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AmCH.* & BIS/BBE IntCH* SANDY OAK'S RAINBOW RIDER UD JH NA NAJ WD CGC ROMQ (“Rusty”)
(Ch. Eriez Marsh Hawk UD TD WD x Sandy Oak’s Bit O’Russia “Rita”)
OFA Hips & Elbows/CERF/PRA DNA B1
One of my favorite names was Sandy Oak's Chasin' Rainbows--maybe it's because that's what I've done most of my life! But I used that name on an earlier Rita daughter that wasn't a keeper. So for Rusty, I decided to go back to the Russia names--he was to be Sandy Oak's Russ'n Roulette, aka Rusty. Then a very special person came up with Rainbow Rider, & it stuck! So, the call name doesn't match the registered name, but the dog did, as he was definitely riding a rainbow!
Rusty was a handsome brown, well-balanced & beautifully proportioned male, standing 24 inches & weighing about 80 pounds. In my opinion he was the classic Chessie. His head may have been a bit fine by some standards, but was really quite lovely sitting atop his long, beautiful neck which flowed into sloping shoulders with a sound front, deep chest, perfect topline, & a beautiful strong, square, well-angulated rear. His movement was flawless and earned him many great wins and comments in the conformation ring. His coat was dense, very wavy & a rich, red brown. His bite was level & his eye was dark. Rusty had a sweet temperament, was very outgoing, with tremendous drive in the field--his water entries were spectacular! He was one of the most intelligent dogs I have ever worked, with an incredible desire to please. He learned quickly & easily, using little correction, & was always ready to work! He was an absolute joy to train & was very devoted to me. Rusty’s & my photo appears on page 242 of the new ACC CBR book.
Rusty completed his Junior Hunter with the first 3 legs over 3 successive weekends at 13 months of age handled by Jim Shine's 13 year-old daughter, Tia, who also ran Rusty for his WD. I completed his 4th leg, 6 months later, with no training to speak of all winter & after having only gotten the dog back the night before the test! Rusty's conformation championship was finished in record time! His last puppy classes resulted in 1st place & Reserve Winners to a 4-point major; the next day he was Winners Dog & Best of Winners for his own 4-point major. Since he was in Nevada then for field training with co-owner, Jim Shine, he was shown only a few times after that, but was brought back out in May of 1993 to take Winners Dog & Best of Winners for his second 4-point major. He finished just 4 shows later, in the same weekend with a 3 point major with Winners Dog & Best of Winners, & another 4 point major & Best of Breed over 'specials', handled by his 12 year old co-owner, Mandy, who also went 4th in showmanship with him. Two weeks later, as a specials handled by me, Rusty took Breed again over other specials from another large entry. Not bad for a dog that hadn't even finished growing up! Rusty also made the first cut for Best of Breed at the 1995 ACC National Specialty. A September 1995 trip to Oregon for the ACC Supported entry at Eugene Kennel Club resulted in Best of Opposite wins for Rusty 2 of the 3 days, including the supported entry. The 1996 ACC Supported Golden Gate Kennel Club Benched show at the Cow Palace in San Francisco resulted in Best of Breed out of 48 entries for Rusty, who was specialed in conformation solely by me. Rusty took another supported Best of Breed at the Mt. Bachelor Kennel Club show at the end of June, topped off with a Group 4th. The next day, Rusty's son, Target, went Best of Breed over dad, & also took a Group 4. 1996 resulted in 96 breed points for Rusty, putting him in the top 15 Chessies in the Nation in the breed standings. Then we decided to show Rusty for his International Championship at shows offered by an American International Club who is supported by the German Alle Rasse Club. Three days of exhibition, handled by Kathy resulted in not only his title, but 3 Best of Breeds with CACIB/V1 certificates, 3 Best of Breeds/Bred-By Exhibitor, two Group 2's, one Group 3, Reserve Best-in-Show/Bred-by-Exhibitor, & Best-in-Show/Bred-by-Exhibitor. The judges written critiques were exceptional as all of them were totally enchanted by him, as were many of the other exhibitors. At the 1998 ACC National, Rusty won the Veteran 7-9 sweepstakes class and survived all the cuts in the Best of Breed competition. His son Redmond took a Best of Breed Judges Award of Merit at this show and his daughter, Wind, was 2nd in a huge Open Bitch class. The Washington State Nationals in 2001 put the frosting on the cake. Rusty won all his classes and went Best Stud Dog in show with his offspring Ch*. Meadowoods Close Encounter CD JH WD (“Target”), who also went Best of Opposite to the Best of Breed, and Ch. Meadowoods Officer Redmond CD, who took the Reserve Jam to Target. The following Sunday at the ACC supported entry, Rusty went Best of Opposite to the Best of Breed out of an entry of app. 70 chessies, and took this win from the Veteran Class handled exclusively by me. We retired him at this show with a spectacular show career. Rusty’s son Target was campaigned as a specials from the Veteran’s classes taking Best of Breed and a Group 2 at the 2003 ACC supported Golden Gate Kennel Club show, and many group placements this year including two Group 1's and a Best In Show under the esteemed Mrs. Hellen Miller Fisher, keeping Target in the top 5 ratings in Chessies for the year before he was retired.
