Brood bitches

Brood bitch emeritus: Oak Hill Blue Monday

Monday is a special girl. From one of our best litters ever, she distinguished herself early from her litter sisters by her ability to intuit what the humans were going to do and her intense focus on retrieving. Her puppyhood was full of remarkable accomplishments. At just under four months, she taught herself to do a double mark. We set up a 100-yard water mark (not something we normally do with puppies this age), but our assistant mis-threw it directly toward us. Thinking that to be too difficult, we called for another throw angled to the side. Monday retrieved the mark flawlessly, and the moment I took the dummy, she surprised us by bailing back into the water to pin the poorly-thrown "memory bird."

A few months later, John shot her a long flyer pigeon that turned and fell into extra-rough cover. We were videotaping the training session. Monday covered the 300 yards of open field and plunged into the rough stuff. Although we couldn't see Monday, John could hear her vigorous hunt. Finally, fearing exhaustion, I shut off the camera and walked out to get her. The time stamp on the video showed that Monday had been hunting for fifteen minutes when I turned the camera off.

Monday comes close to our ideal for a Chesapeake bitch. Smart, tough, an absolute die-hard retriever, and with plenty of talent, she earned a Qualifying JAM at the age of two. Her blind retrieves are outstanding. A beauty according to an older style, she earned several bench points. Monday was bred to then AFC Westwind's Rudy of Nordais, to Chestnut Hills Ironwood Oak MH, and to CH Whiskey Creek's Brown Trout. Most of her puppies went to pet/gundog homes, where they have proved outstanding. Her son D'fer is a service dog and a demo dog for his pro trainer owner.

Monday's pedigree:

			CH CHES' TRUE GRIT
		CH OAK 'N' THISTLES NITTY GRITTY
			CH CROSSWIND'S FLYING CASSUTH
	CH OAK 'N THISTLES GOOD FRIDAY
			CAFC CH IRONWOOD'S STONE E. CUBS
		CH CHESTNUT HILLS DYNASTY
			CH CHESTNUT HILLS PANDORA
OAK HILL BLUE MONDAY**
			CH HAPPYFEET'S GOVERNOR MH
		CH AFC CAROWAY'S WILD GOOSE CHASE
			CH CAROWAY'S WEBLEY ROTH JH CH Ironwood's Stone E. Cubs daughter
	OAK HILL PARKER JH OFA Good, CERF, OFA Thyroid, Optigen Pattern A1
			TOPSAIL'S SUNSHINE SURFER
		OAK HILL SNICKERS
			TOPSAIL'S SUNSHINE BUFFY