Chessies aren't the dog for everyone.
Stubborn's sort of a judgmental word, based on the few I’ve known, and what I’ve read of them. Chessies are deep, situational thinkers, so what you ask them to do has to make good ‘dog sense.’
If you can show them why you want something when you ask it, they’re very quick to learn and obey; but if what you’re asking doesn’t make sense, they will strenuously resist, if not outright refuse, doing it. They are WICKED smart, and will figure out their own way to do things--and convincing them their way isn't best isn't an easy task—and it doesn’t help that the chessie is often right. You aren't going to win many battles with a chessie's logic, so you have to limit your battles to critical things, like bite inhibition and not eating off the counters and walking properly on a lead. They will sit when they see fit, and lie down if they want to. Treats are a great reinforcer, but treats alone aren’t going to get a chessie to mind you, just make him consider if he’s hungry enough to want the treat before he sits!
If you think of a lab or a spaniel as having ‘typical’ hunting breed temperaments, then chessies might seem unpredictable. What people often don’t realize is that they’re actually more of an LGD breed-–they just have serious hunting skills. If you're not one of their people and you trespass on their territory, you'd be better off facing a grizzly—which they’ve have been known to successfully chase off, as a point of information. Chessies were bred not just to retrieve and hunt, they were very deliberately developed to guard their partner, his homes, his boats and his food/game. And they will guard to the death--their people, their homes, their boats, their cars, everything. As a comparison, the rottweilers I’ve known have generally been significantly less guardy than the chessies.
So they're not submissive dogs by any stretch of the imagination. If you have a chessie, you have a partner, pure and simple--and one who's got their own opinion of how things should be done. Don't try to boss a chessie, unless you want to be bossed back--and they will boss you back. YOU have to work a lot on learning to 'listen' to your dog; if a chessie gives you a signal that you ignore or misinterpret, they get really, really frustrated and will act out. If you expect them to pay attention to what you ask them to do, you need to be prepared to act on what they tell you. ESPECIALLY in the field. I've heard of chessies getting so frustrated when their hunting partner wouldn't go where the dog was trying to lead them (to the birds!) they just flat gave up and laid down or went back to the truck. Only to have the stupid hunter find out hours later that the dog was the one going the right way!
If you're one of their people, they're usually terribly affectionate and sweet--lots of feet laying, heads in laps, etc. They like to keep you in sight, which is part of their hunting mindset. They also figure what's good enough for you is good enough for them, so don't think you're keeping them off the furniture. And the only way you'll keep them out of your bed is to crate or kennel them--all their lives. Or let them guard the barn at night. The chessies I've known have done well with other animals, including cats and other dogs.
I've seen them take to clicker and collar training very well. However, they're almost over-sensitive to correction. You have to be very, very consistent, and use the minimum amount of negative reinforcement. Barney had to totally give up the collar on his last Chessie after he overshocked her accidentally just ONCE; she chewed the collar to pieces, and it was a week before she quit ignoring him completely, and most of the summer before she consistently listened to him. A GSP or a weim or a lab would have forgotten it in an hour. Not her. That whole Cesar Milan "dogs live in the moment" theory is utterly untrue with chessies. I've heard more than one hunter say that an elephant would forget before a chessie, especially an insult!
They’re probably the best of the big hunting dogs out there, but they’re NOT for someone without significant experience training bird dogs. Because you have to socialize and train to control their guarding instincts as intensively as you have to train to hone their hunting instincts, they take a lot more commitment than the other hunting breeds. I know lots of avid hunters who do great with their GSP’s and their labs, but who don’t have the skills to handle a chessie. If he decides he wants one, I'd look for a breeder who also trains chessies, to learn the most effective way to work with one.
