If you could choose a dog for...

doing obedience training and basic gundog work (mainly retrieving), what breed would you choose?

ETA- would consider puppy or rescue dog

Probably an English Springer - but only because I have experience of that breed and know that they are intellegent and tireless workers.

Large Miniature Poodle! Have done a bit of gundog training with one of my lot!
Becky

Probably a GP (Wire or short). Trip does some fantastic Obedience work and I have a beautiful black bitch who came as well - they hold a great position and are very trainable. I have found spainels tend to be a bit OTT and its quite hard to get them into a good Obedience position...but they are also well up for working
Good luck with the search

Golde Retriever - some fantastic retrievers working the higher classes in obedience and they designed to retrieve

Unless you just wanted an obedient pet in which case I would pick whichever breed appealed - I fancy a Hungarian Viszla!

A GSD for multi-tasking, every time.

A Labrador from good working lines. They are by far the most popular working gundog in the country and for good reason.

Tireless, but the obedience stuff isn't really their forte. You can't get a better dog for beating than a Springer though. They are in their element far more as beating dogs then they are as retrievers.

I would go for a German Wirehaired Pointer I think. Fabulous dogs.

Just going off my own experiences with Springers. I have always found them to be very responsive to training and eager to please. Maybe I have just been lucky?

No, I would agree with that. What I meant was that the whole 'sitting patiently while waiting to be sent for a retrieve' thing isn't generally what they are best at. It isn't what they are bred for. IMO if you want a retriever, get a retriever. If you want a game flushing dog, get a working Springer or Cocker or Pointer. When you stray away from the breeds commonly used as working gundogs, getting the 'right' dog becomes more tricky. For example if I wanted a working Labrador, I would have little trouble finding a a pup from two field trial parents with trialled and tested ancestors. The odds are in my favour that a pup from such a breeding would go on to make a good gundog. Comparatively, if I wanted a working Weimeramer puppy, where working examples of the breed are far less common than Labs, the odds of me finding a pup that would live up to my expectations (as a working dog) are less in my favour. All purely hypothetical of course.

My point is if the OP was asking this question because she wants to have a bit of fun gundog training, then breed doesn't really matter. Retriever, flusher, HPR; whatever...you can have fun with all these breeds. If she wants a dog for a particular purpose, say for picking up on a shoot, the odds are in her favour if she goes for a tried and tested breed.