Brett, don’t knock them “French poodles,”
While stationed at England AFB, La. many years ago I had a neighbor who had a full size poodle that was one of the best retrievers I have ever seen. He would also point quail. back and hold as well as any bird dog. We often hunted together, my German Shorthair and his poodle, we almost always got out limit.
The Shorthair was a young dog, but picked up a lot of good hunting skills from the Poodle, he later made a very good dog.