CHESAPEAKE BAY DOG. 



Every man who guns much for wildfowl ought to 

 have a good water dog. For retrieving of this sort — 

 except in regions where duck shooting is a regularly 

 practiced sport — setters are very commonly used. 

 They, however, have not sufficient strength or stamina 

 for the work, and if constantly used are sure to break 

 down and become valueless in a short time. The same 

 objection applies, but in somewhat greater degree, to 

 the different varieties of spaniels. The work of re- 

 trieving in water, mud and ice is exceedingly hard and 

 exhausting, and an animal of great strength and en- 

 durance is required for it. Such hardy qualities we find 

 in the Chesapeake Bay dog. 



For nearly one hundred years there have been 

 bred about the head of Chesapeake Bay, and in 

 later years in many other localities, a strain of large 

 reddish-yellow dogs, under this name, which are no- 

 table for their fondness for the water, and for their 

 strength and endurance. Notwithstanding all the ex- 

 planations given for the origin of the breed, the well- 

 bred Chesapeake Bay dog shows his ancestry on the 

 surface. He is a Newfoundland dog, and nothing 

 more. Not the Newfoundland of the modern dog 

 shows, which, by crossing with the St. Bernard, has 

 become an entirely different creature, very large, long- 

 backed, heavy-headed and long-coated; but the New- 



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