Chesrite kennel was established in 1971 with the unexpected acquisition of a six-month-old Chesapeake Bay Retriever named Ginger. We didn�t set out to buy a show dog nor did we expect that adopting this lady would result in so many major life changes, but, looking back after thirty years, that day changed the course of our lives.
Ginger went on to earn Championship and Companion Dog degrees. Her first litter produced 3 group placers including Multiple Best In Show winner, Chesrite�s Justin Tyme. Of the 6 puppies in the litter 4 of them earned a total of 9 titles and a 5th pup had both of its� majors before the owners decided they didn�t wish to show anymore. The 6th puppy was an excellent gun dog and companion.
We truly enjoy the diversity that the Chesapeake offers. We have experienced the pleasure of training for Breed, Obedience, Field, Tracking, Dog Sledding, Freestyle, and we are just starting to play with Agility. It appears that if we have the time to learn how to teach them, our dogs can figure out how to do it! The nice thing is that we don't need a different dog for each different sport! One Chesapeake is more adept at learning all of these things than we ususally are at training them! The Chesapeake in general is an extremely intelligent dog making the true talent in training them become how to keep them from getting bored rather than how to get them to do it.
Over the years we have had many extraordinary wins and produced many top winning dogs. The dogs with whom we share our life now are the 8th and 9th generation descendants going directly back to that one litter. While we place tremendous effort into choosing just the right dogs to breed our most important criteria is health and temperament. Our Chessies have an average lifespan of 12-16 yrs and if they are going to be around that long then they had certainly better be pleasant to live with!!! |
