Wings on dummys?

[Chapo]

I have a year old brittney and I have been tieing the wings to the dummies with either rubber bands or fishing line. She will only retrieve a dummy with a wing attached and eventually she is able to pull the wing out and attempt to swallow it. Any other ideas out there for attaching the wings? I have a dokken grouse dummy and she will only take that with a wing also. Thanks for any info.

[Bigfife]

I just got a dog three weeks ago and I am new to the training thing, but here is my two cents. I am a poor college student so the dummies are pieces of 2X2 with two wings duct taped to them and then a little rope on one end to throw it. I throw a couple canvas dummies or a tennis ball in the park and then only use the wings when we go out to a field. I trained with a bunch of people last weekend and one guy had a dog that would not touch a bird, but only a dummy. I would rather have them go crazy over a bird and not a dummy. I have heard the biggest thing is to not let them get bored with it. I would take her out and throw a dummy a couple times and then put her away. I think she will learn that the dummies can be a lot of fun. Just my two cents, but I hope there is an idea or two that you can use somewhere in there.

[broken line]

I tried wings on dummys for a bit myself. The wings either fell off, or the dog would be more interested in playing with the new addition to the dummy. I finally quit the wings, and used dummy only. My lab is 5 now, and she lives to retrieve....dummies or real birds, it doesen't matter. My limited experience says to use frozen real birds for training, and never let the dog have birds or dummies for play time...just training time. Good luck.

[fivebucks]

I use strips of duct tape and the wings stay on much better than the string I first tried.

[metrojoe]

zip ties work really well.

[fishnhooks]

I have used electrical tape to tape wings onto the dummies and it seems to work real well. I too.. will keep my dummies with wings in the freezer and take it out shortly before we practice and seems not to bother him. He gets even more excited than with just a dummy (unless it is his water dummy)when he sees that thing with wings come out of the freezer.

"hooks"

[Ufatz]

Be careful using wood for dummies....it can tend to make your dog hard mouthed-they like to CHOMP on that wood. See if you can find something softer.

Forty five years of messin' around with Labs.

[Blackduck]

Duct Tape or cable ties

[Dbl]

I also use electrical zip ties with good success.

[Wild Willie]

I just used any old dog chew toy, stick, golf ball, tennis ball, old rope...whatever! Make it fun for the pup...come, stay, praise. Stay, praise, hold the pup steady by the collar, praise, throw object, wait, release collar, command fetch...then come/fetch and more praise. Not every Britt will have a strong desire to retrieve, but all Britt pups love to have fun. Make it short, fun and lots of repetition. Before you know it you will have one little retrieving machine on your hands! Plus you will save a few bucks on the expense dummies!