I wouldn’t necessarily subscribe to that. It has mostly to do with the training/trainer on how
a dog sees himself in the hunting picture. Maybe instinct tells a pointer/setter to be a ‘self-hunter’ or maybe not, but if recognized early a wise trainer can overcome such a trait.
I think labs are generally speaking, just more biddable, more easy-going and more susceptible to consistency in training.
But each dog is different regardless of the breed. I’m just speaking from my own experience. Grace is stubborn - Tobie never was.
Grace thinks she knows what she should be doing, where she should be going, how close she can get to a bird... better than I. I need to remind her sometimes just who the boss is. But I only need to remind her once. We may always have our differences of opinion but I blame myself for not getting her on to birds often enough in her first couple of years. We were on Grace’s first live bird training weekend when we learned of Kathy’s health situation.... Everything in our lives changed from that moment on.
We love Grace passionately and she is almost the grouse dog I want, and with patience and consistency we will get there soon - this year hopefully.
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