Black Lab training

[SFD2015]

So my family rescued a 2 year old black lab that is in DESPERATE need of obedience training. We have him scheduled later this month and we have been working with him inside and outside. We can't let him off leash yet, because we need to finish fencing our yard, but take him for some wicked long walks and runs. He LOVES to retrieve his ball inside the house (and has done everything he can to attempt to retrieve my wifes' cat). A couple of questions however, especially since I have never hunted for any bird other than the occasional crow or grouse.

1. Is he to old (2 years) to learn how to be a decent bird dog?
2. From everything I have read, I should wait until he has the basic and even intermediate obedience down pat, and I can take him off leash before I even think about introducing any sort of bird skills... true or false?
3. Are there courses that I can set him up with eventually that will help along the way?
4. What would be some good general beginner equipment that I should start with?
5. Vet says he needs to put on about 8 to 10 pounds, what's a good food for that?
6. Is the weather to crappy to try to see how he will do in the water (I have a small lake nearby)?
7. Should he have a dog life vest?

I have been reading up using the google machine and holy smokes there is allot of different and conflicting information out there. I figured I would throw this out to the Hunt-Wa experts cause yall have never steered me wrong yet!

[Firedogg]

First of all you have a lab and they love nothing more than to please you.

Second, you say he's ball crazy. That's great, use that as your training reward for him. Every time he does something good you play ball for a few seconds. Start with the sit stay, he will have what looks like seizures trying to control himself, but once he figures the game out the training comes fast.
  The nice thing about a lab is if you make a mistake training them they are easy to retrain to fix the mistake where some other breeds what they learn is so locked in that a training mistake takes forever.

[Birdguy]

I would say he is certainly not too old. That being said basic obediance is necessary for any dog that is not locked in a cage. A obediant dog is a welcomed family member, which makes owner and dog much happier. I would say work basics as oftne as you can, being sure to reward for all things done right.
There are several threads on here about dog foods and they all have good info in them. Maybe offering up what you are currently feeding and how much will get that info coming. Our labs are quite active around the house and they get 4 cups a day. During hunts they get more than that depending on how much ground they cover and length of the day. As a general rule we watch their shape and adjust accordingly. We generally try to adjust their excercise level rather then the food given. Good job on the rescue, it may be a bumpy road for a bit but hopefully well worth it.

[JJD]

Thank God you have a blk lab, the other colors are much harder to train.   

Seriously, if you have 10 - 15 min a day to devote to training you can get it done.
With an older dog, it's likely that most of the tasks you wish to teach is gonna take more time.
A pups brain is like a blank piece of paper, you write on it what you want.  Dogs are like a page that already is written on, you are gonna have to erase some stuff to make room for new writing.  It's gonna take some patience.
Suppies; (IMHO)
a solid pinch collar. (Not a choke collar)
a leash.
a long lead. I like about 25 to 30 feet of line that floats with a good brass halter snap attached to one end.
a book.  There are several good books on retriever training.  If we had a better idea of what your goals are, it may help with recommendations.

Best of luck.

[jaymark6655]

I always like to have a dog vest that helps keep them warm and adds some flotation so swimming doesn't tire him out.  Read somewhere that dog hypothermia is a real worry.