We are Members of the FCI, of the German Retriever Club and of the Chesapeake Bay Retriever Club of Nederlands www.straight-and-gentle.eu Int. Chessie Weekend Gut Achberg - 2012, October  Spirit of Chippewa On October 12 thru 14, 2012, we participated in the “International Chessie Weekend” at Gut Achberg near Munich. More than 70 chessies had met to join the various work and/or show events. Furthermore, a grill session and a typical Bavarian dinner were offered to the participants to provide a real feel-well atmosphere and to generate a lot of fun as well as fruitfull discussions. The excellent organisation, the lovely landscape around and the commitment of the guests made the weekend an unforgettable event. Our sincerest thanks go to the organisers and the many assisting helpers. Beside the big number of breeders and caretakers predominantly from Austria, Svitzerland and Germany, even from Czech Rep., chessie experts from England, Ireland and Finland were present, too. An even more international feeling was extended to this variety by the presence of Katharina and Kai Lindstroem as WD judges from Sweden and Mrs. Betsy Horn Humer as show judge frome the homeland of the chessie (Virginia, USA) together with her husband Rupert. Parallel to the sports activities, we had a lot of opportunities to talk to the foreign experts about so many issues of mutual interest. It was very interesting for us to get acquainted with the anglo-american opinion on various views of the breed standards of the Chesapeake retriever. On Friday morning, the activities were started. We decided to participate in an exercise with cold game at a litlle pond managed by Gerlinde Boross. This exercise was offered as a training unit for the upcoming WD test. The WD and WDX tests began Saturday morning. On the first level, the dogs have to retrieve two single marks from land and water, respectively. Beaver did a good job at the two retrieves from land, but he was a bit reluctant at the water retrieve. After the duck was cast into the water, he looked for a more comfortable access. As there was none, he returned and took the original access to the water and finished the retrieves perfectly. I was quite happy, because the handler is not permitted to give help of any kind to the dog. Beaver achieved the WD test. Needless to say, Samtesss did not have any problem to accomplish this kind of  work orderly. However she got challenged during the WDX test. This part consists of a pretentious double mark at land and water, respectively. She accomplished the first part of the tests routinely. However, at the second mark at water she got a bit confused and returned. So, I had to prompt her a second time, remindig her gently of the proper direction. She reacted properly and accomplished the remaining work orderly applying both her eyes and her nose. Was a bit marginal but Samtess achieved WD and WDX test. On Sunday morning, it was show time. The judge was Betsy Horn Humer (Eastern Waters). I participated with both of our dogs Samtess and our youngster Beaver; so did our daughter Katharina with Lui. The outcome was unexpectedly successfull: Dog Youth:       Spirit of Chippewa Achmik (Beaver)   exc.1                  Spirit of Chippewa Amarok (Lui)        exc.2 Bitch Working:  Etzel- Hunter Betty Samtess             exc. 1 Opposite Sex:   Etzel- Hunter Betty Samtess +    exc.1        Spirit of Chippewa Achmik (Beaver)   exc. 1    Breeding group:           Etzel- Hunter Betty Samtess + Spirit of Chippewa Achmik (Beaver + Spirit of Chippewa Amarok (Lui)  Results 2014 Ergebnisse 2014 See judge’s comments: click