I'm glad I waited a few days before posting questions on this dumbell thing; the wheels came off for a few days, but I think I'm rolling again now..

For more than a week things went well and I thought we (dog & I) were making great progress. Then suddenly one morning she decided she'd had enough and refused to make a trade (dumbell for kong). Instead, she'd just stand there and bark at me, clearly signaling me to forget about the stupid dumbell and just throw the toy!
(A positive note: I'll probably not have much trouble with hold and bark training.)

At this point I had two choices: try to correct her (ie force) or figure out what went wrong.
I reviewed Flinks tape again and checked off on the pre-requisites for this training: the dog could be put in drive; would work for a toy; knew the sit front, the recall, and out commands. But I had never gotten to the point that Flinks shows, where upon hiding the ball, the dog looks to the dumbell in anticipation of the bring command. I feel she knows the drill but just didn't want to anymore.

So I backed up a bit and worked on a calm hold for a few days, with the toy given as a reward for hold and out. I also made the training sessions shorter (2-3 minutes) and more frequent (several times per day) Now she has started picking up the dumbell again. Duh!...and I'm the one that posted the info from the Fundamentals of Learning that a " command chain" should be taught backwards. I obviously skipped too soon to the "throwing" and didn't spend enough time rewarding the "hold and out" part.

The dog still lets me know this dumbell thing is not her favorite item. She whines while she gets it and sitting in front, stares holes in my face, willing me to ask her to out! But at least we're back on track. Just hope her distain doesn't slow her down too much. So far I haven't done much distance yet...just a few feet in front of me.