Category Archives: Family

Sand Spring Year In Review 2023

Posted on by

As we end 2023 I want to reflect back on the year and share with you what we have been up too.

Starting off in January Gertie received her AKC Rally Advanced title. We did virtual videos, we needed to pass three courses.

In February Slammer and I completed his UKC Conformation Grand Show Champion with a Total dog to boot! This makes his 6th Total dog pass.

In April Slammer became a dad again to a lovely litter of pups born to Ruby. 7 more kids out there.

April 22nd was the ACC WI Chessie Fun day held at our home (Stancerville). People and their chessies came from all over the US again. It was a fun filled day. We are always thankful for the beautiful day we are given with so many wonderful friends. This couldn’t happen without everyone chipping in.

In May Slammer and John passed their first AKC Master Hunter test.

While JoAnn got to take a trip to Vegas with her friend Jodie. We had a wonderful trip, we saw so many things and places. We put on 90,000 steps while there, we got around! A special moment during the trip was when I brought my friend Susie back to Vegas to be laid to rest. She passed away 9 years ago and her last wish was for me to take her ashes to Vegas and spread them at the place where Susie took me to Vegas for my first time. It was so bitter sweet. I miss her dearly and she is pulling the one arm bandit all day long.

Another very special memory from my time in Vegas will stay with me forever as it is permanently on my arm for me to each each day. I designed a tattoo and had an artist at H & H tattoo company apply it.

The paw print is Guilty’s, the heartbeat is her actual heartbeat, the outline is her and the cattails are actual cattails that I got when I put her great grandfather Norman to sleep. Her memory lives on.

The end of June W.A.C.K.O. club hosted a Elite Shed Dog event at Stancerville. It was a three day event. Slammer and Gertie passed each day. On the second day Slammer received a 3rd place. Slammer has 65/100 and Gertie 30/100 points needed for their champion titles.

In July Slammer and John passed their second AKC Master Hunter test.

Slammer also became a dad for the fourth time. Dicca and him had a litter of 11 pups which kept Dicca’s owners on their toes.

August was a productive month. Slammer and John passed their 3rd AKC Master Hunter test.

September started out the busy month by JoAnn going Bear hunting with a friends brother and his bear hound dogs. I was successful the first morning I went out.

My friend Kim S talked me into showing Slammer in AKC conformation. I couldn’t show the first day so Kim showed Slammer, I then received a text stating that Slammer went WD/BOB for a 3 point major. To say I was surprised was an understatement. Host clubs were the Greater Racine Kennel Club and the Cudahy Kennel Club.

The second day of the show I showed Slammer and we received WD/BOB for another 3pt major. This guy was on a roll.

September was the month I had been working all year for. The ACC National Field Trial Specialty was being held in Stoughton, WI. I was one of the committee members to make this happen. It was such a great 4 days. The chair-cochair, committee members, volunteers all did an amazing job. I was happy to be apart of this event.

Right after the NFT John and Gertie headed to Saskatchewan for a week of snow goose hunting. They had a great time with their friends. Hoping this next year I can get back into going.

While John was in Canada I went to another dog show with Slammer. This show was hosted by the Sheboygan Kennel Club. He received a second and a RW.

The end of September I entered another dog show this time with Riggs. Host club was Rockford-Freeport Kennel Club. Riggs was 1st and then WD for his first 3pt major. On the second day he was 2nd/RW.

The end of October I hit a three day dog show with Slammer again. Host clubs were the Kenosha Kennel Club and Skokie Valley Kennel Club. The first day Slammer went 1st/wd/boboh for his 3rd 3pt major. The second day he went 1st/RW. The third day he went 1st/WD for his 4th 3pt major. He’s on fire!

We ended the show season of 2023 with 4 majors, 12 points and NOHS Bronze with 10 points. Unbelievable!!

October we started guiding at Lone Oak Shooting preserve again along with regular hunting. The dogs are having fun picking up birds. Gambler at 12.5 years and Glory at 12 years are still hunting and doing a great job at it. I have to scream a little louder as they are deaf but they get the job done.

Through out the year Gambler, Glory, Slammer and Gertie visited Clearview Health Campus once a week doing pet therapy. Bringing smiles to the residents.

