Seeing Beautiful In America, Flags, Freedom And Chessie Puppies

Posted on August 13, 2015 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

{This Moment} See Beautiful

Today I am seeing beauty in the things I love: America, Flags, Freedom and Chessie Puppies. Chesapeake Bay Retrievers are one of the few American Bred dogs so it’s only appropriate to take some pictures of my puppies with an American Flag afghan and a old copper tub symbolizing America and freedom.

The girls.

The boys.

MY HEART BELONGS TO A CHESAPEAKE BAY RETRIEVER

A rough and ready sporting dog,
With loyal, loving ways-
My Chesapeake Bay Retriever
Puts sunshine in my days.

A dog that’s sure to follow its nose,
Until the chase is done.
When that pup looked up at me,
I knew my heart was won.

Roaming happily by my side,
Or resting at my feet-
My Chesapeake Bay Retriever
Makes my life complete.

Green Girl

Orange Girl

Pink Girl

Yellow Girl

Purple Girl

Camo Boy

Black Boy

Blue Boy

Along with Seeing Beautiful this month the puppies are still getting fit or should I say they are helping Grandma Nellie stay fit by ~~chasing~~ playing with her.

{This Moment} See Beautiful is a once a month Blog Hop, every 2nd Friday of the month. simply create a blog post that made your day, week, and/or month … inspiring you in Seeing Beauty. Blog Hop inspired by See Beautiful. We thank Sugar and Miss Lydia from See Beautiful.

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The fun and games continue every Friday with FitDog Friday, the weekly Blog Hop brought to you by To Dog With Love, SlimDoggy and Emma from Mygbgvlife to promote a healthy active lifestyle for pets (and their people, too!). Join in every Friday by linking up your FitDog story or visiting the blogs in the Hop.

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Weeds Can Be Beautiful {This Moment} While Staying Fit~FitDog Friday

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Weeds Can Be Beautiful {This Moment} See Beautiful

Most people think that weeds are ugly menacing plant life. I’ll be honest and I think that way, I think that way when I am pulling them out of my garden of beautiful flowers, I think that way when I am picking my raspberries and they are overtaking my vines, I think that way when I am picking my asparagus in my ditch and I happen to touch wild parsnip unknowing to me that I did it until 3 days later when I break out and itch like mad, have sores oozing and open for weeks until they heal is when I think weeds are nasty……..

But you can see the beauty in the weeds when you plant a handsome Gambler in the middle of them.

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Gambler was also staying fit this week as we have been continuing our hunt test training. We had our training session then he had some fun bumpers I call these pictures Now You See It, Now You Don’t.

Gambler has a hunt test this weekend. Lets hope he makes it through the three series so he can stay running while Glory and I stay home and have puppies. Glory doesn’t need her pesky brother home to watch her so Gambler how about you be a great big brother and go have fun and stay away now and bring home a ribbon Sunday night.

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{This Moment} See Beautiful

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

I just love this time of the year when I put out the Hummingbird feeder and get to watch the little birds come to the feeder and take a drink. So far we have had 3 at one time buzzing around the feeder. They are such magical beautiful creatures that need a little recognition {This Moment} See Beautiful day.

Happy 3rd Anniverasary to the See Beautiful blog hop.

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{This Moment} See Beautiful With A FitDog Friday

Posted on May 8, 2015 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

DON’T CRY OVER
THE PAST, IT’S GONE.
DON’T STRESS
ABOUT THE FUTURE,
IT HASN’T ARRIVED.
LIVE IN THE
PRESENT AND MAKE IT BEAUTIFUL.

Last December we got some sad news that the breeding we did with Glory didn’t take, you can read about it here. That sad day is in the past and we are moving on the the present and then the future with hopes of happy days ahead. Tomorrow we are headed to meet Glory’s boyfriend. Sending good thoughts Glory and Thunders way for a successful breeding, a healthy pregnancy and whelp and many bouncy happy burrheads to share their lives with some really lucky peoples. We at Sand Spring Chesapeakes will be one of those lucky peoples as we will be keeping a puppy from this breeding. You can check out Thunder on 2browndawgs page.

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FitDog Friday~Training With Friends

Tuesday I posted up pictures of my friend Dana’s dogs while we were out training on the weekend. You can see them here. Today I will show you the training pictures I took of the SS gang from that day. John was running the dogs as Gambler has his first hunt test tomorrow and John will have to run him at the test while I am taking Glory to Michigan. I was out in the field throwing the mark. Both dogs are coming along great with their training even know it is early in the season. I hope Gambler has had enough training to pull off a pass this weekend. Good Luck Gman you can do it!

