If you're thinking of getting a Chessie, don't forget the 2 x 4 to get his attention. (But once you get his attention, he doesn't forget)

Dean, what was she pointing, planted birds or wild?

Quite frankly Steve, we don't have any wild gamebirds around here anymore and no place to plant pen-raised birds for training purposes (I'm also in a 'no discharge' zone) so we work on mourning doves (a "songbird" in MA) and field sparrows and starlings. The mourning doves don't seem to have as much scent as do the sparrows and starlings.

I can't wait to get her on grouse and woodcock!!!!!






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Abigail's Highland Sunrise, then and now. Oh how quickly they grow up! This will be her 6th season. Where did the years go?

My buddy Phantom holding a late season Chukar.
He would have been 12 this year.

Do you have one? How do you like it and what's its attitude like?

I think the 2x4 reference explains it pretty well...




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Michael - No- I don't have a Chessie. I have imported my last two Labs from Britain/Scotland. I like the calmer disposition of the British dogs. Chessies are hard-headed, tough dogs. If I had to make a living shooting and retrieving ducks, I'd have a Chessie, but for the average weekend warrior, I think they are a handful Oily coat which repels water well, but also stinks in the house if not cleaned regularly. From my experience, they are a one-man dog. Fiercely loyal to his owner, but distant, and even a bit menacing to outsiders. A man who brought his Chessie to the same Tower shoots that I worked at paid a lot of vet bills to owners whose dogs got torn up by "Pump".
I suspect I will get a bit of flack from those who have had great luck with Chessies, but for me - "No Thanks"

I had a female Chesapeake 30 years ago.
Buff was an amazing retriever. She would dive 6-10 below the surface to get a duck or dummy. Could mark 3 ducks down, and would NOT give up on a lost bird.
She would only release a duck or goose to me and would growl at anyone that attempted to take a bird from her. With me she was affectionate as any dog that I have ever owned, but if anyone else called her name, she would look in the exact opposite direction and not move.

Well, I hate to contaminate this thread on setters but cannot resist. I had a golden that was one great duck dog and would dive without hesitation. On numerous occasions I thought I'd have to go in after him for fear he'd drown trying to get a cripple. Once we were hunting a weed choked pond and crippled a black duck. Rip went after it but it repeatedly would dive when the dog was just about to grab it. This went on for so long I made my way around the pond, took my waders off and prepared to get wet. Just then the duck made a dive and Rip went under after him in heavy vegetation. Just as I started into the water he emerged snorting like a pig, but he had that damn duck in his mouth.

As good a duck dog as he was, he was an even better wild pheasant dog. In his career I only know of one cripple that escaped him and that was because it ran through a woven wire fence where he could not pursue.

When he was 7 I moved from pheasant country to grouse country. He made the transition without hesitation. The first fall we hunted grouse we were working around a swamp when I could not hear him running. I thought he must have found a porky or something so I went to investigate. I found him in heavy cover standing stock still and staring at the ground. Upon close inspection I noticed a woodcock sitting about 3 feet from his nose. He looked up as if to say - It's a bird, I have no idea what kind and it does not fly. What do we do now. I flushed it and shot it and he retrieved it. From then on he hunted them with as much vigor as grouse.

Good dogs are good dogs no matter the breed.