KB Rabbit Ball | Hand-Stitched Rabbit Skin | Fur Introduction & Scent Trail Training | Natural, Ginger or Black

Some dogs just won't pick fur.

They'll retrieve a dummy. They'll retrieve a ball. But put real rabbit skin in front of them and they back off - sniff, circle, look up at you. It's not stubbornness. It's unfamiliarity. The texture is different, the scent is different, the feel in the mouth is nothing like anything they've trained with before. Until it is.

This is how you get there.

The Kirkbourne Rabbit Ball is a tennis ball-sized training dummy covered in real rabbit skin - hand-stitched, not glued, and made exclusively for us to the same specification as our rabbit skin dummies with toggles. Same fur. Same stitching quality. Same construction standard. Just without the toggle, which means it sits differently in the hand, rolls naturally on the ground, and works as a different training tool entirely.

Why hand-stitched matters

Glued fur peels. A dog mouthing a glued ball regularly will have fur lifting within a handful of sessions - which is precisely the wrong thing happening when you're trying to build a dog's confidence with fur retrieves. Peeling fur, an unfamiliar texture disintegrating in the mouth, a ball that looks different every session.

Every Kirkbourne Rabbit Ball is hand-stitched. The fur holds. The ball stays consistent session after session. That consistency is the point - the dog learns what fur feels like, gets comfortable with it, and carries it cleanly. You can't build that habit with a ball that's falling apart.

Two jobs, one ball

Fur introduction. For dogs that haven't encountered fur, or that have actively refused it, the ball format makes the transition easier. They already understand balls. The shape is familiar, the retrieve impulse is already there. Now it just happens to be covered in rabbit skin. Once they're picking and carrying this cleanly, the step to a ½lb rabbit skin dummy or 1lb rabbit skin dummy is straightforward - the fur is no longer the issue.

Scent trail work. Roll it along the ground and it leaves a real rabbit fur scent trail. The dog isn't just chasing something it can see - it's following a nose-led line to the source. That's hunting pattern work in its simplest form. Bowl it through light grass, let it come to rest, send the dog. The nose goes down and the dog follows the trail. It's also a useful way to introduce young dogs to the concept of following a scent before moving to more complex blind retrieve or hunting work.

The details:

• Size: Tennis ball size
• Covering: Real rabbit skin - hand-stitched, not glued
• Colours: Natural rabbit skin, so no one ball will be the same!
• Toggle: None - rolls naturally, sits cleanly in the hand
• Scent: Real rabbit fur - leaves a scent trail when rolled
• Manufacture: Made exclusively for Kirkbourne to our specification
• Use: Fur introduction, ball-to-fur transition, scent trail work, hunting pattern introduction, young dog confidence building, fur refusal rehabilitation
• Suitable for: All breeds - particularly useful for dogs that have shown reluctance with fur, or as the first fur contact for young dogs
• Important: Not a chew toy. Do not leave unattended with your dog.
• Price: £6.49

Part of the Kirkbourne fur progression. Start here if your dog isn't picking fur. Move to the ½lb rabbit skin dummy with toggle once the fur is no longer the issue. The 1lb and 3lb follow when the dog is ready for competition-weight work.