The Chesapeake Bay Retriever

In 1807, a ship from England went down off the coast of Maryland. The crew was pulled off alive. So were two tough puppies, a red male they called Sailor and a black female named Canton, after the ship that saved them.

Those two never left the Chesapeake. The men who hunted that bay bred them to the best water dogs they had, and they kept only what could do the work. The work was ducks.

Market gunning, in winter, on big open water, freezing, covered with ice. What came out of that breeding was a dog built for cold. A thick double coat heavy with oil, so the water runs off the way it does on a duck.

A deep chest, webbed feet, and a color made to disappear in the marsh. They call it deadgrass. The old market hunters said a good one would bring back a hundred ducks in a day, break ice to do it, then sit in the boat and guard the pile.

That is the dog today. A Chessie is not everybody's friend. A Chessie is yours.

Strong-minded, slow to forget, and loyal to one truck and one family. Train one fairly and you have a partner for the worst mornings of the season, the ones where every other dog would rather stay in the blind.

From THE BREED REEL, KENAI's Sunday series on Instagram. Every fact in it is traced to the breed's standard, its parent club, or a named history; nothing came from memory.