Gambler

Glory

Nellie

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{This Moment} See Beautiful: Water Blinds~FitDog Friday

Posted on April 10, 2015 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Last week we trained with our training group, it was a cold cloudy day so I didn’t take the camera out to get any pictures. Over the weekend thou it warmed up so I was able to take some pictures of John doing water blinds on our pond with Gambler and Glory. The pond temperature is probably in the 40’s so still not the warmest but our chessies don’t mind at all, they are water dogs and it has to be pretty darn cold for them not to go in the water. Each dog got three blinds then dried off really well.

First up was Glory.

Next was Gambler.

A blind is where we set out bumpers or ducks across the pond (the dogs don’t know where these are) use a whistle and hand signals to guide the dog in the straightest line possible to the bumper or duck. You sit the dog next to you in a heel position line the dog up and make sure their spine is lined up in the direction you want them to go along with their head. Once everything is lined up you say “back” and the dog takes off in hopefully a straight line. If the dog veers off a straight line by any amount you blow the whistle one time to get them to sit. Once they are sitting and looking at you you raise your arm up to give them the correct hand signal, which ever arm you raise up the dog must turn that way or that would be called a cast refusal. In the hunt test game you are only allowed so many cast refusals if it goes over that amount your dog fails. You can use as many casts as you need to but they all should be showing progress towards the blind. Once they get to the bumper or duck they pick it up and you call them back. They will then run in a straight line back to you, heel and deliver the item to hand.

Since I am late posting my post for today I have some big news to add I can’t wait until next weeks FitDog post so will share it now. It is FitDog Friday 2nd Anniversary over at Slimdoggy we love FitDog Friday and Slimdoggy as we get to share our fitness routine with the other hoppers, and learn how to keep the SS gang fit, learn all about nutrition and so much more. Last year on their 1st Anniversary the SS gang won their In The Hunt Award which we proudly display. This year Gambler won the award, he won the Class Clown Award (imagine that) and he will proudly display this award along side of the other one. Thank you FitDog Friday hosts for choosing Gambler!

fitDogFriday_class clown

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Here are my two favorite pictures from this day, they are my {This Moment} See Beautiful

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Tribute To A Great Dane~ {This Moment} See Beautiful

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

Tribute To A Great Dane~{This Moment} See Beautiful

Brynn is the brindle in the back with her sister Bousha in the front. Both have crossed over the rainbow bridge.

This Great Dane was a “Great” Dane, her name was Brynn. She passed over the Rainbow Bridge this past Tuesday just two months shy of her 8th Birthday from bilateral Osteosarcoma in her front legs. Brynn was owned by my friend and coworker Margret, I’ve know Brynn since Margret and her family got her as a little baby. Brynn was a beautiful brindle girl who didn’t have a care in the world she had a goofy personality that made everyone smile. She loved her big sister Bousha until she left her a few years earlier. She kept house with 2 small children and kept them safe each day. I will miss seeing this love at work each week. Godspeed Brynn, now you can run free over the Rainbow Bridge with your new legs and back that will never go out again. Peace and love to your family you left behind.

How does one See Beautiful in death? For this answer I went to Wikiquote and this is what I found:

Let us learn from the lips of death the lessons of life. Let us live truly while we live, live for what is true and good and lasting. And let the memory of our dead help us to do this. For they are not wholly separated from us, if we remain loyal to them. In spirit they are with us. And we may think of them as silent, invisible, but real presences in our households.
- Felix Adler, Life and Destiny (1913), Section 8: Suffering and Consolation.

The bitter, yet merciful, lesson which death teaches us is to distinguish the gold from the tinsel, the true values from the worthless chaff.
The terrible events of life are great eye-openers. They force us to learn that which it is wholesome for us to know, but which habitually we try to ignore — namely, that really we have no claim on a long life ; that we are each of us liable to be called off at any moment, and that the main point is not how long we live, but with what meaning we fill the short allotted span — for short it is at best.
- Felix Adler, Life and Destiny (1913), Section 8: Suffering and Consolation.