The middle of December Slammer and I went to another Elite Shed Dog event. He timed out the first day, passed the second day and had to scratch the third day as I was called to go bobcat hunting. He now has 75/100 points to earn his champion shed dog title.

John and I both had bobcat tags, John drove me up to Sheldon, WI to hunt with the same peeps who took me bear hunting. John happened to be near the cat before I got there so he tagged it. There wasn’t another chance for me to hunt as it hadn’t snowed again before the season closed. We hunted with hound dogs and what a trip it is to witness another breed hunting.

Gambler got the privilege to hunt with his Boykin buddy Ted one last time. Gambler is 12.5 years and Ted is going on 14 years with walking disabilities. They have been hunting together a couple times during the pheasant season for the past 10 years. Gambler doesn’t play well with others but he respects Ted and it’s amazing to watch these two dogs work together to get the job done. I always have fun watching the Boykins hunt and hunting under them. Thank you Ted for many hunts with Gambler.

Bruce was able to snap this photo of Gambler and I walking side by side hunting. When Gambler’s dad Norman was 12 years old John snapped a photo of Norman and I walking side by side at Lone Oak Shooting Preserve. I now have to favorite photos of me and my pals.

Shank is Shank and has been visiting the Vet School every 3-4 months to have her cataracts evaluated. She is on daily medication and her eyes are stable. She is a fun loving little gal that doesn’t know she has a problem. Bones is her buddy as she is always stalking him and trying to play with him. He is still going strong with his megaesophagus with not having any health issues from it.

We had a uneventful Christmas and New Year.

This brings Sand Spring Chesapeakes 2023 to a close. We had a fun filled year with hoping more fun and accomplishments in 2024. We hope you all had the year you wanted and hope you have a happy, healthy and safe 2024. We will be seeing you!

Sand Spring Year In Review 2021

Posted on by

Here we are starting a new year again. Welcome to 2022. I would like to take a moment to reflect on 2021 with the Sand Spring gang.

Gertie and I started the year out by becoming an Alliance of Therapy Dogs pet therapy team. This makes the 5th Sand Spring pet therapy team that lives in my house hold and the 9th pet therapy team that are in my lines. Pet therapy makes such a difference in peoples lives, we so enjoy our visits. We were unable to make many visits in the beginning of the year because of Covid but come July we were able to make visits again to a Clearview, they have many units in this facility that we can visit. In February Gertie became a R.E.A.D. dog so we started visiting a elementary school when the school year started in the fall of 2021. The third graders read to Gertie and the other dogs.

1/24/21 Gertie was entered into a North American Dock Diving event where she made 5 jumps in the senior division giving her a Dock Senior title which is a NADD title as well as recognized by the AKC. She has a ball jumping off the dock.

2/17/21 Gertie and Slammer entered an AKC Temperament Test. This is a new event to AKC so not many clubs offer it. We were fortunate to live near a club that offered this so I signed them up. Both dogs did the course with an even temperament, giving them a pass on two events which then gave them their AKC ATT title.

2/20/21 Gertie and Slammer headed to Dodge County Canine Club Rally Obedience event. Gertie was entered in Rally Obedience 1 and Slammer was entered in Rally Obedience 3. They both got qualifying scores in each event. The following weekend they went to Bark River’s Rally event where they both qualified again which gave them their titles.

Gertie
Slammer

4/24/21 During the annual ACC WI Chessie Day there was a Farm Dog Certified test in which Gertie was entered in and passed each event for her FDC title. She had to walk through a farm environment and past farm animals without freaking out. This is basically a canine good citizen test but in a farm environment.

5/14/21 Gertie attended the Fox Valley Retriever Club spring AKC hunt test where she completed the junior hunter test giving her her AKC Junior Hunter title.

7/12/21 Gertie made 10 pet therapy visits so that gave her her AKC Therapy Dog Novice title.

6/17/21 For the year of 2020 Slammer was the #1 Chesapeake in the UKC Top Ten Standings for conformation. With this accomplishment he was invited to the UKC Top Ten Invitational that was being held at the UKC Premier in Kalamazoo, MI. We attended the Premier where Slammer won the Champion class during the top ten invitational.

Slammer got some pretty cool photos of dock jumping taken

6/18/21 Gertie came with to the UKC Premier, she went Best Of Breed twice, doing so she received her UKC Show Champion.

