There are animated bird dogs just as there are hyped-up flushers. In training, there are common tools for all gun dogs, but none is more valuable than the bird launcher. It can be used to train all three classes of gun dogs. For many species of bird dogs, you can set out a series of launchers with sequential releases for multiple quail. This staunches any dog up and gets them to stay rigid after the first bird flies instead of letting down in intensity.
Any dog can become either a forced or a natural retriever.
The latter takes a ton of birds and lots of patience. Once the item is in the dog's mouth, the pain is ceased. I can pain-train most dogs to fetch in a matter of minutes. But I won't. I will not train with pain.