Like battue, I must have missed this thread the first time around. Must admit up front that I'm not a field-trial guy, but an all-around upland/waterfowl hunter. My first Lab's father was the Utah field-trail champion, long before I can ever recall the idea of pointing labs ever coming up. My dog taught himself to point certain birds, without an encouragement from me, and was doing it pretty consistently in his later years. He also taught himself to catch cottontail rabbits in snow, when he was younger and faster, which I didn't mind either. None of my other previsou Labs have shown much drive to point, though my present 60-pound chocolate female started to some last fall, at five years of age.
Have hunted with a number of different dogs in my travels around the world, one a bluetick hound in Alabama that pointed quail as well as the well-bred pointing dogs in his owner's string.
One of my Labs was actually half Llewellin setter, given to me by an Arizona guide who had a dozen Llewellins for quail, and one Lab for waterfowl. One of the female setters and the Lab had a party (through a chain-link fence) one night, and the result (of course) was 11 puppies. My friend kept a female and gave me a male. Hunted him until he was 12, and while he retrieved better than any setter I've hunted with, he never showed any tendency to point. But he could sure run and flush all day long.
Obviously I'm not into the purity of breeds, and debating about diluting them....
