re: Gun dog?

A lot depends on how well disciplined you want your dog to be. I have buddies that have trained their dogs themselves, and are great retrievers and pick up a lot of ducks. However, they won't go on 200-300 yard blind retrieves, which can be pretty hard to train a dog to do if you aren't experienced in training dogs for that. But both sides (training yourself or sending dog of) both have their pros and cons.