I've also noted that my dog sometimes drops the bumper about two feet from me and doesn't bring it all the way to heel. I can get him to pick it back up and bring it to heel and deliver to hand on those instances. He also has a tendency to bring the bumper to heel, but drop it before delivering to hand. I don't plan on having him in field trials, I just want a dog that can retrieve birds. Is this anything to get frustated w/ him over, or should I be correcting this. Any suggestions on correcting this?

charlie,

A lot to do with your dogs age and what your goals are.
If your "dog" is young or new to training and we are just getting started, I would get the dog bumper/bird crazy before demanding that the dog be steady. If field trails are not in the future 100 - 150 yd simple sight retrieves (marks), dilivered to your immediate area, will suffice. After attaining this goal, start to work on steadying the the dog at heel and moving on to formal "hold" training. Proceeding in this fashion helps the dog understand that you are not unhappy with it for retrieving, it's just that you now want to add some things to the game.

Teaching formal hold is not that difficult and requires little pressure on the dog. If you will require your dog to preform more advanced work. a training called Force Fetch would be helpful.