19 April 2026
My grateful thanks to Rhian Poulton for supplying this report on the recent training weekend for Chessies and their guests.
We hosted a week end with Southern-based trainer Jason Mayhew in the heart of Cheshire on 11-12 April. Camping was at a lovely local campsite, Welltrough Hall Farm, where Nick kindly did a BBQ for us all on the Friday evening. The next morning they came down to have breakfast with us at our house just around the corner.
Saturday evening we had a lovely meal with the whole group at the local pub, The Red Lion.
We had permission to use some beautiful farm land that we run part of our shoot on. People travelled from far and wide to join us with their Chessies. I trained Tain, the honorary Chessie, and two friends and our nephew, each brought a Labrador along. It made quite a nice change having some different breeds with us, as we saw some new ideas on training different types of dogs. The training was varied, and as always very enjoyable, building up trust and confidence for both handlers and dogs.
The first morning we each put a mark into some very rough ground, but a nice small area to help hold the dogs. The last dog to go often found it hard as the easy to see dummies were all picked first. We repeated this exercise moving backwards each time and increasing the distance we sent from. Later Jason changed it again so we walked the dog half way, then returned to our spot and pushed the dogs back.
We then did a similar exercise the other side of the field, onto a nice area of grass, again a lovely size to encourage the dogs to hunt a small area. We did the same drill moving back and increasing to a decent distance.
We all sat and ate a lovely picnic together before commencing the afternoon session. Jason had spotted some delivery issues with Katrina’s and Lewis’s dogs so he showed them how to teach the dog “hold” and to be able to touch the dummy and stroke the face. This helped them both massively.
After this intense work the dogs had some fun. We all placed a dummy in the rough, and Jason fired a dummy from the launcher as a distraction. We then sent for the dummy we placed before allowing them to pick the fired dummy. It was a great day with lots of wind carrying scent, and it was good to watch the Chessies pick up the scent on the wind as they ran past.
Day two started with close work, heelwork and making the dogs sharper to the “sit” command at heel. They were all slightly lazy to start with, and some of our heelwork was questionable! We left the dogs sat in front on a lead, again using a recall into sit, Jason highlighted the fact that most of our dogs were uncomfortable with the pressure of sitting in front doing this exercise, and it is something we can all practice anywhere. We had to run for the cover of our cars when a huge rain and hail storm came through, and Carole in her campervan took the opportunity to make brews for all those who wanted one.
When the weather had cleared we put two marks in the areas we had used the day before and sent each dog for a long left and a right retrieve. We finished early on the Sunday so those who had travelled a long way could get on the road for home.
Thank you to Carole, Nick, Angela, Anthony, Ben, Katrina and Lewis for joining us and helping to make a really enjoyable weekend, and as always, a huge thank you to Jason, who always leaves us with some brilliant ideas to work on, and for travelling up to stay with us for the weekend at such a busy time. A special thanks to Sue for organising this weekend, we missed you!
Looking forward to the next one – Rhian.
A reminder that anyone who wishes to organise a gundog training day for Chessies or where our Chessies can join in, please do so and I will spread the word on Breed News.
Christine Mayhew
bobmayhewqhorses@aol.com
Copy deadline for each BNW is 6 pm on the Friday before each weekend’s issue. All queries regarding content should be addressed strictly to the author above.
12 April 2026
Continuing with news of our Club Show weekend, the specials classes, designed to give a new judge of the breed some more experience with our brown dogs, were held after the completion of the championship show. Our judge on this occasion was Tim Ball, an experienced judge in other breeds, who takes his judging very seriously. The Junior class winner was Broomfield’s Glaneils Echo Beach, Post Graduate was won by Corcoran and Jones’ Oakmarsh Kingsley Adsla, and Open by Broomfield’s Don’t Worry Be Happy.
Onto the final show of the day, this time the Open Show where Jack Gilder was the judge giving the top honour of best in show to Thompson’s Sh Ch Arnac Bay Harvest with her half-brother Sh Ch Nld Ch Pixiesrock Mr Tumnus by Bleyos (owners T and G Boyles) taking the reserve best in show and best opposite sex.
