Well, I hate to contaminate this thread on setters but cannot resist. I had a golden that was one great duck dog and would dive without hesitation. On numerous occasions I thought I'd have to go in after him for fear he'd drown trying to get a cripple. Once we were hunting a weed choked pond and crippled a black duck. Rip went after it but it repeatedly would dive when the dog was just about to grab it. This went on for so long I made my way around the pond, took my waders off and prepared to get wet. Just then the duck made a dive and Rip went under after him in heavy vegetation. Just as I started into the water he emerged snorting like a pig, but he had that damn duck in his mouth.
As good a duck dog as he was, he was an even better wild pheasant dog. In his career I only know of one cripple that escaped him and that was because it ran through a woven wire fence where he could not pursue.
When he was 7 I moved from pheasant country to grouse country. He made the transition without hesitation. The first fall we hunted grouse we were working around a swamp when I could not hear him running. I thought he must have found a porky or something so I went to investigate. I found him in heavy cover standing stock still and staring at the ground. Upon close inspection I noticed a woodcock sitting about 3 feet from his nose. He looked up as if to say - It's a bird, I have no idea what kind and it does not fly. What do we do now. I flushed it and shot it and he retrieved it. From then on he hunted them with as much vigor as grouse.
Good dogs are good dogs no matter the breed.
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