Category Archives: Guilty and Moses Breeding.

Sand Spring Year In Review 2023

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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!

Year In Review 2022 Sand Spring Chesapeakes

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As we close out 2022 and bring upon 2023 I would like to take a moment to reflect on 2022 the good the bad and the ugly. I do this so I can have a record of what the year has brought when I look back and to share the year with others.

Our 2022 was started out with the good and the bad that was carried over from December of 2021. It was on Christmas day 2021 that we welcomed 2 precious Norman and Guilty pups into this world. This was Guilty’s last breeding and when we found out the bad that Guilty had something going on with her liver.

Guilty was such a great mom during this time, her liver was failing and she marched on and took care of her pups. It’s amazing what mothers will do for their young. For the next six months Guilty would be on medications for her liver and bloodwork to monitor her values. During this time she didn’t act like anything was wrong, she was still a happy go lucky dog that would do anything to please us.

The middle of February Jake and Kola went to their forever homes. I accompanied Kola on his flight to Alabama to live with our best friends Alan and Nichole whom also have another Sand Spring pup Hector. The night in the hotel and flight went so well with Kola, he adapted to everything without skipping a beat. I had a great time visiting Alabama, I got to see and do so much in the short time I was there.

Gertie and Slammer were invited to the UKC Premier. Both of them were in the 2021 Top Ten for conformation which meant they were invited to the 2022 Premier, we didn’t make it to the Premier but it was a honor to be invited.

Gertie received her AKC Therapy Dog title, she made 50 therapy visits to earn this title. Mostly she visited John’s dad who was homebound then in the nursing home. It made Gertie’s day and Howards day to do the visits. It’s always nice to make visits and put smiles on peoples faces.

Slammer and John competed in two UKC HRC Seasoned tests, passing both of them to earn Slammer’s Hunting Retriever title. During the summer he continued to train towards his UKC finished and AKC Master Hunter title. He ran two master tests in which he failed both. We learned that more training is needed to accomplish this task.

Slammer and JoAnn received their AKC Rally Advanced title. The rally events were all done virtually. He passed three rally courses.

April 25, a litter of 9 was born to Belle, Slammer was the sire. Since we were not breeding Guilty anymore and Gertie was spayed due to health reasons we took a puppy in lieu of a stud fee. We picked out this little beauty and named her Shank.

At six months of age we got some bad news on Shank. It turns out she has pretty bad cataracts so we won’t be able to breed her either. This was some pretty sad news to us as it pauses our breeding plans for a few more years. Shank is currently being treated by the UW Madison Veterinary School. So far we are managing her cataracts with medications. Surgery to replace her lens will probably be in her future but for now we are going to hope her eyes stay quite and she keeps her vision for a long time.

The ugliest thing that happened this year is that we lost Guilty to liver cancer. She was doing great on her medications until she wasn’t. Her liver was one of the worst that the pathologist has seen, we can’t believe she did as well as she did. Guilty never woke up from an exploratory surgery and after assisting in surgery and seeing how bad the liver was we chose to let her go peacefully. Guilty was 6 years young. One shouldn’t have to loose a dog that young. We will remember the great times we had with her and are blessed to have 2 of her children to keep her memory alive.

This summer I tried something new with Gertie we entered some AKC Fast Cat events. Gertie received her BCAT title. It took a little bit to get her to chase the bag as I think she thought that was dumb but she caught on or she just wanted to run to momma, which ever she got it done.

The most amazing thing of 2022 was that my friend Nichole invited me along with her on a trip the Europe. Thank you husband Alan for not wanting to go so I could go. What a trip of a life time, I can’t thank her enough for that opportunity. I also need to thank her niece Casey for being an excellent tour guide and hanging with us. Casey picked us up at the airport with her two young children, drove us to their lovely home in Bury St. Edmund, showed us their town and then it was off to Guernsey Island then Normandy then back to England then Nichole and I were off for a layover in Paris which was spent in the very boring airport. Can’t complain the rest of the trip was to die for!

We went to Normandy did all the Dday history stuff. One cannot even imagine the feeling one gets to visit that part of our history. It had so much meaning. I can’t thank those soldiers enough for their service and braveness. I will never forget what they did for our freedom.

Another favorite part of the trip for me was that I got to meet Karen from Jersey on Guernsey Island. She took a short 12 minute flight over to the Island to hang with me. What a wonderful day it was, can’t believe we’ve been facebook friends forever and we finally got to meet in person.

I didn’t get to meet just one facebook friend I got to meet three. While in Normandy my blogging friends Mark and Katty drove 3 hours one way to meet up with me, how great is that? We’ve been blogging friends back with Norman and their Easy was alive, we shared their lives and then we grieved their losses. We exchange doggie bday and xmas gifts. They are such lovely people I am so blessed to have gotten to meet them and their new doggies Phenny and Nelson. I will never forget meeting my facebook friends.

When I got back home it was time to run another UKC Elite Shed Dog event to try and get Slammer and Gertie their Working Shed Dog titles. They both passed all three days giving them their titles. Off to Champion level for us now.

Another sad time for our family was John’s dad Howard passing away. He live a good long live until Alzheimer’s took over and ended his life. We will remember him for always hunting and fishing in his spare time. He loved all our dogs and helped us out by letting them out while we were at work. He loved Gerties therapy visits when he couldn’t get out of the house.

Another good time in 2022 was when Slammer became a dad for the second time. This time he was bred to Dicca and they had 5 beautiful boys. I’m blessed to have had a part in this and to now follow along in the adventures of some of the puppies.

During 2022 Slammer and I attended a few UKC conformation shows. We have one more champion leg we need to earn to grant him his UKC Grand Champion title. We already have dates in 2023 where we could possibly get this done.

Before the dog show we ran a shed dog event in the champion division. It was snowing hard that morning so the antlers were hard to find. Gertie timed out without finding all her antlers, Slammer on the other hand was a rock star and found his 5 antlers in 4 minutes and some seconds. He ended up in fourth place for the day. We were super happy. When we were at the dog show I entered Slammer in Rally Obedience for a chance to receive Total Dog. Slammer received third place in rally with getting reserve in the show ring gave him Total Dog for the day, so all in all it was a great weekend.

This fall we didn’t go to Saskatchewan since when they decided to lift the bird ban there wasn’t enough time for John to get off work to go so we had to decline the offer to go. We did do a little bird hunting here in Wisconsin. The most fun is guiding at Lone Oak Shooting Preserve, all the dogs get a turn at guiding. What’s not to love about picking up birds, they don’t care who shoots them and I don’t care that I’m not shooting them. All I care about is my dogs getting birds in the mouth. Gambler and Glory both turned 11 this year and they still have it.

To close out 2022 there was Christmas and now Sunday 2023 starts.

All in all through the hard times 2022 was special and very memorable. Every year there are going to be good times and bad times along with some devastating times. All I can say is that these times make us stronger for the next phase in life. With family, friends and our dogs by our sides we can get through anything.

Peace and love to all!

Sand Spring Year In Review 2021

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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.

UKC Top Ten Standings for 2021

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What a awesome end to the UKC conformation year. The top ten standings have been posted. Sand Spring and Crawfish had another great year. Josey (Glory & Thunder 2015 litter) was the #1 dog with 46 points. Gertie (Guilty and Moses 2019) was the #3 dog and Slammer (Guilty and Norman 2019) was the #7 dog. Josey makes the #5 Sand Spring bred dog to hold the #1 position since 2012. Crawfish Carmelita was #9 (Josey and River 2020). What a huge accomplishments for all the dogs. Congrats to all!!