[Texeye]

Dennis, I'm not a professional dog trainer but have trained a few different dogs that turned out to be excellent dogs. I paid a pretty penny to have one professionally trained and it was a disaster.

There is also great satisfaction in training one yourself. There are a lot of good training books on the market and if you are training one yourself, at least invest in a good trainig manual. If you have the time and money to get it trained then be sure and get references on the trainer.

One note on your dog. On the average it is good to try and teach your dog only one thing at a time and then to only teach one thing per week of training. Get your dog to retrieve well then teach him to drop what is in his mouth. Once he understands each, it will be easy to put them together. At least this has been my experience.

Either way, hope your dog turns out well.
Have a good one.
Texeye