DF Grouse Bird Dummy | Head, Wings & Tail | 550g Driven Grouse Preparation

Driven grouse shooting doesn't ease you in.

The Twelfth arrives, the birds come fast and low, and the dog is expected to work from the first drive. No settling period. No gentle introduction. The retrieve is real, the pace is real, and the bird in the dog's mouth - dark, dense-plumed, compact, unlike a pheasant in almost every way - is something most dogs have never encountered in training.

That's a problem you can solve in advance. Or find out about on the moor.

The Grouse Bird Dummy. Full body. Head, wings and tail. Ultra-HD grouse feather-print canvas on real-feel, scent-retaining fabric. Long throw toggle and ball grip. At 550g, it's heavier than the teal at 250g and snipe at 200g, sitting just above the weight of a real grouse - because the shape and the feel of this bird in the mouth is something a dog needs to have dealt with before it matters.

What makes the grouse different

It's not just the colouring - though that matters for marking. A grouse is compact and low-slung, with dense, dark plumage and wings that sit differently to a pheasant or duck. Shot birds often land in thick heather, sometimes tangled, not easy to locate and not easy to pick cleanly. A dog that's only ever retrieved canvas dummies or pheasant replicas has no frame of reference for the shape in its mouth, the way the feathers sit, or the way the wings catch as it tries to carry.

The dead bird dummy solves all of that. In testing, Dog & Field found dogs had to genuinely think about mouth placement when introduced to the full dead bird range - the floppy head, the wings, the tail shifting the balance mid-carry. Work through that in training, on this dummy, and the driven day retrieve is just a retrieve.

The scent layer

Grouse scent is specific. The scent-retaining fabric picks it up - clip the dummy to your game bag after a day on the moor, keep it where the birds have been, work it through the kind of cover your dog will be hunting. By the time the season opens, the dog has encountered the smell across dozens of sessions. Nothing about the real bird is unfamiliar.

Part of the progression

At Kirkbourne we think about the dead bird range as a set of specific preparations, not a general upgrade from canvas. The snipe at 200g and teal at 250g do the early compact bird work. The hen pheasant covers the driven-day staple. The grouse at 550g is the specialist - for any dog that'll be on a moor in August. And at the heavy end, the goose dummy at 1.5kg handles wildfowl. Every bird has its own retrieve. Every dummy in the range prepares for a specific one.

If your dog is going to work driven grouse, this is the one to have in the bag before the season. Not after the first drive. Before.

The details:

• Bird: Grouse - full body with head, wings and tail
• Weight: 550g
• Print: Ultra-HD photographic grouse feather-pattern canvas
• Material: Real-feel, scent-retaining fabric
• Toggle: Long throw toggle and ball grip included
• Use: Driven grouse preparation, mouth placement training, scent association, compact upland bird retrieve work
• Suitable for: All breeds working driven or walked-up grouse - Spaniels, Labradors, HPR breeds
• Price: £19.99

Stocked at Kirkbourne because the Twelfth doesn't wait. A dog that's met the grouse in training - the shape, the weight, the scent - is a dog that's ready. One that hasn't is finding out on the moor. Sort it here first.