Which breed of gun dog?
The choice of breed should be determined by the type of shooting that the gun dog will be used for. However personal preference obviously plays a large part. For rough shooting where the game is mainly walked up with thick cover that requires a hunting dog to flush the game then spaniels are the best choice. Either English springer or cocker spaniels will do this admirably. For driven shooting or wildfowling a retriever which can be trained to sit quietly at a pheasant peg or grouse butt during a drive and then retrieve birds at the end of the drive is the best bet. A labrador or golden retriever would make a good choice of gun dog. If you have very large areas of ground to cover with a low population of game then a pointer or setter would best be suited for this and ideally would be used with a retriever. English, Irish or Gordon setters together with English pointers would be most suitable gun dog breeds.
