The Master National Retriever Club Foundation is pleased to announce the selection of Rody Best as the recipient of the 2019 “Humanitarian Sportsman Recognition”.
This is the first year for the Humanitarian Recognition and professional trainer Rody Best, of Best Retrievers in Paige, Texas, was selected because he met and exceeded the criteria for the award. In August 2017, Rody, his sons and kennel help drove 100 miles from Giddings, Texas to Houston, Texas with boats, dog crates and lots of heart. They rescued humans, dogs and even deer from the Hurricane Harvey flood waters. No one asked him, he just rolled into the storm & he and his friends arrived before many ‘first responders’.
In August 2019, Imelda flood waters hit the Houston area, and Best arrived again to help 
fellow retriever trainers and others to evacuate. He and his friends provided complimentary sheltering, medication and other assistance to the animals and owners who were rescued.
Best sat at his home 100 miles away, but said my fellow trainers are in trouble and their dogs need to get out of there. And Best was there.
Best offers help at every weekend hunting test that he runs. He has mentored several trainers in the sport and has offered his property for hunting test events. He has hauled a trailer full of MNRC contenders coast to coast. “Rody Best epitomizes the very essence of the AKC Code of Sportsmanship,” said Foundation President, Bill Teague.
The presentation of the Humanitarian recognition was made at the Brazosport Retrievers Club Hunting Test on October 15, 2020. Due to the COVID 19 pandemic, the MNRHT was canceled so a formal presentation will be made October 1, 2021 at the MNRC annual business meeting in County Valley, Idaho at the 2021 Master National Retriever Hunting Test.
[slideshow]The “Humanitarian Sportsman Recognition” was established in 2019 to recognize individuals or groups within the Retriever Hunting Test program who participate in the MNRHT and provide humanitarian services to either those in the Retriever Hunting Test sport or outside the sport.
The Foundation also offers three ‘Handler of the Year Awards’; an 8-12-year-old category and 13-17-year-old category and the “Bill T. Teague Handler of the Year Award”. These awards were established in 2015 to recognize exemplary performance of a series of criteria by handlers of dogs at the MNRHT. Each of these awards consists of a personal plaque, the recipient’s name on a perpetual plaque and a check for $1,000. For further info on awards, recognition and the Foundation, please contact Foundation Presidet Bill Teague, ta9@hughes.net or 713-252-3918.
Foundation Board Members are:
Gloria Mundell, Colorado
Jack Morris, Texas
Jimmy Hughes, Alabama, Treasurer
Allen Dillard, ex-officio, President, MNRC 2020
Keith Winch, ex-officio, President, MNRC 2021
Bill Teague, Texas, President
