Vacation – Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Sand Spring Chesapeakes Year In Review 2025

Slammer started out the year by turning 6. He is getting older and wiser. He’s such an easy keeper.

Cooter turned one on Feb 21. She is such a ray of sunshine and has the quirks of her Grandpa Gambler, each day more and more of him come out.

After our birthday celebrations the sadness came in like a tidal wave. We didn’t lose one of our family pets, we lost two in three days. On March 7^th, Gertie passed away from a neurological condition. She was shy of 6 years old to say we were saddened was an understatement. Then three days later March 10^th Gambler passed away from an abdominal tumor. He was shy of 14 years old. We went from a household of 6 chessies to 4 in a very short period of time. We were knocked down by that wave but we shook ourselves off and started out with a new normal. That new normal included training the three dogs we have at home that we are working on achieving titles with. Slammer, Cooter and Snapper. Shank is still our pet and mascot for the others.

Shank turned three on April 25, she had her yearly eye exam in December and her cataracts haven’t changed. I put eye drops in each eye once a day and she hasn’t had any further eye problems. She is healthy and gives me so much joy and love.

Our achievements during the year – Slammer started off the titles by receiving his UKC Hunting retriever title on June 1^st. He needed two more passes for his title in which he got that weekend at the River Valley Retriever club, judges on both days were Mike Botts and Rich Lemmer. Cooter was also at that hunt test running started both days. She picked up two started passes which is 10 points that she can carry over toward her seasoned title in the UKC HRC.

Cooter became a UKC Show Champion on June 7^th, then on June 21^st, she received her AKC Fetch Intermediate title and her AKC Farm Dog Certified title. On July 3^rd, she passed her AKC Canine Good Citizen Advanced (community canine) and her Canine Good Citizen Urban titles. Snapper followed along with getting her Canine Good Citizen title the same day. The end of July on the 27^th Cooter finished up her AKC Junior Hunter title. She got four passes in 9 days. Then at the end of August on the 25^th Cooter received her AKC Therapy Dog Novice title for completing 10 visits. She was raking in the titles in 2025.

Snapper picked up her UKC Show Champion on October 25^th. She is our seventh Sand Spring dog to receive a UKC Show Champion. On October 31 she was certified as our 7^th pet therapy dog with Alliance of Therapy Dogs. She made a couple of visits before the end of the year.

Snapper received two HRC Started passes the beginning of August at the Muddy Waters hunt test and then she passed two AKC Junior Hunter tests as well.

Slammer was the Golden Child once again; October 10^th he was awarded the American Chesapeake Club Dual Award. This was awarded because he received his AKC Show Champion and his AKC Master Hunter titles. He was the 181 Chessie out of 220 titled to earn this award. He then went on to be the first Chessie to be the First Chessie in the UKC to receive a champion title in these four venues: United Senior Jumper Champion, Hunting Retriever Champion, Champion Shed Dog and Show Champion. He was awarded this recognition on October 17^th. He was busy training so he could run a AKC Spaniel Hunt Test which he didn’t do so hot in as they need to sit to flush in the master level and he decided he couldn’t steady to flush and just ran like hell to get the bird. Hard to teach a old dog new tricks when we have been letting him get away with running to retrieve after the shot and not teaching him steady to flush as a pup. He ran a couple of shed dog events this past year as well earning more points towards his UKC Grand Champion Shed Dog title. He needs 30 more points to achieve that title which we will work on next year.

All three dogs were busy hunting this fall and winter. Slammer went with me to Saskatchewan to snow goose hunt with our buddies. While there I got to see so many Northern Lights each night and morning. One day I was able to shoot the ashes of all our dogs gone before us off into the barley field one morning when the lights were shining bright. The three hunters are all guiding at the pheasant farm as well.

September 28^th Snapper turned one year old. She is coming along quite nicely and is a big part of Sand Spring Chesapeakes.

Slammer had another litter with his girly friend. They had 4 pups on December 15 so that makes him up to 48 pups. That is a lot of little Slammers out there.

Now for JoAnn’s exciting 2025. I was fortunate to be able to go on vacation with my girlfriends to Florida in March. It was a nice warm, much needed vacation after the losses of Gambler and Gertie. Then in June I took a family vacation with my brother’s family to induct my dad into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. It was such an emotional vacation, and I was truly blessed to have been able to do it with my brother and his family. We took on so many sites. We were able to be there for the Army’s 250 Birthday parade and what a site that was. Once in a lifetime vacation for sure.

John is still John and not much changed with him, but the creeps got to go deer hunting.

Thanks to everyone who was there to help us achieve our accomplishments and those who were there for all the memories of 2025.

The Big Oak is a large live oak (Quercus virginiana) located in Thomasville, Georgia, in the United States at the corner of Crawford Street and Monroe Street. Read the rest of the history of this tree HERE.

In the middle of January you may have seen by my Facebook posts that my friend Dana and I took a little vacation to Georgia to visit our training friend Sandy who lives in WI during the summer and in Georgia during the winter. Sandy was an excellent hostess and tour guide. She had so many adventures lined up for us, there was barely a moment where we were sitting still. I wanted to share with you The Big Oak tree adventure first because this was such an amazing site.

This tree was so beautiful, the branches were so long, the trunk was so big it was truly being taken care of with love. You could see all the work that was being done to keep this tree thriving. There were cables every where’s holding the branches up there were rods placed into the tree I imagine to help keep the limbs from breaking off. Little tree stools were placed under the limbs that have reached the ground to keep them off the ground. Signs were place around the tree to remind visitors to be respectable to the tree and not climb on it.

It was fun listening to the excitement in Dana’s voice when she was taking pictures and talking about how her husband and son won’t believe the size of this tree. They both work for Asplundh Tree Service so they have seen many trees over many years.

1982 the Big Oak property was dedicated to the memory of Elizabeth Ireland Poe. The property is now known as the Elizabeth Ireland Poe Park. The Big Oak once received a distinguished visitor in 1958. On a hunting visit to Thomasville with colleague George M. Humphrey, Dwight Eisenhower stopped by to take a photograph of the tree on his way to the airport. The President reportedly asked his driver to stop while he took a photograph. He then exited the vehicle, stood on the porch of Mrs. Rudolph Keyton, took his photograph and returned to his car.^[

I didn’t realize the park was the Elizabeth Ireland Poe Park, so it makes this even more memorable since Sandy took us to Pebble Hill Plantation which was owned by Elizabeth Ireland Poe, I will take you on that tour later.