In 1994, Rusty finished his CD (Companion Dog title) in 3 consecutive trials over two weekends with scores of 191, 198 & 3rd place, & 197½ & 2nd place, qualifying for Gaines with an average of 195.5. He continued to qualify in subsequent trials with awards, finishing his Novice career in 1st place in the nation in Chessies in the Novice standings earning him the ACC Ch. Chesareid Amber Hue Memorial Challenge Trophy. He finished in 2nd place in the Delaney Ratings, 3rd place for total points in Chessies, & 5th place by the First & Foremost rating method which counts only Open & Utility Scores. His brother & sister also finished Novice in the top 10 for 1994. Rusty then completed his CDX with scores totaling 578.5 including a 1st & 2nd place from Open A, finishing 1994 with total points of 2,501. Rusty is an enthusiastic, flashy worker, who really loves to work and has now finally just finished his Utility Dog title (UD). When he was almost 9 we started doing agility work with him and went on to finish his Novice Agility (NA) and Novice Agility Jumpers- With-Weaves title (NAJ) all with class placements and 3 clean runs. We retired Rusty from field work finally at the age of 12 after he ran “test dog” for the JH water tests at a local ACC hunt test.
Rusty's pups are fantastic--sound, consistent in type, talented & trainable! They have great temperaments, uniformity of the litters, beautiful heads, & sound, balanced bodies with exceptional movement. Their coats are rich, thick & wavy, just like their father's. Rusty has been bred to 12 bitches, including 4 Sandy Oak bitches, which, to-date, has produced 18 finished or pointed offspring. The two Meadowood litters, from Ch. Willow of Meadowood CD & Ch. Meadowoods Mountain Laurel CDX NA, have so far produced 7 champions & an 8th bitch with points & her JH. Of the Meadowood champions, two are Master Hunters, both of whom also finished Junior & Senior Hunter, and one with an obedience UD & who Jam’d the qualifying stake of a licensed Field Trial; 4 others have CDX’s one of whom also has his JH & is the only AKC BIS Chesapeake with an AKC hunting title. They also have Agility titles including. Three of the other bitches bred to Rusty, including Ch. Pond Hollow Canvasback Ceili MH WDQ, also have produced kids who are pointed or finished in the conformation ring, some of whom have majors as well as working titles. With 5 champions finished in 1996, & 10 to-date, Rusty earned a Dog World Top Producer Award--as did his father & mother--as well as an ALL-TIME TOP PRODUCER AWARD! Many of his kids have hips & eyes cleared with OFA “Good’s” & CERF’s. Target, Brave and Zippy from the Willow litter have gone on to produce numerous champions with multiple working titles now.. Rusty also has kids from Nordais Chase’s Moka ***MH WDQ, an all-age qualified bitch in Canada from Quebec Who have titled in Canada. In Fall of 1998, Rusty’s CH/MH daughter Scout participated in the field demonstrations at the Northern California Judges forum and received an exemplary critique by the highly respected Sporting judge, Ann Rogers Clarke in her “Form Follows Function” article that appeared in Dogs in Review and on the AKC website. Additionally, other of Rusty’s offspring have been bred producing gorgeous typey pups, a number of whom have finished or earned points towards their conformation championships--and many of Rusty’s great grand-grandchildren are working on or have finished their championships & other titles. Rusty’s last breeding was to Ch. Krogstadts Peake Panache CD which produced 3 multi-titled champions. One of those daughters, Am Can* & Int.* Ch. MarJan’s Annies Song finished w/ four 4-pt majors–2 from Puppy 6-9 @ first 2 shows with BOW & finished Canadian CH w/Gr 4. She has gone on to produce many champions with obedience and hunt test titles under the Marjan kennel name.