Best puppy in show was a repeat of the championship show, namely Broomfield’s home-bred Glaneils Echo Beach, with her litter brother, Rigby’s Glaneils Enjoy the Silence, reserve best puppy.
Best veteran was the best in show winner, AB Harvest, with reserve best veteran going to Rigby’s Chesepi Waco who also happens to be the sire of both puppy winners.
The good citizens class for those dogs who have trained for and passed their KC Good Citizen Tests was won by Battsrock So Fine from Sharbae, owned by Sharon Baxandall.
The brace class, consisting of two dogs together from the same owner, was won by Arnac Bay Gamble and her daughter, AB Harvest, and Special Beginners winner was Oakmarsh Land of Promise of Roguehart owned by Amie and Naomi Mellersh-Tett.
The day ended with everyone mucking in and clearing the hall in what seemed like record time, and those staying overnight at the grounds hotel having a good, sociable meal in the evening.
Once again, this show was generously sponsored by Skinners Field and Trial dog food and by Sporting Saint Gundog Equipment.
Debbie Herring reports that typing is still a bit tricky with her fractured shoulder, but she managed to represent the breed at the Living Heritage Show at Thame Showground where they had a discover dogs stand (Indi, Tex and Roxy) then doing a one-handed (armed) demo with Indi where the spaniels quartered in front and then stopped for the retrievers to run through and retrieve to shot, recreating a sort of shoot scenario. The duo also did a main arena breed parade each day, discussing the breeds’ history and uses. All of these shows help to publicise the breed and bring them to the general public, and we are grateful to those who donate their time to do this.
In other show news, at the Gundog Club of North Wales Premier Open Show judge Nicole Coe awarded Best of Breed to Glaneils Count On Me and best puppy to Martha (Glaneils Echo Beach), who then went on to be shortlisted to the final eight in the Puppy Group.
The Northern England Flatcoated Retriever Association have a training day on 24 May near Crewe, and they have kindly invited CBRC members to attend. Places are limited so if you are interested, please see the NEFRA website.
Christine Mayhew
bobmayhewqhorses@aol.com
Copy deadline for each BNW is 6pm on the Friday before each weekend’s issue. All queries regarding content should be addressed strictly to the author above.
5 April 2026
Last weekend saw our Club’s show weekend with a championship show, an open show, and three specials classes all on the same day.
I don’t think anyone who hasn’t organised a show will comprehend how much work is involved, both before and after the event, and on the day itself, and we have to thank Gemma MacCartney and Tracy Boyle for doing the major part of that work alongside others who helped out on the day with catering, stewarding, mentoring, running a raffle, and taking photographs for our records. Too many to mention, we owe them all a big thank you.
The hall, laid out the evening before, looked amazing and all went like clockwork on the day with everyone ‘mucking in’ to clear the hall at the end of the events.
The championship show was preceded by a minute’s silence in memory of those involved with the breed who had sadly passed away this year – Martyn Rees, John Barker and very recently, Pam Blay. All will be greatly missed for the input they made to our breed.
The very experienced gundog judge, Becky Johnson, set about the championship classes, working through them in her normal efficient way. The dog CC was awarded to Broomfield’s 6 year old home-bred dog, Glaniels Count on Me, aka Max. Having won numerous reserve CCs it was great to know that this one being his third, will make Max a show champion.
The Reserve CC, to add to his vast collection, was Sh Ch NLD Ch Pixiesrock Mr Tumnus by Bleyos JW with owner handler Tracy Boyles.
The bitch CC was won by MacCartney and Mayhew’s Swiss import, BBs Chesapeake Breeding Dory for Arnac who went on to win best of breed and thereby best in show for delighted owners. Visiting from Sweden were Kaj and Catharina Lindstrom who were also thrilled, having owned and bred Dory’s father, Multi Champion and American Chesapeake Club Best in Show winner Doublecoats Christmas Joy.
Reserve bitch CC was Dave and Thelma Thompson’s nearly 8 year old, Sh Ch Arnac Bay Harvest, belying her age apart from a few grey hairs around her muzzle.
