Flushing breeds like springers and labs are excellent for pheasant hunting, effective but not ideal for hunting prairie grouse and huns. If you are hunting waterfowl, nothing excels at that job like a retriever. But to most hunters, "bird dog" refers to the pointing breeds. For dogs of British origin, that means pointers and setters. Pointers and setters have had the pointing instinct developed to a very high degree, that's why they are the champions of so many competitive field trials. They do not excel at waterfowl or furred game. The Europeans have taken a slightly different approach than the Brits, and developed dogs that are not only pointers, but retrievers & trackers on both land and water, for furred and feathered game. My preference is for the European "Versatile" breeds, of which there are more than two dozen. They are not as efficient at finding and pointing birds in the wide open spaces as an English pointer, not as hard working at breaking ice and retrieving late season mallards in a big marsh as a Lab or Chessie, but very good at the wide range of hunting that I do for a variety of species.
For the single best reference book on the versatile breeds, I can highly recommend a new book by Winnipeg author Craig Koshyk. His book is as follows:
POINTING DOGS, VOLUME ONE: THE CONTINENTALS
By Craig Koshyk FORMAT: Hardcover, 9x12 inches
ISBN: 978-0-9813523-1-2 PUB. DATE: May, 2011
Dogwilling Publications
His work is extremely thorough, and reviews each breeds characteristics, strong and weak points, and makes a reasoned attempt at predicting the odds of purchasing a pup with the hunting ability that you desire. Craig is a professional photographer and the photos in the book are beautiful enough to justify the purchase as art alone. I believe that anyone looking for a bird dog would be spending $100 wisely.
I have been hunting with Pudelpointers lately. I find them easy to live with, hard working and biddable. In standardized tests run by the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association and the Versatile Hunting Dog Federaltion, Pudelpointers are consistently among the top scoring dogs. In tests run by our Saskatoon gun dog club I have seen good large Munsterlanders, Viszlas, GSP's, GWP's, Drahthaars, Brittanies, and a few others.
I use my Pudelpointer to hunt Huns, Sharptall, Ruffed and Spruce grouse, Pheasant, Ptarmigan, Snipe, Hares, retrieve Ducks, Geese, muskrat and beaver. We ca't use dogs to track big game in Saskatchewan or I would do that too.
