Well I'm going to tell you that in heavy thick cover that the dog can't see you it is of no use to have a dog that takes hand signals for a blind retrieve. Now hunting flooded fields where there is a line of sight to the dog then it would be quicker to handle the dog. I personally prefer a dog that I can send on a blind cripple in tall cattails and the dog independently searches all of the cattails for the cripple or downed bird. I can simply line the dog up and send him into a nasty acre of cattails without firing a shot and he won't return until I call him off or he returns with the bird. As a person who is very involved with Navhda, if you plan to go the UT test route then it will greatly hinder your dog on the duck search. The dog must perform a search for a live flightless duck that has been set loose prior to you and the dog walking up and you are told to fire once in the direction told by the judges and send the dog. The dog is allowed a minimum of 10 mins to search for the duck, if the dog finds the bird and the judges feel the dog did not spend enough time to display the independence and search they want they will ask you to resend the dog with no new bird and no shot being fired. Now the reason they will have you resend is usually because the dog goes right out and finds the duck and retrieves in under a few minutes by sheer luck. Therefore not giving them the ability to judge the dogs desire, stamina, and independence from you to search the bird out without you in sight. Now if the dog is trained to handle then he most times will go out a distance then turn and look to you for direction then when you don't give any he will most times come back to shore and if done repeatedly will severely damage your score.
Long write up I know but I wanted to try to paint the best picture.
