I am a fan of yellow labs myself...it all depends where you hunt at for the size i hunt in the marsh and its more humus that water which makes it very hard to walk in so i need a dog with some size an muscle..but if i would hunt in the rice field i would get a female i find they are easier to train just my opinion

Not much else to say here! All been said!

It brings back a lot of memories of good old dogs that have made some fun hunts, great hunts! I had a big old yellow named Bear, got him from a guy in Lafayette when he was 7 mos old and didn't know crap. But he had a retrieve drive and after working with him for 3 mos twice a day, he made it through his first hunting season and did a fine job. He got better with time and really came along as a good hunting dog. He lived a good life, but got to the point where he was deaf from all the shooting, and had arthritis, so I got a big old black male that was well past "started" when he was 14 mos from a trainer in BR. Best money I ever spent! Great dog, loved wathcing him work, and made my ego grow when I had customers from Houston to Memphis with me when we had a crippled speck down 3 levees over. He only had one problem, and that was when he wanted out of a kennel, his 90lb body would break anything and everything to get out. Beat him, shock him, it didn't matter. When something came in "heat" in the neighborhood he was on his way to service it. His luck ran out when he was hit by a vehicle last year. That one was tuff, especially on my oldest boy than ran him and won many of ribbons with "his" dog. Still miss that damn dog!

Now, I have a little chocolate female about half the size of my last one. She is going to be ok, but I still miss my BIG dog. Don't know why, she is so much easier to keep than he was, but I still miss that big old block head rubbing on me!