First off, Congrats on getting such a beautiful looking dog, the Labrador retreiver has to be, in my mind, the finest hunting dog and companion on the planet. It is just to bad that that we outlive them. Anyways, here are my $0.02:
Step one: You have to define what it is that you want to do with you dog. I think you have done that by stating that you mainly want to hunt upland birds. Labs generally are used for flushing upland game birds, where as a pointing dog...well points, and a setter well.....sets, on a bird. There are some breedings of labs that will point, but I am fairly confident that the one you have is not of this breeding.
Labs love structure. They respond very well to any type of training, and especially like to know where they stand in the world, especially when it come to their standing in the hierarchy of the "Pack" relationship. So you, and the dog are the new "Pack" and guess who gets to be the leader. I f you guessed the dog......WRONG. The first thing I would do, is go through some basic training, ie. obedience. Does she sit on command? Does she heel? Does she come back reliably when you call her? She is so "New" to you that these might not be quite evident yet. If all these things are not in place I would start there. All these things will also keep her safe, while you are out hunting, cause the last thing any one needs is to accidentally shoot there dog, because it didn't follow a command, or is unruly around other people or theier hunting dogs.
Step 2: It is not difficult to get a retriever to retrieve. The trick is to get them to retrieve to you. Labs have a basic instinct to go and, well.....retrieve, but they retrieve to sustain themselves, not to please you. Get yourself a plastic bumper, or some toy like a tennis ball, and only use that bumper or tennis ball for your training activities. I highly recommend not throwing sticks for your dog, else they will pick up every stick in the woods and surrounding area to retrieve, there by generally pissing you off. And if they do pick up a stick, do not take it from them, but rather let them play with it until they are done. Or take it from them and say "NO, Leave It". Anyways, to get them to bring the bumper back to you, make it as fun as possible, get down on your knees and clap, and make a big fuss of them several times over, for many days. Fuss them up a lot when they get to you with the bumper, and soon they will come back to you fairly reliably.
Step 3: I fyou have access to your game species that you want to train them for do so now. It is best to start a young dog off with a wing, or a frozen whole bird. Your dog looks old enough that it should not have a problem holing a whole bird in its mouth. I like to use frozen, because it is hard for the dog to chew, or tear apart the bird. Very bad things will happen, if your dog, even once, decides to rip apart a bird and try to consume it, I can not stress this enough. Once it does it once, and gets a taste of the bird it will be very difficult to get them to not do this every time. Anyways, use the frozen bird or wing for a time, and get them to do the same things as step 2, ie. bringing the bird back reliably, with hand clapping, high pitched voice etc.. They soon get to know when a training session is going to happen, and they will be very exited, and soon will be begging you to do this. You have probably noticed that there is no food enticement involved with this whole process, and that is as it should be.
Step 4: This is probably one of the biggest things, and the one that screws up more dogs than anything else. Introduction to gunfire. Please do not go out with the 12 guage, and blast it over the dogs head. I the dog has been introduced to this already, that is good, but here is what I suggest. Start off slow. When the dog is eating, lightly bang some pots together. I fno adverse reaction do it a bit louder. If there is an adverse reaction, get them exited and happy and go back to lightly banging some pots while they are eating, and slowly work the sound level up. Same goes for outdoors. take a .22 out with you on a walk, and when the dog is a distance away from you, fire a shot. the dog will probably look at you, but give it a "GOOD GIRL" or whatever, to mke sure it knows it is alright. Slowly work it up so that the dog is closer and closer to you when you shoot. Them work it up to a shot gun. Same again, make sure the dog is quite a distance from you when fire the shotgun for the first time, and slowly work the dog closer. Any adverse effects, slow down and go back.
This is a much abridged version of Retriever Training, there is way more to it than I could possibly type in one sitting, and there are other opinions out there than mine, but this should get you started. Enjoy your new dog, and keep training sessions short, 15 - 20 mins. at a go is plenty fot=r them to take in in one session.
Hope this helps.
Oh ya, here are some links for you:
http://www.oakhillkennel.com/
Go to the Library section, some good stuff there.
http://www.retrieversonline.com/
The quintesential Canadian Retriever Site
D. I have some hunting partners that have setters, pointers, terriers and hounds, but they all pale in comparison to the loyalty, willingness, and pure trust that a Lab will give you. So ya, the Labrador Retriever, is the only dog I will let own me. I will be sure to post photo's of my new pup.
