Chesapeake Bay Retrievers
- Thread starter Lickashot
- Start date
Heym SR20
Well-Known Member
Big strong wildfowling dogs, but in the UK I think they are more for show than working dogs. I knew one that belonged to friends - just a big lazy lump of a dog, and not the stuff of legendary working dog folklaw of the Chesapeke bay. I would put Rhodesian Ridgebacks, Red Setters and poodles in a similar - were once very good working breeds, and probably still are in the original vicinit. I would be delighted to be proven wrong. One of childhood books was a first edition of the New Wildfowler and the chapter on dogs opened with the Chesapeake as the best possible wildfowling dog.
SAUER20222250
Well-Known Member
Rubbish. They could lose a Lab in a phone box.
SAUER20222250
Well-Known Member
Do a search on Youtube for "The Long Retrieve"....
Lickashot
Well-Known Member
Interesting, I think that may be true for some. Bit like Maremmas, not necessarily the same dog as still exists in Italy where a friend of mine lives (they still have wolves there).
Some breeders here have imported dogs from America and I believe many owners work them properly but I have no contacts myself. What I have been advised by a friend very far north in isles off Scotland is to find a good breeder. Not proving terribly easy.
Some breeders here have imported dogs from America and I believe many owners work them properly but I have no contacts myself. What I have been advised by a friend very far north in isles off Scotland is to find a good breeder. Not proving terribly easy.
Contact the Chesapeake Bay Retriever Club. There is definitely not a working/show division. The chairman Richard Playle is a dedicated fowler and I am sure will help you.
A Chessie is not a shaggy brown Labrador and they are not a beginner's dog. A litter brother to my first was a successful deer dog in the hands of David Mercer.
A Chessie is not a shaggy brown Labrador and they are not a beginner's dog. A litter brother to my first was a successful deer dog in the hands of David Mercer.
Is that the BASC video on the river Dee Welsh cheshire border . Awsome retrieve. The tide there is seven to 8 knots maybe more
Lickashot
Well-Known Member
Thanks Basil, will do. Done a fair bit of research on the breed, keen to take things further. Grew up with a lab (and spaniel) and aware not the same, but want a dog that can take the sea without question. I am often out on the boat a fair bit and a dog that would also enjoy that is ideal.
The two I've had experience of have been hard, bull-headed, stubborn buggers. One was from a rescue home, owned by a farming friend and was a liability towards other dogs - including one of our teckels - luckily our teckel got a face hold and simply didn't let go, otherwise, she would be dead! That dog probably had a poor upbringing, so that behavior isn't necessarily typical of the breed. Beautifully built dogs with truly awesome coats - not for the novice.
SAUER20222250
Well-Known Member
They trial them in several English shows. In USA they are the most popular working breed by far. I don't like the show types snapping them up before birth and matings favouring finer parents.
I've had 2 over the years.
My first was back in 1991 and she was from a litter from Becks Echo of Dol-y-Coed (Dam) and Pond Hollow Shotgun Rider (sire) I think he was a fresh American import.
She was a grand dog, strong, clever, great nose, quite biddable and pretty protective.
I trained her to stop to the whistle, left, right, out and she could have held her place with plenty of the field trial (elite brigade) Perhaps Dunwater has not seen too many!!
As a wildfowling dog she was fearless and had plenty retrieves that friends saw and remarked as bloody good. If I was to look back and think, would I have sent her to retrieve some of those birds nowadays I don't think I would to be honest as, as you get older you see things a bit differently.
The old saying that what you get out of a dog, reflects in the time you spent training it and in this case that was true.
To an extent the dogs have it in them but you have to refine that to suit your needs.
I would to have liked to have had her at the stalking as I think she would have been just as good.
I met a lad from Northumberland when I was in Keswick in March and he had a cracking Chesapeake with him, a stunning dog and from what I understood he was going to be using him for the stalking also.
I heard of a local stalker who had one a few years back but apparently he couldn't make any progress with it, this was possibly as his attitude to training was **** poor, so no fault of the dog I imagine.
My second Chesapeake was one that I had rehomed a good few years after losing my original. He was a shadow of my other dog and a poor beastie and had a few unknown health problems that showed up in the coming year or so. However his time was up, on the advice of my vet, too soon.
Would I have another one.
Yes I would, in a flash, but, and this is a big but. I personally think the current breeding in this country is/ has, moving/ moved a bit too far away from the style of dogs in the USA.
Just my thoughts.
Cheers
My first was back in 1991 and she was from a litter from Becks Echo of Dol-y-Coed (Dam) and Pond Hollow Shotgun Rider (sire) I think he was a fresh American import.
She was a grand dog, strong, clever, great nose, quite biddable and pretty protective.
I trained her to stop to the whistle, left, right, out and she could have held her place with plenty of the field trial (elite brigade) Perhaps Dunwater has not seen too many!!
As a wildfowling dog she was fearless and had plenty retrieves that friends saw and remarked as bloody good. If I was to look back and think, would I have sent her to retrieve some of those birds nowadays I don't think I would to be honest as, as you get older you see things a bit differently.
The old saying that what you get out of a dog, reflects in the time you spent training it and in this case that was true.
To an extent the dogs have it in them but you have to refine that to suit your needs.
I would to have liked to have had her at the stalking as I think she would have been just as good.
I met a lad from Northumberland when I was in Keswick in March and he had a cracking Chesapeake with him, a stunning dog and from what I understood he was going to be using him for the stalking also.
I heard of a local stalker who had one a few years back but apparently he couldn't make any progress with it, this was possibly as his attitude to training was **** poor, so no fault of the dog I imagine.
My second Chesapeake was one that I had rehomed a good few years after losing my original. He was a shadow of my other dog and a poor beastie and had a few unknown health problems that showed up in the coming year or so. However his time was up, on the advice of my vet, too soon.
Would I have another one.
Yes I would, in a flash, but, and this is a big but. I personally think the current breeding in this country is/ has, moving/ moved a bit too far away from the style of dogs in the USA.
Just my thoughts.
Cheers
The only working Chesapeake I came across when keepering struck terror into almost all the other dogs and some of the beaters too!
Lickashot
Well-Known Member
Cheers for replies etc...Insight is pretty much what I gathered from research r.e. UK breeding. Now heard back from a breeder with US imported pedigree bitch planning a litter for early next year. Hopefully should fit the bill. 
Wife really wants a lab. I do like them. Anyone had both? I do have kids and would feel more comfortable if they were out with the Chessie (alone) in a few a years, rather than the lab, just in case, you know. Any comments appreciated.
Wife really wants a lab. I do like them. Anyone had both? I do have kids and would feel more comfortable if they were out with the Chessie (alone) in a few a years, rather than the lab, just in case, you know. Any comments appreciated.
The infamous Red Dot worked three.
deerstalker.308
Well-Known Member
Infamous and sorely missed..... controversial but always interesting, never a dull moment!
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