re: The boards opinion on hunting dog training books?

Water Dog and/or Gun Dog.

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Rick Stawski’s Fowl Dawg DVD’s

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The Fowl Dawg's DVDs are great if you like visual learning. Bill Hillman's DVD is also good, but I find his method to be very unique and hard to adapt to your own style.

I always recommend two books to people looking to learn how to train: (1) 10 Minute Retriever by the Dahls, and (2) Finished Dog by Charlie Jurney. The latter is catered more towards dog games, but it has some good troubleshooting methods for advanced training. The Dahls also published a follow-up to 10 Minute Retriever called Retriever Troubleshooting. I don't own it, but have skimmed through it and it seems to be useful.

Sound Beginnings (assuming that's what you were talking about) was produced by my dog's breeder. She is a very good trainer and the most accomplished golden breeder in the country. It's a great DVD for basic puppy stuff. I'm not a huge fan of treat training, but who am I to tell her she's doing it wrong . I think you'd be fine starting off with that and then switching to a combination of the Stawski DVD's and a book of your choosing. There is no one-size-fits-all for retriever training, and you will have to adapt your training program to your dog based on its progress/attitude/etc. Be patient and consistent and you will be fine.

I disagree that Water Dog is "outdated." There are better trouble-shooting books out there, but it's important to remember that a lot of retriever training philosophies were built on Wolters' words.