After Maggie passed, and we re-homed Parker, we decided we wanted another dog. Dogs just seem to do better when they are in pairs (or more!). We have been trying to get a new dog whenever the older dog is around five year years old. That way, in theory, I should always have a hunting dog, even if the older dog is sick or just too old to hunt. That was certainly the case with Jack and Maggie. Chancey came to us as a “started” dog, meaning she was almost 1 1/2 years old, and fully trained and house broken. We purchased her from Jim Keller at Wildwind Kennels in Knox, ME. When we went to visit the breeder and meet the dog to see if we wanted her or not, I was not in favor of taking Chancey home with us. She was kind of standoffish and apparently was scared of men. But Lee-Ann and Chancey immediately fell in love with each other, so we paid the man and took her home. Chancey was a great pet and wonderful companion dog. Jack and Chancey got on swimmingly and really loved each other. Unfortunately, she was just not a hunting dog. She had little or no prey drive and as a result, not much interest in finding birds. That was a shame because she had a FANTASTIC nose.
Chancey was not a very outgoing dog. When people would come to visit, she would be quite the barker, and it would take her 15-20 minutes to warm up to people. Even family who were here all the time. But once she warmed up, all she wanted to do was cuddle and have you rub her belly. She was a very well behaved dog and followed commands almost flawlessly. She passed away in August of 2023. She had heart failure and lung cancer. She just walked into the woods one day and refused to obey commands to return. We never were able to find her. I think she went off to be by herself to die. It was kind of sad at the time, but I think it ended up being a real blessing for us since we didn’t have to make a decision to put her down.
