02/14/2025
From Field and Stream:2024
Chesapeake Bay Retriever: The Best Buddy
What most people love about Chessies is their intelligence, but especially their devotion to you. These are very loyal dogs that love to please their owner. Labs and goldens love everybody and everything, but the Chesapeake will follow you everywhere, because he’s your friend, your sidekick, your partner. He is your dog, period. Compared with the other retriever breeds, this loyalty is what makes Chessies such good watchdogs.
Of course, they’re also great hunting dogs. They’re athletic and they love the outdoors—and they absolutely love the water. And they’re extremely determined. In cold water or bad conditions, they’ll work through difficult situations in order to persevere and bring that duck or goose back to you. Chessies do well in the uplands and can retrieve small game, but they really are the premier waterfowl dog. If you hunt in tough, cold conditions, this is the dog you want. They have excellent noses and are particularly good at finding crippled birds.
Now, that determination to a single task isn’t always desirable, which is why this is a dog that you absolutely need to obedience-train. When you say no, the dog needs to know you mean no. Having a Chessie can be like having a 3-year-old: They sometimes like to test what you’ve set as boundaries. You need to be consistent with your training—and innovative. This dog gets bored quickly because they learn so quickly. Once they turn about 3 or 4, they settle in to what your relationship is like and they know the boundaries.
And this is not a dog that you only take out on the weekends or in the evenings, because then you’ll never get out of him what a Chesapeake really is—a devoted, loyal dog that you take with you in the car and boat and enjoy all the time. If you make this dog your buddy, you’ll get the very best of him.
