I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on my 10 month old chocolate lab. I've had him retrieving since he was a pup and he hunted this past season with me and by the end was really starting to show out, but for the life of me I cant get him to retrieve to my hand, 9 times outta 10 he will drop it right at my feet or stop a foot short and drop it. Any suggestions on what I should do?

Have you gone through force hold and force fetch?

no i havn't. I have done all the training myself and have been worried about force fetching because a friend of mine broke his lab doing it so i have been sceptical

If your friend broke his lab doing it; he wasn't doing it right...

He probably Force Fetch with an E-Collar without even collar conditioning. Get yourself Fowl Dawgs 1 and follow the Force hold and Force Fetch process and it will cure the problem...or at least do the force hold

You can't ruin a dog by teaching it to do a trick. You can only fail to teach the trick.
Force Fetch..............It ain't hard and it works. The basics are: When I say "Hold" I mean hold until told to do otherwise. "Fetch" means to grab it and not let go until I say otherwise. "Release" means let it go now and in my hand. It can take more time than you would think but it will be done. A couple weeks of FF training, 10 minutes a day, would be about as short as I have seen and it could take a couple months. Be consistant and do not accept any thing less. The ear pinch force is as little as you can get away with and get the response you need. I would suggest that to start with, set the dog up on a table or a tailgate so he is at eye level. Makes it easy to maintain eye contact and keep them from trying to run off. Keep them on a lead for the same reason. Get the "hold" down solid first because here is where he is breaking down. Sounds like he is not "holding" until told to do otherwise. He should have hold down solid while sitting, standing, heeling and all basic commands. Hold needs to be solid while on the tailgate, on the ground and in the field. Then move to the fetch part and get that down. Pick up a good book and DVD on the subject and follow the steps. At 9 months he should be expected to "play nice" and if you get to much resistance, end the session on an up note and put him away. The idea is if you can't play nice you can't play.
Don't get into a huge fist fight but don't take refusal either. End each session with basic ob. work so he is successful. That's important. Tiny treats are good at first for a good job but don't get hooked up on them. LOTs of praise is more important but only when things are done correctly. Duckdon

Lots of good DVD's and books on the subject are out there. Here is a couple I have used
Mike Lardy"s Total Retriever Training
Shawn Dustin's Retriever Fever Gun Dog
Chris Atkins: Gun Dog Basics

Wish I had something new to add, but Force Fetch.

I really appreciate all the input. what about The Waterdog method for force fetching?

When training my dog, force fetch was the only month of training that I did not do myself.

I read some good info, and talked to a few others about the issue. My concern was that I had never done it before. I didn't want to present too much pressure and damage the dog's desire (even if it was small or temporary) or not enough pressure, and end up having to reteach the same principals.

So I decided to let a pro take care of that part for me. A month later she was acquainted with force to pile at a moderate distance.

I hope this helps, and good luck with your dog.

NorthMsSimp
Just wondering how the Force Fetch is going?
Duckdon

My dog, Rex, can beat me up. I get so pissed off at him sometimes I want to just punch him in the mouth, literally. Training takes time, energy and most of all patience. If you don't have all three, forget about training your own dog. The most important thing I learned is you've got to do it every day. I cannot seem to break my dog away from using his eyes instead of relying on me and my signals. If he sees a mark or a downed bird, he's on it like a lightning bolt. But a far blind and he causes my blood pressure to rise. I've tried to send him on far blinds without turning right or left, but when I hit the shock collar to correct him he turns and hauls ass back to heal next to me. I think I need to start from close retrieves again and work my way back to far blinds. Just sayin....

duckdon, thanks for all the advice, i started him on it yesterday just sitting him on the tailgate and having him hold. at first he was resistant and would try turning his head away but today i saw worlds of improvement in him. even got to the point to where i would give him the bumper at heel and command hold and start walking keeping him at heel then stopping and getting him to drop it to my hand. had a couple times where he would slip up and drop it short though. it's a work in progress and i'll see what tomorrow brings.

NorthMsSimp Keep the FF short each day and remember to do some fun stuff each day as well. Most dogs resist FF and will for some time. They will come around and then it also is fun for them. Make sure they have the tasks down 100% before you got to the e-collar fetch. Plenty of time for that later.
FYI: My dog "Sam" gave me a real refusal yesterday and she is FF very well. Not sure why but every once in awhile she will pull it. Guess that's how kids are these days. She returned from the retrieve and dropped the bumper at my feet. Remember I demand 100% compliance on this so its back to the stearn command to fetch and hold. She refused.......so it was an ear pinch and repeated commands that gets her to pick it up and then deliver to hand. After that we were back on the program. Don't compromise your standards. Just be patient and teach what you expect. Never punish your dog for a mistake. Make corrections for refusals when you know they understand what your asking them to do and just not doing it. Keep us informed on how it's going. Duckdon