Sorry Rainer but I must disagree with your statement, "You are basing everything on a Top Trial which has not much to do with the average hunter and his dog.Like saying I want to get fit and you give me a workout plan of an Olympian" I titled 5 spaniels over the years and trained countless others as personal gundogs, I train them all the same there is not much difference between a NFC and a good gun dogs. Spaniel trials very closely reflect real hunting conditions including flush/shoot/retrieve and water work. A very good friend of mine took his gundog to the CNFC because as he said if I'm going to go I may as well have a dog in the fight" at the end of the weekend Ace was the CNFC. Another friend took his pheasant/duck dog to some trials and it went to hi-point dog in Canada. So you see top trial dogs and can be "just" gundogs" and gundogs can take it all in the trial world. ANY training technique in the hands of the wrong trainer can be a bad thing but that being said the other 95% of competent trainers use them as effective tools. Don't knock the technique, knock the very few who shouldn't be training period, let alone teaching FF