To me the honour is sufficient of belonging to the universe — such a great universe, and so grand a scheme of things. Not even Death can rob me of that honour. For nothing can alter the fact that I have lived; I have been I, if for ever so short a time. And when I am dead, the matter which composes my body is indestructible — and eternal, so that come what may to my ‘Soul,’ my dust will always be going on, each separate atom of me playing its separate part — I shall still have some sort of a finger in the pie. When I am dead, you can boil me, burn me, drown me, scatter me — but you cannot destroy me: my little atoms would merely deride such heavy vengeance. Death can do no more than kill you.
- W. N. P. Barbellion (Bruce Frederick Cummings), The Journal of a Disappointed Man, Chatto & Windus, 1920.

To live in hearts we leave behind
is not to die.
- Thomas Campbell, Hallowed Ground (1825).

The quotes were endless but I think these pretty much sum up my question on how does one See Beautiful in death. I believe a pet’s only fault is that they don’t live long enough. We would like them to live forever with us but in reality they can’t. As much as it hurts to loose a loved one I believe they die so we can experience a new journey in life. Hopefully we live a long life and in that long life we can have the companionship of many animals to teach us different meanings of life, show us different joys in live, walk a new adventure with us and that is where you See Beautiful. New adventures with new pet’s give us so much beauty to tuck away in our hearts to keep forever and ever long after they are gone. We are born with big hearts that never completely fill up so there is always room for a new being to share our heart with. When I write my condolences to clients who have lost a pet I usually always write “keep their memories in your heart and they will be with you forever”. The beautiful part in that is that no one or no thing can take those memories from you so a part of your loved one will be with you forever long after they pass over the Rainbow Bridge.

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together….

Author unknown…

We are joining the monthly See Beautiful Blog Hop. Special Thanks to Sugar and Miss Lydia from See Beautiful.

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Valentines Fitness See Beautiful

Posted on February 13, 2015 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

To finish up the Valentines week celebration the SS gang thought they should get outside and do a little fitness with some red toys and a snow bank.

Gman run fun.

Glory run fun with her log.

Nellie run fun.

The gang does love to run around the yard climbing up and launching over the snow banks around the property. Even better fun with something in your mouth. Glory is going for jaw strengthening so she is constantly carrying around a log.

On a side note I thought it would be fun to write in the snow with food coloring and take some photos. When I was done and walking back to the house I thought….oh boy this might not look so good when someone comes over and see’s red everywhere’s with hunting dogs they might think the worse. It was fun non the less.

How many lessons of faith and beauty we should lose, if there were no winter in our year! ~Thomas Wentworth Higginson, “April Days,” 1861

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The fun and games continue every Friday with FitDog Friday, the weekly Blog Hop brought to you by To Dog With Love, SlimDoggy and Emma from Mygbgvlife to promote a healthy active lifestyle for pets (and their people, too!). Join in every Friday by linking up your FitDog story or visiting the blogs in the Hop.

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{This Moment} See Beautiful~SS 2014 Reflections

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

{This Moment} See Beautiful~SS 2014 Reflections

Sand Spring Chesapeakes Year In Review 2014

With 2015 already upon us I’m taking a moment to reflect on 2014 with the Sand Spring Chesapeakes.

My first reflection is on my old gal Nellie.

Nellie turned 10 in 2014. She is still going strong, she has a few more grey hairs and some extra pounds that she is carrying around but it doesn’t slow her down out in the field. She got to a little training with Gambler and Glory as well as some pheasant hunting . We had one scare while out pheasant hunting on public property, we were in heavy tall cover and we lost Nellie in it for over a hour. It was the longest hour of my life wondering if we were going to find her. The moment I saw her running back to me was the happiest moment of my life. I learned when you take a senior dog hunting you can’t let them out of your site and the conditions and environment need to be acceptable for them so nothing happens to them. Nellie doesn’t hear as well as she used to so I figure she got on a track and didn’t hear us calling and got messed up in the tall cover. A happy ending to what could of been a sad ending. Nellie’s puppies are all growing up, their ages are 7, 5 and 3. I’m happy to say everyone is doing great and that their families are all enjoying and loving them.

