MD,
Seems like most of your personal bird dogs have been labs, or lab crosses. Ever owned a pointing breed dog?
If you were gonna start one last pup, what type and from where?
Realistically, how much time and space do you have/are you going to spend at it? I grew up in central ND during the heydays of CRP and immense pheasant numbers. We had labs and they worked for everything upland and waterfowl one wants to chase. Our neighbor (whom we hunted with almost every weekend) had a couple of shorthairs and they worked differently but no better/worse than the labs. 2000 I got a new job and hunted with a whole different group of guys using English Cockers and summer '01 I dumbed into an amazing deal on an 18Mo old finished English Cocker.
I hunted that EC w/dad's and several other buddy's labs, his neighbor's GSP, a buddy's GSP, and another buddy's GWP. They all worked because they were all trained. Dad ended up getting a cocker and going away from labs. He didn't waterfowl hunt anymore and the cocker was an easy and small package to manage, he even let him be in the house (labs were 100% outside dogs). My 3rd cocker is 4 and laying on his bed next to my desk as I type.
4 friends have Puddle-pointers, they work well. One of the Pudelpointer owners also has a fairly large Drathaar and it's probably the "Gamest" dog I've hunted behind. 2x while out for a daily "run" for exercise he's retrieved 2 coyotes that he ran down. 1 was dead, the other was very disoriented. I also saw some video of the big D breaking a LOT of ice to get to a wounded Swan, then break a bunch more on the way back with a reasonably lively swan flopping about. That D runs big, but, you can also hunt him on nothing more than a fence-row through stubble for huns.
I know 2 guys that have small Munsterlanders and dearly love them, but, I've never gotten the chance to see them afield.
