Gundog Training Dummies

When you first start out gundog training, you will need some dummies. You could use balls but dummies are preferred. The dummies you can buy vary greatly, the size, the shape and the material. Here are our top beginners dummies and some things to consider.

When looking for dummies, you need to consider the size/age of your dog. Roo is a small cocker and we first introduced dummies when she was 6 months old. Ideally she needs 1/2lbs and smaller sized dummies to fit better in her mouth. That way she is less likely to drop it. You also need to consider how advanced you will be going with your gundog training, will you eventually be taking your pup shooting? We won't so some things mentioned we don't need to consider when we buy dummies, but you might want to.

Next comes material, most are canvas, some are plastic water dummies and you can get one with real fur/feathers to better mimic birds. You can also get dummies that can be fired from dummy launchers. Canvas vs plastic really depends on whether you will be doing water work and fur/feathers comes down to how experienced and well trained your pup is. For a first timer, avoid fur as it can be too distracting for a beginner and hinder progress.

Now shape. You can get standard dummies which are long tube like shapes typically with throwing ropes attached. You can also get bird shaped dummies, ball shaped, discs and a few others.

In the beginning, we have found it easier to choose dummies without throwing rope as Roo tended to find the rope too interesting and enjoyed throwing the dummies around for herself. We typically use small disc or ball shaped dummies as Roo seems more interested and engaged with these ones but we pretty much have them all. It is good to get a selection of dummies to see what works best for your pup and you will need more than one for training as you move onto throwing two or more at a time when working on patience etc and more "real" shoot settings.

Unforunately, we have not been able to find a good local supplier of dummies or a physical shop to go to so all of these are available online. There are lots of brands/suppliers of dummies out there, some good ones not mentioned are sporting saint and dog and field. You can also pick up dummies on Amazon and Ebay, we have a few but would recommend going to a gundog supplier for better quality.

There is one dummy that you can buy from pets at home/jollyes which we first got but would recommend you actually give it a miss. It's the clix canvas training dummy, rrp £6. Why give it a miss? It is quite big so the size for a small dog is not good, it also comes with a throwing rope which as mentioned distracts Roo, this can be removed though.

Here are some of the dummies we have and our thoughts on them:

Working Dog Company, Woodcock rrp £9.99

Roo loves this dummy, it reminds me of a rugby or american football but much smaller. It is lightweight but throws well. It is easy to pick up and minics the body shape and weight of a woodcock. You can also get them in larger sizes. Probably one of our favourite dummies. With use, it has kept it's shape well, no issues with quality and it dries quickly when it gets wet (which it will).

Muntjac Trading, Disc Dummy rrp £5.75

Another small lightweight dummy that throws easily. Good quality and better for "find it" type work as it lays flat to the ground making it harder to find.

Gundog Solutions, Water Dummy rrp £12

Fairly standard water dummy. Good qaulity. Top tip though, remove the throwing rope and attach a long bit of rope. We lost ours on the first day using it in the river, Roo got distracted and it floated away!

Gundog Solutions, 1/2lbs Puppy Dummy rrp £6

Amazing dummy, would recommend to anyone starting out with a small pup. It is a great size and weight and it easy to throw.

Gundog Solutions, 1/2lbs hand throwing dummy with toggle rrp £7

Another great beginner dummy due to weight and size. Toggle does distract Roo a little and it is plastic so probably not too nice on their teeth.

Gundog Solutions, Dummy Ball rrp £7

Good beginner dummy, ideal size for smaller dogs or puppies. Throwing rope distracts Roo and this one is her favourite to throw around for herself! We usually remove the rope when training.

Gundog Solutions, Dummy Bird rrp £14

Avoid this dummy if your pup likes throwing things around as the "neck" of the bird easily becomes detached. This lasted half a training session before coming apart.

As mentioned earlier there are things to consider regarding how far you want to go in your gundog training. We avoid dummies with ropes as they distract Roo but they are useful to get a dog used to dangling thing such as feathers, long necks and tails of bird if you intend to shoot, so getting them used to this in training is essential. We don't plan to shoot so to make training easier for us, we don't use them. As she improves we will try adding them back in.

So our top 3 beginners dummies would have to be the working dog company woodcock, the muntjac disc and the gundog solutions puppy dummy. If you only want to get a few, let it be these.