Although most hunters hunt more than one species of bird, many hunt one or two species that are common to a particular type of cover. I'm primarily an open-country bird hunter, so I hunt Huns, blue grouse, chukars and sharptails, in about that order. I want a wide-ranging, hard-running dog that will comb the hillsides 200 to 400 yards distant, something I'd be forced to do on my own if I owned a closer working animal.
Labradors are a favorite among the waterfowl set. But don't expect them to excel in the desert quail country, where a breed like the author's setter, Scarlet, can hold birds and let you flush them close.
Furthermore, since I spend so much time behind my dogs, I want an animal that moves in a way that pleases me. Style is important, although I'll be the first to admit that it has little bearing on the numbers of birds produced for the gun. A setter with a 12 o'clock tail sends chills down my spine, and I can watch a running pointer with a slashing, animated gait all day long. My dogs? Setters and Brittanies (yeah, I know about the tails on Brittanies, but still). I also love to hunt over English pointers and GSPs.
But I loved my burly little springer, too, a hard-core retriever if ever there was one. For most serious waterfowlers, which I am no longer but used to be, nothing thrills like a Lab or Chesapeake making a big water entry, paws outstretched on a gravity-defying leap into a river. I've gunned for several retriever trials and some of the retrieves they mandate leave me shaking my head in wonder. When was the last time you saw a pointing dog make triple marked retrieves at 200, 300 and 400 yards?
The Tradeoffs
The price you pay for peak performance in one or two areas is almost always fair to middling performance in another. Retrievers, for instance--insert here any breed you want--aren't designed to run all day in the uplands, although tens of thousands of them are pressed into service for that very purpose. American pointing breeds, as I proved to myself with my setter, just aren't cut out for serious water work. And springers aren't geared to hold a covey of valley quail or chukars until you can walk up and flush them.
Many breeds with European blood lines are considered "versatile" because they will both point and retrieve birds of all sizes. Fritz is a griffon and a blue grouse expert.
I'm not saying these dogs won't do what you ask of them; as just one example, there are probably more people who hunt pheasants with Labs than any other breed. I'm simply saying that for every gamebird, there's a breed or two or even three that's ideally suited to pointing, retrieving or flushing it.
Being a specialist makes dog selection relatively easy. If you're an avid ruffed grouse and woodcock hunter, get a pointer. Setters, Brittanies, GSPs and English pointers are the most commonly used, although several other pointing breeds will do. If you're a pheasant hunter, especially a thick-cover pheasant hunter, springers were designed from the ground up for just what you like to do best, and most give away nothing to Labs in the retrieving department. If you're a duck or goose hunter, though, the Labrador is your dog, beating out Chesapeakes and goldens primarily because there is such a vast selection of hunt-bred Labs to choose from.
But many bird hunters aren't specialists. They dabble with pheasants or ruffed grouse in October, chase ducks in November and might scrape together a quail hunt in Kansas or Arizona in December or January. They hunt ten to twenty days a year and really aren't concerned about the silly nuances of canine style people like me get all worked up about. These hunters want a buddy that will sleep at the foot of their bed, put up birds one way or another and (with luck) fetch them. I have good news: If this is you, you have any number of dogs to choose from.