Gertie also tried her paw at precision coursing where she had to qualify for three events and she did giving her her UKC Novice Precision Coursing title.

6/19/21 While at the UKC Premier Gertie dock jumped. She jumped 5 jumps in the senior division giving her her UKC United Senior Jumper title.

Because she won best of breed and qualified once in dock jumping she qualified for Total Dog.

UKC Premier loot

7/23/21 Gertie and Slammer participated in two AKC Rally Novice virtual events. We did the two courses, video taped them and sent the videos to AKC for judging. We got our scores and qualified twice. They each qualified for one rally novice event back in March so these passes gave them their AKC Rally Novice titles.

7/23/21 Slammer along with John competed in a AKC Senior Hunt test. They passed both the water and land series giving them a qualifying pass and Slammers AKC Senior Hunter title.

8/7-7/2021 Gertie, Slammer and John headed to Muddy Water Retriever Club annual HRC hunt test. Gertie was entered in started each day in which she passed each day and Slammer was entered in started on Saturday and seasoned on Sunday. He passed each day as well.

8/21/21 Gertie, Slammer and I attended our first International Show. They received their International Champion titles with three V-1 (highest rating) ratings. The judges were Judy Corbett; USA, Gloria Kerr; INT & USA and Nancy J. Eilks; USA. This was the first time I attended this type of dog show. It was nice to get critiques on each of the dogs. The Badger State Sieger  held in Menasha, WI was a well run, very friendly atmosphere.

8/28/21 Slammer and I took a trip to Minnesota, stayed with Slammer’s sister Gunney and attended a UKC Dock Jumping event. Gunney and Slammer both jumped. Slammer jumped three times in the senior division giving him his United Senior Jumper title. It was a fun weekend hanging out with Mary and Gunney.

8/20 Slammer was invited to the 1st Annual UKC Total Dog Invitational. He qualified for total dog back in May where he got a qualifying pass in Rally Obedience 1 and received an Champion win in conformation showing he is a total dog. We didn’t go to the invitational as it was in Louisiana. Maybe one day if it ever got closer to WI.

10/8/21 Gertie participated in three AKC Rally Intermediate virtual events. We did the three courses, video taped them and sent the videos to AKC for judging. We got our scores and qualified all three times so Gertie received her Rally Intermediate title. Slammer was hunting in Canada when we were doing this so for once Gertie has a title that Slammer doesn’t have.

This concludes all the accomplishments for Slammer and Gertie. They both had a big year and I couldn’t be more proud of them. We will continue to enter more events in 2022 and hopefully get some more titles to add to their names.

Gambler, Glory and Guilty all had a good year too. Gambler and Glory are my senior dogs that are still going strong each one turned 10 this year and besides sleeping more you wouldn’t know they are seniors. We have been doing some guided pheasants hunts this fall and winter as well as hunting on public land. They have all gotten some nice retrieves.

I got a nice surprise with Gambler this winter as well. My friend Tom was doing some research to find out who was the first Chesapeake registered with AKC to obtain the Trick Dog Novice title. Low and behold it was Gambler. Another first for the Sand Spring line.

Slammer was the chosen one that got to make the trip to Canada this year. I stayed home with the other dogs. The guys had really good hunts each day. Slammer was in heaven with all his retrieves.

Gertie turned two this year. She is all grown up and has the best personality. She is a snuggle bug she loves to cuddle on the couch. She has turned into quite the hunter as well.

The big event for the end of the year is that we bred Guilty one last time. We did a repeat breeding with our foundation stud Norman. When ultrasound came around only one puppy was seen on ultrasound. We were holding out hope that there would be more but time would tell. The week before she was to have her pup I took a radiograph to see if only one or more. I got a pleasant surprise when there were two skeletons seen on the radiograph. She was due to have her puppies the day after Christmas. I took Guilty into my reproduction vet to have a progesterone test done to see how far along she was as well as routine bloodwork. The progesterone test was low meaning she was going to go into labor at anytime. Her bloodwork showed that her liver enzymes were sky high. We didn’t know what could of caused her liver to be angry as she had routine bloodwork in October before we bred her and it was all normal. I elected to do an emergency c-sec and have a liver biopsy done at the same time. The csec was routine, two beautiful male pups were born. A liver biopsy was taken, bloodwork for leptospirosis tests were sent off to the laboratory. We got the lepto tests back and they were negative which is a great thing. The liver biopsy is still pending. Right now Guilty is holding her own and doing well. She is taking her liver meds like a trooper and being the best mom to her boys.

