I used to love to see them far ranging pointers work a field. Cause I would take my close working lab into that field when they were done and shoot birds that those speedsters missed. What fun is it to hunt with a dog that goes so far away that you can't see them work? Sounds like some of you are hunting your dogs, not the birds. Teach them to work closer. You'll get more birds and have more fun.
I have lost track of my DDs many times in thick CRP and they have been locked on point, totally out of sight, within 50 yards of me. Normally they work within 100 yards of me, and at that distance, I can lose them in only moderately thick stands of CRP, or in normal cover in riparian areas. So, it's really not a case of the dogs working too far, but what type of cover you hunt in. BTW, some of the cover I hunted ruffs as a kid in northern New England was so thick that you couldn't see a dog at 25 yards...