Rusty is a 4th generation Sandy Oak dog. His mother was our own SANDY OAK'S BIT O'RUSSIA ("Rita") out of Ch. Sandy Oak's Russia CD WD & by Ch. Tule Bob II WD. Rita came to Sandy Oak in 1986 at the age of four. Although a show quality puppy, she was sold into a pet home where she was accidentally bred the first time at 10 months of age, retarding her development. Eventually, she was given away to a fellow who ended up with personal problems shortly after acquiring her, and, that's how I happened to get her. I liked her so much, I cleared hips & eyes, & kept her. Rita was a small, but very typey, balanced & sound sedge colored Chessie. Because of her past, her training was sadly neglected, but she had the nicest attitude & desire to please at whatever one might ask her to do. A brief session of field training confirmed she was definitely not lacking in talent & desire to mark & retrieve birds (or misplaced possums). Rita's breeding is excellent, stemming from the best of the old field trial & bench champions. Her father, Ch. Tule Bob II WD, was from Lyle Larson's kennel in Utah, having been brought out here by Eloise Cherry as an older, untrained dog, & eventually sold to Alex Starr who continued his training & finished his championship at the 1983 ACC National Specialty. Rita's mother, Russia, was owned by a close friend who purchased her from me for a pet, but also went on to multiple titles including WD earned at the age of 8 with very little field training started quite late on. Russia is also the litter sister to our own Ch. Sandy Oak's Sam Hill CDX WDQ & the half-sister to our Ch. Sandy's Hi-Ho Shooting Star UD JH WDX. Rita has had six wonderful litters, but most of them have been sold as pets & gundogs. Her 1991 litter by CH. ERIEZ MARSH HAWK UDT WD has proven to be exceptional with 3 of the kids excelling in all areas, including Rusty, his brother, Ch. Sandy Oak's Marsh Ranger CD ("Corky"), & sister, Ch. Sandy Oak's Racing Reverly CDX JH OA NAJ WD ROMX, who earned her WD quite stylishly & championship a week later, a CD in 3 consecutive trials--being the third Champion/CD to finish for her litter--then earned her Junior Hunter the week after getting the 1st leg on her CDX with a 1st place & High Scoring Chessie. Rev is also the dam of numerous champions with multiple working titles in obedience, agility and in the field. Corky also earned his CD in 3 consecutive trials with scores all in the 190's, resulting in a JH & 3 champions from that litter in 1993, & 3 CD's, a CDX & a JH in 1994. As a result of the champions from Rusty's litter, Rita qualified as a Top Producer for 1993. Rita's last two litters, by Ch. Eastern Waters Thunder Bay CD WD surpassed my wildest dreams for the classic puppies, starting with our own Ch. Sandy Oak From Russia W'Love WD CGC. "Reesie", as she is known, finished 4 matches with 3 Best of Breed/Puppy & a Group 1/Puppy & Group 2/Puppy. Her first AKC show resulted in Winners Bitch for 2 points over Open bitches, & 4 shows later, another WB for a 3 point major over Open bitches--both wins were from the Puppy 6-9 Class, then we stopped showing her to let her grow up. We brought her back out in 1995 for more points & a 5th place in the line-up from the Open Bitch class at the ACC National out of 20. The Coos Kennel Club show in Eugene (the weekend of the Supported Entry) resulted in a 5 point major for Reesie, & the following weekend she finished her championship with Best of Breed at the Sir Francis Drake Kennel Club show. Reesie also has looks, exquisite temperament, & talent.
Rusty's father, CH. ERIEZ MARSH HAWK UDT WD, came out of the east with Dale Hauer now of Oregon. Marsh was sired by Dyane Baldwin's Ch. Mitsu Kuma's Swamp Scout CD WD & is out of Ch. Donwen's Chesica Joy CD WD. Marsh was the half-brother (by Scout) to Ch. Pond Hollow Spindrift CD SH WDX & (by Joy) to Ch. Bayberry Pond Lady CDX JH TD WD (#1 CBR for 1988). Owner handled, Marsh finished his championship with 4 majors (like father, like son), & his CD with a Dog World Award (all scores 195 or better) & class placements both in Novice & Open. He was High Scoring Chessie at the supported entry in Harrisburg, PA from Novice, & was the 7th Chessie to earn the combination Ch/UDT titles. Marsh had a willing-to-please temperament, with great personality, brains & good looks. Bred only a few times, Marsh is the sire of 4 champions with multiple working titles including Group placing Ch. Goldeneye's Valley Girl JH, which also qualified Marsh as a Top Producer for 1993. Marsh's father is the sire of 12 champions, including 2 specialty winners, & his dam has produced 8 champions. Marsh's picture appears on page 187 of The New Complete Chesapeake Bay Retriever by Janet & Daniel Horn. Marsh also shares November in the 1997 ACC Calendar, but the titles & captions were inadvertently switched (and appear under the wrong dogs).
Rusty crossed over to the Rainbow Bridge 6 years ago one week after his 14th birthday, but he is still dearly missed. Fortunately, I do have some of his frozen sperm which I will breed to just the right bitch in hopes of getting one of daughters for my very self. I’ve never had one of Rusty’s daughters, but have had numerous grandchildren and their ensuing generations. And I still want my Rusty daughter!! That said, many of today’s Chesapeakes all over the country also go back to Rusty through his sons and daughters. There is no doubt Rusty left his mark on my heart and on the breed!!