February Joy All Star: Jeff Roberts

Jeff Roberts, 2022 World Tree Dog Association (WTDA) World Champion, grew up running the woods at night chasing his hounds. He was just 6 years old when he was gifted his first hound, a black and tan; and he was only 10 years old when he began competition hunting at Beckers Chainsaw. That’s when he was first introduced to Joy Dog Food. As a child, Jeff didn’t grow up with much, so when he would compete in nitehunts at Beckards, they were sponsored by Joy and he got to the point where he would start winning bags of feed and that’s when he really felt like he was top dog. He felt like he was on top of the world holding that bag of Joy in his hands because as a kid, he couldn’t afford to feed his hounds anything but cheap dog food. So when he won a nice, high-quality dog food that was more than he could afford, he felt on top of the world. 

The next he would have that feeling would be when he won the WTDA World Championship in 2022 handling a walker coonhound B Easy owned by Bubba and Benjamin Harrell. He had been working with the Harrells for two years before he won the world championship and he had made finals and top 20 in nearly every organization, this being his first world title.

“Although there were plenty of times I would have liked to have done better and pushed harder, we all have to start somewhere; and this is just the beginning”

Jeff Roberts

Another time Jeff had felt on top of the world was when he watched his daughter Haeley win the 2022 Ohio State Youth Championship with the Harrel’s hound Low Country Clavos. Haeley is right at her father’s heels, following his footsteps to being a great handler and a world champion just like him. 

The Roberts own a kennel called Farm Dog Kennels where they train hounds and breed some of their own. They have had many dogs come out of there that have went off to make a great deal of money. 

Jeff and his family have fed Joy Dog Food since the very beginning. Jeff competed in order to be able to feed Joy to his hounds. Even when it wasn’t readily available, he traveled to go find Joy and feed it to his dogs. He has always been an avid Joy Dog Food supporter. It’s the hunters and handlers like Jeff that push us here at Joy. That proves to us that Traditions Never Die. 

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