its a real shame more top level trainers dont respond to this thread.if your looking for priorities Kirsty, and only Bob of all the top trainers has responded, I will give you my acronym even though I am currently a very unsuccessful competitor
M.A.T.
marking because without a reasonable latent talent level all the rest is irrevelent
check out
http://www.dobbsdogs.com/library/retrievers/rj22.html Dobbs has written a 4 phase article on marking enhancement
attitude it helps to have a good start but it is a constant work in progress especially with minority breeds
temperment , particularily trial temperment as i have found out over the last 4 years, you can have the best trained dog in the country and the quickest but if your dog cant hold together under under trial pressure your dog is useless as a competitve retriever.I believe this is about 80% genetic
My ideal type of dog temperment would be a dog like KING who is very high powered but has reasonably good line manners. and although he can be a little bit sticky rotating at the line,i think he does it remarkably well for such a highly motivated dog.
It all comes down to balancing your dog, all the + and - associated with such issues as perfect line manners (such as blackie) verses enough relaxation to free the spirit sufficiently to mark really really well and cope with out of the ordinary situations
Enough of my rambling lets hear from some of the experts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!