Years ago I came across this while reading the book Game Bird Shooting, published in 1931 by then Captain Charles Askins, father of his better-known son of the same name. It's about pointing dogs, but could also apply to this discussion:
"From 1900 to 1906 I handled a string of field trial dogs and shot a great deal, shooting in every state in the South except Louisiana and South Carolina. Never was a very good trainer, because I liked to shoot too well. Shooting and dog training don’t work well together, but I won sometimes. What really caused me to quit field trials was my loss of a setter that I had trained. He was called Doc Hick, a great field trial dog. He was with me day and night, from the time he was a puppy until he won the United States Subscription Stake at four years old. He was with me day and night, slept under my bed, never out of doors in his whole life, and he ate whatever I had to eat. Having won extensively, he was sold…and had to be sent from Mississippi to Seattle. I put him in his crate, and he certainly thought we were going together. And the next I heard of Doc Hick he was dead.
"I never since have had any heart for dog training. My dogs are now just about the least trained bird dogs that ever went afield, because I never punish them. I let them do what pleases them best, they do the best they know how, and we have the best time together….”
