You're going too fast with an 8 month old puppy.
You'll end up with a jack of all trades and master of none.
Let it have it's childhood (puppyhood) up to a year old just making sure you keep up with the manners.
Give it the odd dummy retrieve but just once.
Personally I wouldn't blood trail it untill it's around 2 years
I'm not sure About how Les trains his Labs , but his methods must work for him
but I personally feel you can't start early enough on blood trailing, as blood trailing is just a discipline just like walking to heel or dummy work
just by getting the basics installed in an early age makes things a darn site easier to carry on with once the adolesences stage hits
most gundogs don't actually start their field trainning till 12-14 months of age depending on what part of the year they were born others are atleast 2 till they are out in the field in a real situation
where as you could easily hav a fully trained deer dogs ready to go out into the field by 12 months of age already finding deer for you
once that is installed into them by 2 years
you can then concentrate on introducing them to cold game in with the retrieves that you already hav been doing since a pup
by the age of 3 then you can start on using them in the field on game, with the knowledge that they already hav deer on the brain and been atleast 2 seasons on deer already
As your dog should already be quite steady to your commands and shot
If you teach your dog to work on a long leash just for blood trailing and deer , that is what will help seperate in your mind if your dog is actually working a deer or game
in time you will soon learn the difference by the way your dog reacts and then you and dog can work as a team
but as said previosly all dogs are different and training methods can differ from dog to dog or the stalking/shooting situation you are in
Just hav an idea of what you want from your dog , then take a good look at the dog to make sure it will be of the temprement and ability to be able to deliver those goods , if not
then try and develope the areas that are good and work to those strengths
Luv your dog and Luv training it that itself will reap the rewards
ATB