Veteran Trainer Tom Smith and Wildrose Kennels Continue Championship Legacy, Including Producing Ole Miss’ beloved Juice Kiffin
OXFORD, Miss. — To teach a puppy the basic commands of ‘sit,’ ‘stay,’ ‘come,’ and ‘fetch’ is easy for some people, while for others, let’s say it may remain a work in progress. It definitely takes patience, time, and talent to train a puppy to become a successful hunting or competition dog. For Tom Smith of Wildrose Kennels in Oxford, Miss., training dogs is an art that has gained him and his kennel recognition worldwide. One of his most famous pupils is none other than Juice Kiffin, beloved dog of Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin and family.
We had the opportunity to tour Wildrose and sat down with Tom to discuss its history and the process of raising and training dogs for family companionship, hunting, and competition.
How it all began
Wildrose Kennels, under the direction of former Ole Miss Chief of Police Mike Stewart, has made a global impact since its purchase in 1999. The kennel, initially located in Grand Junction, Tennessee, was moved to Oxford, MS. Licensed sites in Texas, Wisconsin, and North Carolina now also carry the Wildrose brand name. In 2001, a Wildrose Kennel dog, Drake, became the mascot for Ducks Unlimited. In 2009, Wildrose Kennels was featured on the cover of Forbes magazine, catapulting its popularity to new heights.
As a hunter and former Army officer, Tom Smith’s transition from trainer to present owner of Wildrose Kennels in Oxford was not just a career move but a natural progression of his passion. Tom grew up in Southern Indiana and tells us, “I hunted mainly squirrel, rabbit, and deer. Our turkey population wasn’t big back then. I started hunting ducks in my 20s in Alaska and got the bug.”
“The bug” for duck hunting led Tom to purchase a dog, Dixie, from Wildrose Kennels in 2008. Tom says he fell in love with the place and began discussing plans for the future of Wildrose Kennels with Mike and Cathy Stewart. Tom became an associate trainer in 2010 and, in 2014, became general manager. He remained in that role for four-and-a-half years until he purchased Wildrose Kennels Oxford in January, 2019, a testament to his dedication and love for the kennel.
Wildrose Kennels and its Services
A waiting list exists for families and individuals who want to purchase a puppy. Tom works with people to help them match a dog with the demeanor and purpose needed.
“They tell us what they’re looking for, and we’ll tell them some breedings we think will work well for them. For example, an older gentleman may want a calm companion. So, we say alright, you need this breeding. We try to match the dogs to the clients as best we can.”
Tom Smith on helping match customers with the perfect dog
Tom and his staff provide several different services.
“We do obedience, the gun dog, and the adventure dog for people who lead an outdoor active lifestyle but don’t necessarily hunt. Maybe they go hiking, canoeing, kayaking, and paddleboarding. We teach them through hold conditioning. We also take them through gunfire introduction because they could be hiking, and you don’t want them to freak out if a gun goes off in the distance.”
Tom Smith on the types of dog training services he offers
People come from both far away and right down the road to purchase a Wildrose Kennel puppy. We asked Tom the farthest away a puppy from his kennel has found a home. “Thailand,” he said. “The guy is an American who runs a resort there and bought three dogs. We still get random pictures showing the dogs on the beach.”
Looking at a map on the wall covered in push pins representing dogs purchased, Tom notes some of the places Wildrose dogs now reside.
“So we’ve got Thailand, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, The Bahamas, The Grand Caymans, all Canadian provinces, all 50 states.”
Tom Smith on the Wildrose dogs living around the world
Dogs bred at Wiildrose Kennels even serve as drug dogs. One dog from Wildrose is a drug dog which in one year found enough fentanyl to kill 10 million people!
Wildrose Kennels grounds
With 157 acres dedicated to dog training, Wildrose Kennels and its property are noticeably loved and maintained. “Everything we do to the grounds has specific purposes,“ Tom noted. “We don’t shoot any of the game.”
With 50 dogs in training, days are busy. We learned about a typical day of training from Tom. “Depending on where the dog is in the set and the progression, it’s usually about 30-40 minutes per dog.”
