In addition to the above...this season:
1 - get a friend with a dog. Let him retrieve. Learn how he controls his dog.
2 - get a pup and start training it...learn from the dog that your friend brings and make sure that you train yours to not do the things that his does to annoy you.
3 - get a whistle, learn to call later.
Next season - use your dog, you'll have the best season ever.
Great advice if one has the time and money to invest in one. Yes it is a life long investment! A well bred retriever of your liking is going to be minimum $1K for the pup, which will be the cheapest part of the deal. So if $1K scares you a dog isn't for you. Add vet bills, food, possibly training, training aids, and miscellaneous expenses over the life of the dog.
By the way training doesn't stop if you want a good working dog. So even if you train yourself that's time invested. A dog that retrieves a ball, stick, Dokken's dead fowl IS NOT A WORKING DOG! A working dog at a minimum knows Heel, Back, Marks, Can retrieve multiple Marks, and can blind retrieve. Anything less is a pet or house dog.
