Always have the dog pick it up, whether they drop it or transitioning from them to your hand it gets dropped you have them pick it up. As for order of operations I have my dog heel then I take the bird. He's still a pup so he as a lot of juice in him, so to keep him from breaking on the next bird I'll have him hold the duck in his mouth while the next winger goes off, then I'll take the bird out and send him.
What do you plan on doing with the dog? Running her in HT?