Ozpa, I agree with you on force-fetch. Although I'm trying a different approach. In reading articles about pointing breeds, they say that the only way to teach a dog to retrieve is to force-fetch. If you try to teach a young dog to retrieve decoys, they say it is fun for the puppy but he will get bored later on and not want to retrieve, plus you cannot make them steady on point.
As I said I am trying a different approach. After 20+ years, I got a new English Setter puppy now 3 months old. Have him sitting staying, fetching a decoy and will be working with him soon on quail or pigeons. The expert trainers say no to this approach, but most of the time they are training more than one dog. I'm only training one, and since I have all the time in the world to do this, I believe that if you can get your puppy or older dog to listen to your commands, then you can make him steady to wing and shot. I love the command "whoa", but won't use it because it is to close to "no", and I think that is a better command. Stay is my word for whoa. David
