Doc,

Not really going by any certain book. Been doing a lot of research from the internet and sites such as this one. Also going by advice from other dog trainers. I started off with the basic commands and started with the plain dummy at 3-4 months. At 5 months he was mastering retrieving and the basic commands. Then I decided to move forward with the pheasant wings and frozen pheasant. Then he started to chew on it and then the snow came. Now I have to go back to the basics. Since I'm starting off with the basics again I'm thinking about adding the "hold command" from FF training. Once the basics are done again I'm going to get him started in FF. This should prevent the eating of the birds. The key thing is patience and understanding that every dog learns at a different rate. What's frustrating is that he was doing fine and now at 6 months he seems like a teenager. And other dog owners telling me that there dog hardly needed any training and that it became natural for him or they were unable to train there dog and he's just now a house pet. That's my biggest fear is that my training may not be good enough for him and that I may discourage him from learning to hunt. We went on a couple of hunts with other dogs and he didn't do to bad considering that there was still a lot of snow left and we only saw one ring neck. But he followed the other dogs and tried to learn. The guy I was with missed a ringneck and the shot from his shotgun didn’t appear to disrupt or scare my lab. He didn't really respond to the noise other than look up from sniffing the ground. I worked with him previously by starting off by clapping my hand while he was eating, slamming a book on the counter, and then a starter pistol in the field. So far this area seems to be ok. The problems that I had during the hunt and still were getting back in the truck and coming on command. Like Losthwy stated, I may have done too much too soon. I've created a schedule on what days to work on what items and pace everything out. I can't help it! I can't wait to get him trained and enjoy his ears flying through the ear on a retrieve and coming back with his tail wagging with a nice ring neck or mallard hanging from his mouth. But to answer you question not really any hardcopy material, but open to any recommendations or suggestions!