Papa Norman’s spirit is looking down on these two. We had a wonderful Christmas surprise. This would make Sand Springs second birth on Christmas. 14 years ago Norman’s daughter Nellie gave birth to 7 pups, a few of these pups are still alive today. Our breeding program has come full circle. We couldn’t be more blessed. This will be our last litter for sometime. We have some breeding’s lined up with our males in the new year but they will be whelped elsewhere.

In conclusion I would like to take a moment to say how truly blessed we are. We Made it through another year covid free, healthy and happy. Our dogs have been healthy and have made our lives complete. We would like to wish everyone in the New Year good health to them as well. We hope all your dreams come true.

Happy Veterans Day 2019

Posted on by

Sand Spring Chesapeakes would like to thank all the Veterans today and everyday for their service, past, present, with us, not with us. I am truly blessed to be an American and I thank you for making that possible.

Guilty and Moses puppies are 5 days old today. They all along with momma are doing very well. They would like to thank all the Canines in service now and past ones. Thanks for what the canines do.

Thanks to my dad for his service. Some of my greatest memories were of my time hanging out at the American Legion Post while dad attended his meetings. Bologna sandwiches never tasted so good. God Bless the Military!

A Year In Review ~ Good Bye 2018

Posted on by

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 niners turned 5 weeks old.

The niners turned 8 weeks old and ready to go to their new homes.

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.

Gambler and his early geese.
Glory with her woodies.
Guilty with her haul for the day.
Guilty in Saskatchewan.

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!

Merry Christmas From The Sand Spring Gang

Posted on by

From our house to yours we at Sand Spring Chesapeakes hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas, may all your dreams come true. For those alone or recently loss a loved one 2 legged or 4 we sympathize with you and wish you peace.

Happy 11th Birthday to Nellie & Rebel’s 2007 Litter!

We wish many more happy years to Pearl, Savannah, Jessie, Nelly, Lou Lou, Huck and Kessler.

The 47th Year

Posted on by

The 47th year starts today for me. I’ve waited and wondered for the past 23 & 21 years if I would make it to this year and even more so will I make it past the 47th year into and beyond the 48th year. You see both my parents passed away when they were 47 years old. Since their passing I’ve been living with this thought. It’s a thought that I think about each day and don’t take any day for granite.

When I was in my twenty’s of course I thought my parents were old. Everyone thinks that way, eh? I’m hear today to let you in on a secret so listen up you youngsters. 47 is not old. Old is a relative term and I believe you are as old as you feel or act. I don’t feel old at all and I sure don’t act old. I sit here and think about how 47 really is young and I can’t believe my parents died so young, I surely wouldn’t want to pass away now. They were just getting into the prime of their lives with the kids being gone from home and them having enough money to finally travel and do things that they wanted to do. That time was short lived but I am so glad they got to do the few things that they did. There are two things that crosses my mind when I am thinking about doing something or going somewhere’s is that you only live once and life if to darn short. You need to go out and make the best of it and enjoy each day, so that is what I do. If I want to travel I travel, if I want to buy something I buy something. You just never know when your time is up on this earth so go out and make it a great day!

My brother passed the 47th year hump a year and three quarters ago, so I shall to pass that hump. Stop back a year from now and find out. Until then Happy Birthday to me and I’ll be celebrating life to the fullest!

 

 

 

Served Like a Girl (2017)

Posted on by

On this Veterans Day it’s only appropriate I give a shout out to the girls of Served Like a Girl. I want to thank each and every one of them and each and every Veteran for their service to this country.

Director Lysa Heslov’s documentary, “Served Like a Girl, provides a candid look at several American women as they transition from active duty to civilian life after serving tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our wounded U.S. female service personnel often return to a stark reality, one that is rarely discussed or considered. Struggling with PTSD, homelessness, broken families, serious illness, physical injuries, and the aftermath of military sexual abuse, these amazing women find ways to adapt and overcome debilitating challenges through participation in the “Ms. Veteran America” competition. Guided by event founder and veteran, Jas Boothe, the women leverage their experiences gained through competition to recover the parts of themselves and their personal identities they had lost on the battlefield. Called “Engaging, Honest and Powerful,” this film is a beautiful tapestry interlaced with poignant moments, social commentary, and humor.

