re: Looking for information on Chesapeake Bay Retrievers

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I spoke to my trainer at length before sending my dog. He has had experience with Chessies but certainly isn't an 'all Chessie" guy. Mostly, I was comfortable that he would adapt to the dog.

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Apologizing for the long one here, just want to provide an outline of the issues I dealt with while training my CBR to provide the OP with a little insight into some issues he may not read about in a book.

I mostly agree with you, and all dogs are different. I will admit my dog posed some special problems. My screen name was supposed to be waterfreakingchessie but when I created the account they didn't allow that many letters.

I had the same conversation with both of the "lab" trainers I worked with. Actually, the 1st said he worked with 1 or 2 before but was confident it wouldn't be an issue. When I dropped her off she showed a lot of natural instinct to retrieve and was well started on the basic discipline commands. He called me a month into a 3 month contract saying come pick up this dog she is never going to hunt. When I picked her up she had lost all desire to retrieve on land and was a nervous wreck. This is also when I learned about the condition "water freaking" after taking her to the pond and introducing her slowly to water just like I have with previous dogs.

I contacted the breeder for advice and he suggested we meet at his buddies house who is another well known lab guy but had trained CBR's in the past. The breeder assured me they were both going to work together developing a training program for my dog. They told me they had never heard of "waterfreaking" and told me to let her in the pond. After 30mns of swimming in circles all while biting and splashing the water they asked me how I usually get her out. I told them usually with the check cord you told me wasn't necessary. The dog continued to swim in circles for another 45mns while we worked some other dogs. Eventually she circled close enough to the bank to toss a rope on her and yank her out.

We spent the rest of the afternoon collar conditioning her to get her out of the water on command, and the trainer was able to use some dead birds to build up her interest in retrieving on land again. I was impressed with the results we made that afternoon and we agreed to a 3 month program. The breeder also insisted he would also be working with her almost daily as well because they train together. A month in, I received a call requesting I come pick up the dog. He said as long as you shoot all your ducks over land she should be fine but if any fall in the water you are SOL.

She did show much more interest retrieving on land, but the water freaking had me convinced she was never going to hunt. I was kicking myself for ignoring my dad's advice at the time to get a lab, but I was insistent that I wanted something different.

I was referred to Kathy through a mutual friend that was close with a couple that ran CBR's exclusively in field trials. They took a look at my dog's papers, saw she came from Kathy's Rippling Waters blood line and suggested I talk to her. They also watched her do the waterfreaking bs, and were confident Kathy could help.

A couple of months later I drove to Florida with a vicious hangover on the Sunday after the BR St Paddy's day parade to drop the dog off and drive back same day. After the 1st month passed I was just happy I had not received a call from Kathy telling me to drive my arse to Florida and pick up the mutt. 8 weeks in I received an email saying her training was progressing nicely although it was delayed slightly when she went into heat. When the scheduled date to pick her up approached Kathy asked if I would be ok leaving her there for a couple more weeks. They had formed a bond and were making a lot of progress, I said absolutely. Sadly the day we drove back to pick her up was one of my grandmother's last. We knew it was coming, and wanted to get back to BR ASAP. I would have liked to spend a couple days with Kathy so she could train me on how to handle her but that was not in the cards. We only had a couple of hours to go over commands, but my jaw dropped when I saw the change. She was marking great on both water and land, had a ton of energy, held tight, and the day was capped off with a 300yd blind retrieve through a lake and up the other bank.

She picked up about 175 ducks her 1st year. I took a little Hiatus from work her 3rd year and hunted 53 out of 60 days. She picked up over 530 birds not including teal season and ever since then she has the game figured out. One of the saying I learned through the entire ordeal was you can train a lab but you have to trick a chessie.

Like every one has mentioned, they are super smart dogs, she has a great nose, and is deadly on cripples. Waterfreaking is no longer an issue while hunting but someone needs to hold her leash the entire boat ride because she will try to jump out and attack the water every time we cross a wake. This can get annoying, but I have learned to accept it. I also worked very hard to socialize her as a puppy until she was about 5yrs old. She started out fine but as she got older her tolerance for other dogs has diminished so she has to be kept on a leash or a crate when other dogs are around. She has never shown real aggression to people but is protective of her family especially when strangers are around. I have learned to manage these issues and now take them in stride. The main reason I am hesitant of getting another Chessie at this time is based on the fact that my daughter will be toddling around that time, and a new CBR may not be as tolerant as mine has proven to be.