Training an upland dog, need a few tips

[DoubleJ]

My dog is 5 months.  He sits well and fetches well.  He is about 70% on Bring and about 40% on Drop.  I'm assuming continuing work is how to get these to 100%.  The problem I have is his grip.  How do I soften it up?  He has a death grip on his toys and chews them as he brings them.

[KFhunter]

have you or kids been playing "tug of war" or "keep away"?

don't. 

at 5 months though its all fun and games, socilize the dog, play with it.  Don't over train it. 

later, like a year later or more,  if the dog needs it or keeps a hard mouth you may be looking at force fetch.

[flinger]

remember to keep it slow and fun, but to soften its mouth come up with a live quail kill it and freeze it immediatly, use it for training only no games.My dogs will bring birds back alive and mostly unharmed and i attribute that kind of training to their softmouth

[PA BEN]

I trained my lab from this book. He died at age 14 back in '05. Best bird dog ever. I sure miss him.
http://www.amazon.com/Speed-Train-Your-Own-Retriever/dp/0811722015

[Happy Gilmore]

my vote is no toys- no birds until you get the mouthing issue resolved. Talking to someone about force fetching would probably be a good idea. Almost all mouthing issues can be cured by someone who has experience force fetching.

[BIGINNER]

my pup had the same problem.  i used a frozen bird..  fixed the problem.