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Update: May, 2026 On April 21st, John Contini passed unexpectedly in his sleep. He hadn’t been sick and worked with his dogs at the kennel until his death. John was the driving force of Sky Pond Chesapeakes. He had achieved what he set out to do when he retired and started Sky Pond about ten years ago- developing dogs with excellent show and hunt test abilities. Our family plans to continue what he developed, making adjustments as we feel they are needed. Our daughter, Maria Contini, will care for the dogs and puppies and the general day to day management of the kennel. Dorthy, John’s wife, will work on the bookkeeping and office work for the kennel. We are committed to continuing to produce quality dogs with excellent bloodlines.
Welcome to Sky Pond Chesapeakes! We raise Chesapeake Bay Retrievers from show quality dogs that have the instinct and drive to be superb hunting / hunt test dogs. The ribbons in the picture below attest to our successes. To quote our friend, James Layne, “Life is too short to hunt with an ugly dog”.
We are located in the heart of the Bluegrass area of Kentucky. Our experience with Chesapeake Bay Retrievers goes back over 40 years to when John lived in the Bootheel of Missouri and hunted almost every day of waterfowl season with his first Chesapeake, Chopper.
We encourage you to visit us on Facebook for updates on Sky Pond activities.
History of Sky Pond: When Sky Pond Chesapeakes was established, there were three of us. In November 2019, our friend, Ray Cornish, passed away. Since establishment, my son, Clay, has had an increase in his work responsibilities and he and his wife had their first child. So, Clay has little time to devote to the kennel. That leaves me, John, with the help of my wife, Dorthy, to operate Sky Pond Chesapeakes. My eyesight limits my driving ability. Therefore, we rely on Stephanie Hentschel, DarRight Kennels, who trains and handles our dogs for Conformation Competition and on Jeremy Ries, MoCo Bottom’s Labs, who trains and handles our dogs for hunt tests.