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Our Breeding History and Health Issues with Puppy Photo Album

 

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 A little over four years ago, Ron decided that he simply had to have a large dog.  He is quite athletic and a retriever appealed to him.  We researched some retriever breeds and settled on the "all American" Chesapeake Bay Retriever.  Not a typical retriever, these dogs are unique from other retrieving breeds both in look and personality.  In 1999, when we began our search, CBR's were appearing at a rate of 1 CBR for every 12 Golden Retrievers and 1 CBR for every 60 Labradors!  Needless to say, our search took us round the country and after much searching, Willowynd added our foundation bitch, Castle Rock's Gypsy Traveler.  Gypsy is sired by the top field Chessie in the US, DC Gambler's Dilwyn-Stacked Deck.  Next came our beautiful sedge dog, Castle Rock's Golden Guinness.  Guinness, sired by Ch. Donway's Ladd of Wanchese and Grandsired by the famous BISS Ch. Eastern Water's Break of Day!  Next came Cedar Ridge's exceptional brown bitch, Castle Rock's Reilly O'Hara.  She is extremely talented in obedience and in all manner of field retrieving.  Guinness won his first two points in the ring his first show with a novice handler!

These three foundation dogs produced our four litters, the puppies of which have performed in every available venue for dogs.  We have grand pups competing in agility, conformation, hunting and field trialing.  The wonderful emails we received from their owner's  prompted us to continue our breeding program battling the breed health issues of hip dysplasia, PRA, and juvenile cataracts for a total of four litters.  Due to our move out to the farm in 2004, we had to make some decisions about where to focus our energies in order to have as effective a breeding program as possible and to fairly give our attention to the animals.  With that knowledge we made the difficult decision to spay and neuter our foundation dogs and retire them as our lifelong companions, concentrating on breeding only our longhair dachshunds.  We are still here to provide as much information and mentoring as possible to the folks who own our pups and also to anyone interested in potentially owning a Chessie!

We would like to thank breeders, Janet Horn of Eastern Waters and Donna Autrey of Donway Kennels for their excellent support and kind mentoring.  We had the privilege of meeting Judge Janet Horn at the Chesapeake Specialty in Lexington, KY shortly before she passed away and are honored to have had her meet her "grand pup", our Guinness.  We would also like to thank the wonderful owners who have given our pups such great homes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Updated: September 05, 2006

 

Castle Rock's Lil Bit O Honey and Josh

Lil Bit's sister, Libby handles the broad jump!

Reilly with her 2002 litter

Gypsy's 2003 litter

Guinness

Gypsy