I have to put my vote in for the Labs as well. I love that they are so even tempered. My 4yo daughter plays pretty rough with our 10 month old lab. The poor dog just lays there and takes it. When she gets enough, she'll get up and walk away, or climb up into the chair with me. I don't know what kind of hunter she's gonna be, but she loves to retrieve bumpers and balls.

I've had a Golden, I'm on the second lab and I also have an English Setter.

The Golden (Vincent) was truly my best friend--the most intuitive smartest and most loyal dog ever. He was the best and I cried like a baby when I had to put him down. I wasn't hunting for those years, but he made a heck of a 'climbing' crag dog. But, I'd bet with an hour or two at most of 'splaining; he'd of hunted any way I told him. He could climb a 5-7 and 'a 'rapped' him down 'Jacob's ladder' at Seneca rocks and he smiled the whole 80 feet down. What a dog!

In recent years I had a lab that hunted upland birds as well as any; with a concentration and stick to-it-ofness that put 'fancy' dogs to shame. Connor put bird in hand with a big old smile and a 'let's get another' look hard to ignore.

My 3 year old 'English Setter' is birdy as ya want and locks up like a 'Michaelangelo'.

My next dog will likely be a 'Brit'. I've watched a few good ones and I think we'd do OK together.

Look wise an english pointer, i just love there muscular frame and and solid points, along with that liver shaped color around there eye.

Hunting upland game. i have owned every color of lab known to man! Love my labs. here is my American white Lab "bear"....finding an antler i hid from him in the basement! LOL

I agree w/ uplandchessie, I had a male for 13 years and had to "put " him down a year and half ago. he would retreive, in any water or terrain . Took him jump shooting ponds and stearms and we would come back w/ partridge most of the time, he would quater awsome and I never trained him to do that . He was a handfull at times ,real protective( not a bad thing) just to much at times . Now i have 2 female blacklabs ,1 is 2 the other is 1.5 andI have to say they are great!!! I have not hunted them or realey trained them but I have spentsome time in the woods and they seam real good, hope to do some real training this fall

My dog of choice has been the "Hungarian Vizsla"
I spent a season at a local pheasant club and would come home each day of every weekend of the season telling my wife about the dogs I'd see out there and the great things they did, etc.
One day she came home with a pamphlet of this breed, a customer of hers owned one at the time, because my wife would talk about how I'd bore her to death with the stories of the dogs I'd see!
well I owned a German Shepherd at the time, and she refused to allow another dog in the house, so, I told her, when he's gone, I'm getting a bird dog.
the day the shepherd kicked, an ad was in the paper for the breed my wife taught me about.
On Super Bowl Sunday 1980, I came home with tow litter mates, thinking either one of my two brothers or my best friend would step up and take one, NO!
So, I raised the two, Amos & Andy, Amos lived to 8 and Andy lived to 18, and I have yet to own another breed of dog since! I'm on my fourth, and hoping to acquire another in the near future!
Here's a photo of my current girl, "Colleen's Lady Sadie" my wife bought and named her, I just get to take her hunting!