I agree with Rick Losey. I have had great luck ?? making acquaintance with Chessies in the field. I would assume I could do the same thing at home. One Chessie that had a real bad reputation was restrained in the back of our caretaker's truck while he was off doing things other than hunting. I had killed a few mallards in a piece of slow water across the road from the hunting house and didn't have access to a boat to retrieve them. I walked a quarter mile or so to the truck to try to get the dog. I had been warned not to approach the truck because the Chessie would not let anyone near it. I opened the back of the truck, let the dog out, and started my walk to the canal where I had killed the ducks. I stood on the shore, ordered the dog to retrieve the mallards, one at a time, until they were all in the bag. I tried to walk back to the house with the birds, but the dog would not start the journey until he was carrying one of the ducks. We got back to the house and the truck and the owner of the dog and truck were there. He asked how I got the dog out of the truck, since apparently no one had been able to "work that deal" before. He was amazed that I had been able to "work that deal" and get his dog to work for anyone but him. By the way, "The Lovely Linda" was raised in a house with a hunting Chessie, but her mom was not all that happy about it. I never got the full story about that.
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