bmeyer66, my older GSP sounds exactly like your dog. He does whatever it takes to find the bird and won't give up. But he has never really retrieved....unless my mom out with us taking pictures, then he "shows off." But the two reasons I feel that he won't retrieve is that he hates the feathers in his mouth b/c he'll spit out the bird and shake his head to get rid of the feathers. Also, we hunted him over pheasants probably a little too early and he went after a wounded one and we think he got wing beat and spurred by that rooster. He's a very tough dog but I think it kind of scarred him. I tried force breaking him and all but have never really gotten much.