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Described
as the ultimate wildfowling dog, the Chesapeake Bay retriever is said to
have been bred from a pair of puppies that were washed up on the shoreline
of the State of Maryland after a shipwreck in 1807. After years of cross
breeding in the United States a strong swimming dog with a dense, oily
coat that is capable of withstanding the icy Atlantic conditions was
produced.
The coat
of the Chesapeake varies from a ginger-brown colour to that resembling
faded straw. The features of its coat are that of the Labrador’s
straightness and the flat-coated retriever’s waviness. This results in a
rougher coat with a dense ‘woolly’ undercoat. The appearance is of a wavy
coat over the shoulders, neck, back and loins, whilst the rear and tail
are feathered. The breed has four outstanding characteristics. They love water, have a superbly waterproof coat, have great stamina and an excellent memory for retrieving shot ducks. On the negative side of things, they are a one-man dog and do not like to be in the company of other dogs.
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