I train my labs with Evan Graham's Smartwork For Retrievers program, augmented with 10 Minute Retriever by John & Amy Dahl. 10 Minute Retriever takes them nicely from 7 weeks through 6 months, then Smartwork takes over for the remainder of their formal training.
I do the basic OB/ retrieving portion of the program, then at 6 months send my dogs to Mark Jansma at **** River Kennels (
www.coonriverkennels.com) in Sac City, Iowa for FF/CC. Once they complete FF/CC, I take them through their Transition & Handling. It takes 16-24 months to Finish a gundog.
The most important thing I've learned is to take your time and not to push your pup. It won't be ready for it's first season any sooner than 16 months old anyway, so give it time to be a pup & grow up, then follow a program and take all the time needed to train it right...