My second reflection is on Gambler and Glory and the year we’ve had together. We had a year of many highs and many lows. Gambler and Glory received their Therapy Dog Inc. certifications in December of 2013. We kicked off our therapy sessions right away in January 2014 and what a amazing adventure it has been. Each dog visited 10 times during the year, according to AKC at 10 visits you are awarded the novice therapy title (THDN) that will proudly be displayed in my home and forever on their registered name. Therapy work is work like no other work. The joy and heartwarming feeling you get from the kids interacting with your dogs is like no other joy in the world. I leave there in such a high it rubs off on my gang and they are proud that they made a difference in the life of a child and to me. We will continue our therapy work in the days, months and years ahead.

Besides receiving their AKC Novice Therapy title Gambler and Glory also received their Canine Good Citizen (CGC) and American Temperament Society Test (TT) title. These titles are great as it shows my Chesapeake’s have good manners and temperament which back in the day temperament was a big issue with Chesapeake’s. It’s nice to be able to breed the undesirable out of them and focus on the desirable.

My third reflection is on conformation shows. I took a year off from showing Glory in AKC & UKC venues. Gambler was only being shown in UKC conformation shows, back in 2013 he received his Grand Champion show title (U-GRCH). At the end of 2013 he was again for the second year in a row the #1 Chesapeake Bay Retriever for the UKC Top Ten Breed And Dog Standings with 16 points. We were then invited to the 2014 UKC Premier in Kalamazoo, MI to compete in the Top Ten Invitational. Sadly we didn’t make it to the invitational but it doesn’t make his prior year any less of a accomplishment. I am still in awe that “my dog” did so well and held the Top Ten position for two years in a row. Gambler is now retired from UKC showing.

My fourth reflection is the reflection if you have been following along with our hunt test training and testing that brought me highs and the most lows during the year. I’ve shed more tears during hunt tests then I have done before. I’ve also learned a lot during this time. We train weather permitting March – August. During this time we compete in UKC and AKC hunt tests. Each venue is slightly different so you need to train differently. I’ve learned that there is only so many hours in a day and it’s hard to train for and compete in multiple venues. I understand now why some people only do one venue a year. Does that stop me no, I have high hopes and goals so I push to do both because that is who I am.

John and I both train and run Glory, we both shared in the joy that came from Glory receiving her UKC Hunting Retriever Seasoned (HR) title during the summer of 2014. She also competed in AKC Senior level tests passing 3 out of the 4 she needed for her title. I so wanted her get her Senior Hunter title before I bred her in the fall but it wasn’t in stars. The breeding wasn’t in the stars either as I did breed her but the pregnancy didn’t take. They say everything happens for a reason, I don’t have any idea what the reason was but I have to believe it was for the best and march on.

I have done all of Gamblers training. John has run him in competition when I was at my low and couldn’t run him. We had a tough year, a tough year because again I have high expectations and thought my dog was ready for testing when he probably wasn’t. My theory on hunt test’s are you get a pass/fail. So it’s a 50/50 chance that you will pass/fail. We are running dogs and you just never know what they are going to do on a given day so I always say go for it and see what happens. Gambler is the first dog I trained by myself, the first dog I ran in UKC Finished and AKC Master level tests. We are talking big stakes here. If anyone says these stakes are easy I will have to say they are wrong. It really puts you to the test and can humble you like you have never been humbled before. This summer we ran Gambler in five UKC Finished tests passing only one, we also ran him in 7 AKC Master level tests not passing any. What I learned from this hunt test season is that even know I feel I have a good dog I need to take a step back and make sure we both are ready for the big guns. We need to work better as a team and Gambler needs to realize there is no “I” in team. He has to mature enough to realize and trust me to guide him where he needs to be and to become a team player. I think one of the biggest challenges in running hunt test competition with a fabulous hunting dog is that the hunting dog comes out in them and they want to work for themselves because they think they know where it is and that they can find it faster. After each fail I would be depressed, wondered what was wrong with me and my dog. I’ve learned that there is nothing wrong with me or my dog and that it isn’t the destination it is the journey we travel together whether we pass or fail it’s all about the time, love, joy and companionship we have for each other. We may not get that title anytime soon but we will get it and we will get it just me and him and in the end I will look back on all the shed tears and I will shed one tear as I hug him and tell him we did this together. As I am typing this Gambler has his head rested on my keyboard so hopefully he is taking this all in and 2015 will be a better year.

