DF Cock Pheasant Bird Dummy | Head, Wings & Tail | 600g | The Full Retrieve

A cock pheasant is not a straightforward retrieve.

The tail alone can run to 50cm. The neck is long and floppy. The wings spread wide. The iridescent plumage - greens, coppers, reds - catches the light differently to every other bird in the game bag. Pick one up wrong and it's shifting in the mouth before the dog has taken three steps. Put it down too early on the delivery and the whole retrieve has fallen apart at the last moment.

Most driven days are built around the pheasant. It is the retrieve a dog will do more than any other. And it is, dummy for dummy, the most demanding shape in the dead bird range to carry cleanly.

The Cock Pheasant Bird Dummy. Full body, 600g, with head, wings and tail. Ultra-HD cock pheasant feather-print canvas on real-feel, scent-retaining fabric. The long neck. The full tail. The wingspan. Everything a dog needs to have dealt with in training before it deals with it in front of the Guns.

Why the cock is harder than the hen

We stock both at Kirkbourne. The hen pheasant dead bird dummy is the right introduction - same species, same idea, a little lighter, a slightly more manageable shape. The cock pheasant adds length at both ends. More tail. More neck. 600g distributed across a longer body that wants to tip and shift mid-carry. A dog that can pick, carry and deliver the cock pheasant cleanly has solved every problem the driven day is going to throw at it - on the retrieve, at least.

If the dog hasn't worked bird-shaped dummies at all yet, the hen pheasant no-wings body dummy at 500g is the right starting point. Build the grip and the carry there first. Move to the hen dead bird with wings. Then this. That's the order - and every step makes the next one easier.

The tail is the test

In product testing, Dog & Field found that dogs had to genuinely think about mouth placement when introduced to the full dead bird range - the floppy head, the shifting wings, the tail feathers. On the cock pheasant, the tail is the part that catches most dogs out. It drags. It flicks. It makes the bird feel longer than expected. Work through that in training - on this dummy - and the dog stops thinking about the tail and starts thinking about the retrieve. Which is exactly where its attention should be.

The scent layer

The scent-retaining fabric picks up what it's near. After a day in the field - clipped to a game bag, carried where the birds have been - this dummy carries real pheasant scent into every subsequent training session. By the time the season is in full swing, the dog has retrieved this shape and this smell hundreds of times. The real bird is familiar territory.

600g and the full range

At 600g, the cock pheasant is the heaviest of the upland dead bird dummies - heavier than the hen pheasant, the grouse at 550g, the partridge at 550g, and the teal at 250g. The only thing heavier in the range is the goose at 1.5kg, which is a different discipline entirely. For driven and walked-up pheasant work, this is the top of the preparation.

The details:

• Bird: Cock pheasant - full body with head, wings, long tail and neck
• Weight: 600g
• Print: Ultra-HD photographic cock pheasant feather-pattern canvas
• Material: Real-feel, scent-retaining fabric
• Toggle: Long throw toggle and ball grip included
• Use: Driven pheasant preparation, full dead bird carry training, tail and wing distraction work, scent association, marking
• Suitable for: All breeds working driven or walked-up pheasant - Spaniels, Labradors, HPR breeds
• Price: £25.00

Stocked at Kirkbourne because the cock pheasant is the retrieve most gundogs will do more than any other - and the one that exposes every gap in a dog's training if those gaps haven't been closed first. Long neck. Long tail. Full wingspan. Sort it here, on this, in training. Then let the dog get on with it.