Older dogs may be used to help train the younger ones. “It’s called using a group dynamic,” Tom explains, “because they learn habits from other dogs. If the dog’s struggling with something, we’ll get one of these guys out, who just nails it, and they’ll learn with that also.”
Wildrose Kennels has everything a dog owner could hope for in terms of care and training. Labor and dog food are Tom’s biggest expenses with the kennel, using at least 27,000 pounds of food a year. The dogs are kept safe and secure in their own kennel, and the staff is there every day, including weekends, to ensure every dog is cared for responsibly and appropriately.
“We’ve got about 22 people on staff. They continue to work even when I’m not around. I trust them. We run full staff during the week and weekends we run skeleton because dogs have to be fed and watered. We’ve got somebody in the puppy building. We’ve got a trainer here and one of the facilities crew guys.”
Tom Smith on his Wildrose staff
Wildrose Kennels has a healthcare building which houses the brooding room, office, and an area where puppies are acclimated to the world around them. “When the puppies are born, we’ve got a sound system in there with an SD card that plays car horns, sirens, doorbells, thunder, lightning, just trying to imprint on the puppies that it’s okay,” he explained.
As the puppies grow older, they are exposed to everyday devices. “This is where we start bringing the puppies in and letting them play. We have a vacuum cleaner, hair dryer, wheelchair, stroller, all that stuff just to get them around it. We try to expose them as much as we can before they go home,” Tom related.
Juice Finds a Home
Tom is well-known for his caliber of dogs and training abilities, but when he received a phone call one day from the Rebels’ head football coach, Lane Kiffin, another level of notability came into play.
Tom explained that it was blind luck that landed Juice as a member of the Kiffin household. “Somebody backed out at the last minute, and that’s the only reason I had a puppy available. Lee Payne called me and said, ‘Hey, I just gave Lane Kiffin your phone number. He’s getting ready to call you.’ I was like, okay. Coach Kiffin came out that afternoon and met Juice, and he (Coach Kiffin) said, ‘I’ll call you tonight and let you know. So, that night, he called and asked, ‘Can we come get him at eight o’clock in the morning?’”
The entire Kiffin family arrived the next day, and the rest, as they say, is history. Juice is now one of the most recognizable Rebels in the nation.
The entire Kiffin family arrived to bring home their new puppy, Juice. Here, Juice is held by his owner, Landry Kiffin. (Photo courtesy of Wildrose Kennels)
At the 2024 Ole Miss Ladies Football Forum, Coach Kiffin talks about when his family got Juice.
Ole Miss football’s biggest recruiting camp of the season is even called ‘Juice Fest.’
Juicefest!! @JuiceKiffin @Lane_Kiffin @TurtleboxAudio pic.twitter.com/5PYSXARMDh
— Wildrose Kennels (@wildrosekennels) July 26, 2024
Wildrose Owner Tom Smith with Juice at Juice Fest, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Tom Smith)
Tom walked us through his first days joining the staff and Juice’s early days of becoming the unofficial mascot of Ole Miss football.
“He (Coach Kiffin) told me he wanted Juice to do the Walk of Champions and be on the sidelines for the first quarter. I said, ‘Well, that’s easy.’ He (Juice) was so well socialized; he was only six-and-a-half months old, the first Walk of Champions he walked. He was like, I’m glad everybody’s coming to see me.”
Tom Smith on Juice’s early days at Ole Miss
We asked Tom about teaching Juice to retrieve the football tee at ballgames and about any other training Juice received related to being in the stadium and on the sideline. Tom explained how retrieving the football tee came to fruition.
“I kind of had it in the back of my mind when I first started training him,” Tom recalls. “I got a tee from (equipment manager) Ken (Crain), and I had Juice picking up the tee at about eight months old. We just made a game out of it. It was more just getting him out on the field, doing it in the actual stadium, and practicing because Juice has a huge retrieve drive.”
Yesterday’s Play of the Game 😭@JuiceKiffin | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/vpftu2X48h
— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) September 3, 2023
But Juice isn’t just a pretty face; he’s got some serious skills. “I mean, he’s a hunting machine,” Tom explains.
