# CBR Question



## Scully (Oct 22, 2007)

Im thinking of getting a chessie as my next hunting/test dog. I keep hearing how stubburn and tuff to train they are. Any insight I can get from chessie owners would be great.
Thanks


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

No different than training any other retriever, some are stubborn most are not in every breed.

Do you know how to train a retriever ??

if not buy a book and a video tape and follow the method to the letter from start to finish and in a year you will have trained dog.

The first 6 months the dog will be a baby the next 12 it will grow up, almost.


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## gonehuntin' (Jul 27, 2006)

Chesses are one of the great retrieving breeds. It's just harder to find a good one. Choose your kennel carefully and follow a good training program and you'll be happy with the results. I was a big fan of the dog. All that crap about meanness and stubbornness is just that....crap.


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## Scully (Oct 22, 2007)

Yes I know how to train a retriever, one senior and one master both labs. I am considering a chessie but keep hearing how stubborn and hard to train they are and am trying to figure out if its fact or fiction.


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## hunt4P&amp;Y (Sep 23, 2004)

I have a stubbern Chessi. She sits at home now, sick of dealing with her. May sound bad, but she is. The vet says she is actually retarded. Makes it hard to train her.


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## brianb (Dec 27, 2005)

Scully,

http://www.northernflight.com/articles.htm

http://www.northernflight.com/not%20thesamedog.htm

Here are a couple of links to Butch Goodwin's site. He is a regular writer for Retriever Journal and a well established chessie breeder.

The biggest difference I would say is that Chessie tend to be softer. They won't bounce back from a poor correction like most labs. They are also slower to mature, especially the males.

You have an excellent breeder in WI in Cursan Kennels. Sandy Dollar is the owner. My dog is out of there. She has a really nice stud with his show CH and MH.

Good luck


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## gonehuntin' (Jul 27, 2006)

The other difference between the Chessie and Lab is that the Chessie required more human contact. A chessie does not do well for instance on a dog truck. It's why you see so few run by pro's. You just can't devote enough time to them. You can get tough and stubborn breeds in any type of dog. No more in Chessies than any other breed.


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## HuntingGeek (Oct 12, 2007)

I have a chessy and she is the first and only retriever I have trained. I read a lot of books and made a few mistakes. I have heard that they can be harder to train and I believe that it is because they seem to want to understand why they need to learn something as opposed to learning a task and then moving on to the next lesson. Most of the time when I introduced a new subject it seemed like she would never understand it and then by about the 3rd or 4th session she would all of a sudden know it and has never forgetten it. They work more independantly and with less direction than what I have seen in labs. She hardly ever looks back for further direction on a blind retrieve and prefers to find the bird on her own. Which most of the time is a good thing because often I have mis-marked the bird or it has moved since it went down. They are tremendously loyal and work to please and it is also true that they are essentially a one man dog and bond with the trainer. It doesn't work very well to send your chessy away to be trained because of that reason. What you always hear about chessies is that they were bred to be excellent swimmers and are able to withstand very cold water temps. What you don't always hear is that they were also bred to protect the decoys and other gear while their owners were away. My dog is very protective and scary sounding when someone comes to the door or walks by on the street. This protectiveness can be overcome by being sure to properly socialize a chessy when they are a pup. Unfortunately, I didn't get her until she was 8 months old and she had been chained or kennelled most of her life. We have learned to manage her protectiveness but doubt we will ever be able to cure it. She has recently been diagnosed with megaesophagus, but not before she had pneumonia for 6 about months. Basically her food never made it into her stomach and would sit in her esophagus where she would aspirate it into her lungs and cause pneumonia. She would get better with meds and then get it right back again. Now, we feed her in an upright position so that gravity can take the food into the stomach. She is much healthier now and energetic, but the pneumonia has reduced her lung capacity to where she has a hard time swimming and chasing cripples and just keeping up in general. As a result, I have been looking for a new puppy and have settled on a lab that should be ready to pick up next week. Like I say, you can get rid of the protectiveness with proper socialization but sometimes it is easier not to fight the genetics. On the other hand, she is an excellent dog and nobody in my hunting party has lost a bird in the last 3 years and I wouldn't be looking for a new dog if not for the health reasons. Good luck with your decision.


