maybe you should look into a more versital breed like wire hair pointers to name my fav. versital dogs can track, trail, sent, run rabbtis, anything you want to hunt.
check out navda
north ameica versital dog association (?)

to answer ypur question
yes you can train (any dog ) to retrieve f you have the time and paitents

I met an indian in new mexico once who had a mixed pointer hound dog he was hunting with when i asked how his bird dog was to train he looked at me kinda funny

-- it ain't a bird dog it's a hunting dog--
turns out he hunted everything with it from quail and ducks to cougers and pigs
get a hunting dog and let him hunt.