Chesapeake Bay Retrievers

[FactoryRide]

I've come across a guy with a 10 month old Chessie that's needing a home, and I'm thinking about picking her up once I hear back from him.

I'm wondering if anyone here has a Chessie and can give me some extra info or pointers on them from first hand ownership.

I'd ideally like to train her and possibly have her do some training school for duck hunting. My biggest concern with that, is she missed the prime time to start training her?

I've owned several dogs, but none of which were trained for duck hunting. So this whole thing is somewhat new to me.

 

[Nervo19]

Chesapeake Bay Retriever - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have had three Labradors which come from a common ancestor with the Chesapeake Retreiver. I had one live to be 15.5 years, one 10 years and current dog is 9 years. They are hyper nuts (chewing) until they are about two years old. I wonder why the guy is giving the puppy away? Get a crate to keep him out of trouble when you're not home but don't leave him in it too long. At just over two years they develop common sense and don't need to be locked away any more.

My 9 year old dog doesn't practice retrieving every day but she still is flawless at it. She retrieves because it's her instinct and she did not get any special hunter training. I don't think it's too late if that's what you want to do. If you build a good bond with the dog he will do anything to please you. Personally I think all retriever type dogs are great. There's a really good classic training book I remember reading when one of my dogs was young:

Amazon.com: Gun Dog: Revolutionary Rapid Training Method (9780525245490): Richard A. Wolters, John W. Randolph: Books

 

[FactoryRide]

Thanks, I was actually just looking at that book over on amazon. I'm waiting to hear back from the guy to make sure he still has her, and then I'm going to buy the book.

The guy says that she is a rescue, and he already has 1 chessie and 2 labs and that his wife will not let him keep the fourth.

 

[Nervo19]

I hope you get him. After I posted I was thinking that every Chessie I've ever seen was a very chilled out animal. I live about an hour from the Chesapeake Bay and they are probably more common around here than where you are.