Figured some may appreciate a diary of sorts of the progress of this process.  Kilian is a 8 month old GSP.  Understands all fundamental obediance commands and for the most part demonstrates obediance nicely. Distractions still come into play but he is a quick study and eager learner.  Goal is to hope he has the process down very good for both water and land retrieves by early Junes (5 months).

Session 1:  Placed Kilian on the training table a few times to allow him to become comfortable with the table to some extent.  Chowed a treat or two and was given lots of love up on the table.  Later we spent 5 minutes working the hold command.  Kilian has a high pain treshhold and a earpinch did little at this point.  To avoid additional not needed stress a Muzzle grip was used to push his teeth against his gums to have him open his muzzle instead( worked nicely).  Wood dowel placed in and "hold" commanded.  Fortunately he already understands "drop" as we use it in the house when he picks things up (shoes, etc).  All and all he held the dowel 3 times with a firm hold before being let off the table.  Minimum progress but a great start.  Hold will be worked 1-2 times daily for 5-10 minutes until he demonstrates 100% compliance.  We will then begin back to the earpinch and "fetch".  I suspect a week or so.

Had a little mishap and did not get pictures from session 2.  Reality of training, setbacks!

Session Two:  Well this session started off with a "bang".  Kilian was up on the training table.  While i was on the other side of the room obtaining something he was moving around.  I commanded him to sit, not paying enough attention he sat and fell straight backwards off the table, "smack, crack" on the cement floor.  I thought he cracked his head open and broke his hip.  Scared the life out of me.  So we just played for a bit and he walked off the limp and all was fine in about an hour.  Once back at it we worked "hold" for a minimal 5 minutes.  He holds and will let go nicely but has no desire to open his mouth yet.  Progress and pictures from session 3.  Plan to do two sessions today and tomorrow.

Session Three and Four:  Kilian began to hold the dowel in session three with added confidence.  He was allowed to drop the dowel on purpose to allow for a "tap" correction on his muzzle.  With him being allowed to drop this added responsibility on his part. due to correcton  After several mild "tap" corrections on the muzzle he seems more focused to not drop the dowel.  Session four progressed nicely with the addition of having him walk forward a step or two at a time without a drop; no commands like heal or such, just a tug on the collar to have him complete another task while not opening his mouth.  Several mild corrections the first few attempts.  By attempt 4 or 5 he was holding good.  We will work this level of responsibility for a few days before moving on.

Session Five and Six: Kilian is now providing less resistance to having his mouth pried open to place the dowel in.  Still very hesitant to opne his mouth at the sight of the dowel or the command "fetch".  Once in his mouth he will hold the dowel (while sitting) for over 30 seconds without a drop.  I have been giving him massive massive amounts of praise.  Though a bullheaded dog he seems to thrive off praise vs discipline.  Plan is to work the hold, drop combination from the sit position for 3 more days minimum (5-6 sessions) before moving on to walking and running with the dowel in his mouth.

Sessions 7 through 10:  Each of these sessions were 5-10 minutes long.  Kilian is now holding the dowel in his mouth for 60 seconds with only a soft "hold" command at the 30 second point.  Though he is still holding his mouth shut quite firm he does not hardmouth the dowel and his drop is crisp.  Tomorrow we will begin to move around with the dowel in his mouth.

Session 11:  Today Kilian progressed from a sit or standing hold to walking at heal with the dowel in his mouth.  Two more sessions of walking at a close heal and we will progress outdoors to running and more distractions.  When this is complete we will move to the forced retrieve.

Session 14:  Session 12 and 13 were more work on the hold with distractiong added.  Tossed a wing around, a dog treat etc to entice a drop.  All was good and the dog was compliant with the hold and drop on command.  So now came the phase that the grap is being taught.  This is the tough part for the handler and for the dogs ear.  Kilian was very reluctant to open his mouth with the pinch.  In fact he would not get verbal even with very excessive pressure.  Ultimately i backed off the pressure some and just held constant until he did open enough for me to slip the dowel in.  After two of these he was much more compliant and let me work a good 20-25 reps of "fetch, hold, drop".  We only worked for a little over 5 minutes this first time.

