Both dogs gained a reputation as excellent water dogs, especially when it came to duck hunting, and their puppies inherited their abilities--and their unusual yellowish or amber-colored eyes. There was no recorded mating of the two dogs, but seventy years later, when strains from both the eastern and western shores of Maryland met at the Poultry & Fanciers Association show in Baltimore in 1877, their similarities were sufficient that they were recognized as one breed, "The Chesapeake Bay Ducking Dog." Records show that the offspring of Canton and Sailor were intermingled at the Carroll Island Kennels and spread from there throughout the region.

By the time the American Kennel Club was established in 1884, a definite Chesapeake variety had been developed and was well known for its prowess in the rough, icy waters of the Chesapeake Bay. The American Chesapeake Club was formed in 1918. The American Chesapeake Club held the first licensed retriever trial in 1932. Fittingly, the front door of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michael's, Maryland, is guarded by a pair of cast-iron statues of Chessies.

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