THE WORLD OF

WORKING GUNDOGS

"One of the pleasures of shooting is the company of a well trained gundog.  The choice of the breed of gundog is a matter of both personal taste and the type of shooting one is engaged in.  Different terrain and differing quarry dictate the choice of gundog.  Some will prefer the busy spaniel quartering the scrubland for pheasants or rabbits, others the questing of setters or pointers on the moorland, whilst others enjoy the retrieving breeds when wildfowling or at the driven game shoot." Bill Beckett Irish writer and broadcaster
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Chesapeake Bay Retriever

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.