I respectfully disagree with people who paint a breed with a broad brush. That is a lab is so slow at maturing compared to a pointer. I have had many different breeds including GSP, Springers, English pointers, Labs and Chessies and Weimaraners. I have never seen a pointing breed that settled down by 16 months but that does not mean that it never happens. Also I have had several labs that were steady, nonbreaking retrievers by the time they reached 9 or 10 months of age. I have had a chessie that was slow at maturing yet he did a fantastic job of retrieving at 11 months of age. Each dog is different and it pays to see the parents on both sides before picking a new pup. You can make all kinds of generalizations about any breed but that sure does not make it the gospel.