I have been asked why I named our newest male Labrador retriever Chisum? The reason being is that when I was a teenager, which seems many, many, many years ago. I was a big fan of John Wayne movies. Probably my favorite movie was Chisum. The following is a brief description of the movie.
John Chisum was born in Madison County on 15th August, 1824. The family moved to Texas in 1837 and Chisum found work as a building contractor. He also served as county clerk in Lamar County.
Chisum got involved in the cattle business in 1854 and became one of the first to send his herds to New Mexico. He purchased land along the Pecos River and eventually became the owner of a large ranch and over 100,000 head of cattle.
In 1880 Chisum was involved in getting Pat Garrett elected as sheriff of Lincoln County. Garratt immediately attempted to deal with the problems being caused by Billy the Kid. In December 1880, Garrett shot dead two of the Kid’s gang, Tom O’Folliard and Charles Bowdre. Soon afterwards Billy the Kid, Dave Rudabaugh and Billy Wilson were captured by Garratt.
John Chisum died in Eureka Springs on 20th December, 1884. Chisum was unmarried and left his estate worth $500,000 to his brothers.
The name Chisum is short and catchy. When you name a lab, always try to use a call name that is short for training purposes, I have always found it easier to train with short words and commands. Your Labrador retriever will learn to respond to shorter commands much quicker and they are not confusing to your Labrador retriever. At this point I find myself calling Chisum, CHIS which is even shorter. Chisum’s AKC name is SUNSET’S RIDE EM HIGH CHISUM. Try calling him that while training.