In response to the PM's I got about Southern Plantation. Throughout the Southeast there are a few thousand quail hunting plantations, where patrons often spend big dollars to hunt. I have several friends that work as dog handlers on some of the most exclusive ones.
It works like this, one or two handlers will have a brace of pointling dogs, mostly pointers and a few setters, to locate the covies. There may be an outrider. The shooters follow behind in a wagon often still pulled by mules, dismounting to shot. There is almost always a wagon dog that does all the retrieving, usually a Lab, a few cockers and now and then a Boykin.
This is a highly formalized hunt, steeped in tradition. The guns are kept cased until given to the two shooters after point is called, mostly side by side 20's.
You never hear the trainer/handlers talk about problems getting dogs to be staunch and steady, they just are. With kennels of 100 dogs or more, much of the training is done in the hunting fields. It was from this that field trials got their start. Those traditions set most of the rules. The judges play the role of the wagon riding hunters, the handler the same in both, the scouts as outriders.
Since the 1860's, this highly driven, stylish pointing dogs have not been asked to retrieve