriever to find water leaks at his water plant.

He still studies bobwhite quail, however, it’s more of a hobby now. Besides his job at the water plant, he spends most of his time training dogs at his farm with his family. He creates content on the various types of dogs he trains over on his YouTube channel the Bicknell Bunch which you can watch and subscribe to by clicking here – Jay also has many retriever clinics and hunts coming up with some local charities that you may want to stay in touch with on his page!

To fuel your dogs with Joy Dog Food; click here to find a dealer near you! Jay Bicknell and his crew all feed their dogs with Joy and they have noticed a dramatic difference in their coat and performance! The dogs are working harder than ever before and they look good too! Jay used to feed Joy years ago but his local feed store stopped carrying it so he switched to another brand. Once he noticed a local feed store pick it up again, he started feeding it again as he remembered it always being a great feed!