Thread: Dropping on the retrieve

Hermit, was thinking about this matter today...what sort of dummy were you using? If you can get a pheasant or duck wing start the retrieve training when your puppy is older with that instead of the dummy...the wings are not heavy or awkward for a young dog. I have found that by stuffing an old sock with another old sock and tying a wing around it, makes a great dummy. some people will put rabbit skin on a made up dummy, but imprintation of rabbit might not be ideal!! (You could give the puppy a wing to play with now.) Then move to a dummy and increase the weight and size of the dummy as the pup grows.

Not related but some people assess their puppies' 'birdiness' even though they may not yet know what a bird is by tying a wing to the line on a fishing rod...while it looks sort of half impressive, no that is too generous, make that 1/16th, I do not really know why anyone would do that...I personally see little point in it except that it shows that the puppy is awake...there must be reward for the puppy and flicking a wing on a fishing line and having the puppy chase around after it with NO result is doing more for the owner/breeder than for the puppy...in my view!!

I wish you many happy days walking behind your dog...