I think the leading candidates for the job of my hunting dog/family pet are English springer spaniel or Lab, but a Brittany could sneak in and steal the job away, too.

I've always liked Weimaraners and they are truly beautiful dogs (those eyes just steal my heart), but the only ones I've known were seriously neurotic if they didn't get hours of attention just about every day, not to mention jealous of anything, or anyone else, who got attention that they wanted, including children. They are supposed to be toward the top end of canine intelligence, though, so they are easier to train and hold onto the training better. I can't imagine taking one out in a duck blind in a Washington winter, though. The first time I told him to retrieve, he'd start in on a 2-hour speech about how it wasn't in his best interest in the long run to enter that cold water and that I better go get the duck myself if I wanted it so bad.

Even so, I would truly love to be so blessed as to see this when I went pheasant hunting.