My brother bought a Chessie up in Wisconsin.
He flew in an airplane from Pittsburgh to the closest airport there.
Rented a car, drove for another 3 hours, picked up the dog, drove back the 3 hours, bought the dog a seat on the plane and flew home.
All i can tell you is that you will probably need more then 1/2 of a acre for that dog to run in.
My brothers dogs name is Maggie and she loves water and she loves to hunt pheasants.
The problem with Maggie is that he kept her in the house and she is used to attention and he has to haul her around in a crate and when she gets in the truck she knows that she is going hunting and she barks constantly from the time she gets in the truck until when you leave her out of the crate. It doesn't matter if it is 4 hours later.
She is very kind and very loyal and very protective - but not over protective. She just kind of looks after his kids like a mother hen.
She loves being outside and doesn't like sleeping in her crate at night.
She developed hip problems by the age of 8 and got arthritis by the age of 9 and is now 14 years old and can no longer walk long distances or hunt.
So if she lives one more year, half of her life - she was sick in one form or another.
I would definitely buy one of those dogs if barking did not upset you or your neighbors. When my brother had a Rottweiler - the Chessie beat up the Rottweiler many times. When he moved to Charlotte NC - the first thing the neighbors told him was that he had to get rid of the Rottweiler but he could keep the Chesapeake Bay Retriever.
That tells me that they judged the dog by the reputation and not on a one on one individual basis.
If you keep the dog indoors - be aware that it doesn't shed much, but that it will always have muddy paws if it can find a mud puddle it will jump into it and if it can find a stream - it will walk in it - even if it is 100 yards long. They love water.
The dog gets into my brothers garden and eats all his tomato's and peppers and even the Zucchini and cucumbers. It will eat an apple - core and all. They have a very high feed bill.
If you don't buy Iam's it poops all over the place..