Nichole Alred is one of the woman Veterans in the film. I am proud to say that we’ve been Facebook friends for over 10 years, our love for Chesapeakes brought us together. We haven’t met in person yet but hopefully in the next year that will change. I’ve enjoyed following along with the long hard process it was for her and the other girls to be noticed and to be picked as the girls in the film. I can’t wait to watch this documentary these gals deserve to have their stories heard and seen.

Image may contain: 2 people, people smilingImage may contain: 1 person, smiling, standing

Image may contain: 4 people, people smiling, people standing and text

Served Like a Girl is a film that allows us to take an intimate look inside the lives of 5 women veterans. The women share stories of what it is like being a woman in a war zone, being sexually assaulted, and overcoming odds, all the while having you laugh out loud. Lysa Heslov (the director) does an beautiful job at allowing the veterans to tell their stories without putting any kind of twist on it. It’s a roller coaster of emotions. *Nichole

Served Like a Girl – The Girls, read their bio’s here.

Follow on     Facebook     Instagram    Twitter      #servedlikeagirl

Image may contain: 7 people, people smiling, people standing and textImage may contain: 7 people, people smiling, people sitting

Image may contain: 10 people, people smiling, people standing and indoor

Image may contain: 10 people, people smiling, people standing and shoes

Served Like A Girl DVD – get it on Amazon. I got mine today!

Served Like a Girl soundtrack – get it here.

Image may contain: 2 people, people smiling, text

They ALL donated songs for us!! Christina Aguilara, Pink, Pat Benetar and Lynda Perry wrote “Dancing Through the Wreckage” just for the film. *Nichole

Image may contain: 1 person, text

Speaking of Final Salute Inc. meet the founder:

Image may contain: 6 people, people smiling, text

Jas is a Chicago Native, disabled veteran, cancer survivor, and international speaker who served 17 years in the Army. She founded Final Salute in 2010 and the Ms Veteran America competition in 2012, which have collectively raised over $2 million and assisted over 3600 women veterans and children in over 30 states and territories. In honor of her leadership and positive impact on the community, Boothe has been recognized by Oprah Winfrey, Toyota, People Magazine, CNN Heroes, and The Department of Defense.

Read an article written by Jas here, after reading this you will understand why this film was created.

Follow on Facebook   Twitter    #finalsalute

I salute you Veterans!

 

Life’s Simplest Moments {This Moment} See Beautiful

Posted on by

Last night while hanging on the couch relaxing from a day of work then a little dog training I look over to this moment.

Glory on her back in heaven because John was rubbing her belly. Each time he rubbed her right paw would go up in a wave motion. He loves his Glory girl and I love seeing these moments.

This morning while making a stop in my way to dog training I had to stop and take a moment to capture one of my favorite sites in Montello. This waterfall is such breath taking sitting in the middle of town. Would love to just sit in the park with my dogs and take in the peaceful moment, I can’t thou as the park doesn’t allow dogs so I’ll just look at the picture and dream.

Hope you all have a See Beauiful day!

{This Moment} See Beautiful is a once a month Blog Hop, every 2nd Friday of the month. simply create a blog post that made your day, week, and/or month … inspiring you in Seeing Beauty. Blog Hop inspired by See Beautiful.

 

Sand Spring Chesapeakes Is Now An AKC Breeder of Merit

Posted on by

 

Sand Spring Chesapeakes Is Now An AKC Breeder of Merit

It all started in 2000 when we got our foundation stud Norman. We knew we wanted to become breeders so we did all that we could to ensure the success with Norman. We followed the guidelines in what the American Chesapeake Club recommended for proper health clearances on breeding stock, we knew we wanted to produce hunting dogs that would excel in any performance events as well as be structurally sound, correct conformation and live a long healthy life. In order to do all this besides health clearances we needed to “prove” our dogs have/had  what it takes to be great hunting/performance dog so the hunt test game began. We started training Norman in hunt tests when ready we would enter him so we could eventuality get his titles to “prove” he had what it took instead of just saying “we have the best hunting dog out there”. Norman went on to become our first UKC HRCH Finished and AKC Master Hunter titled dog.

