The Dokken Dead Fowl Trainer is a household name when it comes to bird dog training. You’ve seen them in the arsenal of many trainers as well as at your local sporting goods store—essentially a glorified bumper that mimics the size and weight of waterfowl and upland birds.

Designed and developed by Tom Dokken of Dokken’s Oakridge Kennels and GUN DOG's Retrieve columnist, the prototype for the first Dead Fowl Trainer was created in 1995 to fill a need for his training techniques. To encourage a proper hold on birds, Dokken wanted a soft-body bumper that was life-size for added realism. He also wanted to ensure that a dog wanted to hold this particularly soft area. To do that, he added a free-swinging hard head to this foam bumper as well as hard feet. This did two things: The head and feet were hard and unenjoyable for dogs to mouth on, while the free-swinging head would help discipline the dog if they shook the dummy aggressively. An aggressive shake would cause the hard plastic to hit the dog upside the head, a reminder that shaking the dummy, and birds, would result in discomfort.

Fast forward over a decade later, and Dokken has found a niche that needs filling in sporting pups. “The smallest Dead Fowl Trainer we had previously was a dove,” explains Dokken. “If you’re going to start your puppy off right, we needed to start puppies on something that is the right size for them.”

Pup-Sized

The new Dokken Puppy Dead Fowl Trainer is designed with the same high-end training features only in miniature size. Designed for puppies that are 7 to 12 weeks of age, the dummies measure approximately 8 inches, making them ideal for young puppies who are beginning their training journey.

“It’s important to start your puppy off right and that’s what we’re trying to achieve with the new Puppy Dead Fowl Trainer,” says Dokken. “Why start a puppy with something that isn’t going to encourage the right habits? If you can get your dog at 7 weeks and start encouraging a proper hold on birds, then we don’t have to correct issues down the road like shaking or hard mouth.”

The soft-bodied miniature dummy encourages your young dog to have a reliable hold in the center body of the bird. The foam also allows you to inject scent into the training dummy to start the engines of your bird dog’s little nostrils when playing fetch in tall grass or other cover.

Although available in greenhead mallard shape to appeal to Labrador enthusiasts, the new Puppy Dead Fowl Trainer is also currently being made in dove and bobwhite quail shapes for upland hunters, with more birds to come later.

Puppy Approved

The Puppy Dead Fowl Trainer was a big hit with my 12-week-old test subject. After a few tosses, the Golden retriever pup quickly learned where he wanted his mouth to fall on the dummy: in the soft center compared to the hard rubber head that didn’t feel good on his puppy teeth.

The throwing rope attached to the end of the dummy made it easy to toss the trainer as near or far as needed. It also provided an easy grabbing point to take the dummy from the playful retriever.

The overall construction of these miniature-sized Dead Fowl Trainers is solid and well-built—as if they were prepared to take on sharp puppy teeth. The foam is soft enough to encourage a proper hold but hard enough that your pup won’t tear through the exterior, which allows you to use the training dummy for your next bird dog...and the next.

Although they are small and appear as toys, especially to the eyes of your 7-week-old dog, it’s important to treat them as training tools. Play toss with your pup for a few minutes a day and then put the dummy up and away. Don’t encourage or allow the chewing of the dummy or you’ll find yourself with a hard-mouthed dog who wants to chew your birds later down the road.