I agree w/ uplandchessie, I had a male for 13 years and had to "put " him down a year and half ago. he would retreive, in any water or terrain . Took him jump shooting ponds and stearms and we would come back w/ partridge most of the time, he would quater awsome and I never trained him to do that . He was a handfull at times ,real protective( not a bad thing) just to much at times . Now i have 2 female blacklabs ,1 is 2 the other is 1.5 andI have to say they are great!!! I have not hunted them or realey trained them but I have spentsome time in the woods and they seam real good, hope to do some real training this fall