Chesaroyal.com

Chesapeake Bay Retrievers

Breeding Program

Only one quality litter every year or so!

Lacey was bred to Mr. Tuff (CH Snowy Rivers Looking Glass).  The live mating took place three times from Feb. 5th to the 8th, 2010.

On April 8th Lacey whelped 7 puppies, 4 females and 3 males.  Follow the link for puppy photos.  Check out the litter pedigree at:

We chose Mr. Tuff for his wonderful mellow temperament, as well as his beautiful head and great coat.  Both litter parents are Progressive Retinal Atrophy-Normal, so all the puppies will be Normal and you can rest assured that they will never develop PRA or pass it on to any progeny.  Mr. Tuff's hips are graded Excellent by the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals; Lacey is graded Good.  Both passed the OFA requirements for Normal elbows.

So, you can expect structurally sound puppies with very nice brown coats and good conformation, meeting all the breed standards.  Although there is some deadgrass color in the breeding lineage, it's several generations back, so we don't expect any deadgrass in this litter.  By the way, we don't breed for color; it just happens.

Peggy and Annie celebrate our great news that Annie is very pregnant.

I wanna see my lawyer!!!

Objectives:

We strive to breed our females to stud dogs who will complement their strengths and compensate for any weaknesses, while maintaining the Chesapeake Bay Retriever breed standards.  Above all, to breed healthy, congenial and responsive Chessies.  Keep in mind that very few Chessies are perfect in all attributes, and judge our mating and results by those characteristics that are most important to you.

Methods:

All of our bitches are kept in tip-top health.  We don't breed any bitch before they are two years old, nor do we repeat a breeding in less than one year.  Starting in 2007 we stopped using artificial insemination and have had much better success with the natural mating process. During whelping, we help only when necessary and weigh and log in each puppy by coloration and markings.  During those first critical three days when the bitch is producing colostrum (necessary to give the puppies natural immunity to disease until they start the series of puppy shots) a nursing schedule is enforced.  Large litters are nursed in shifts to make sure the smaller puppies get plenty of nourishment.  Frequent weigh-in for the first two weeks identifies any pups needing extra attention.

Weaning begins at about three weeks of age.  We feed a chicken based kibble because it has the correct balance of calcium (max. 1.2%) and phosphorous (min. 1.0%) that large breeds need to avoid growing too rapidly.  Starting with our 2010 litter, during the first three weeks of weaning we add a powdered supplement that contains freeze-dried colostrum.  This helps boost the puppies immune system until their first immunization at 6 weeks of age. 

Health:

Minimizing hip dysplasia and progressive retinal atrophy risk in our puppies is important to us.  We, and our breeding partners, invest heavily in veterinary evaluations and genetic testing to minimize the devastating impact of having a dog go lame or blind.  Through genetic testing, our puppies will never be PRA affected; you can learn more about this breed-specific condition by following the PRA link at the left. 

Likewise, we strive to breed sire's and dam's with hips rated Good or Excellent by OFA (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals).  Where one mate is Fair we look at the horizontal hereditary dysplasia history, per OFA recommendations, and look for a minimum average of Good on both sides of the breeding.  Hip dysplasia is only partly hereditary, so this doesn't completely eliminate the risk that your puppy may develop dysplasia later in life.  The other contributing factors include diet and physical skeletal stress; we recommend that little puppies be treated just like little children - with gentleness.  We also make sure that both parents elbows are judged normal by OFA.

Anybody for king of the mountain?