When your Labrador looks too boring in the Raptor with the Yeti sticker and you have to one up all the guys on the corporate lease...

PFG said:

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When your Labrador looks too boring in the Raptor with the Yeti sticker and you have to one up all the guys on the corporate lease...

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Or you get tired of hair all over your house.

PANHANDLE10 said:

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Versatile breeds find very few birds that you weren't already gonna find anyways and lack pointing instincts. They don't make difficult retrieves either and won't handle like a retriever will on blind retrieves. (Someone is gonna day there dog does, and sure there are exceptions.)

You should pick a retriever if you're gonna hunt migratory birds most. Or you should get a true pointing breed if you're gonna hunt upland birds most.

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Completely disagree with that, and know quite a few GSP owners that would take offense. Otherwise, the rest of your post is correct.

Don't get a dog with the "pointer/pointing" in its name and expect it to be as good of a retriever as a breed with "retriever" in its name.

WPG are referred to as a "walker's hunter" as the most they will typically range is 50-75 yards. Occasionally, mine will go further if he gets on a scent, but he stays pretty close by most of the time. If you hunt big land where you need your dog to range 300+ yards, this isn't your dog.

If you have the time and money to train two dogs, one for retrieving and one for pointing, that would be ideal obviously. But that's not that case for the majority of people... hence the creation of versatile breeds.

I had one but between his beak, the feathers, and his personality...he was a handfull. Thinking I could keep him in an apartment was a fantasy