Anyone who has met Will Sloan, even in passing, would have to agree that he is big man for he towers over most everbody he meets. What most people also quickly learn is that everything about him is large format.

He has a great hand-shake, a huge and unrelenting sense of humour, a great laugh and a bottomless wealth of amazing stories about dogs, shooting parties, training every manner of gundog and extraordinary days on the hill, all of which he shares unstintingly. Time spent in his company simply broadens ones horizons as you get a glimpse of the fantastic richness of his life with dogs.

When it comes to competition there is no greater sport than Will Sloan and he is no stranger to the top awards. However he has always maintained a rational, healthy attitude to the sport that has consequently allowed him to enjoy every aspect of it without it ever becoming a life or death issue. This does not mean that Will does not enjoy the challenge of the field trial, in fact he likes nothing better that a close run heat, especially if his dog puts in a cracking or particularly clever performance outsmarting the competition in the process. However for Will winning competitions is only ever a part of what it is only about. His world of dogs has always been much broader, based very much on the real working dog and weeks spent on the hill enjoying watching the dogs do what they have really been bred for.

Consequently you would never see Will Sloan all tight lipped with tension during a trial as though his life depended on the performance of his dogs. Not at all, he would be having a chat and enjoying the camaraderie of the day, planning his dogging days with the keepers and thinking about the brilliant youngster that he was bringing on, that non-one had seen yet and which was going to set the hill on fire next season!

Working on with youngsters has always been one of Will's great pleasures, evaluating their potential as he sees them develop, irrespective of whether they are setters, pointers or any of the retrieving breeds. A good dog is a good dog whatever shape or size it comes in! Will has always enjoyed having his dogs around him, frequently arriving at a trial with a dog on the seat next to him. It was sometimes debateable who really was the better navigator!

When I first got to know Will he had a wonderful English Setter called Carbera Landlubber whom Will called 'Dash'. However he was also known as 'The Wonder Dog' because Dash's exploits were often given a starring role in the wonderful dogging stories that Will would share over a dram at the end of a good days sport. Dash certainly did his fair share of winning at trials and went on to a ripe old age beside the fire in Will and Janet's home on the Isle of Man.

Over the years Will has done his fair share of work on the committees of various Gundog Clubs contributing a sensible down to earth approach to issues unclouded by any political bias or any need for self aggrandisement. He has also undertaken a string of judging appointments for setters and pointers as well as retrievers, judging the Champion Stake with Colin Organ in 1994.

There is no doubt that Will has had some quite outstanding dogs through his kennel and this is in no small part due to his exceptional eye for a good dog. Whereas most of us would spend ages agonizing over which pup to select from a litter, or which dog to put over a bitch, Will has it in a moment. One careful glance and he's got it and he's not wrong and the rest of us suddenly see what was in front of us all along.

The great eye is combined with a superb understanding of the dogs behind many of to-days runners. For Will pedigrees are not simply names on a sheet of paper, as they are to many of us, he has personally known many of the dogs, their strengths and their weaknesses and most importantly what they are likely to pass down the line.

It is not by complete chance that some of the top dogs of recent years have come from the Ardoon kennel. Since I have been campaigning Will's dogs for him I have had the opportunity to work with some quite exceptional stock and to share a little of his wealth of understanding about dogs. At the risk of embarrassing him in print I have to say that it has been, and continues to be an enormous privilege for which I can only thank him from the very bottom of my heart.