What book you want to follow kinda depends on what you want out of your dog. If you want a good ol' meat dog (purely a fairly decent hunting companion and your buddy), " Water Dog" is fine and dandy. If you want a superb hunting dog, that all your buddies will envy, Wolters just aint gonna cut it.
" Water Dog" was one of the finest books available 25 years ago, but training techniques have come a long way since then. Kinda like comparing a Model A with a car made in 2003.

Decent Hunting Dog = Water Dog (but you better not plan on ruinning in any Hunt Tests - you' ll fall flat on your face)------Kinda like Jr. High

Darn Good Hunting Dog (and one that will be trained to the point that it can run in Started and Intermediate levels of Hunt Tests) = " The 10 Minute Retriever" (by the Dahl' s)-----Kinda like a 4 year college degree

Superb Hunting Dog (and one that can run in Senior levels of Hunt Tests and possibly Field Trials) = " Smartworks I and Smartworks II, by Evan Graham. ----- Kinda like a PhD.

Another that is nearly equivalent to Smartworks is the " Lardy Articles" , by Mike Lardy.-----PhD here too.