Having trained 4 labs, and followed information from a good number of books, I definitely feel that the manner in which I finished training my current 'old' dog and her daughter is far superior for the average amateur to follow and achieve a really good dog. Some of the earlier books I used for my first two labs and initially followed with my current'old' dog were incomplete even though they seemed good when I used them ;some of them even contain incorrect or inconsistant information for training. I am definitely of the opinion that if you go to totalretriever.com and obtain vol I 'Training with Mike Lardy' that you will be able to turn out a very good dog. I have run both of my last two dogs in field trials successfully and have taken the mother through the AKC hunt tests, passing six of six at the master level(daughter 3 of 4) and also earlier took her through the NAHRA hunt tests , passing roughly 28 of 30 all of the way through the program. Even though I compete with them, my main interest is hunting both of them extensively both for ducks in AK where I reside and considerable pheasant and grouse hunting in the midwest each fall. Mike's method does follow a collar program, but even if I chose to train without a collar I would follow his system. His program is the only detailed one which demonstrates in detail the proper and fair way to train with a collar IMHO. He does have several training videos out which are considerably more expensive, but if you were to follow th manual you would have the guts of his program.

I have trained extensively with a group who compete in both field trials and hunt tests and also hunt with their dogs and all of them really believe in the methods in that volume. Sorry to get so long winded but I really believe in this system...