ORIGINAL: daleh
A Pointing Lab what exactly would you do with one? Why not just get a Pointer. I am sure they would find more birds.
Sounds Like buying one of those sport utility trucks not realy a truck.
For the same reason that people like GWPs or DDs. They are truly multi-purpose dogs. A traditional pointer might or might not find more birds. They would certainly cover more ground, but I've seen a few pointers that are so fast, that they will blow by some birds, where as the slower,more methodical dog won't cover as much ground, but they won't blow past birds either. For upland birds, both pointers and pointing labs have their positive and negative aspects.
A lot of people can't have - or don't want more than one dog. Why not "just get a pointer?" -- Very few of them will handle very well on blind retrieves, very few of them are willing to break ice water all morning for waterfowl, very few of them will sit quietly in the duckblind all morning scanning the sky for 'incoming' very few of them are 'natural retrievers'.
There are very few truly multi-purpose breeds that do well for both waterfowl hunting as well as upland and fur. GWPs, DDs and PLs do.
If YOU hunted waterfowl, upland and furred game all in the same day, and you could only have one dog, what would you chose?
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