Training dummies, dummy covers and launchers for gundog work, from first retrieves in the garden to long marked retrieves on open ground.
Choosing a weight
Start a puppy on a 1/2lb dummy — Bisley's puppy dummies come in green and orange, with a toggle-free version if you would rather the pup did not learn to carry by the toggle. Move up to 1lb for most of the training year, and keep a 2lb hand dummy for building a firm hold on a dog that has got sloppy.
Colour is for you, not the dog
Orange dummies are easy for the handler to see and to place accurately in cover. Green and white are used where you want the dog hunting the area rather than following your eye, and white is the traditional choice for water and for long marks against a dark background.
Covers and the step up to game
Rabbit fur, hare and goose centres and pheasant skin pelts are the bridge between canvas and the real thing — they get a dog used to fur and feather before the first day of the season rather than on it. Dokken Dead Fowl Trainers take that further, in moulded mallard, pheasant, red grouse, chukar partridge and Canada goose shapes.
Launchers
The Bisley Lucky Launcher 2 and the RRT launcher throw a dummy well beyond hand range, which is how you build genuine distance marking and steadiness to a fall. They are used with blank cartridges — see blanks. Launcher dummies are a different shape to hand dummies and are sold separately in canvas and in plastic; buy spares, because they get lost.
Also worth a look: gun dog grooming, dog vests and coats and bird dog accessories.
