About Wildrose Midwest

Allan (Al) has been training Labrador retrievers for over 30 years.  In 2014, Al purchased his first Wildrose Dog, WR Lambeau, a puppy out of the Ducks Unlimited Dog, Deke.  Al is very particular in what he looks for in breeding and conformation of dogs and has embraced the Wildrose bloodlines – both domestically and overseas.  Seeing the benefits of 100% balanced training, Al became more actively engaged with the Wildrose team and Training The Wildrose Way.  Considering the existing Wildrose client base in the Midwest and the strong potential that existed in this market, Al approached Mike Stewart to start a Wildrose location in the Midwest.  One of the things Al enjoys the most about Wildrose is building lifelong relationships among clients and trainers through the creation of training workshops and hunting trips.  Al is an avid outdoorsman enjoying waterfowl, upland hunting and fly fishing.

Mike Stewart is the President of Wildrose International which hosts full-service kennels in Oxford, Mississippi, Dallas Texas and Hillsborough, North Carolina with additional training facilities in Colorado and Arkansas.  Wildrose is an Orvis-endorsed facility specializing in producing their trademark retrievers, “The Gentleman’s Gundog” and “Adventure Dog,” Labradors that complement a families’ sporting dogs, but is best known for his appearance on Ducks Unlimited TV’s “World of Ducks along with DU’s retriever training online features with Drake and Deke, the DU Mascots.

Mike and his dogs have appeared in over 75 national television programs on hunting and training gundogs.  He conducts retriever training workshops throughout the United States instructing in his unique dog training methodology, “The Wildrose Way,” a balanced way to develop versatile, sporting companions.  He has produced two comprehensive training DVDs entitled, “Training the Wildrose Way,” The Gentlemen’s Gundog series and published a book in 2012, Sporting Dog and Retriever Training, the Wildrose Way. In conjunction with Purina ProPlan, Mike produced a video series on “Starting Your Pup the Wildrose Way” along with three Emmy-award winning lifestyle testimonials.

Wildrose was featured on the cover article of Forbes Magazine, April, 2009 edition, as one of six luxury, recession-proof businesses and again in Forbes Life, 2013.  Wildrose has been recognized twice in articles by Garden & Gun magazine as “Best in the Sporting South,” December 2009 and December 2011. Mike is publisher of the Wildrose Journal which is the largest disseminated online magazine dedicated to the Sporting Dog Lifestyle and founder of the Wildrose Service Companion Foundation, a Mississippi-based non-profit whose mission is to provide assistance dogs for therapy and service to individuals with special needs. His induction into the Mississippi Wildlife Hall of Fame occurred in 2018.

A law enforcement officer for 25 years, Mike retired as Chief of Police for the University of Mississippi. He is a graduate of the University of Mississippi and the FBI National Academy, Quantico, Virginia. Mike retired from the US Navy Reserves in 2005 as a Commander after over 20 years of service.

After spending the summer of 2025 with Wildrose Midwest, Marty realized his passion was 100% around dogs and retired from his teaching career in Iowa.

Marty brings years of personal training experience and work as a training assistant with one of the local Iowa dog clubs.  Marty is passionate about merging his personal experiences with the Wildrose Way of Training.

Marty lives on site at Wildrose Kennels and is responsible for the overall operations as well as a string of dogs that he is personally training.

Lina joined the Wildrose team with lots of experience working with all different types of farm animals. Growing up on a farm that raised show pigs, Lina was trained on all aspects or raising the pigs and took a special interest in breeding and birthing the litters. Lina has jumped right in and learned the Wildrose Way of Training and has played an important role in helping to raise our puppies. When you come to visit, if you see things in a nice, orderly fashion, you can assume Lina’s fingerprints on that!

Samantha Siebert joined Wildrose Kennels with a love of dogs and good experience working with a variety of farm animals. While Sam joined the team working on cleaning kennels and exercising mama dogs, she quickly showed an interest and aptitude for training dogs. Sam focuses her training on backgrounding young puppies and working with dogs that are in our Basic Gun Dog Training program.

Tamaroa has joined the Wildrose Kennels team to further her interest in working with animals. Tamaroa is finishing up her final semester in high school and works with us on the weekends cleaning kennels and exercising mama dogs. Tamaroa has a gift for cleaning and the dogs appreciate her attention to detail each Saturday for the full deep cleaning of the entire kennel. Tamaroa is interested in biology and the sciences and will be pursuing a college degree in 2027 to further her studies in this area.

Emily supports the Wildrose Team with our evening airings and weekend kennel cleaning and organization. During the daytime working hours, Emily is a professional in the Sheboygan County court system, but she loves the change of pace coming to work with the dogs. Emily also helps work and exercise mama dogs on the weekends.

David Richter began working at Wildrose helping us with various jobs around the property. We quickly learned that there are not many things that David cannot do and has not done. We are very proud of the way that our property looks and David plays a key role in that. When David is not working on a construction project, mowing, painting or re-roofing he also volunteers to help us move dogs across our various kennels across the United States.

Cheryl Schwartz is the matriarch of the Wildrose Midwest team. Cheryl conveniently lives two farms away from the kennels and is one of our evening airing attendants. As Cheryl describes it; “I am only a snowmobile ride away if the weather turns bad”! While the rest of us are focused on training and caring for dogs, Cheryl adds the nice touches of home to the kennels. Our rotating flower arrangements are planted and watered with love by Cheryl as she passes by duing the day.

Tom has been working with dogs in several capacities for the past 20 years, owning a wide variety of breeds.  He believes each breed has unique traits that need to be paired with the owner’s interests to create a dynamic bond between the two.  Working at a game farm beginning in his teenage years, Tom observed all levels of dog behavior.

Starting with American Labradors, then English Springer Spaniels, Cocker Spaniels, German Shorthairs and an English Setter, Tom has come full circle back to British Labradors at Wildrose Midwest. Tom enjoys the training aspect of a dog just as much as quartering in an open field or sharing a wet seat in a duck blind.  When Tom takes on a client dog, it becomes a member of his own family.  Morning and evening walks with training in between, your dog will also be on a Kuranda bed watching a Packers game or in the kitchen while dinner is being made.  Understanding a client’s wants, needs and desires in a dog combined with developing the natural talent and training the rest is what Tom enjoys when working with an owner and their dog.

James Davis, JD, is a very accomplished trainer of Chesapeak Bay Retrievers. JD utilizes a positive training methodology similar to the Wildrose Way and is a frequent assistant at our workshops. JD also has an extensive amount of experience running in and supporting field trials. When not working with dogs, JD is writing about dogs and is an accomplished author in many of the reputable waterfowl magazines.

Robin is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and holds a master’s degree in wildlife research from the University of Georgia. She has had many research jobs across the country and worked with a variety of game species. Some of these jobs included the use of hunting dogs, where Robin discovered her passion for dog training.

Robin’s focus at Wildrose Midwest is on backgrounding puppies.  Robin has a great way of working with young dogs and getting them to respect her as the Alpha Dog, while also having a lot of fun socializing the puppies in all different environments.