I saw one work in a NAVHDA test and as I recall she did well. But that was just one dog at one test in Montana. I have never hunted over one. To follow up on Mr. Salgado's post I absolutely agree that, especially for your first pointing breed, that the NAVHDA registry is an excellent place to start. It is open to the public and you can look up the (hunt) test records of versatile dogs from any breeder in any part of North America. All of the records are public. If that is too overwhelming I know the staff at the NAVHDA office can help but probably the best thing to do would be to visit a local NAVHDA chapter training session or test.
I was a flushing dog guy my whole life but wanted to try a pointing breed when I retired. My local NAVHDA chapter was the absolute best resource for learning how to train a versatile dog, meet new folks, bond with my dog and just have a ton of fun. We ended up with 2 Griffons. Just put our first one down which has broken our hearts.
There are many breeds in the versatile category that can handle cold weather hunting.
Best advice is try to match the personality and traits of the breed to your style.
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