my grandparents have a farm that's been in the family for close to 200 years and as far as i know, springers have been the dog of choice on the farm ever since then. of course, i've been raised around them all of my life but the last couple that i've had were just waaaay tooooo high strung for not only myself but for my wife as well. I don't know if i got some bad stock or not but these last two (from seperate breeders) were so hard headed. i had one who liked to hunt porcupines and cost me a ton of money and the other was too interested looking up in the trees for squirrels to bother with anything else. i do know how to train springers but i think maybe i'm warn out with the breed. i would really like to try something else. i've been looking at labs too. if it helps, i'm more interested in rabbit hunting than i am birds, but i once small game hits, i like to hunt anything.