It was lovely to see two puppies competing this year, both from a litter bred by Cathy and Simon Broomfield. They each won their respective classes to compete for best puppy in show, the award going to Cathy’s Glaneils Echo Beach, with brother, Glaneils Enjoy the Silence winning the reserve best puppy for owner David Rigby. Both pups were sired by David’s dog, Show Champion Chesepi Waco who also won the stud dog class.
Best Veteran in Show was Caroline Pont’s very successful Diva – Sh Ch Oakmarsh Dancing Diva.
Best Special Beginners was Amie and Naomi Mellersh- Tett’s ‘Nutty’ aka Oakmarsh Land of Promise of Roguehart.
Other main winners were as follows: the wildfowling class won by Chesepi Viroqua with Nick Glanvill; best junior was Peter Milner’s Tideflight Warrior of Kent; and special working was Richard Playle’s Riptide Gentleman’s Relish.
The judge’s full report is on the Shows page.
A fantastic championship show made possible by all the people involved and by our amazing and generous sponsors Skinners Field & Trial food, Sporting Saint Gundog Training Equipment, Bisley Sports, and Gamekeepers Goods. Thanks to Karen Glanvill for the photos.
A report on the open show and specials classes with be in next week’s BNW.
Christine Mayhew
bobmayhewqhorses@aol.com
Copy deadline for each BNW is 6pm on the Friday before each weekend’s issue. All queries regarding content should be addressed to the author above.
29 March 2026
Following the success of the training days last Friday and Saturday, the big day of the actual test dawned bright and sunny but cold. Our judges for this event were husband and wife team Joy Venturi Rose and Chris Rose whose involvement in dogs, both in shows and work, goes back a long way with their successful kennel of Labradors. Both are Royal Kennel Club Field Trial B Panel judges.
The tests were set in two areas of ground, with a walk up and a double retrieve on the hill (which gave all, including the dummy throwers, a great view of Cowdray Park), then water and further retrieves in the valley with a simple marked water retrieve for Beginners, and a marked then blind retrieve for Open. A simple mark on land followed for Beginners, with a reasonably long mark then a memory in the same area for Open.
With no puppies present, the first class was the Novice Dog/Novice Handler, with four entries. Ross McNaughton, a familiar friendly face on training days with Jason, was running in his first test with Cooper (Tides Nightryder) and led the field to score the highest marks and take the David Mercer shield home. Let us hope that Ross will catch the bug and that we see him at more tests in the future.
Mark Poulton, resplendent in his keeper’s suit, handled Otto (Passione Knightspool) to win the Beginners class, scoring 75.5, and took home the judges choice award. Vincent Acheson and Petros came second with a score of 69, closely chased by Nick Glanvill with Cora (Pixiesrock Green Kirkle) one point behind on 68.
On to the Unclassified Open and at last, the ladies made an appearance with Fleur Bament taking Chester (Pixiesrock Maestro Cadenza) to the winner’s podium. Chester, some will remember, was involved in a horrific accident on Fleur’s Somerset farm a couple of years ago and it was touch and go whether he would recover to full action. For his amazing recovery and return to the shooting and show fields, he was awarded the trophy donated by Vincent and Cathy Acheson for ‘chessietude’. Two awards therefore headed back to Somerset.
Second in the Unclassified Open was Richard Playle with his home-bred Wizz (Riptide Whilstlin Duck) who behaved herself, unlike her younger full brother Roly who showed no end of drive and ability but decided to do things ‘his’ way. Roly did, however, catch the judge’s eye for his natural ability and good looks!
The final trophy of the day for best veteran went to Nick Glanvill’s Grace (Chesepi Viroqua) who scored in every test and belied her 9 years of age.
A good, friendly atmosphere made the day a special one and with smiles on their faces, people gave generously to the extensive raffle which made a good sum of £120 for the Club.
This test could not have been such a success without the seriously hard work of Anthony Ciraolo who was dashing here and there while we all tucked into our lunches! Gemma McCartney and Amie Mellersh Tett were our valuable dummy throwers, along with two lovely volunteers who gave up their day to help out with a breed they had no connection with – thank you all. Lastly, but not least, thank you to Bob Mayhew, who very kindly donated and made the lunch for judges and helpers, served from the tailgate of a pickup which was obviously designed for the job!
