"The Labrador when on game, either by air or ground scent, will become more excited or animated. As it nears game it may drop its head somewhat to better find or locate the bird, but will continue to move forward. Most Labradors will naturally flush in a bold to moderate manner, their desire to find and retrieve continuously driving them toward the bird in an attempt to either catch or flush to wing. Anything less would be unacceptable and should be scored accordingly, as the Spaniel Hunting test is intended to demonstrate the traits and values of a flushing dog." (AKC Hunt Test standards for Labrador Retrievers)
Labs are flushing dogs and breeding them to "point" is a deviation from the standard. The problem comes in when both "pointing" labs and real labs are registered in the same registry. This creates a polluted gene pool, wherein the true labs may eventually end up with characteristics that are not desirable to a traditional lab owner. No problem at all if they are registered separately. Retrieving is a generally accepted trait in the GSP breed, just happens that it is often not a terribly strong characteristic. Nobody would ever say that they are unhappy with their GSP because it retrieves well, not so with a lab that points.
