Back in the early 70s I stared hunting birds with GSPs after hunting behind labs as a youth. In the mid 70s, while they were still unknown to most folks in the U.S. I started to hunt behind GWPs/Drahthaars, Basically because of the breeding done to GSPs in a vain attempt to make them competitive against setters and English Pointers in field trials. The attempt was to take a slow, precise, close working, versatile gun dog bred for a hunter on foot and turn it into a dog that flew across the open field and find the most birds in the shortest amount of time, while ignoring other game it was breed to find for centuries. Then there was the indiscriminate breeding done by owners because of the newfound demand for the breed. At that time the only GWPs/Drahthaars in the country were direct or first time litters from Germany.
At that time it was hard for many folks looking for a bird dog to deal with a dog that had deep inbred desire to chase/point deer, squirrels, and rabbits also. In the almost half a century I have owned them, I have never desired for any bird dog that was not a Continental, much less anything besides a GWP/Drahthaar. While being a very demanding dog that needs to be worked hard and often, they are the most eager to please and have the most personality of any dog breed I have ever had the privilege to own or hunt behind. While they are not for everyone, and can be a handful if not shown who is the alpha(this goes for the females too), they can be the best damn hunting partner and friend, any man can have.