I have a problem giving my 3 1/2 year old chocolate labrador direction controlls. He just seems to look at my as if i am stupid. His obedience is not the best but at the rest he is rather good at and has just done his first season picking up and just scraped through. Help

As one of the old comedians used to say, "You've gotta practise!"

One of the best exercises for training hand signals is the old "Three Card Trick"

Start by positioning your dog sitting with its back to a fence and you standing in front of the dog and facing it. Tell your dog to stay and toss a dummy along the fence line to your right. Back off a few paces and raise your right arm giving the stop signal and at the same time blowing a stop command on your whistle, then, throw your arm out to the right and give your command to retrieve (I use "Get on") send your dog. If need be even take a step to the right to encourage the dog. The dog knows where it is and usually needs no encouragement.

The hand used for the stop signal should always be the same arm you are going to use to send the dog so if you want your dog to move to your left give the stop signal with your left hand.

Practise both left and right's singly until your dog really has it off pat then start to put a dummy out on both sides. Send your dog for one then put it back where it was and send it for the other. Always send him for the first one you threw first! The fence is used to encourage the dog to run in straight lines.

Later, move away from the fence and practise in the open. When all this is going well try putting a single dummy out behind the dog and sending him back for that. Start with the same stop signal and whistle the use your hand with a pushing action to send him. I use a "Get Back" command. I can turn my dog back either spinning to the left or right depending on which hand I command her with.

You now have the three directions trained! Now you can practise by putting three dummies out, left, right and behind and send him for the dummy of your choice.

Best wishes, John