re: I had to bury my lab last night. What breed I should replace her with?

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Why do you call it this

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because that's what he is

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no offense to you lab owners, but who cares. These kind of dogs are usually robots and have no affection.



This miiiight be what they had their hackles up about,, it woulda raised mine too. This is more of an a attack.

Now I see your edit, good deal,,, now, you got any peanut butter and saltines you can spare?

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They pretty much aren't the same thing these days

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Serious question - how are they a different breed?

OK - kind of how I imagined them. I've been told it's more in the training but since you own one I figured I'd ask. This sort of thing helps me from time to time - clients that own some specific subset of dog breed want that recognized and become very loyal if you can talk about it a little bit

Here's my friend's GWP from a couple weeks ago. Retrieving my first bird of the season. Young, small dog but she's a beast in the field

There are strict hunt tests, agility tests, etc that have to be passed in order to breed, so it basically ensures that every litter is close to perfect*.

As a puppy they have to take a spring natural ability test that basically attempts to measure the pup's inherited potential and are scored in categories like tracking, Nose, Search, Pointing, and Cooperation

As an adult, they get a little more difficult and are scored in additional categories such as Desire, Search behind the Duck (following a duck's scent trail across water), Blind Retrieve of a Duck, 150 and 300 meter retrieves of game placed by drag track, Manner of Retrieve (sit and hold to deliver), and Obedience. This test is a measure of the pup's actual usefulness as an upland and waterfowl hunting dog

I had my yellow lab of 14 years pass last January. Best dog I've ever owned. I knew if I got another lab it just wouldn't hold a candle to my last. I was in your position and wanted a dog that was multi purpose. I bought a GSP from a local kennel trained and ready to hunt. She points, backs, whoa broke, retrieves close enough to hand and hunts like a machine.
She did great on the dove field this year and also hunts rabbit which was a great surprise. A few rabbit mixed in on a quail hunt and you have two of the finest game animals you can eat. The only thing I haven't been able to do is duck hunt but I'm sure she would pick it up pretty quick. She's 33 lbs soaking wet, barely sheds, house broken, stays clean, great with my 3 and 5 year old, and as easy to train and pick up commands at home( sit, stay, down, heel, etc) as my previous lab and I didn't think that was possible. I highly suggest you look into this breed before making a rush decision. Spend an hour at a kennel and just watch them interact with people and each other. Their gait is even impressive. If I didn't go the GSP route I was going for a Boykin and they are a great choice as well.
If you ever get a chance to watch 3-5 highly trained large male GSP's hunt together, please do so. They run like greyhounds and can find a single quail in a 20 acre field in just a few minutes. It's surgical.
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Great pics bub.

Aubie, i paid 1200 for mine

I somewhat agree, I have witnessed the hardened field trial dogs and some can be dead eyed. Maybe from too much e-collar training or kennel life.

This is why there is a rise in a more positive training put forth by Robert Milner and others.