I have hunted and/or owned a lot of different breeds. Labradors, Springers, Irish Water Spaniels, German Shorthairs, Wirehairs, Brittany's, English Setters, Gordon Setters, English Pointers and two or three others I can't spell.
There are few breeds as versatile than the Wirehair. The Shorthair does it all with more pizazz. Any breed can be trained to doit all but none do it all as well as the wirehair and shorthair. For chukars, hungarians and valley quail, my choice is shorthairs, hands down. That is derived from three things; I like looking at them better, I think they're classier on game, I find they take training better. Here I'm comparing to wirehairs. Were I to add waterfowl to the list, I'd lean toward the wirehair for it's coat and tuffness.
I've worked with a number of Vizlas and the good are very good but the bad are very bad. They are much better than Weimeraners but the bird hunting community has not taken them seriously enough to develope. I've never seen one imported from good hunting stock. They may well be a different horse.
I've only seen a few Brittanys I cared for. I'm not a fan of long coats and I've run into more Britt's with bad dispositions t
han any other sporting breed. Dusty was one Britt I would have owned.
English setters fall into two cataglorys, field type and show type. This is true of Gordons and Irish also. Show people generally don't hunt and do not turn out good field dogs as a rule, they've bred the brains out in favor of beauty. But the setters that hunt can be striking. They do have that horrible long coat and as a rule develope slower than the german breeds, the English Pointer and the Britts. They are often afflicted with a disposition that is hard but soft. That means they might be stubborn but you better not raise your voice at them; they can't take it.
English Pointers are the absolute king of pointing dogs. At birth, they've already forgotten more about birds than the other breeds will ever know. They have unbelievable stamina, drive and courage. They will also test the limits of your patience in training, they will likely win the war of will. They are best suited to horseback or vehicle hunting. This is not the breed for most but, but when you've watched a good one, you'll never forget it!!!
Springer Spaniels fall int the hunting & show cataglory. A good field Springer is like a vacuum in the field. But they do have that soft and sometimes long coat. You really need to clean a dog full of burrs one time to appreciate my distaste for those coats, I say that dearly loving the Springer. Very intelligent and fairly easy to train, they are willing learners.
When you talk waterfowl, there's really only one dog, Labrador Retrievers. Goldens are beautiful and wonderful retrievers and eager learners. A bit on the soft side and soft long coats that carry so much water you won't believe it. They are enthustic only until compared to a Lab. chesapeake Bay Retrievers are tuff to a fault but for the most miserable of conditions they are the go to dog. Very smart but also somewhat stubborn. Not generally a good dog to have around the kids, they don't tolerate kid stuff to well yet I would not call them mean either.
The Irish Water Spaniels I've hunted with were poorly trained so any comments I'd make about their abitilies wouldn't count. But they have a wonderful dense short coat. They have a good disposition, swim well and are small. I believe that for a duck hunter this just may be the most underrated dog going. They are hard to find and not the darling of the bench crowd so the brains have probally not been bred out as in other breeds.
A guy needs two dogs, upland game and waterfowl. Theres lots of good breeds but I'd go with the German Shorthair and the Labrador Retriever.
