I guess I should have said exposure to gamebirds, but I assumed you would read between the lines. As far as born pointing birds, I've had a whole lot of butterfly, dickey bird pointers, born, and more than a few who pointed nothing but the real thing, gamebirds. You don't "train" a dog to point any of the above anymore than you train/ teach it to lift it's leg, you give the dog the opportunity to do it, and re-enforce the inherited behavior. Training to retrieve, and back on sight are different, it actually takes training to do that, in some case there is no powerful natural instinct to do it, only learned behavior, via training. I was merely attempting to point out that the direction of the post was conflicted due to phraseology, your fighting over nothing, what you call training, is really exposure and re-enforcement, he calls it natural ability exposed to opportunity, Neither prospers without the exposure. I would assume that both of you can agree with this. All this over a new guy who likes his dog?