Rocky was awarded First, Winner, and Best of Winners on January 17th by judge Debra Thornton. This gave him his third 5 point Major to finish off his Champion title.
According to ChessieBook.org, this will make Rocky the 176th Chesapeake Bay Retriever ever to earn both a AKC Champion and Master Hunter title.
Huge thanks to Rocky’s handler Howard Huber for finishing Rocky so quickly.
We are so happy to announce that Rocky earned his first and second 5 point majors and BOW (Best of Winners) under Judge Charles L. Olvis on January 12th and under Judge Ken J. Murray on January 13th at our supported entry in Brooksville, FL with the Pasco Kennel Club.
We are so happy that Howard Huber is Rocky’s handler.
The 2023 waterfowl hunting season brought opportunities for Rocky to retrieve ducks, geese, and pheasant. He has such a retrieving drive and will bring back bird after bird after bird – even when it takes until after dark to collect them all.
Our family mainly hunts in Minnesota, but this year brought the opportunity for Curt and Jake to travel to South Dakota twice, hunting both ducks and geese. We prefer duck meat, so thankfully we had lots of friends interested in taking some geese.
He was born for this life, and he clearly knows it.
Rocky and Curt ran their first field trial, the Qualifying, at the Chesapeake Specialty in Stoughton, WI on September 19, 2023.
Tim Springer of Dynamic Retrievers worked with Curt and Rocky the past few weeks to help them learn the difference between hunt test and field trials.
We didn’t have big expectations and honestly would have been happy if Rocky brought back even one bird in the 1st series, but he brought back all 3 (even the one at 286 yards), and moved onto the 2nd series.
The 2nd series was a land blind and Rocky “lined it,” which was funny because at the beginning of the test the judge had said that none of the dogs would be “lining his blinds.” Curt only blew the whistle to call Rocky back as he stepped on the bird.
They went out in the 3rd series. Rocky ran too far off the line to get called back for the 4th series, but he still came back with the bird so in his mind, he did his job.
Rocky’s Master Hunter Title Journey
“Rocky” Birch Bark Chiseled Rock MH – Rocky earned his Master Hunter at the Northern Flight Hunting Retrievers Association in Marine on St. Croix MN at the age of 27 months.
Rocky and his handler Lauren Springer went five for five and finished his MH in 15 days from the time they started working together. Rocky learns quickly. He skipped Junior Hunt (JH), started running Senior Hunt (SH) tests in May 2023, and spent his summer alternating between running hunt tests and enjoying time with his family.
Rocky was trained by Craig Klein of Fischer’s Kennels. He was handled by Curt Holt and Craig Klein in SH and Lauren Springer in MH.
