I see bryant and I disagree about the handle issue, which is good, everyone has their own way of doing things.
But I disagree where he said you can teach a smart dog anything EXCEPT hunt. I have seen many mutts, Dobermans, Shepards, etc, hunt and find game. Dogs that had high intelligence, but were hunting and were not bred for that, they were TRAINED to do it. Sure, they may not have been the best dogs in the woods, but they weren't the worst either.
I saw a white fuzzy dog that didn't weigh 30 lbs that would hunt, find and bay the hair off a hog. It was picked up off the street and no one knew what was in it. But the dog was SMART. learned all kind of tricks in addition to picking up hunting.
I will take a smart dog over a "run through the woods idiot" anyday!
I also believe some dogs are born trash free. Not many, but some. Again, I attribute this to intelligence. My old Dixie dog has never barked at anything other than a hog in her life. I have seen her jump over dillers, opossums, rabbits, go around cows, deer, coyotes, seen her come back when other dogs are running trash and I have never said a word to her about trash...she just never did it in her 8-9 years of hunting. Yet we averaged 100-150 hogs per year with her, every year I hunted her. Unfortunately, not all my dogs are not born trash free............
I don't think you understood Bryant. Those smart dogs weren't taught to get out and hunt, instinct tells them too. He's not saying that a smart dog won't hunt, just that you can't efficiently teach them to have the desire to range out looking for something. If you could all anyone would breed for is brains.
I like a dog with handle, but it isn't the end all for me on a dog in training.
