I've been hunting over labs for my entire life and am coming up on replacing my 10 year old soon. He's been the greatest upland lab I've ever seen, even decided he was a pointer, bthat being said, he'd get outhunted by any decent shorthair. I do about 90% upland hunting and am considering a wirehair. From a lab-owner's perspective I'd appreciate some input on the plusses and minuses. How well do they retrieve, how close do they tend to work, etc. I haven't been around many wirehairs to learn the faults and bonuses. I've considered shorthairs, but hunting around barbed wire has had them looking like a trauma ward, while my lab didn't have a scratch, and longhairs work and look great, but cockleburrs are an enemy that I don't want to contend with.
I'm sure that this will begin another war of dog-purists, but any objective input would be appreciated.