Leanne took Louie and I out this Sunday to help me with training Louie in some gundog work. He wouldn't retrieve from land - well he picked it up but refused to bring it back but I know I have to start from the finish - and will work on that. He did much better in the water. What would be the best dummy to use that would not encourage mouthing - he has a tendency to mouth his toys. And also the best for a beginner? Thank you
Yes, a gundog dummy. We used the rectangle ones on Sunday, the canvas ones I think and the plastic type ones. But Louie was more interested in the toggles on the end
It really depends on the dog. Puppy ones are lighter than those designed for adults, however if your dog' mouth is large, some dogs may be encouraged to mouth, I try to give dummies that are large enough in the mouth so that there is not much room to mouth. Plastic ones will encourage mouthing and are too like toys if they do it already. The same is true of tennis balls etc, dogs tend to "pulse" them, and balls without ropes are not safe unless too large to swallow. Rabbit covered dummies sometimes encourage dogs to hold better too, you need to experiment.
Yeah, I suppose I just need to find a few he likes. Is there any websites that do reliable ones - I don't want to buy one then find that it gets wrecked after a few retrieves - they'll only be brought out for retrieval practice (in the field and on water) and I'll use tennis balls in training (garden and drive) except for a dummy I'll be teaching his finish with...if that makes sense.
there are loads of good gundog websites, just google. Just be aware that tennis balls (although traditionally used by gundog trainers) can encourage mouthing if you are not careful
If you go back and teach him a good solid retrieve on lots of different objects---with no mouthing. It won't matter what the dummy is like---or even if it is a dummy, he'll be sure of what to do and do it regardless. rune
Thanks for the tips. I'm not actually bothered if he mouths a little - I have no plans to work him in trials, unless he is brill at it - and I'm not expecting too much, but I don't want him wrecking loads of dummies... it's just something I'm trying in order to get more attention on me than on the birds and the water retrieves seemed to do it this weekend - he wasn't all that bothered about the birds on the water - albeit there were only a few birds about and he was looking but he wasn't off after them. Thank you once again
We used 1lb canvas dummies on Sunday. All were the same just different colours, think the puppy dummies are 1/2lb. We also used a plastic Dokken dummy specifically designed for water use. You can fill them with water or sand to create different weights so they feel different in the dogs mouth and also float differently depending on how full they are. We tried a dummy covered in a rabbit skin. It initially had tights over it to hold the skin on better but Louie just laddered them trying to piddle the skin off so I removed the tights in favour of elastic bands and that was even better as far as he was concerned! The skin didnt stay on for long! Most of my dummies dont have their toggles on because inexperienced dogs just use the toggles for picking up and dangling the dummy so I would remove yours Aimee. My newer ones though still have them on now Flynn has got out of that habit since they are far easier to throw with them left on!
Thanks for that - will go shopping tomorrow for a couple - that way Louie doesn't break any of yours in future training. I did look into dummy launchers but the ones I found were £80 so I guess he'll have to do with my rubbish throwing
When I was at Crufts I watched a display from a expert working springer chap and he uses paint rollers for his pups to train them as they've a similar size as a dummy, I've used one with Griffin and can testify for the suggestion, though his recall is getting really good with lots of different things so now I've started putting words to specific things.
