Today we are joining 2 Brown Dawgs & co-host Ruckus the Eskie  for their This ‘N That Thursday’s blog hop!

This is what they have to say about the hop,

A little of this and a little of that and everything in between…

I want to thank WordPress for keeping tract of my stats and for putting together a nice year end summary. I am going to follow up on some parts of their summary. If you haven’t seen it you can see it here.

My Sand Spring blog was viewed 19,000 times. WOW is all I can say I would of never guessed it was viewed that many times. I thought I have a little po dung blog who would view it that many times. Thank you all for checking out my blog during the year!

I had 373 posts which surprised me also. I knew I was writing a blog a day and sometimes I did 2 blogs a day because I didn’t want to combine posts but didn’t realize it averaged out to really be a blog plus some a day. Funny thing is as some of you might know from my question and answers on some of my blog posts I hated writing as a young adult and nearly flunked out of English class in collage. I am terrible at grammar, spelling and all that goes along with writing. My friends get a kick out of my Facebook posts as they giggle at the way I write and say things. Nonetheless I love writing my Sand Spring blog and sharing our adventures with you all.

The busiest day of the year was Nov 7th 2013 with 264 views the post I made that day was This ‘N That Thursday post about saying goodbye to my soulmate Norman. You can read the full post here. This was a very hard post for me to write. As much as I was getting ready for this day it was still hard. Norman was my life and the reason I have Sand Spring Chesapeakes and the reason for my blog and he is no longer with me which makes me sad. That is why I chose to dedicate Saturdays to Nothing But Norman so I can keep his memory alive and so others can follow along with how this handsome fellow stole my heart.

Here are the posts that got the most views:

• 1 Scoop That Poop/Monday Mischief Blog Hop 45 COMMENTS August 2013
• 2 Monday Mischief~The Destroyer 25 COMMENTS October 2013
• 3 Casey R. Chessie RIP 5/28/13 9 COMMENTS May 2013
• 4 Human Shaming Blog Hop~Shame On JoAnn 14 COMMENTS September 2013
• 5 Nothing But Norman #17 31 COMMENTS November 2013

It was nice to see my friend Dina’s Chesapeake Casey in the top 5. He passed away just before I found out about Norman having osteosarcoma. Casey was a rescue dog that Dina got as a senior dog and he meant the world to her. He was a great guy that I wish I could of met in person. He and Norman are high in the sky causing all kinds of mischief.

It was a surprise to see that Nothing But Norman #17 was in the top 5. This was my story on saying goodbye to Norman and the process of cremation. I struggled with if I should do this post or not and I am so glad I did.

The top referring sites for referrals were:

1. heartlikeadog.com
2. dogsnpawz.com

So I thank you Jodi and Lisa for whatever you done to pass along my site and having people come to me from your site. You gals rock.

Your most commented on post in 2013 was Meet The Bloggers~I’m JoAnn. I so enjoyed this post, thank you to the hosts of Meet the Bloggers AJ from I Still Want More Puppies and Amy from Go Pet Friendly along with their co-hosts Jodi from Kol’s Notes, Leslie from Bringing up Bella, Jenny Jugs from My Brown Newfies, Dawn from NEPA Pets, Mel from No Dog About It, Julie from The Daily Dog Blog, Lauren from Life With Desmond, Kim from Cindy Lu’s Muse, Kristine from Rescued Insanity, Peggy from Peggy’s Pet Place and Jodi from Heart Like A Dog.

These were your 5 most active commenters:

• 1  2browndawgs 383 COMMENTS
• 2  Dogs N Pawz 189 COMMENTS
• 3  Heart Like A Dog (@HeartLikeADog) 123 COMMENTS
• 4  SlimDoggy (@MySlimDoggy) 113 COMMENTS
• 5  Miss Harper Lee 112 COMMENTS
   

A hugh THANK YOU to Linda, Lisa, Jodi, Kate and Miss Harper Lee’s mom for being a avid follower and commenter. I so enjoy reading everyone’s comments. I may not respond to each and every comment but know that I do read each comment and cherish what is being written. Your comments have helped me through some dark times in my life and I am so grateful for my online friends that I would be happy to call my online family. Cheers to you!

That sums up my 2013 year in review with WordPress and I hope 2014 is just as successful and hopefully one day soon I will be able to actually meet some of you face to face until then cyber hugs to everyone who stops by and takes a look at Sand Spring Chesapeakes.

A little of This:

Sand Spring Chesapeakes 2013 reflections

Here at Sand Spring Chesapeakes we have many 2013 reflections to look back on. We look back on them and smile with pride with what the year has brought and hope that the next year will be just as grand.

January 2013 Glory and I took the step to start showing in AKC conformation shows. I ended 2012 with getting Gambler & Glory’s  UKC conformation titles as well as having them both be in the 2012 UKC Top Ten Breed and Dog Standings, Gambler was #1 and Glory was #6. Since we got our feet wet and loved it we decided to move on to AKC but only with Glory.  We attended shows January – May then again in September. During this time Glory went Winners Bitch 3 times for 3 points towards her title, 4 Best Of Opposite, 3 Reserve Winners Bitch with one of those RW was against 4 other Chesapeake’s. I couldn’t be happier with the results as I am a novice handler and am still learning the ins and outs of dog showing and have a long ways to go.

