Chesapeake Bay Dog..The Ultimate Retriever

The Chesapeake Bay dog has been developed to a very high state of perfection on the shores of Chesapeake Bay and has been used as retrievers by duck hunters in that locality for a great many years.

Every man who hunts wildfowl much ought to have a good retriever. Setters and Irish water spaniels are very commonly used. The best duck dog, in my opinion, is one who combines the best qualities of each breed by crossing. The best duck dog I ever saw was a dog of this description. He was a fine retriever and had a nose as good as any setter. He could be used for duck hunting and was just as valuable for hunting quail, prairie chickens, woodcock or jack snipe. No wounded duck could escape him in the rushes or reeds.

In color they range from a deep seal brown down through the varying shades of brown to a very light sedge or 'faded buffalo' color, and in coat from the smooth, wavy, short coat to the heavy, thick coat, resembling very much the sheep pelt. These dogs have what is known as the double or otter coat, the under-coat being very thick and furlike, while the other coat is of coarse hair. This difference in color and coat seems to occur in almost every litter of puppies, and just why it is so is a mystery. A small white star is also frequently found on the breast of these dogs, but not always. Some fanciers prefer one shade and some another.

The thoroughbred Chesapeake is absolutely fearless and was never known to quit under the most trying conditions. Deep mud, tangled rice beds and rushes, as well as extreme cold, has no terrors for them.

I have seen these dogs break ice over an inch thick for a distance of fifty yards going after a duck and then turn around and break a new channel through the ice, back to me with the duck, and repeat the feat as often as they were called upon to do so; in fact, I have yet to see a retrieve so tough but what they would make the attempt at it, and if a physical possibility for them to accomplish it they always returned with the bird.

In order to be in a position to fully appreciate these dogs, one must come in actual contact with them and enjoy their companionship. They are, without doubt, the wisest dogs in existence, and as companions they are simply in a class by themselves. Asa rule they are what is known among sportsmen as ' one-man dogs.' That is, they recognize but one master, and when they are properly trained to retrieve, an owner need not worry about getting his own duck when shooting with others in a marsh or on a river.

Anything regarding the Chesapeake Bay dog will prove especially interesting to all the old-time Maryland and Virginia sportsmen who were born and raised upon the banks of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries; from these waters a greater variety of delicious good things can be had, with less effort, than any spot or place upon God's green earth. The most of us can recall the name and personal characteristics of some certain Chesapeake Bay dog which was among our boon companions during our boyhood days, when we frolicked and whiled away the blossom of youth.

That the Chesapeake Bay retriever is the greatest of water dogs is undoubtedly owing to the great strength of his forelegs and powerful shoulders, but more especially to that peculiar and unexplainable furlike under-coat, through which an oily substance is mixed, like unto the down of a duck, not natural to any other breed of dogs, whicli enables him to withstand the most rigorous weather during the ducking season. He is more especially appreciated by us old-time fellows for his knowledge of the art of tolling the ducks within gunshot, and they take to tolling as naturally as the setter does to pointing quail. No fox can be more skillful and cunning.

In disposition the Chesapeakes are most extraordinary. They are very quiet and they do not like to be disturbed, while watching over a stool of decoys, by other dogs and people not connected with the sport at hand. Some may think them sullen on that account, but they are never vicious or quarrelsome, either with dogs or people. They simply want to be let alone. To them life begins and life ends retrieving and tolling for ducks. Their minds are never connected with other things.

The smooth, wavy, short-coated dogs are the most desired by some, because they can more thoroughly shake off the water and dry out more quickly. The smooth and curly- coated Chesapeake Bay retrievers are not distinct strains, as many suppose; they are both whelped from the same litter, the color ranging from a seal brown to a light sedge.

During freezing weather the icicles do not form on the outer coat of the smooth-coated dog, as they do on the rough or curly-coated. But it seems to make no difference to 'Old Curly.' He may tremble with excitement when the ducks are about to dart to the decoys, but he never shivers and suffers from the cold wind and icicles sticking to his coat. And I cannot recall at this writing of having ever seen a Chesapeake Bay retriever afflicted with canker of the ear, with which other dogs will surely become afflicted if permitted to retrieve from the water any great length of time.

As a retriever of dead and wounded ducks, there are no bird dogs that equals the Chesapeake. His great strength of limb, his unlimited powers of endurance, and his dense coat, fit him eminently for braving the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, which is quite frequently, covered with floating ice, when much of the duck shooting is done. The Chesapeake Bay dog has been known to swim for miles in a rough sea, covered with broken ice, after a wounded duck, a feat which few dogs would be able to equal.

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