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## CDK (Aug 1, 2005)

You've been give'n alot of very good advise, just like any breed of dog, its more important were you get it then the breed it self. Just be sure to do your home work and buy from good feild lines, if possible go see both sire and dam. Check out the web sites "Team Chesapeake" and "Chesapeakes Unlimited" there are alot of very well known chessie people that frequent those sites that will answer any question you have on the breed. I have three of them in the kennel outside, I run hunt test and hunt them and wouldn't trade them for anything.


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## duckcommand (Dec 19, 2006)

I have an 11 month old Chessie male he is sitting at about 107lbs right now. He is a great family dog and very good with kids. He has been out duck and goose hunting and is doing great. He is going out this weekend for some upland training/hunting. He has a great nose. He is very smart and learns quick. He has his days with being stubborn like any dog but it is not bad. He is protective at home. I have had labs before and have been happy with them. My Chessie seems to have a little more drive than any of the labs I have had. He was out duck hunting with me Sunday and it was very cold with wind and snowing hard and it did not even phase him. I couldn't be more happy with him. I am now a Chessie fan for life. They are very loyal dogs. If you get one you won't be disappointed.


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## stonebroke (Dec 16, 2004)

I breed Chessies, of course......I have 4 of them right now. I also raise Springers....have 4 of them also. I'm biased, obviously, but I've yet to have a bad Chessie. I'm sure there are some out there (as there are in all breeds), but I haven't seen one. What I've found is that once a person has a good Chessie, they are Chessie people for life. I can't begin to tell you how many phone calls and e-mails I've received over the years from people who had just lost their Chessie and were looking for another. I hunt primarily pheasants. I hunt a Chessie and a Springer together most of the time.....the two hunting as a team are absolutely lethal when it comes to putting birds in the bag. We hunt some nasty cover (willows choked with wild rose bushes, cockleburrs, etc.).....the places smart roosters go when they've been pressured. I don't know of any other breeds that will attack the cover and root out a rooster better than a good Chessie and Field-Bred Springer. It's tough on the dogs, so I rotate them frequently. By the time they have a few seasons under their belts, they usually have quite a few "battle scars". This is my Tonka Dog.... She's 7 years old now...


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## gunsmokex (Nov 3, 2007)

I have a mixed lab, father was a chocolate lab and mom was a chesapeake (he turned out black), got him as a giveaway. I mainly hunt pheasants haven't done any goose or duck hunting with him. Does fine pheasant hunting has a great nose, but I don't think I trained him properly, he'll locate the bird and keep it there, just won't bring it over to me. I have to find a trainer to work on the forced fetch. Funny story a couple of weeks ago before bird season he grabbed a hen pheasant, he let it go and boy was he ******, lol.

He has a ton of stamina though, just keeps on going even in the heat walking miles of thick CRP cover, there just is no stopping him and he's never failed me yet. Tough dogs though, he took a **** once in the stream and barb wire and nicks do not phase him, the thicker helps him with the barb wire nicks.

Hunting Geek's post pretty much hit the nail on the head with training Chessie's IMO. I believe that Chessie's are sometimes harder to train because they simply have it in their mind that they know a better way than you on how to do somthing, you just have to figure out what it is or how they want to do it. That's why they've gotten branded as stubborn, its just simply because people don't adjust to the dog and tailor the training to the dog.

He gets along fine with other dog's though and is great around kids, weighs about 105lbs, just looks like a giant black lab. I'll get some pics soon as I convince my self to buy a digi camera instead of more hunting gear.

Scully, what kind of hunting are you going to be doing?


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