2018 started out with a bang with us finding out Glory was indeed pregnant. She had some complications during her surgical ai so we didn’t know if the pregnancy would take. We can’t tell you how happy we were to find out she would be having puppies in February.

The second big bang of the year was when the final UKC Top Ten Standings were posted and 5 Sand Spring dogs were in the top ten with Guilty being in first place with 10 top ten points. We would be invited to the UKC Top Ten at the 2018 Premier.

The third bang of the year was Gambler receiving his UKC SPOT-ON title. He passed his certification with outstanding results.

The fourth big bang came on February 10 when Veterinary Village in Lomira, WI delivered 9 beautiful puppies via c-section. 6 males and 3 females were born. Sadly one girl passed away a week into it’s short life. The other 8 thrived and were a lot of fun to raise. Glory was once again a wonderful mom.

Sand Spring Chesapeakes became recognized by the AKC as being a Bred with H.E.A.R.T. breeder.

The fifth big bang came with a milestone. Gambler completed 50 therapy dog visits giving him the Therapy Dog title. He loves his job in pet therapy and I love the smiles that he brings to the children’s faces.

The sixth big bang came with another title for Gambler. In May he passed his 3rd leg of UKC Rally Obedience giving him his RO1 title.

The end of July Bones joined our family.

After Gambler received his UKC RO1 title we kept practicing during the summer and then in the fall we entered his first Rally Obedience 2 event. Of course he passed with flying colors so he has one leg towards his RO2 title.

Guilty ran a couple of hunt tests this fall. She received her first AKC Senior hunter pass and her her first UKC Seasoned pass.

This fall brought some nice hunts for the Sand Spring gang. The hunts could of been more and the birds could of been more as always but the dogs did get to get out and do what they love to do.

We couldn’t get through the year without some sadness. On November 14 MK went outside like she always does but she never came back. Normally she goes outside and comes back in several times through out the day, we are still waiting for her to come back in. I don’t know where she is or if anything happened to her as I haven’t found a body yet. She is microchipped so if someone picked her up I would hope they would take her somewhere’s to be scanned and returned to me. She was happiest when she could go outside and roam, I am sad she is missing and maybe one day she will be back if not peace to you MK where ever you are.

The seventh big bang of the year came on December 3rd when we bred Guilty to our foundation stud Norman. We’ve been waiting years and years for this breeding to take place and the time finally came. We have frozen semen on Norman so Veterinary Village in Lomira, WI did a surgical ai on Guilty. The surgery went great and she had a good recovery. We won’t know until the new year if she is pregnant or not so hopefully that will be the same start to 2019 as we had in 2018 with the confirmation of Glory’s pregnancy.

December 14th Gambler and I competed in our second rally obedience event. We passed with flying colors again and a first place ribbon. We now only need one more pass for his RO2 title which won’t be happening until next year.

I will leave 2018 with a precious picture I took of Gambler and his little friend at the WI Dog Fair where he was a ambassador for the Chesapeake Bay Retrieve breed.

Goodbye 2018 lets bring on 2019 with a great big bang!