Chesaroyal.com: Who We Are

Chesaroyal.com

Chesapeake Bay Retrievers

Who We Are

Updated 24th Sept. 2011

Brief Biography:

Peggy and Chris Haecker have been married for 46 years. Before moving to Kennewick, WA, Peggy started the HELP (Handicapped Equestrian Learning Program) center in Austin, Texas. In our new home, Peggy embarked on a new social service career as Executive Director of a two-county substance abuse prevention agency, so she didn't have enough time to start another therapeutic equestrian center. But she soon found a new passion, the Chesapeake Bay Retriever, and started by showing Duchess. Chris joined her in the show ring after he saw how much fun she (and Duchess) were having.

In 2000 we decided to breed Duchess, which resulted in a single puppy. Despite early set-backs we persevered in becoming good Chessie breeders. Chris took early retirement in late 2000, due to some arthritis-related problems that made travel difficult (he had been a true road warrior, traveling the world). As Chris's condition put more restrictions on his mobility we decided to start learning more about training dogs, including mobility assistance dogs. Peggy is retired in July, 2011, and now we devote more time than ever to our Chesaroyal pack, except when she's filling her role as Operations Manager for Mickey's Chance, a Pacific Northwest Regional Dog Rescue organization. You might say that she's really gone to the dogs!!!

How we got involved with Chessies:

In 1998 we were on a long holiday in England, staying in the South Downs area. After learning from various sources that a local man was training American Quarter Horses for reining competition we set off on a quest to find him. After following some interesting wild goose chases we finally found the Wye Oak Quarter Horse Farm. Walking to the courtyard gate we were loudly welcomed by a pack of dogs - they looked like labs but had beautiful curly coats. By accident, we had found Chrissie Mayhew (formerly Lady Christine Spencer-Smith), a long time Chesapeake Bay Retriever breeder and close friend of Karen Anderson, one of the foremost American breeders (Chestnut Hills). After learning more about the Chessie breed and playing with a litter of pups, we came home with Duke and Duchess, 10 week old British-born Chesapeake Bay Retriever puppies.

Where we're at now:

Using two well-bred bitches (Ariel and AnnieOakley) as our foundation, we produced 5 litters in as many years. Ariel brought the Snowy River and Chestnut Hills bloodlines, including Chestnut Hill's Stone E's Tug, the most prolific champion-producing Chessie stud. Annie was bred from the Quail Run, Quail Ridge and Crackshot kennels in California, with lots of show and hunt titles in her lineage. She came from a hotel room breeding in NYC while her sire and dam were waiting to go into the Westminster dog show!! Her father, Quail Run's Ozark MTN Daredvl, has won Best of Breed in many major shows, including the Westminster, and won Best in Show twice.

We bred Annie twice; first to her grandfather, Quail Run's Bear Cub, a Master Hunter and one of the all time great Chessies. One of the puppies from this litter is Chesaroyal Lord Brushwaters (Duke), who we used as stud for our June 2009 litter. The second breeding used Redlion's Rage'N Brushwaters (Rage) as stud, adding the Redlion genes to the Chesaroyal pool. We kept Lacey and Lucky from this litter.

Ariel was bred twice to Marnett's Grant My Wish, a versatile Chessie with 5 titles including show, hunt, obedience and performance. They produced a total of 20 beautiful puppies; SweetiePie was a get from the first litter. Three of Ariel's puppies have been shown to their AKC Championships; CH Chesaroyal's Talkin Bout Jackson, has sired several litter and produced his own AKC Champion get. In 2009 we bred SweetiePie to Duke, merging our two lines into a pure Chesaroyal line. We kept Mia and Ollie for future showing and breeding, but neither one worked out to our standards, so they were adopted out to great single-dog families where they get loads of attention, affection and outdoor activities.

We have narrowed our future breeding to the AnnieOakley line, with our 2010 litter from Lacey out of Mr. Tuff, repeating that same mating in 2011. This pairing brought in the Snowy River, Chesabar, Chestnut Hills and Pond Hollow genes into our future line. Perhaps in 2012 we'll breed Lucky to try and reproduce her very special focus and drive exhibited by her Service Dog experiences.

Information Links:

American Kennel Club

American Chesapeake Club

OFA

CERF

Progressive Retinal Atrophy

Our Chesaroyal pack:

CH Avatar Crackshot AnnieOakley (Annie)

Female: Born 4/02

75 lb.

Exceptionally powerful for a female, excellent swimmer

PRA-A, Hips Good (OFA), DM-Affected, Spayed

AKC Champion, finished 9th in national breed show standings for 2005 (very good considering that we only show in WA, OR, MT, ID and occasionally in CA, and don't use professional handlers)

Spayed after two litters, Annie still looks and feels great, except that she is being kept in close confinement for a few months to let a partial ACL tear heal. Now she is wearing a stiffel brace while outdoors or when swimming. When she's fully recovered we'll be taking her back into the show ring as Veteran Bitch. For now, she's very happy playing "GrannyAnnie" to Tilly.

Although Annie tested Affected for DM she hasn't shown any symptoms and may never develop the condition.

GCH Chesaroyal's Annie's Legacy (Lacey)

Female: Annie/Rage Pup Born 6/07

76 lb.

PRA-A, DM-Carrier, Hips Good (OFA), EIC-Normal

An AKC Grand Champion, Lacey loves to enter the show ring and is intensely focused. She has numerous Best of Breeds and a Sporting Group 2nd and Bred-By Sporting Group 1st.

