October Joy All Star: Marty Griner

October Joy All Star Marty Griner, owner of Brier Creek’s Southern Kennels in Grovetown, GA, has always been an avid hunter. As a young man, he ran the woods and fields of Georgia with his father and grandpa with hounds and beagles while coon hunting or rabbit hunting. He would compete in nite hunts with his hounds, as well.

Marty always enjoyed the training and working with dogs, but it wasn’t until 1997 that he started doing it as a job. He started out working part-time at a kennel while working at a tire plant. Marty worked with Hagan Lee (Hollow Hills Kennel) and Steven Green (Pinehill Kennels) at the tire plant. He also hunted with them and hung out with them. All three men now are huge Joy supporters/ customers and Steven is even selling Joy Dog Food. 

In 2003, when the owner of the kennel he worked at retired, Marty decided to branch off and start his own kennel: Brier Creek Southern Kennels. He started out training all retrievers. Five years later he would quit his job at the tire plant and start working at his kennel full-time. He changed his kennel from being a retriever training kennel to a boykin kennel. He started training and breeding Boykins full-time. 

Marty has worked extremely hard with not only training some of the best boykins in the country, but also producing one of the best boykin bloodlines in the country. When asked why he changed his kennel to being a boykin-only kennel, Marty said:

“I wanted to be different. There are over 500 retriever kennels in the Eastern – South Eastern region. There’s only 2 boykin kennels in Georgia”. 

Marty has created quite a reputation for his kennel for both breeding and training. He has a Sire that has placed in the top 10 for Top Producing Boykin Sires in History and he has 2 Dams that have placed in the Top Producing Boykin Dam list. Marty and his dogs have won 7 of the Boykin Spaniel National Field Trials since 2008. In 2017, his “top dog”, HR UH Brier Creek’s Madame LaVeau MHA NUOC19, was the first female boykin to ever receive her Masters Hunter Title with AKC. However, his most proud moment was at the 2022 Boykin Nationals and 11 of the top 20 dogs were all Brier Creek dogs in some way shape or form.

Although the titles and achievements are all huge milestones in Marty’s career as a kennel owner, trainer and breeder; his favorite part about owning a kennel and working with boykins is when the “little lightbulb” goes off in their head and they use everything they’ve been taught to perform at the ability he knew they had all along.

Marty fed Joy back in the day when he ran beagles and hounds. Since those days, he’s tried various brands of dog food and couldn’t stick with one due to pricing or supply issues. Steve Green talked to him about feeding Joy at the beginning of 2022 and since then, Marty hasn’t looked back.

“When I switched over to Joy I was immediately impressed with the results. When you train and breed dogs to the point of perfection, you want them to perform just as good. You fuel them with Joy”

Marty Griner

Marty has put so much blood, sweat, and tears into Brier Creek Southern Kennel and the dogs that come from it. He has worked every day since the very beginning to create a legacy with his bloodline and training; Joy Dog Food is honored to be a part of that legacy.