A kennel by any other name would still be full of barking dogs. You might be wondering where the name “Marshfield” came from, or if you know why I keep it.

OK, Marshfield Massachusetts was my full-time home from 1992 until 2006. I never had any real connection to the town. I didn’t go to school there, never had many friends in town. I never really wanted to stay. I owned a house there, but always considered it temporary until I could move to Maine or Ohio.

But, when I got involved in NAVHDA, I wanted a cool kennel name. I thought about my last name, but Chrisman Kennel just didn’t sound right to me. I considered the original spelling of my name before it became Americanized, but it contains two characters that aren’t in the English alphabet. Plus, I consider myself fully American and like my American last name.

Marshfield seemed to indicate the versatile nature of my German Shorthaired Pointers and just seemed “right.” Back in 1999, it kind of stuck as the ideal name for me. And as I thought about it, the word came up all over the place. The invitational was in Marshfield, Wisconsin. A catalog had some camp furniture and called the line “Marshfield.” Marshfield. Marshfield. Marshfield!

So when it came up that NAVHDA was ending lifetime registrations of kennel names, I got in my registration before the deadline. Marshfield it was. Now I’m in Shapleigh, and we call the dog and horse operation Marshfield Farm. I still really love the name.

My French Canadian friends translated it into French (for me) and liked it so much they named their kennel Champmarais. It’s actually “fieldmarsh” but it means the same, pretty much, and sounds better that way (I’m told).  I couldn't be happier about the connection.