Rabbit Fur Dummy | Real Fur, White Canvas Tail | ½lb, 1lb & 3lb | Fur Introduction & Weight Conditioning

Some dogs won't pick fur.

Not because they can't retrieve - they'll bring back a canvas dummy all day. But put something covered in rabbit skin in front of them and they stop. Sniff it. Walk away. Or worse, pick it up soft and drop it halfway back because the texture puts them off.

It's more common than handlers expect. And it's a problem worth sorting in training - not on the first morning they're asked to pick a rabbit or a hare in the field.

The Rabbit Skin Dummy. Real fur covering over a canvas dummy body, with a white canvas tail for visibility and a throwing toggle. Available in three weights - ½lb, 1lb and 3lb - to cover three different training purposes. One listing. Pick the weight that matches what you need.

Which weight and why

½lb - the introduction. If a dog has never encountered fur before, or has shown any reluctance around it, start here. The weight is light enough that the dog isn't working hard to carry it - all its attention can go on getting comfortable with what the dummy feels like in the mouth. The fur, the give, the smell. Get that sorted at ½lb and the step up to 1lb is straightforward.

1lb - the working standard. This is the weight most gundog training works around. Competition dummies are 1lb. Walking-up dummies are 1lb. If the dog is comfortable with fur and you want a rabbit skin dummy for regular training - this is the one. It throws well, it carries cleanly, and it matches the weight of the game most dogs will be asked to retrieve on a rough shoot or walked-up day.

3lb - conditioning and the heavy retrieve. Three pounds of rabbit skin dummy is not about introducing fur. That job is done. This is weight conditioning - building the carry strength and mouth discipline for retrieving larger game, or for pre-season work when you want to push the dog's capacity before the season opens. It's also useful for dogs that tend to drop birds on the way back - a heavier dummy in training makes the real bird feel easy by comparison.

Why fur matters before the field

Canvas training is where foundation skills are built. But canvas is nothing like game. The texture is different. The smell is different. The way it sits in the mouth is different. A dog that has only ever retrieved canvas can be thrown by its first fur retrieve - not because it can't do it, but because nothing about it matches what it knows.

The rabbit skin dummy bridges that gap. It introduces the feel and the scent of fur in a controlled session, on a familiar dummy shape, with a toggle for a standard throw. The dog is learning one new thing - fur - not three new things at once in a field situation.

The white canvas 'tail'

The white patch at the base of the dummy isn't decoration. It replicates the flash of white that a running or falling rabbit shows - which helps the dog track and mark the dummy, and adds one more layer of realism to the retrieve that canvas can't.

Part of the wider progression

At Kirkbourne we think about the rabbit skin dummies as sitting between the canvas range and the dead bird range. They're not the starting point - canvas is. They're not the end point - the dead bird dummies are. They're the texture step in between. Once a dog is happy with fur on this, the move to feather print on the dead bird range is a smaller ask.

The details:

• Covering: Real rabbit fur over canvas dummy body
• 'Tail': A white canvas 'tail', or bottom, for marking visibility and as a rabbit would be
• Toggle: Throwing toggle included
• Available weights: ½lb (introduction) | 1lb (working standard) | 3lb (conditioning)
• Use: Fur introduction, texture transition, reluctant picker rehabilitation, weight conditioning, pre-season preparation
• Suitable for: All breeds - particularly useful for dogs showing reluctance around fur, or any dog being introduced to fur retrieves for the first time
• Price: from £13.99

Stocked at Kirkbourne because the dog that won't pick fur is a problem with a straightforward solution - and this is it. Start at the weight that suits where the dog is. Work up when it's ready. By the time it meets a real rabbit, fur is just fur.