Session 15:  Kilian will now quickly open on the command and the pinch.  He has even begun to move his head forward to try and grab the dowel after about 10 reps.

Sessions 16 and 17:  Kilian now moves his head forward 4-6" to grab the dowel.  He is eager to beat the pinch and attempts to grab the dowel even before i command fetch.

Sessions18-20:  Kilian is now fully understanding he must have the dowel in his mouth to not be pinched.  I have been holding the dowel high, low, to the side and 4" all the way to arms length and he will grab it on "fetch"

Sessions 20-23:  Kilian is now fetching the dowel off the ground with my hand lightly supporting one end up.

Session 24:  Kilian is a bit hesitant to grab the dowel with my hand completely off the dowel.  Took us a good few reps for him to grasp the idea.  I have now added blocks to the end of the dowel of different sizes and shapes and color.  The next few sessions will be for Kilian to begin to generalize that "fetch" means he must pick-up other objects not just the dowel we began working with.  When he has that down we will begin the retrieve.

Sessions 25-27:  Worked with my hand off the dowel, but near it.  Each session i worked to moving my hand farther away from the dowel.  By the start of session 27 Kilian understood what was expected of him.

Session 28:  Reinforced the fetch command with my hand off the dowel.  I placed the dowel in different places, turned at different angles etc.  Complete compliance with little ear pinch needed.

Session 29-30:  Began to work the fetch of other objects.  Started with the wood dowel with blocks added to the end.

Session 31: Worked the wooden dowel with and without the blocks on end.  Progressed to a orange bumper, white bumper and a cloth bumper with wing tied to it.  Kilian will now fetch these from across the room in the house.  After each fetch he is still expected to heal next to me, sit and then release on command.  Less and less ear pinch required with each session.

Session 31-33: Continued work with other objects, pop bottle, wood block, old bumpers, plastic pipe, etc.

Sessions 34-40:  Worked with Kilian to pick up the objects and now return to the deliver position.  For me this is my left side.  He formed the habit of coming around my right side and then standing at my left.  I command a sit and he will sit.  By session 38 he has begun to sit on his own without the command.

Sessions 41-45:  Worked the entire process with Kilian and a Check Cord.  He still requires a ear pinch from time to time as he approaches the object but is hesitant to pick up. 

Session 46: Condition from ear pinch to E-Collar for correction.  In this one Session Kilian formed an understanding of change and what is expected.

Session 47:  The transition to EC has done wonders!  The correction is quick and quick and Kilian is now bolting full blast to the object!!  We continue to work on him ending in a sit.

Session 48-50:  FF COMPLETE!!!  Kilian understands the entire process now!!!!!  He will retrieve all sorts of objects in the house and out front!!!  Correction is still needed from time to time.  From here out I will transition to frozen birds and more reps in different locations with added distractions a bit at a time.  Reps, reps reps to get him fully compliant in all instances!!!!

Feb 13-15:  Sessions 51-55:  We have been working outside in different locations; yard, field, flooded area, woods.  Also longer trials.  Ive tossed the items a good 20+ yards with good results. 

First formal attempt yes.  We have done play and drills with him holding a gloved hand.

For obedience I teach the fetch and hold the same way Pixie teaches it.  I have found that if you progress to fetch before they get the hold you have to eventually back step a little in the training, and the ff is harder.  However, if you get a solid hold, then ff usually is pretty fast for them to learn.

We work from a table for the FF process.  On my last dog i did the same and the process worked fine.   I see the concern with the method i use; but it prob helps that i go very slow.  I just use a chin pop with upward thumb to manage the hold.  I don't feel the hold is a stressing part of the process and it happens pretty quick.  Session two results maybe with some pictures tonight.

-Bob

Oh, i see what you mean.  More so having the hold command as a basic obedience command such as sit and stay in place prior to the more stressing part.  Yea that does make sense. 

I suppose it is just different ways of doing it.  The one benefit to the system i use is that the animal is already in the learning mode and the hold, retrieve, drop are all done together thus associated together.  In all honesty i would prefer my pup to go straight to FF but he seems to be a bit more bull headed so this is the route we go.

