DF Wood Pigeon Bird Dummy | Head, Wings & Tail | 550g | Year-Round Retrieve Training

Most of the dead bird range is built around season dates.

Grouse from the Twelfth. Partridge from the first of September. Pheasant from October. There's a window, you prepare for it, and the rest of the year you're building towards the next one.

The wood pigeon doesn't work like that.

Pigeon decoying runs year-round. January over stubble. April into oilseed rape. Summer on peas and beans. There's no off-season, no closed period, no natural break in the retrieve. A dog that works pigeon needs to be ready in February the same as it is in August - and the wood pigeon is a different retrieve to anything else in the bag.

The Wood Pigeon Bird Dummy. Full body, 550g, with head, wings and tail. Ultra-HD wood pigeon feather-print canvas on real-feel, scent-retaining fabric. Long throw toggle and ball grip. Sized and weighted like the real thing - because the pigeon has one characteristic that catches dogs out more consistently than almost any other bird, and it's worth solving in training before it becomes a habit in the field.

The wings are the problem

A wood pigeon carries more wing relative to its body than almost anything else a gundog retrieves. Shot, they come down with wings spread - sometimes partly folded, sometimes splayed flat, sometimes tangled in rape or beet. A dog that goes in to pick a pigeon and hasn't encountered those wings before tends to grab wherever it can get purchase. Sometimes that works. Often it doesn't. A mouthed retrieve, a dropped bird, a second attempt - none of it is what you want.

The dead bird dummy is where you sort it. The wings on this dummy are the thing. They flap. They shift. Dog & Field found in testing that dogs had to genuinely think about their mouth placement when introduced to the full wing experience - working out where to grip a bird that doesn't sit still in the mouth the same way a canvas dummy does. Get that sorted in training, repeatedly, until the correct pick becomes the default. Then the pigeon in the field is just a pigeon.

Year-round usefulness

Because pigeon decoying has no season, this dummy works harder than most across the calendar. It's also the retrieve most commonly asked of dogs that don't work driven game - a spaniel or a Lab brought along to a pigeon hide for the first time needs exactly this preparation, regardless of whether it's been trained for October pheasants. If your dog is going to a hide, it needs to have met this shape first.

Scent, cover and the full picture

Clip this to your game bag on a pigeon day. Keep it where birds have been. The scent-retaining fabric builds the association session by session - so the smell of a real wood pigeon is as familiar as the shape by the time your dog is working a proper decoying pattern. Combine that with the dummy ball for hunting pattern work in cover, and the preparation covers everything.

550g and the range

At 550g, the wood pigeon sits alongside the grouse and partridge in weight - compact-to-mid-size birds, manageable carry, but wings that add a layer of difficulty the weight alone doesn't suggest. Lighter than the cock pheasant at 600g, heavier than the teal at 250g. If your dog works both driven game and pigeon, this and the cock pheasant dead bird dummy cover the two most common retrieves across a full year.

The details:

• Bird: Wood pigeon - full body with head, wings and tail
• Weight: 550g
• Print: Ultra-HD photographic wood pigeon feather-pattern canvas
• Material: Real-feel, scent-retaining fabric
• Toggle: Long throw toggle and ball grip included
• Use: Pigeon decoying preparation, wing distraction work, mouth placement training, scent association, year-round retrieve practice
• Suitable for: All breeds working pigeon - Spaniels, Labradors, HPR breeds, non-shooting dog owners who decoy
• Price: £19.99

Stocked at Kirkbourne because the pigeon doesn't wait for a season to open - and a dog that's never dealt with those wings in training is going to find out about them at the hide. Sort it before. This is how.