Foundation Stud Norman

We bred Norman and got our foundation bitch Nellie in 2004. We continued on doing everything correctly with Nellie so we could breed her in the future. We completed her health clearances and started entering her in hunt tests as well. She went on to be our second dog with a UKC HRCH Finished and her AKC Senior Hunter title.

Foundation bitch Nellie

We chose a stud dog that we thought would compliment Nellie and have puppies that would better the breed. Our first litter was December of 2007. Nellie went on to have a total of 3 litters, 17 puppies in the end.

Nellie and Rebel 2007 puppies. Litter of 7

Nellie and Tiny 2009 puppies. Litter of 6

For Nellie’s last litter we chose a stud dog that we wanted to continue in our breeding program. We knew we would spay her after this litter so we would need a bitch to keep the Sand Spring line going. We kept  the little red girl and she became known as Glory.

Nellie and Lefty 2011 puppies. Litter of 4

Before breeding Glory, we ensured all her health clearances were up to par and started training her for hunt tests and so far have gotten her UKC HR Seasoned and AKC Senior Hunter titles. Glory we started doing other events with with, we went on to get her UKC Conformation title and her AKC Canine Good Citizen and Community Canine titles, Therapy Dog Novice and Temperament Test title. She is one of my therapy dogs.

Glory and Thunder 2015 puppies. Litter of 8

Nellie’s great maternal instinct was certainly passed down to Glory as she was the best mom you could ask for with her two litters she has had. As long as Glory is healthy we will have another litter with her this fall/winter.

So where as all this breeding gotten us? It has gotten us after 10 years the AKC Breeder of Merit accomplishment.

The following must be met in order to be accepted into the program:

  • Has a history of at least 5 years involvement with AKC events.
  • Earned AKC Conformation, Performance or Companion* event titles on a minimum of 4 dogs from AKC litters they bred/co-bred in each breed applied for.
  • Member of an AKC club.
  • Certifies that applicable health screens are performed on your breeding stock as recommended by the Parent Club.
  • Demonstrates a commitment to ensuring 100% of the puppies produced are individually AKC registered.

*Applied for titles, i.e. CGC, Barn Hunt, Working titles, etc., do not meet event requirements. 

We couldn’t be more proud to have had 3 generations of Sand Spring puppies in our house at one time. This past spring we said good bye to our foundation bitch Nellie, she was a great ambassador to our breeding program and taught me so much, without her there would be no continuation of Sand Spring.

Sand Springs letter explaining the benefits of the Breeder of Merit Program.

Glory is continuing on the tradition and soon her daughter Guilty will be entered into our breeding program pending her health clearances and performance titles. Guilty already has started her therapy dog career and has her AKC Therapy Dog Novice title as well as her Canine Good Citizen along with her UKC Conformation title and Dock Dog Novice title.

Our certificate.

Norman, Nellie and Glory have all had offspring that have gotten performance, conformation and companion event titles. There offspring are still going strong and I have to take a moment to thank their owners for training and entering their dogs in various events. Without them I too would not be where I am today. At Sand Spring we strive to always better ourselves in our dogs. We are learning as we go and hope to be passing on our knowledge to our puppy buyers so they can make informed decisions on their pups. In 2015 we have implemented the Puppy Culture way of raising our puppies as well as started doing Early Neurological Stimulation on our puppies.

USJ HRCH U-GRCH Sand Spring’s Ev’ry Paw’s A Winner MH THDN CGCA TT TKI – Gambler

Our foundation stud Norman is no longer with us either but he lives on in the swimmers we have in storage waiting for future use and lives on in his children especially Gambler who is now the living stud dog at Sand Spring. Norman was my heart dog and I never thought a dog could out do Norman but his son has proven to have out did his old man in accomplishing so much more in performance and companion events. He also has offspring that are playing the hunt test game and hopefully soon they will be getting titles and proving their worth out in the field.

We will proudly display the AKC Breeder Of Merit Banner on our website and continue to breed to the standards of the AKC and the American Chesapeake Club.

AKC Breeder of Merit Participants demonstrate a commitment to the AKC Community, dedication to their breed(s), and actively promote the sport of purebred dogs. The AKC is proud to recognize AKC Breeders who are dedicated to breeding beautiful purebred dogs whose appearance, temperament, and ability are true to their breed. These breeders are the heart of AKC. *AKC website*