My Britt was much softer, it took one lesson on the table and he was reaching for the dowel as soon as he seen it after about 20 repetitions of ear pinch.  By session 3 he would grab for the dowel and walk around on the table holding nicely.   Mr Kilian the GSP i feel is going to be a bit tougher study.  But that is okay, we got all winter to work toward perfection.

I love training but hate the first week or two of the FF process due to the stress and pinch process.  But i would not have it any other way but to have a dog who is FF trained.  Specially when it comes to making your buddies dogs look all wild and untrained while yours will recover a pop bottle, bird, burger bag, remote

Just a suggestion, but you may want to check out the blog.  It is pretty easy to use and perfect for what you are doing.  Folks can comment on each entry to the blog.

With regard to FF, I teach hold similar to pixie and by the time we get to FF, the most I have ever had to do with an ear pinch is a few times and they are fetching with no problems.  I think the biggest reason for this is I really work the natural instinct to retrieve any and everything from the moment I get a pup.  Then do allot with hold starting with gloved fingers in the mouth, switching to dowels, or whatever.  When I can get them to hold anything, then I introduce the FF. Has worked great for my two oldest shorthairs.  It will be interesting to see if my hard headed youngster does as well with this method.

The one problem with FF I had with my middle girl, Halo, was I made the mistake or thinking I was correcting something else in the retrieve (I said no when she strayed around the jump on the retrieve over the jump for obedience), she interpreted that no to mean don't get the dumb bell.  I ended up having to start from scratch with her and build up to retrieving again.  The good news is she is the best retriever I have.

By the way, I like this thread with your updates.  Makes for a good discussion.  Thanks for posting this.

Updates on latest sessions added.

Well the method i use is what was passed on to me from my mentor.  Im under the impression that it is basically Wolters method with the only change being those adjustments needed for set-backs and individual dog differences.

Good reads

http://www.northernflight.com/forcefetch1.htm

http://www.gundogsonline.com/Article/force-fetching-without-the-collar-part-i-Page1.htm

Will work hold more today, two more sessions. 

 updated above, minor progress.

Well 10 days later we are up to walking and holding the dowel!  Though he is very much not liking to open his mouth for the dowel; he is proving to be a quick learner and has a very strong willingness to please.  With the hold established this firm i expect (hope) the rest of the process will not be to taxing on him.

Pixie-  You are spot on.  In fact i used the method of pressue on his teeth from his gums for the firt bit to get his mouth open enough to get him to realize the object in his mouth would not hurt him.  As we progressed I I needed to do was press the dowel against his gums on his front teeth.

As for him begin sensitive...im not real sure yet; he is a tough cookie to read.  Vs my other dog i do know this GSP is more likely to clamp down vs opening up and yelping.  Compared to my Britt he is not sensitive but compared to other GSP's he may be.

With my session update today in green you can see we are now working to grab the dowel with a ear pinch.  The pinch of his ear button gave me very little in the way of him opening his mouth.  I increased lbs per inch on his button to a very intense level with nothing but a tight lip at first.  So I backed off and held about 70% of that pressure constant until i did open for me..just enough for me to puch the dowel in and let off his ear.  It only took two times of doing this for him to realize the pinch goes away with the dowel in mouth.  So we did reps and more reps and good progress was made.

I too am no pro and am learning that all these dogs are different.  My friend who mentores me explained that his GSP he did in 11 days, his Drat in 4 and his other GSP its been a year and she still doesn't have it down pat.  That said he said it sounds like im taking my time and at this stage of the process that is fine.  He did explain and explain it so it made sense that later in the process I should spend less time on each step to keep the dog progress going.  That said i hope to be pretty close to done by Feb 1.

updated the sessions above.   We took a few days off to work other aspects of training.

All and all though its a pain in the butt process Kilian is making great progress.  He is very eager to avoid the "pinch" and is soaking up the praise!  I suspect I should be to the retrieve with him by this week.  First have to have him pick up all sorts of objects and wings and birds and more things to confirm he understands what "fetch" means.