Lacey is truly Annie's legacy; she has the same confident attitude as her mother, together with Annie's great physique. Lacey was bred to Mr. Tuff (another AKC Grand Champion, in the Spring of 2010 and whelped a litter of seven very nice puppies. Her 2011 Fall litter should produce another eight spunky pups.

CH Chesaroyal's Lady Luck (Lucky)

Female: Annie/Rage Pup Born 6/07

72 lb.

PRA-A, DM-Carrier, Hips Good (OFA)

Lucky is Chris's Service Dog, performing mobility assistance for him. They have traveled together frequently by airline, train, bus, etc., for over 3 years.

She's also a part-time showgirl, finishing her AKC Championship in April, 2011. Peggy is going to start Lucky in Rally/Obedience competition soon.

When not performing Service Dog duties, Lucky loves to play and retrieve, especially the Frisbee. She's solid muscle and extremely agile; probably the most athletic Chessie we've owned. Lucky will be bred, possibly later in 2011, but more likely in the Spring of 2012.

Chesaroyal's Chantilly Lace (Tilly)

Female: Born 4/10

65 lb.

Powerfully built, excellent swimmer and retriever, lovely coat

PRA-A (by parentage), DM-Normal, Hips untested (too young)

When it came time to select our pick-of-the-litter from Lacey's 2010 litter with Mr. Tuff, Tilly demanded that Chris keep her!! That's the kind of girl she is; highly opinionated and very outspoken. Tilly's a wannabe alpha female, but mother Lacey has already taken over that roll from GrannieAnnie, so it will be challenging and interesting to see how this relationship matures.

We haven't had much luck with Tilly in the show ring. She has a very bad habit of sitting down as soon as the judge starts to examine her. That quirk may have developed during her recovery period for three broken hind toes when was just 5 months old; she learned that anyone who wanted to lay hands on her was going to mess with that back foot. Maybe some day her Chessie brain will flip the "on" switch; patience is the only way to train a Chesapeake Bay Retriever - at least, the alpha's.

Our Chesaroyal Adoptees

Like most breeders, we usually keep one or two puppies from each litter on the chance that some of them will mature into good breeders. Not all of them pan out, and we often find ourselves with more Chessies than we have time to manage, exercise and train properly. So these surplus Chesaroyal puppies (and older dogs) are adopted out to homes where they fill some family's needs and get loads of attention and affection without competing against other dogs. We're very particular about where these dogs go, and recently have been working to find adoptive homes through Mikey's Chance, a Pacific Northwest regional canine placement agency.

CH Snowy River's Water Sprite RN (Ariel)

Female; Born 4/03

65 lb.

Hips Good (OFA), PRA-B, Spayed

AKC Champion; Ariel had a short, but impressive, conformation show record. Chris showed Ariel to AKC Championship from 0 points in the 4-day Portland OR cluster in Jan. 2004, when she was just 8 months old, and still showing in the Puppy class. After finishing, she didn't win very often; she's on the small side and always had to show against Annie. So Peggy started showing Ariel is Rally, finishing the Novice title fairly easily. We got occupied with breeding Annie, then Ariel, and never got back to Rally. Ariel retains one skill from Rally training; jumping. She regularly leaps fences and other barriers to get where she's rather be, which is with us.

Ariel had two litters of puppies. For the first litter she was a devoted mother, but by the second litter she was starting to slack off on her duties a little. So we decided to retire her from showing and breeding. At about this time, a close friend of our daughter's, who visited us frequently and sometimes dog-sat, was developing a strong desire to have her own Chessie. After a year of demonstrating her readiness to take on this responsibility, Melissa took Ariel home with her. Now, a year later, and living with Melissa on a small "farmyard" property with several other dogs and some barncats, Ariel is in Chessie heaven. She has even adopted the barn kittens as they come along. Seems she still has the maternal instincts; she just doesn't want to clean up the cat poop!!

CH Chesaroyal's Lady Godivin (SweetiePie)

Female; Ariel/Grant Pup Born 3/06

70 lb.

Hips Good (OFA), PRA-A1, AKC Champion

SweetiePie inherited her mother's fetch-junky behavior, together with a beautiful coat and stunning female head.

Unfortunately, Sweetie developed a "pack feud" with Annie. So, after Sweetie had weaned her June 2009 litter, we adopted her out to a loving single-dog home in the Seattle area. She replaced a recently deceased Chessie pet, and is now blissfully spoiled.

Chesaroyal's Fetch Mia Pheasant (Mia)

Female; SweetiePie/Duke Pup Born 6/09

Mia was our "Wild Child" puppy. At two months of age she yanked herself into a neck soft-tissue injury. After two months of pen confinement and loads of drugs she fully recovered and is only slightly less wild now.

Mia is a fetch junky, and thrives on one-on-one attention from her human counterparts. She was not, and will never be, a pack creature - unless she is the alpha bitch. So, she was placed, through Mikey's Chance, with a devoted couple, who run and bike every day. And she is treated with all the affection and attention of the "only child" that she is now.

Chesaroyal's Oliver Twist (Ollie)

Male; SweetiePie/Duke Pup Born 6/09

Ollie's puppy call name was "Clown"; that pretty much sums it up. He was a regular fall guy for Mia, seemingly born to the role.

We decided to adopt Ollie out after we had him neutered; he was much to excitable to keep around several fertile bitches. He also needed considerably more exercise than either of us could provide due to our geriatric maladies.

Mikey's Chance found Ollie a fantastic home with a couple who just happen to be very outdoorsy and have a small weekend cabin on a lake. So Ollie, like his sister Mia, mother SweetiePie, and grandmother Ariel, is living the Chessie life to the fullest.