I just got a 10 wk Lab mix rescue. Picked her up Friday.
A little background may be in order. I've had mutts since I was a boy(42 now). I've never had patience for much more than teaching them to sit.
I've had a beagle mix rescue for 9 years. She tried our patience but has turned into a really good family dog. The wife has a 3 yr Spaniel mutt. He was a challenge but has turned into a good dog mostly.
Now when we picked up the lab, I was told she was mostly crate trained and working on house training.
Since Friday she hasn't had an accident and she wants to sleep in the crate at night. I was playing around and tried some Cesar Milan on her. She now has sit and down cold. Working on leave it and speak but she is coming along better than I expected.

She seems smart and I can see this as a way to get myself in a little better shape through working with her.
Since there are 1K different methods, I'm looking for a little guidance.
I'm not a bird hunter but I'd love her to be able to hunt deer sheds, maybe the occasional dove hunt, fetch a ball and generally have some manners.
Does anyone have any advice to offer.

At this point I don't even know how much I don't know.

Nothing?

To be honest, you are better off asking that sort of question here:  http://gundogforum.com/forum/

There are lots of professional trainers there.

Thanks I'll check it out.

I'm going to tell you the biggest pet peeve of mine and the one you should definitely work on hard.

Teaching her to wait until your command to retrieve, nothing drives me more insane than bird hunting with a dog that breaks as soon as you point the gun, or will sit there jumping up and down like an idiot waiting to retrieve.

My friends dog will only hold when someone is physically holding onto him and giving him a wait command, as soon as you point the gun he is either in the water already or antsy as hell, so I worked really hard with mine to get him to wait until I told him to get the bird, so much nicer to  hunt with.

As far as finding sheds, I would just get a few of them and teach her to play hide and seek in the lawn. If she finds a shed and brings it back to you she gets a treat, she will learn that game fast and then it will be easy to do it in the woods.