Christine Mayhew bobmayhewqhorses@aol.com
Copy deadline for each BNW is 6 pm on the Friday before each weekend’s issue. All queries regarding content should be addressed strictly to the author above.
22 March 2026
With the Club show next weekend, there will be a fun child’s handling class for any children with a biddable dog (their own or someone else’s) so they can have their own short time in the ring. Please join in on the day. The show starts at 09.30 am BUT we will all have to remember that the clocks go forward that morning!
The training and working test weekend at Cowdray was well on its way on Friday afternoon, with training starting early with a complimentary session with Jason Mayhew. Chesapeakes and their owners had travelled from far and wide, with several making 4+ hour journeys from the North of England.
The sun shone down as dogs were set exercises on the outstanding grounds which now (after an obvious amount of work) includes a perfect pond for water retrieves, the previous setting being very overgrown and cluttered.
The venue, in Cowdray Park, is well known for its beauty, with amazing views across the lush countryside and historic centuries old trees gracing us with their presence.
Eight handlers and dogs worked on simple water retrieves and on teaching a dog to take a line on land with two placed dummies in a line, one further than the other, retrieving the first and sending back for the second.
More handlers were able to make the Saturday, increasing the numbers to twelve. This second day’s training saw instructors Anna Mayhew and Andrew Durrant in the morning and Jason in the afternoon, with work adding to distances, obedience and heel work. Some problems that individual handlers had identified in their own dogs were discussed and worked on.
Tests were set with one of the judges for the test which was to be held on the following day, news of which, along with results, will be in next week’s BNW. Watch this space.
Christine Mayhew
bobmayhewqhorses@aol.com
Copy deadline for each BNW is 6 pm on the Friday before each weekend’s issue. All queries regarding content should be addressed strictly to the author above.
15 March 2026
The Club’s spring working test is to be held this coming weekend at grounds on Cowdray Estate, Midhurst, West Sussex (see the Events page for full details). For those who haven’t entered, you are very welcome to come and spectate, with or without your dog. Dogs, however, must kept on a lead under control, and must not attend in any circumstances if they are a bitch in season.
As mentioned in a previous BNW, there will be an opportunity to purchase one of Karen Glanvill’s amazing handmade mugs with a Chesapeake featured on the front, with funds going to Chesapeake Rescue.
As per normal there will also be a raffle and we already have some great items donated for this. Please bring cash!
An amusing (for us) story from Kay Camoccio who, like us all, I’m sure, is fed up with the constant rain. Kay, struggling through the mud, fell in a clay patch of mud whilst having three dog leads and a scarf around her neck. Kay says,
I physically got stuck. I had to sway from side to side to release the suction on my butt. Then I really had trouble releasing my wellies, thankfully still attached to my feet. Finally able to stand up, I took one step and landed back from whence I came. I had to rip chunks of grass to wipe my hands. The scarf and leads were dripping. Steve, my husband, was out, so I really needed to strip off in the garden and be hosed but our garden is overlooked.
I had to wash/dry the dogs off first, then stand in the kitchen, strip and hand wash everything before putting all in the washing machine. By this time it was a race as the clay was drying and falling on the floor in clumps. If only it had been videoed, I’m sure I would be an Internet hit. At times like that I think why don’t I do a road walk. But who wants to walk around the streets and our local beach is so full of sewage.
Kay and Steve live in Kent. Do we all know how clean the beaches are in our own areas?
Everything seems to happen at the same time and with Crufts, the Club Working Test, and two weeks later the Club Shows, March has been a busy time. I hope that we can spread everything out more in future years.
The Club Show, again, can be a good one for spectators so please put it in your diary and try to visit at the Kennel Club Building, Stoneleigh Park, Warks. Again, all details elsewhere on the website. A great sight to see is the wildfowling class held in the morning with many of the competitors wearing their camouflage attire complete with accessories. Once again this year it has been sponsored by our local gun wholesaler, Bisley Sports, and has some super prizes.
