William F. Brown

Bill Brown was a past Editor of "The American Field", The Recognized Authority, the premier "newspaper" of the Sporting Dog World. He also penned a book, "How to train Sporting Dogs", for Pointing Dogs, Spaniels, and non slip Retreivers in 1942...
Mr. Brown had a fair number of great quotes as applied to Sporting dogs, and, I'll post a couple here..

“The object of field trials is the promotion and development of the high-class bird dog. It is a means of enjoying the great out-of-doors sport of bird hunting in its most aesthetic fashion.”

Kind of a commentary on the way that the rules of the Field Trial game relate to the sport of hunting, and how intertwined they are, or were, or should be. I'll leave that for the reader to decide for himself...

Another.. and one that rings true for me..

"Better a diamond with a flaw, than a polished pebble"

I agree with this completely! I'd rather see a dog out there running, as it's genetic makeup tells it to do, on the ragged edge of control, showing all the spark and snap bred into it, than a dog "trained" to work within gun range, showing no initiative or emotion for it's work!
Yes, one can take a dog with mediocre abilities, and turn it into a fair "meat dog" through training. But, is that preferable to the dog that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up? The dog that thrills you, and leaves you with question marks, whenever it hits the ground??

For me, at least, I'll seek out the "diamond with a flaw" and take my chances!