Looking for a "passenger seat" retriever for dad

[dyrne]

Yeah another "which breed post". Please bear with me. I'm in the central kentucky area and we're looking for a companion dog for my old man. He lives in a pretty remote area and doesn't hear so well these days so needs something to alert him to intruders/noise but also is looking for a good all around hunting dog basically to fetch everything from grouse to squirrel for him. We don't do any duck hunting but we're mostly familiar with retrievers/labs and how to train them and would just get a good lab but he needs a dog more compact and easier to transport and manage these days. I've looked a little at boykins, american water spaniels and brittanys... I know I can train pretty much any gun dog to retrieve but there is something about the way a good lab naturally marks and zeros in on a target that I just don't associate with other breeds. Is there one of the smaller retrievers that most closely matches that lab temperament and focus?

[northwoodshunter]

The boykin wouldn't be bad. Or strongly consider a Springer Spaniel too. They are great on birds and most naturally retrieve from Hunting lines. The pointing labs are generally smaller than normal labs, but not by much. i'm not positive but the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever seems smaller than labs, and are natural. They cant hunt upland birds too. or a Chessie or Golden but i think those are pretty close to the size of a lab

-Northwoodshunter