Included this week are some more photos of a few more winners at Crufts. Please let me have your photos if you won a class and would like them included in Breed News.
Christine Mayhew
bobmayhewqhorses@aol.com
Copy deadline for each BNW is 6pm on the Friday before each weekend’s issue. All queries regarding content should be addressed strictly to the author above.
8 March 2026
Crufts, as most will know, is the largest dog show in the world, this year having over 24,000 dogs at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham over four days, 5-8 March.
This amazing annual event showcases a wide variety of competitions and demonstrations including breed classes, agility, heelwork to music, obedience championship and flyball, demonstrating the best of British dog breeding, training and handling.
The entry this year had nearly 18,700 dogs participating in breed competitions over the four days of the event with more than 200 pedigree breeds competing for the coveted Best in Show title. Of this number there were 56 Chesapeake Bay Retrievers taking part in the Breed Judging and Gamekeepers’ Classes, and another handful representing the breed in the Discover Dogs area where the general public visit to see and find out about all the different breeds.
Debbie Herring does a great job organising volunteers for the Discover Dogs stand and in decorating the stand itself. Tragically Debbie took a tumble last week whilst taking her dogs for a walk and managed to dislocate and fracture her shoulder, which obviously put her out of action for the event and whilst she managed to attend on the Sunday, suitably trussed up in medical dressings, the input she normally makes was severely curtailed.
Those volunteers who manned the stand this year were Laura and Sharon on the Thursday with Hemi and Tasha; Vroni and Togo (missing Debbie) on the Friday; Richard and Rhian on the Saturday with Roly and Otto; Jo with Quince and Lena with Zena and Aruba on the Sunday. This is a time consuming and tiring day so a huge thank you to all mentioned for taking on this job on behalf of our breed.
Our breed certainly make an impact in the Gamekeeper classes at Crufts, with brown dogs being present in various categories, the Oakmarsh team really making their presence felt. Mary and Des Murray made the trip from Ireland and won the BASC AV retriever class, taking the impressive Agria Insurance Trophy with Yeats who was imported as a puppy from Germany.
A total of 56 dogs were entered in the Chesapeake breed classes under very experienced gundog judge, Richard Bott. Eight of the 56 entries had travelled from Europe to compete and made this a truly international entry. It was one of these eight who took the top award of Best of Breed, a lovely young male from Czechoslovakia: Fair Filippo od Hostalky, whose dam, Daisy, won the bitch CC at Crufts in 2024. Owned and handled by Gabriela Kucharova this lad won the dog CC, thereby starting his journey for his UK championship. The reserve dog CC was won by Tilly Thomas and Richard Playle’s homebred working wildfowling dog, Roly (Riptide Gentlemans Relish), very ably handled by Gemma McCartney.
Onto the female classes and the best bitch and CC went to Mayhew and McCartney’s BBs Chesapeake Breeding Dory for Arnac, imported from Switzerland and at her first Crufts, winning through from the junior bitch class. Caroline Huber, whose mother bred Dory, had flown in the day before and was thrilled to see Dory do so well. Reserve CC went to last year’s best of breed winner, Sh Ch Arnac Bay Hebe, handled by Emily Evans, and owned by Mayhew and Middleton. Best puppy was Janet Morris’s homebred Penrose Water Pistol and best veteran was Hebe.
While many are proud to qualify their dogs for Crufts and rightly so, it takes a lot more effort and training to qualify for the field trial classes at Crufts. After many, many years of no qualifiers in our breed, this year we had a Chesapeake enter, namely Irish Show Champion Riverruns Everybody’s Friend, owned and bred by Mary and Des Murray. This lovely bitch earned her field trial award in Ireland having been trained and run by Mary and is often winning or in the top awards at our UK Chesapeake working tests.
For those who wish to see all the results from Crufts, they are on the Fosse Data website under Results – Crufts – Gundogs – Chesapeake Bay Retrievers.
If I have missed out any significant news, please let me know.
More pictures next week.
Christine Mayhew
bobmayhewqhorses@aol.com
Copy deadline for each BNW is 6 pm on the Friday before each weekend’s issue. All queries regarding content should be addressed strictly to the author above.
