re: Am I expecting too much from my lab puppy?

4.5 month old lab is still kind of young. Be careful on how much pressure you put on the pup. Too much pressure early on can take the drive out of a dog.

Do you plan on retriever training the dog yourself or sending it to a pro?

I’m having a dog trained right now and my trainer told me not to worry to much about obedience as a young pup. He said just to get him fired up about chasing and retrieving bumpers and to make it fun. He will work out the obedience part when he gets the pup. Basically the only commands he knew were here and sit at 6 months old.