Another vote for labs (female too). Both of the labs I've had/have pointed over the years. Not like a English, but more like "cover points". Where the cover was very thick and the birds (mainly quail and pheasants in cattails) decided to hole-up rather than bail. It's nice, but not a necessity...you just need faster shoes chasin' the roosters.

Definately go to a professional kennel, but not a puppy mill. THe kennel where we've gotten our dogs for 23 years is about done, so I found some really nice dogs in Ellensburg at pointinglabradors.com. They sell "guaranteed" pointing labs, but he also sells non-pointers that haven't passed his "pointing tests". A good friend has a 5 month old yellow ***** and she's just great. They're not cheap, but over 10 years, who cares. THe purchase of the dog is the cheap part of "having a dog". I hope this helps.