I've had a couple and they are great dogs. I'm not sure how they would do in field trials though? Chessies tend to be bit more independent and work "alone" so to speak. When I knock a duck down all I have to say is fetch and leave the dog alone. He will figure it out. I think it's part of the breeding. Voice commands and whistles work about as well on a Chessie as they do on me or my hunting buddies. They just confuse us. They are not Labs and share very little genetically with the Labrador, if anything. I read somewhere that Chessies are to Labs as poodles are to Great Danes. Two completely different breeds with two completely different personalities. Mine is two years old and does well on retrieving waterfowl, deer, and now he is even trying to be a squirrel dog. Not that I did any serious training, he just watched me and figured things out on his own. It's the Chessie way.
Good luck and be patient.
Last edited by Downeast; 02-20-2021 at 05:56 AM.
"We have become so open minded that our brains have fallen out"
I agree completely. Labs want to please you while a Chessie wants to be an equal and part of the team, if that makes sense. They are quite sensitive, far more than a Lab. I've had both for going on 40 years. A classic example. A friend and I were duck hunting. He had a Lab that was sent off to "field trial" school and I had a Chessie that had hunted with me for several years. My friend knocked down a duck that sailed off into some thick brambles and briars. He sent in his dog and the dog simply disappeared in the mess. Neither dog had seen the bird fall in the melee of shots and birds. The dog had been trained to respond to whistles and hand signals. After a few moments, perhaps out of habit he whistled. Well, I'm pretty sure that the dog did exactly what he was trained to do, stop and sit on his ass. The only problem was the dog couldn't see us and we couldn't see the dog. So he commanded (hollered) to the dog something along the line of "dead bird" or something. After what seemed like an eternity he finally called the dog back with no duck. He mentioned I guess that's that. I said wait a minute and I sent my Chessie in the thickets with the simple command of "Dead Bird...Find it...Work it out" and kind of pointed in the general direction and said BACK a few times. I then sat down on a log and told my buddy it may be awhile. We could hear the dog thrashing around back there for some time and when it got quiet I would holler "Dead Bird...work it out" and the dog kept on circling the area, sight unseen. After a few more minutes "Molly" came bounding out of the thickets with a dead mallard. At no time after I sent her in did we give her any commands except to let her know where we were and she "worked it out" independently on her own. That is what I refer to as the stubbornness of the breed. They just don't like to quit.
Just recently my 2 year old Chessie and I were hunting together and I knocked down and crippled a diver on the coast. I thought the bird was dead but it wasn't. The dog went in to retrieve the bird and that was that. The bird came back from the dead and dove under. So, knowing what was going to happen I pulled the anchors and cranked the motor and eased off the edge of the marsh and followed the dog and the bird on out into the sound. After several minutes and a few hundred yards offshore we lost the bird and I pulled up to the dog and got him back in the boat. Well, he was pissed! He looked out over the water and growled and barked and most likely cussed a blue streak in dog language. When I tied back up he jumped out of the boat and stood in the marsh looking out at the open water and continued to cuss up a storm. I even made a video of it but it wouldn't load on here. It was hilarious! Again, the stubbornness kicked in. He wanted that bird.
"We have become so open minded that our brains have fallen out"
So what you’re telling me you’ve trained all your chessies with zero pressure? I highly doubt it.
What I’m saying is, know how to read the animal and how to apply the pressure properly. The fundamentals and training is the same no matter what breed it is. There is no particular program just for one particular breed. Every dog is different on their tolerance level, no matter what breed they are.
You can read every book in the world and watch every video out there, But if you cannot read the dog properly you’re wasting your time.
Everyone I had did. Chessies are duck dogs and that's it. They suck at field trials, and upland game, and everything else. They were bred to retrieve ducks in the worst of conditions and that is about it. If they do anything else well then consider yourself fortunate. Every few years my pond would freeze over with maybe a quarter to half inch of ice. My Chessie would go in the pond and swim and break ice for hours with her tail wagging all of the time. I called it "getting in her zone". It would chill me to the bone watching her. I never saw her shiver either. Weird as hell. I guess it was like August to her.
Last edited by Downeast; 02-20-2021 at 09:53 PM.
"We have become so open minded that our brains have fallen out"
That’s because people use the same ole stereotypical excuse. They don’t suck at everything else, it’s the fact that the owners let them suck at everything else.
Trust me, I know how aggravating it is to train a hard headed but yet soft temperament dog. It takes longer than usual and takes more care on when and how to apply pressure. Most people make an excuse because of the breed for not knowing or not going through the extra effort to train the dog to preform at said levels.
IMO, it happens more with Chessies and Boykins. When the owner cannot get the desired result (whatever it may be) they automatically blame it on the breed. “They weren’t bred to do that” “They’re too small to swim that far” I’ve heard them all.
My point is for the OP. Don’t be one of those people that blames the breed for not training to a proper level. What ever level makes you happy. People let chessies slide on aggression and bad manners more than any others that I’ve seen because of the “breed excuse”. If you don’t know how to properly correct or stop certain behaviors, get with a pro.
Good luck and enjoy your trip with your new buddy.
Well said Mark. Definitely have some stuff to work on with Cotton.
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Definitely don't suck at field trials. I used to train with 3 or 4 Dual Champion/AFC's. Trained just like the labs, by amateur not professional trainers. Good trainers that could read dogs. Just like Tha Dick said. That is always combined with genetics. The Chessies that trained in the group also hunted geese and pheasants regularly. Oh yeah, and they were house dogs as well.
Last edited by mjiorle; 02-22-2021 at 12:55 PM.
Beautiful Pup.
Poverbs 27:17 "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another"
Downeast, you obviously suck at dog training and are not fit for a Chessie if you don't think they're capable of Upland bird hunting!
\"I never saw a wild thing feel sorry for itself. A small bird will drop dead frozen from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.\" <br />D.H. LAWRENCE
I dont get into these types of threads a lot unless I am looking for advice on something, but chessies are great at upland and anything else you train them for.
I used to pheasant hunt mine in midwest winters , a few times when it was 30 degrees and had been snowing for hours before the hunt. That old girl still found every bird we released and scratch birds almost every time we would go out. She could even give you a good run for your money up north grouse hunting. Its all in the training (good thing i had a good trainer cause it wasnt me )
I would hunt her wit ha buddy who had two labs, they were good but obviously not trained. My girl would run circles around them flushing birds up while these two were still looking around trying to figure out where they were flushed from. She knew how to run side to side and how far out to go ; when she was too far from me know. She would look back and come back giving that area a second look until got up to her.
Last edited by duckz; 02-22-2021 at 01:49 PM.
I took mine grouse hunting Saturday. Bumped one, no shot.
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