but all this talk of full potential is a human thing, not a dog thing, they are your pets, their aim in life is to make you happy and vice versa - so its a gundog breed, doesnt mean it needs to be a field trial champion. If you purchased your dog as a working tool thats a different kettle of fish, all I am saying it that none of mine are tools, they are my buddies and they will reach their potential to my limits.
Why do we insist gundogs have to reach their potentials to be happy, loads of folks have St Bernards that have never seen snow, or saved someone from an avalanche. We train them to work because we want to work them. I train my dogs to do agility, would sending one of them away for training make them reach a higher grade, probably because my errors limit the way I run my dogs, would they reach their potential and qualify for Olympia with me, who knows, will it matter, not a jot, I would happily stay grade 2 forever as long as me and my dogs have fun. I have a 4 year old who would make the best worker of all my dogs, but he chases, I have tried everything and he has improved so much since I first got him, but I would rather not work him than send him away, but again, its a totally personal choice, I am simply saying what I would do.
Cazza, reckon you are on to a winner there, good luck and I hope all your hard work pays off.