Well you are right. I'm probably not clear in what I really expect the dog to do. Although she's a pretty good retreiver, I'd like her point or bump a bird as long as she's close. So far, she isn't too bad as far as distance goes. It just seems strange that she misses so many birds flying through her peripheral vision. Also, the gibbled bird got away without a chase??? I'm really not sure what that was all about. It didn't fly away but kind of rolled into a ditch/creek and then into thick bush. She isn't afraid of water, but she just didn't seem interested enough to give chase. It's strange because at other times she wants to catch anything that flies or crawls by.