My fifth reflection is on our hunting adventures. We are truly blessed to be able to take our dogs on a big hunting trip. Our big hunting trip is in the fall when we travel with friends to Saskatchewan to hunt snow geese. Gambler and Glory got to travel with us this year again and what a year we had. We hunted one week and the hunting group got 307 ducks, geese and a couple cranes. It’s a week spend hanging out with friends, their dogs and hunting what could be better than that? Along the way we meet up with our other Canadian friends from Facebook and that is just another highlight of the adventure. When we get home from Saskatchewan the waterfowl season is underway and upland hunting starts. The gang didn’t get to hunt ducks too often, they got to hunt some geese and many days pheasant hunting. We are fortunate to live near so many acres of DNR public hunting that there is always some where’s to take the gang to do some hunting. Gambler had a fabulous hunting season as he was used by my friend who has a guide service in WI. Justin Kohn from All Seasons Adventures In Wisconsin kept Gambler and took him hunting the month of October. This is a dogs dream to be out hunting everyday and getting birds every day. They say Chesapeake’s are a one person dogs but after Justin and Gambler figured out the routine they hit it off and when I would go pheasant hunting with them Gambler didn’t care about me and he stuck by Justin like glue and hunted great for him. Once Gambler was back home with me he then thought I was his best bud and hunted for me. It shows the versatility with him as he can train for different competitions, run different competitions and hunt for different people and still do a good job doing it.

All in all I do have to say now the highs of our year really do outweigh the lows. I will leave you with this quote my friend shared with me:

I close with this poem that says it all! My motto for 2015 and the years ahead.

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.

So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.”
― Neil Gaiman

Here’s to 2015!

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{This Moment} See Beautiful~Involvement Makes A Difference

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

{This Moment} See Beautiful ~Involvement Makes A Difference

There was a man who lived along the ocean. One morning, at about 5:00 a.m., when he could sleep no longer, he decided to take a walk along the beach. It was a foggy morning, and the first rays of the sun were slipping above the horizon. The man enjoyed the walk, it was as if the beach was his own. He glanced down the beach and saw a figure that seemed to be dancing. He wondered why anyone would be on the beach so early, his curiosity caused him to quicken his pace. As he drew nearer, he realized that the figure was that of a young man, and he wasn’t dancing–he was throwing something into the water. As he drew very close, he realized that the young man was picking starfish off the beach and was tossing them back into the water.

“Whey are you throwing starfish into the water?”

“The tide is going out, the sun is rising, and the starfish that are left on the beach will surely die,” said the young man, continuing on his task.

“But that’s such a waste of time and energy!” There are so many starfish, and there are miles and miles of beach. What difference does it make?”

The young man thought for a moment. Reached down to pick up a starfish, and said “it makes a difference…to this one.”

Author Unknown

The beginning of December marks one year since Gambler and Glory received their Therapy Dogs Inc. certificates to begin their journey in live making a difference. January 17, 2013 they made their first therapy dog visit to a elementary school in Beaver Dam, WI, almost one year later we are still visiting the children.

Raindeer Glory.

Each visit is a {This Moment} See Beautiful moment. Never did I believe that my dogs could make a difference in someone’s life. They make a difference in my life each day but a stranger? These kids start out as strangers but grow into something much much more.

Each week I look forward to our visits. I never know how many children are going to be visiting with the dogs or how long I will be there. I always leave there knowing that to one child my dogs have made a difference. All I know about the children is that they may suffer some type of Emotional Behavior Disorder, it’s not my job to know why the children need to visit with my dogs. It is my job to make the children feel safe and have them know that they have a friend in my dogs and that they can spend their time with them reading, petting, talking to or just hugging them. I do believe and can see that my dogs take away their troubles, it may only be for ten minutes but for that child 10 minutes makes a difference and could be a lifetime to them.

Thanks to my leaders Lisa & Polly (Canine Solutions llc) for seeing the beauty in my dogs and knowing we could make a difference.

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{This Moment} See Beautiful ~ Arlington

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Sand Spring Chesapeakes

My {This Moment} See Beautiful was my trip to Arlington National Cemetery. This was my most favorite part of my Eastern Shores vacation.

As I relive this moment I want to acknowledge Veterans Day that was held this past Tuesday on November 11, 2014. Thank you to all our Veterans for your time in service and out. Without you we wouldn’t have the freedom that we have.

We went and visited the Tomb Of The Unknown Solider and watched The Changing of the Guard. What a site to see, every American should see this. I could of sat there all day and just watch the guard meticulously marching and changing directions repeating until his time is up.

Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God

Here are the two videos I took during my visit.