The best bird dog would in my eyes are the continental or versatile breeds. In this catagory I would again narrow it down to the GSP.

For what I have seen it is easy to get a good hunting dog from the stock available. The breed is a natural and also very biddable. They hold there own in whatever test/trial they enter but more importantly they are still a foot hunters companion. They also are at home in the marsh to make many retrieves from the duck blind.

On a note of maintenance they are pretty maintenance free most times after a duck hunt with a black soot a simple spray of the hose will do the job. After an upland hunt it is time to clean birds with other dogs it is a half hour job of cleaning burrs from the dogs coat.

Another plus is the tracking ability of the versatile breeds unfortanetly for most upland hunters they realize this to late with a downed crippled bird. In times like this in the past the lord.earl, king etc.. would use a retriever to get the bird. Later the middle class not being able to afford more than one dog produced dogs to it all, these were called the continental breeds. These dogs were trained/bred to track blood of big game animals for recovery, to work upland and point game, to work and hunt waterfowl and above all to retrieve downed game.

It boils down to each their own so if your looking for a dog take the time and either hunt over them if this opportunity does not exist. Take time out to watch AKC hunt tests, NAVHDA tests, and/or NSTRA trials all of which are leaned toward the foot hunter. NAVHDA has the only water portion to their tests. I believe the weim club and gsp club have started a water test but not to the point of NAVHDA testing format. Also I would also stress it is more in the breeding of a few than the breed itself so if you choose a certain breed do your homework and make sure you get what your looking for.