About Seranoa
John McIltrot
Owner & TrainerA full-time professional pointing dog trainer since he moved from Florida to Montana in 2008, John spends his days with the pointers, setters, and Tennessee Walkers who have been the stabilizing forces in his life for almost 30 years. His process-not-product approach to helping dogs – and dog owners – follows the lead of others such as Delmar Smith and Bill Dorrance. John has developed a low-pressure approach to helping bird dogs learn essential skills: whoa, stop-to-flush, backing, steady to wing-and-shot, handling and patterning.
Taylor Todd
TrainerTaylor Todd grew up hunting and fishing and has always had a passion for being a sportsman. Just over a decade ago he moved to Montana to work as a fly fishing guide on the Missouri River where he also discovered the joys of hunting behind setters and pointers on the wide open prairies. Riding a good walking horse while developing young dogs on wild birds has become a passion for Taylor and he believes opening up to these animals is as beneficial for him as it is for them. In addition to training bird dogs, Taylor runs a guide service that offers fly fishing and wing shooting trips throughout central Montana. When he isn’t enjoying the outdoors you’ll find him spending time with his wife, two kids, and string of bird dogs at their home in Helena, MT.
About the facility
Seranoa Kennels is based outside Roundup, Montana and operates out of a 7,000 square foot climate-controlled facility. It is home to the Seranoa string of resident dogs, client dogs, flock of well-fed pigeons, and herd of Tennessee Walking horses.
The home training grounds are the adjacent 3,000 acres of sharptailed grouse habitat which are managed as a habitat restoration project. Central Montana is made up of one of four remaining intact temperate grasslands on earth, and the ranch is home to a variety of native birds, grasses, reptiles, insects, and ungulates.