Elias C. Vail

1890 – 1961

Elias Cornell Vail was one of the most respected and well-known trainers of gun dogs in the first half of the twentieth century. At his Elcova dog training facility —- the name derived from the first two letters of his full name (El co va) —- he trained many different breeds of hunting dogs including both pointing and flushing dogs. He was particularly well known, however, as a trainer and handler of American Cockers. In fact, he was featured in the October 25, 1937 issue of Life Magazine with his personal cocker, High Time Elcova, which at the time was considered the most prized hunting spaniel in the USA, having won five field trials in a row.

The Life Magazine article coincided with the publication of a book Elias Vail wrote in conjunction with Ella Moffit, Elias Vail Trains Gun Dogs-Covering the Pointing Breeds, Spaniels and Non-Slip Retrievers. It was one of the first training guides published in America, written as a resource for the owner-trainer-handler.

Mr. Vail had become a professional hunting dog trainer in the early 1930s at the encouragement of Mrs. Moffit of Rowcliffe Kennels. Interestingly, she was the woman who organized the first cocker trial in 1925 which was held on the grounds of Elias Vail’s 500 acre farm in Verbank, New York. Today the Verbank Hunting and Fishing Club operates out of a tenant house on that property.

During World War II, Elias Vail served as a civilian trainer for the K-9 War Dog Center in Nebraska, training dogs and the servicemen who would handle them in action. In 1945, he joined the Gaines Dog Food Division of General Foods Corporation in Ridgefield, Connecticut where he served as the director of field dog activities until 1955.

Mr.Vail was also a respected judge of spaniel field trials during his lifetime. He was given the honor of judging, along with A.M. “Monty” Lewis, the very first National Cocker Field Trial Championship, organized by Henry Berol and the Field Trial Committee of the American Spaniel Club and held in Herrin, Illinois, December 1953.