6 mo' old yellow lab (has a little golden in him, not "pure") that ive been training for a while.. he does pretty good.. having a few problems...

he'sa house-pet aswell as a hunting dog .

one is he doesnt havethe drive to retrieve like ive seen other dogs.. he'll retreive by commands but he's not "dying" to retrieve.. how can i change that?

it seams that all he wants to really really do is play tug-o-war or keep away.. drives me friggen nuts

another is that he just got neutered, which i feel was a big mistake but the wife won that battle. is it uncommon for gun/bird dogs to be neutered? especially males? im feering that the little bit of drive he has is going to go away with his testosterone levels.

i think im gonna try the force fetch method to get his basics down more concrete but i cant get him to mark multiple targets, and when he does,, he'll pick up one bumper, carry it to the next, drop them together and work from one single point instead of two seperate areas..

and he looses interest in the training sesions pretty quick..i might get 10 throws and retreives in before he smells some rabbit crap and runs off to try and eat it..

i was using small treats as rewards but slowly switched from them to large amounts of praise and love .. mainly because i didnt want him to hunt just for food, rather do it becuase he wants to please me ,,, was also attempting to raise his retreiving drive

i havnt used any media to train him.. just stuff ive thought of or ideas and suggestions ive gotten from my uncle that has successfully trained a lab/spaniel mix...

he's just been gun broken and did really well.. havnt found water for him to jump into, and its starting to get really cold up here in NY, but he hates taking baths..

any suggestions would be greatly aprreciated