Freddie thanks for all your post! I recently just got a 8 week old pup. He came from a good hunting breed. I want to hunt him and I want him as a companion too. I never trained a retriever I don't want to ruin any bird characteristics.He wants to chew on everything. What do you do to correct him? My other dogs I would just say no bites and move him away from the object and over time he would stop.How often do you keep him in the crate? When I'm home he's out and right by me on his own.