I've had Labs for over fifty years, trained my own dogs and helped others. If you want a 'family' dog don't go to a 'field trial' breeder. Many labs today have the 'hyper' gene breeding. That is exactly what you don't want. If it's a 'family' pet get the book "Family Dog", if you want a hunter get "Water Dog" both by Richard Wolters and written 50+ years ago. I've trained a number of Labs and never used an electric collar. A lot of training can be done in the living room. 'Come', 'sit', 'stay' and 'down' and even 'hand signals' are best taught in a small area. Raising and training a dog is like raising children, "ya gotta be smarter than the kid or dog". Control, discipline, AFFECTION and CONSISTENCY are the keys. Discipline in very important if the dog is a hunter, an uncontrolled dog can ruin your hunting and others hunting. Accent the positive, eliminate the negative and you will have a good dog.