“I’ve taken him on some pheasant continentals. He’s hunted quail, and I hope to get him on some ducks this year. But yeah, he’s a machine. He doesn’t want to be talked to or petted when he’s in work mode. All he wants to do is work. He’s a fantastic dog in the field.”
Tom on Juice’s hunting skills
While @Lane_Kiffin is fishing @JuiceKiffin had a Sunday Funday @LittleqRanch #footballfieldtothequailfield pic.twitter.com/qNq3wu5yzn
— Wildrose Kennels (@wildrosekennels) March 10, 2024
Kickoff cover dog!! 4.2 40 @NFLCombine @Realtree pic.twitter.com/UFMKki6A44
— Lane Kiffin (@Lane_Kiffin) March 7, 2024
But just as being a trained hunting dog requires so much skill, being on the sideline at ballgames with 100,000 people present required some fine-tuning as well.
“The first game we went to,” Tom noted, “they said, ‘stand here.’ It was right in front of the fireworks table, and I didn’t know it, and he freaked out. And so, immediately the next week, we started gunfire conditioning with Juice, and I got the earmuffs for the fireworks. The cannon doesn’t bother him anymore, but that sharp crack of the fireworks is what really gets them (dogs). The 4th of July is a terrible time of year for dogs. I tell people to put them in the center of the house, shut the door, and put a radio in there blasting,” Tom said.
Juice is a Man-About-Town
Juice Kiffin is the dog equivalent of a man-about-town. His social calendar is full of special appearances and meet and greets. As his handler, Tom’s calendar is packed as well.“So this fall, he’ll have a pretty full social calendar,” Tom says. “We’ve done a lot of middle schools. We did Willie Price School and Lafayette. I took him to a Rebel Day at an assisted living center. I’ll take him to K. D. Hill’s event in two weeks. We’ve done the Ladies’ Forum twice. We’ve done the FCA luncheon, just all kinds of stuff.”
Juice also came to The Rebel Walk’s Peach Bowl party in Atlanta! What a treat that was for everyone in attendance.
Juice made an appearance at our Rebel Walk party! Thank you to @wildrosekennels for coming and bringing the goodest boy! pic.twitter.com/Wohzqm0Hsc
— The Rebel Walk (@TheRebelWalk) December 30, 2023
The Heart of a Trainer
The future looks bright for Tom Smith and Wildrose Kennels of Oxford. The success of his breeding and training programs is world renowned and continues to receive acclaims from individuals and publications in the industry.
The experience of having Juice as a member of the Wildrose family has presented some new and exciting opportunities for Tom to meet some people and celebrities he may have never met otherwise. Tom enjoys that side of things, but when asked what he thought the biggest misconception people who haven’t grown up around dogs or those outside the world of breeding sporting dogs have Tom replies:
“I think some people don’t realize how much a dog lives for that retrieve and that bird. They love it. I’m at the point now where I don’t have to shoot any birds. I just want to run my dog. It’s just so awesome to watch their progress from when you start off with them as a puppy that doesn’t know anything — and then get to the point where you can blow a whistle from 250 yards and they will stop and go whatever direction you tell them to. To see that progression is the super-rewarding part.”
Tom Smith on hunting dogs love of retrieving
With a heart and love for what he does, Tom Smith breeds and trains some of the preeminent dogs in the world. Fans are proud to have Tom Smith as a member of the Ole Miss family. For without him and his dogs, Coach Kiffin would have never had a reason to call Tom, and Ole Miss would have never had the opportunity to know and love its unofficial mascot, Juice Kiffin.
Juice Merch
If you’d like some cool Juice merch, check it out:
Get game day ready with Juice! Design by @MorganPipkin Find them at https://t.co/wQT8XJ6MKK pic.twitter.com/zLe3F3zfaA
— Wildrose Kennels (@wildrosekennels) August 16, 2024
(Feature image credit: Tom Smith, Wildrose Kennels)
Donna Sprabery
Donna Sprabery is a former teacher, graduation coach, and academic coach for boys basketball. She graduated from the University of West Alabama with a major in business education and from Arkansas State University with a MA in Educational Leadership. A native of Meridian, MS, Donna enjoys traveling, gardening, writing, volunteer work, and cheering on the Rebels.