Spring -Fall 2013 we trained and competed in UKC & AKC hunt tests. We had a successful hunt test season. We ended the season with Gambler becoming a UKC Seasoned Hunter and a AKC Senior Hunter adding a HR to the beginning of his name and a SH to the end of his name. Glory ended the season with 3 UKC started passes and receiving her AKC Junior Hunter title adding a JH to the end of her name.

June 12-16 2013 we attended the UKC Premier in which Gambler and Glory got invited to the Top Ten invitational being held on June 13th because Gambler was #1 Chesapeake and Glory was #6 in the 2012 Top Ten Breed and Dog Standings.  This was a memorial event because I shared this time with my friend Kathy Case of Whiskey Creek Chesapeakes who also had Chesapeake’s in the Top Ten and our friend Sapa who came along and cheered us on with her Chesapeake Luta. It’s nice when you can get together with your fellow Chesapeake friends and make memories. The memories that Sand Spring made were:

Gambler tried Lure Coursing for the first time, he didn’t fair to well on his first run so I thought he didn’t have it in him so I pulled him from the second run. He did get to run again the following day and then he figured it out and had a blast at it finishing both times for 2 out of his 3 runs for a Lure Course title. This year we will try and finish out that title. Glory couldn’t participate as she was in season.

Glory did get her feet wet learning how to Dock Jump for the first time. She started out with a jump of 6.8 ft and ended with a jump of 12.2 ft. She ended with needing one more splash for a novice title and three more splashes for a junior title which we will work on this year.

Gambler shined with his first time Dock Jumping. He started with a jump of 3.8 ft ending with 18.2 ft for his United Senior Jumper title. Once he figured out what he needed to do he would just fly into the water. This title added a USJ to the front of his name.

Results from the Premier:

 

June 12th

Gambler

United Retriever Specialty

won Best Of Breed

Received Total Retriever ribbon for having a show title as well as a hunting title.

 

 June 13th

Top Ten conformation show

Glory

2nd place and was awarded the Award of Execellance

 

 June 14th

UKC conformation show

Glory

Reserve Winners

 

 June 15th

This was the UKC conformation with Total Dog show

won BOB

Total Dog Qualifier ribbon for having a show title as well as a hunting title. He went into the Total Dog Gun dog show ring with ~30 other gun dogs and was picked 5th out of 10 dogs for Total Dog.

 

 June 16th

UKC conformation show

Gambler

won BOB

Glory

won Reserve Winners

 November 11, 2013 was a highlight for Gambler as he competed in 2 UKC conformation shows taking the Champion ribbon in each show as well as BOB in the first show giving him enough legs to receive his UKC Grand Champion title adding U-GRCH to the beginning of his name. It was at this show that we were approached by a gal to do therapy work with Gambler and Glory. We decided that we wanted to make a difference in the life of others doing therapy work so we did the evaluations and on Dec 4th Gambler and Glory received their Therapy Dog Certificates thru Therapy Dog Inc. We are excited to begin our therapy work in 2014.

Accomplishments for 2013 Sand Spring puppies:

Norman & Fatty 2011 litter

(HRCH Sand Spring Norm of Caroway MH   x    HRCH UH Hope Springs Dowry MH***)

USJ HR U-GRCH Sand Spring Ev’ry Paw’s A Winner SH   –  Gambler

Owner: Sand Spring Chesapeakes, John & JoAnn Stancer

HRCH UH Hilltop’s Stealing Cinderella SH   – Punkin

Owner: Tammy Cook

Lefty & Nellie 2011 litter

(Ch Port Side’s Great Xpectations MH      x      HRCH Sand Spring Hurricane Nellie SH)

U-CH Sand Spring No Gut’s No Glory JH

Therapy Dog Certification

Owner: Sand Spring Chesapeakes, John & JoAnn Stancer

Sand Spring’s Steady As She Goes JH    -Rudder

Owner: David Phillips

Congrats to the puppy owners who have received titles and to the other puppy owners that have provided a great home and love to all of our puppies. Without you there would be no Sand Spring Chesapeakes.

We did suffer one great loss this year. We sent our foundation stud Norman to the great migration in the sky where he will forever be retrieving birds pain free. He was with us for 13 years and is the reason Sand Spring is who it is today. Norman was our first competition dog we only ran UKC & AKC hunt tests with him but during that time he taught us a lot about the game and about having a heart dog. We have come a long ways since 11/3/00 but we will never forget how we started and will look upon his children and grandchildren to carry his name in pride. HRCH Sand Spring Norm of Caroway MH 11/3/00 – 11/6/13.

A little of That:

So that wraps it up for today, why don’t you hop on over to 2 Brown Dawgs & co-host Ruckus the Eskie see what their up to and grab the badge and join the hopping fun!