RE: POINTING LAB??
I always chuckle when the whole range issue comes up, and how a dog MUST have range to cover a whole section or he is a worthless upland dog, blah, blah, blah.
All of my dogs (2 drahts and 1 gsp) can and will run fairly wide in open country. By fairly wide I mean about 200 or so yards out maybe even further. For ptarmigan in the tundra they will get out there. For grouse they shorten up and keep me in sight most of the time. The limiting factor is ME and they know it.
A smart dog knows they have to wait for the gun and they know you need to know where they are at. They come looking for me if they don't see me.
Conformation and coat is important. The german breeding guidelines that I follow ensure that the dogs have the right coat and conformation to be a viable all around dog or they cannot be bred.
Temperment is also important. The dogs must be amicable around people, but hard enough to run hogs or bear (even brown bear in Europe) and dispatchvermine like coons and coyote quickly. Most of them will also protect the home or the car or even yourself.
I have gone through many dogs in the past, and I am sold on the JGHV (FCI registered) testing. These dogs are probably the best balanced animals I have ever owned. Their drives are all very nice, retrieve, track, point, and dispatch with good nerves. I took my nine month bitch down to SD, and had a three hour layover in Chicago. Took her out of her crate, walked her through a huge airport with me pulling a luggage cart, got her on a tram, people pasisng, etc. She wagged her tail the whole time. People petted her etc. When I was dozing waiting for the flight, she calmly laid next to me. When a man approached us to pet her while I dozed, she let him know very quickly that this was "our" space, and no one invades it without me allowing it.
All my dogs are very calm and docile in the house, my new pup has been the easiest going house dog I have ever seen at his age, but runs and guns hard in the field -- its the genetics. They can turn it on and off at will.
There are very nice dogs in the AKC, but there is a ton of junk as well. No breeding requirements have too many people going in opposite directions with no consistency in mind.