Well, very best of luck to you and Bradley.
As far as overweight... it's easy to fix. Feed him a quality food and totally ignore the "feeding guidelines" on the back of the bag. They don't need anywhere near that much food if they are housedogs. There is a constant fight in my house to keep the Chocolate on his weight. My wife spoils the heck out of him with too much chow and too many treats. She points to the back of the bag. My vet buddy and I tell her those folks are trying to sell lots of dog food.
My partner the Vet has a simple system for overweight Labs. He feeds Eukanuba and he gives each male dog one large plastic 32 oz "Coke" cup from McDonald's per day. That's IT. The dog gets walked in the morning and evening, at
least a mile, on the days he's not training. (He's a busy vet.)
When you can look down on your standing dog and see a "waist" between the end of his ribcage and his hip bones... a definite narrowing of the body... AND when you look at him from the side when he's standing you can see the indentations between his last 3-4 ribs in the rib cage (the short ribs)... He is weighing what he should weigh.
You may now very slowly increase the amount of dog food until you find the amount that holds that look. Start by adding about 1/2 a cup per week and don't be in a rush.
You'll have him quickly "on weight" if you do this. It won't take you more than a few weeks if he's already close. It isn't that tough on the dog, either.. but he'll try to make you think it is.
Note: When we're working the dogs hard like during actual hunting trips or when we're training hard they pretty much eat as much as they like. We just fill the bowl and leave it out that way. Working dogs burn calories incredibly fast. They eat what they need and sleep a lot more during times like that.
As I said, good luck!
BTW, best "collar" I've found so far for controlling a dog on a lead is the Halti. Looks funny and it takes them a while to get used to it but it is very, very humane, using the dog's natural tendencies to give you control. I used slip chains for years... threw them all away this past Fall. Instructions come with the Halti; even little kids can control big dogs using those things. Petsmart has them @ $13. A steal.
