Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Chesapeake for upland?

Looking into possibly getting a pup. An acquaintance of mine used to have 2 Chessies he hunted pheasants with and they did quite well. I'm aware that there are better choices for upland but I really like retrievers. Very limited waterfowl hunting here locally so would be mostly preserve chuckars and state stocked pheasants. Anybody hunting them for upland? He would of course be spending time on the couch with the wife and carousing with the other dog(s).

Fine if you get into the Birds quickly, but don't expect to be successful if you have to spend a long day finding them. They are not made for a long haul hunt or covering ground at any speed that resembles quick.

We spend more than a few days hunting 6 hours for 2 or 3 us of to limit out on Pa GC Pheasants, and I've watched hunters doing it with a Chessy. After a while the Chessy is walking along about 5 feet in front of the hunter. Walking being the key word.

Now I saw one small Lab and it was a Dog I would have loved to have owned. He was little, he was quick and could go all day along with having a stellar nose. Most of his big relatives couldn't hang with him.

Get a Lab built for speed.

In addition: It is not all that hard to find a bull headed Chessy. And they most often are a little greasy with regards their coat. Which is one of the reasons they do so well in water.

She’s fission powered.

Per my pedometer app, we covered 3 miles in the brush this morning. She’d have gone all day.

I get what mean, however these days with grouse hunting so poor our pheasant and preserve hunts usually don't go more than an 2-3 hours anyway.

The grouse will bounce back.

If you want a Chessie, get a Chessie, but like Battue said above, they’re not built for your intended task.

My last Lab was big, powerful, athletic, and brilliant. He’d hunt it all, puddle ducks, divers, sea ducks, pheasants, and grouse. The Lab pictured above, would run circles around him.

I've hunted over numerous Chesapeakes. They’re big powerful, head strong retrievers. Many don’t hunt well with other dogs. Some can’t hunt with other dogs. I’d find a line with a track record of getting along with others.

It’s hard to beat a well bred Lab from American hunting/field trial stock.

Been around a few chessies, never could like em, moody, mean, hard headed, pass the shorthair, wirehair, griffon, lab, musterlander, or drahthaar...

Thanks for the responses. I'm not set on that breed. Always had goldens and one setter. Never had a lab but I'm concerned about breeding, many health issues if you get the wrong breeder and of course many talk a good game.

Nothing against Chessies but from what I've seen and experienced Labs from good hunting blood lines aren't hard to turn into good upland dogs. I had one that didn't have the great blood lines that also turned out well. I agree re the smaller Labs for upland. The last two I've owned were a 55 pound female and a 65 pound male. They would and will both hunt as long as you wanted to hunt. The three bigger Labs I've had were better water dogs than upland. The desire was there but they tired quicker and warm weather really slowed them down. A guy I hunt with has a female Lab that might go 50 pounds that for endurance is the best upland Lab I've seen.

I've hunted with a few Chessies and much of what has been said can be true. It can also be untrue depending on the dog. Like labs, some lines of Chessies have more mental and/or physical stamina than others. These can make for good upland dogs especially if conditioned properly.

Like any dog breed, one needs to do their homework and check out the lines of whatever breeder is being looked at. Every breed has lines that are not the best for a particular area of hunting but may be unsuited for hunting in general. It is no different than winnowing out potential health problems in that you need to know what questions to ask, what information to look at, what it means, and read the responses for further clues. It requires detective work along with an occasional gut response to ferret out the truth. And you may still be wrong either way.

I've been around and had enough dogs that when it comes to picking one you do your homework,then make your best guess and hope for the best. I came across a Chessie breeder that claims their dogs are mild tempermant, good as pets and with other dogs, and versatile hunters. Seems to have the testimonials and pictures to prove it. Like I said they all talk a good game and this seems to go against what was said about them here and what I have heard in the past.
My friend in the OP had several over the years and they didn't seem to be like their reputation. He's since moved away and I have no idea where he got them. Just sayin'

Chessies have a somewhat undeserved reputation of being hard headed. That seems to be most often made by those using the same training techniques on them as labs. As an aside, many of the same people claim Golden Retrievers are soft as those people treat Goldens as if labs.

The two Chessies I worked with (obedience, not field work) were not very receptive to high handed, high pressure techniques. I found the two to be very resistant to being pushed into doing things. I found short, very concise and focused sessions repeated several times a day to be much more effective than one or two longer and more involved sessions. Going beyond the dog's attention span (for lack of a better word) would turn them off from learning and set training back. Once the desired result was attained, the dogs seemed to retain it better than most other dogs. I can't claim to have learned this on my own but I read this in a couple of 100+ year old tomes on dog training and hunting stories and it was further enforced by an acquaintance who trains retrievers.

Chessies do seem to have some issues regarding other dogs though I wonder how much of that is due to training techniques. Of the two I worked with, the one got along great with all my dogs while the other did not like two of my dogs. Both of those dogs were alphas which that Chessies was too. They didn't fight but they did more posturing than I liked.

If you're hunting upland, get an upland dog. A well bred GSP might serve you well, they will retrieve just as well as any lab/chessie/golden if trained right. Plus, good ones are excellent around the house. A GWP or griff should be considered as well.

This makes perfect sense of course, just that I have a soft spot for retrievers.

From what I’ve been told a Chessy doesn’t forget. You mistreat them and they will get even sometime down the line.

Everyone I’ve seen-other than one Buds and 40 years ago down on the bay, when the old school ones still could be found-didn’t get enough exercise. They require it, and more than a daily walk, or most will turn into overstuffed charactures of what they should be.

Most of those old school CBR’s didn’t tolerate others messing with their owners belongings. You best hope it is all breed out of the one you get. Times have changed.

Get what you want, but a specialized breed like a CBR deserves an owner that gives him what he also wants. Weekends on the shooting preserve fall far short. Bud had one. A big oily bull in the house, but he hunted him more than a little in Ohio on Ducks and Geese.

My friend's Garmin tracked his GWP on a 3 1/2 mearns hunt the other day. While we did 5.2 miles the dog did 17 1/2 miles! Don't think a Chessie would be a good choice for any species of quail.

A Chessy wouldn’t be all that fond of Southern Arizona temps.

Then again, Maryland in the summer does get more than warm.

Nice looking Lab.

I've had only Chesapeake's around for the last ten years or so at my house and one Springer. What has been said is pretty well spot on. Even at ten years old compared to the now two year old Chesapeake the little Springer jest seems to have a zest for running around in the woods/ brush that the Chesapeake doesn't. I couldn't say it's a stamina thing he just doesn't dig it as much. Training wise, yeah what others have said. Kind of stubborn, but picks things up so quickly, and retains it forever....just can be kind of an ass about it. Never had a mean/aggressive Chesapeake. First was completely dismissive of other dogs, but not aggressive. Last two we're no different than any lab when it comes to being around others. Personally I love them, few health problems, durable, very loyal, and I just like their personalities. That being said a 95# whooly ass dog wouldn't be my first choice for upland type stuff, or couch type stuff.

Side note: If I did go the Chesapeake route I wouldn't do it with out being in/on the water quite often. After all it's what they were made for. Just like a short hair or a Springer seems "at home" chasing grouse through brush, and down old logging roads, a Chesapeake's bread and butter is working in the water.