Lab question

[Barony]

I have a two year old male lab that is an amazing retriever. He is after downed birds like he has a rocket up his behind. The problem is that after 10 minutes of hunting in front of me, he spends the next two hours hunting behind me about 3 feet! I have an eight year old female that hunts like I would expect a lab to hunt, in front 30-50 feet. Not my buddy Hunter though. What should I do about this? He is somewhat comfortable in short grass and will venture out at times to hunt w/ my female, but when we get into the thick stuff, he's right there. He's a great dog but he is to be the "replacement dog (sigh)" someday and I guess that I need him doing more than what he is right now.

[MILLER TIME]

I'm not an expert by no means but one of my year old labs had the same problem. What i ended up doing was hunting him by myself and everytime he would come up behind me i would turn and face him and tell him to hunt'em up and follow. try to keep the dog in front of you even though it may not be the direction you want to go, but its a process. as far as thick cover, maybe through some bumbers into cover to get him use to it or some birds

[gonefishin11]

When my 1 year old lab gets behind me, I just stop and point her in the direction I want her to go.