February 27th.

I arrived home late last night after flying to the UK to attend the CBRC AGM. I had submitted points for the Annual Trophies and although I had been informed that there was a trophy for collection I had no idea for which dog and for what. I was pleasantly surprised and delighted to be taking home five trophies as follows:

Corrie Cup for Top Working Dog/Bitch - Riverrun Away in A hack ( Bertie)
Westering Plate for Top Dual Purpose Dog/Bitch - Arnac Bay Winota ( Winnie)
Barry Shield for Top Show Dog - Riverrun Agus Avic ( Mossy)
The Glaneils Cup for Top Show Bitch - Arnac Bay Winota ( this is Winnie's second year to win this award).
Chessie Chat Trophy for Chessie Chat contribution.
The following is a copy of the aricle for which I won the Chessie Chat Trophy, the article was written last year in 2011 :

The left Over Puppy…This is the story of a puppy. It’s one that has probably been told and experienced by many others before. It is only different because it happened to me.

It all began when the puppies were eight weeks old. Bertie was booked to go to a gentleman who was looking for a wildfowling dog. On the day his perspective new owner arrived, the puppies were out playing together in the garden. Within the litter Bertie was the least outgoing preferring to sit back and observe rather than rush in. No amount of coaxing and encouragement on the part of the gentleman that morning would bring Bertie out from behind my legs. No, welcoming strangers was a job best left to his two more outgoing brothers! To my dismay, but not surprisingly, the gentleman left the puppy behind.

At nine weeks old an acquaintance, who had been impressed by Bertie’s father on the shoot in Wicklow, expressed an interest in running him on. He was a spaniel man and believed he’d enjoy the challenge of training a different breed of dog. After three weeks I rang to check in and see how Bertie was progressing. Alas, the news was not what I‘d hoped to hear. Bertie had spent his three weeks howling every time he was put in the kennel. The trainer was also a little disappointed that his new puppy was nothing like his father, and showed no interest in retrieving more than one dummy before getting bored and walking away! I thought it best to take the eleven week old puppy back at that stage before any serious long term damage was done.

This time he was home to stay. Anyone who’s ever given any animal a second or third chance will know what happened next.True to form, Bertie slotted right into the household. He took his position as bottom of the pack and worked really, really hard to impress Des, the person he knew would be the hardest to break.

One evening, not long after he’d returned Des took me out to the garden to show me something. The puppy sat on the edge of the lawn and watched as Des walked away from him and dropped a tennis ball, unseen. Des returned to the puppy and pointed to the ball. The puppy followed the line of his arm and off he went, straight to the ball and returning straight to hand. He had never been trained or taught to do any of this. He just seemed to have an innate sense of what was required.

We began then, to get glimpses of the type of dog he could become. We were excited but terrified at the same time that we would wreck him. Neither of us were experienced enough in gundog training to know if we would push him too hard too soon, or not push him far enough. In the end we decided that what we wanted most was to enjoy every moment of working this dog. We thought our best course of action would be to let him set the pace.

I would never previously have dreamed of exposing a young puppy to a driven shoot but for a phone call from a guy, who’d bought a litter sister, to tell me that his five and a half month old Chesapeake , Rosie, had just retrieved her first duck. She’d been taken out as an observer with a more experienced Labrador. When the lab was sent for the retrieve, the puppy had no hesitation but to jump in behind. Fifty yards out and the lab gave up. The puppy lifted her head clear of the water, winded the bird and locked on. The following week, one of my older dogs pulled up with a slashed pad. With no dog to work we took a chance. We vowed to put no pressure on him, just to let him enjoy the experience. If he became too stressed with all that was going on we’d put him away until next year. On his first outing he retrieved ten birds, all to hand. He never looked back. We allowed him his head that season, no emphasis on steadiness or whistle control. Just building confidence and letting him enjoy the experience. He had game-sense that you would expect from a dog twice his age, taking no time to figure out the link between gun and bird. He was a puppy with huge energy and drive but balanced with sense and focus which allowed him to start work as young as he did.

First shooting season finished and the natural course of events would have seen us commencing formal gundog training. That summer however saw our lives take a different path when our beautiful daughter Elly joined our lives. Adjusting to motherhood meant that gundog training was put on the back burner, so to speak. This also meant that Bertie entered his second season more unruly than I’d have liked but his hunting skills and use of his nose improved. His whistle work and steadiness did not!

The spring of his second year we started formal training. Never before had I experienced a dog with such a thirst for learning. As with all young dogs mistakes are made. Sometimes by the dog, but more often by the trainer.   Bertie, like most Chesapeakes, did not like being corrected but neither did he sulk. He would return to my side glance up at me as much as to say ‘right let’s try that again and I’ll do better’. He put such heart and soul into every retrieve. He was a joy, and still is, to train.

He ran ten novice working tests that summer of his second year. Starting in early April and finishing the end of September. On average he ran in a test every second weekend. Out of them he placed in seven. It was intense but he thrived on every second of it. My heart swelled with pride every time we walked away from the line. He was one big brown dog among many small black labs and proving with each competition that it is possible for another breed to throw down the gauntlet.

Our third season (which is the one just gone by) was his best yet. With a summer of decent training behind him, and along with the previous seasons hunting experience, he developed into one of the most enjoyable dogs to work with I’ve had so far.   I think the great thing about our breed is their utter versatility and their pure dedication to work. That is what they thrive on. Within one hunting season Bertie sat in a boat for some duck decoying, stood in line week after week as a picking up dog, did a few days pheasant rough shooting and then spent the summer competing in Working Tests.

Well the left Over Puppy done good. This year, just a day after he turned three years old, he placed third at an Advanced (Open) Working Test. His fellow competitors were all black dogs; many were FTCH preparing for the CLA game fair. When I think back on that puppy that day I wonder sometimes who picked who, and I smile……

Copyright Riverrunchesapeakes 2012