Category Archives: Norman

Our foundation stud HRCH Sand Spring Norm Of Caroway MH

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!

2022 Year In Review For Crawfish Chesapeakes

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Proud breeder moment here so I have to share Crawfish Chesapeakes year in review for 2022. Sand Spring Chesapeakes bred Josey who started Crawfish. Dieter is a Norman son while Carmelita is a grand daughter. We love to par take in the dog world with the Crawfish’s.

Congrats on all your accomplishments.

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.

Gone But Not Forgotten ~ Norman 21 Years Old

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November 6th 2013 we said good boy to our foundation stud Norman. This year he would of of been 21 years old, old enough to drink! We hope he is the life of the party up in heaven. How we miss him so. We are so happy to have his sons Gambler and Slammer. They fill the void left behind the day we said goodbye.

Dieter Receives His UKC Rally Obedience 1 Title

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On August 30th Tom and Dieter competed in UKC Rally Obedience 1 and after qualifying in all four event’s this weekend he received his RO1 title. Only 3 qualifying passes are needed for a title so the fourth one was for all star points.

This was a fun weekend as Slammer and I along with Mary and Gunney were at the same event. Slammer and Gunney is Dieters half brother. It was nice to have all three dogs competing and receiving their titles together.

Dieter was only 8 months old for this event, he did an excellent job being so young.

Tom and Dieter also competed in conformation, Dieter received Total Dog as well.

Congrats to Tom and Dieter for a job well done!

Dieter’s new name is:

RO1 Crawfish I Do It Again CGCA CGCU TKN SPOT-ON

Dieter is out of Josey and Norman 2019 litter.

6 Years Gone And New Lives Born Today

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6 years ago today we said good bye to Norman, he has lived on in our lives as he is the foundation stud in our Sand Spring lines as well as Slammers dad. Today Guilty will be giving birth to more legacy’s with a different sire. This time Guilty and Moses puppies will share this memorable day for the better.

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Each and every day I miss you Norman and wish you were still here with us. I see you in Slammer, he is growing up to be a clown just like you were. You will always live on as long as we have Sand Spring Chesapeakes.

Stay tuned to meet the new puppies. Guilty is scheduled for a c-section at 12’30 pm today. We hope momma and puppies all come out doing great and are healthy.

A Year In Review ~ Good Bye 2018

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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!

Guilty And Norman’s Surgical AI

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Monday December 3rd was the day according to Guilty’s previous progesterone tests that she should be ready to be bred via surgical insemination. Guilty came into heat on November 16, we waited 8 days before we started progesterone testing. The progesterone testing would tell us her hormone level so we knew where she was at in her heat cycle. We drew blood again three days later then another three days later than one day later. According to those results she ovulated sometime Friday night. After ovulation the eggs need time to mature while doing so the progesterone levels continue to rise. For a surgical AI the progesterone should be between 20-30ng/ml that way the semen is introduced right when the eggs are mature so they can get down to business and attach. Now that isn’t an exact science to the high level as some bitches have gotten pregnant over that level when I asked Dr. Greer about the timing for the surgical ai.

We arrived at Veterinary Village in Lomira at 3 p.m. to start all her presurgical testing.

Blood was drawn first to check her progesterone level today to make sure everything was right on track. Pre surgical bloodwork was done as well to make sure her internal organs were working up to par and that the surgical procedure would be safe for her.

Guilty watching the staff at work.

Second was a ECG – Electro Cardiogram to make sure there were no abnormalities with her heart.

Mom, am I gonna carry the golden child I keep hearing about?

Guilty is getting very very sleepy, she was given her pre anesthetics to make her sleepy for her IV cathater and induction medication before her general anesthesia.

Prepping for her IV Catheter placement.

Placing the catheter, this will be where the induction anesthetic goes and the IV fluids during the surgery.

Dr. Greer sporting her surgical attire! I had given Dr. Greer some Guilty shirts and she chose this occasion to wear it. I was totally surprised. I wore Veterinary Village’s International Canine Semen Bank shirt in honor of Norman who is on ice at the clinic.

I told Dr. Greer that she was really clever thinking of wearing Guilty’s shirt, that I didn’t even think of that. She said “well I can fix that”, and she tossed me my own shirt. Dr. Greer delivered Guilty into this world on 2/6/16 this day is going full circle.

Norman has entered the building.

And so it begins, Guilty is getting her induction anesthetic.

Shaving her abdomen so there is a sterile field for the surgery.

Saying hi to Norman, he’s on dry ice waiting.

Moving Guilty into the OR and prepping her for surgery.

Dr. Greer starting the procedure.

Thawing Norman getting him ready to come back to life.

Double checking one last time that it is indeed Norman in the tube.

Warming Norman up.

Checking Norman under the microscope to make sure he is alive and kicking before implanting. No sense implanting dead semen.

Dr. Griffiths transporting Norman into the OR, Dr. Greer said Guilty’s uterus looks great.

Drawing up the semen.

Guilty meet Norman, Norman meet Guilty.

Two thumbs up! Norman is in place.

Finishing up the surgery.

And she’s done! Time to recover Guilty.

Guilty is in recovery, waiting for the anesthetic to clear her system and then she will wake up, once she swallows they can remove the breathing tube.

Hello Guilty, the golden egg is in place, you hopefully will carry the golden child.

We were able to leave the clinic shortly after she woke up. Once home daddy took care of his little girl. Guilty recovered nicely from the surgery. Now we wait for the ultra sound to confirm a pregnancy in 30-33 days.

A huge shout out to the staff at Veterinary Village for another job well done. Thank you Dr. Greer and Dr. Griffiths for all that you do, you have a great staff and us breeders would be lost without you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Today Guilty Meets Norman

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Today at 4 p.m. Guilty will meet Norman. A surgical artificial insemination will be performed at Veterinary Village by Dr. Greer. This has been a long time waiting, many years of planning to break out Norman’s frozen semen to just the right gal.

Guilty-

Norman –

Well wishes to Guilty that all goes well during her procedure and hopes that we will have little ones in the future. Stay tuned for an update in 30 – 35 days.

HRCH Sand Spring Norm Of Caroway MH

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UNJ U-CH Sand Spring Guilt By Association JH CGCA CGCU THDN TT