Thanks, guys. I will check them out.
Yeah, I think my former Weim was the exception....for any breed. He came out of Nebraska. A fellow there had a breeding program where he picked up field trial drop out Weims. His goal was a larger, stronger dog, that could bull through heavy cover all day, but not go over the horizon. The fellow has since passed away, and his breeding program with him.
Few people can appreciate it when I tell them about my dog's retrieving ability. He lived to be twelve, and had hundreds of pheasant retrieves. He only failed to find TWO pheasants, in his life! One crawled into a beaver house, and I dragged Buck out by his tail, as he tried to dig his way in (his tail was all I could see). The other was a bird that dropped dead in heavy cover, with a dozen other birds flushing all around. I believe that was his first year.
He was very methodical about finding a bird. If he didn't find it outright, he would start circling the area, in ever expanding rings, until he picked up the trail, and after a time, I never doubted him. One retrieve in particular that I recall: I had dropped a rooster that had gone onto private land, it was wing-tipped, and it was raining. I t took him twenty minutes, but he recovered that bird. He was a hound on a trail.
