Thread: Bolting rabbit...

Originally Posted by EeeBees

I have seen fotos of them and wondered about them...?!! A dog trainer in the UK said that in his opinion a few bobwhites are the best to teach a puppy steadiness. And a good thing about them is that they do not fly far and will return to their pen.

I've seen more dog's put off by them and spooked by the twang of the bungy, than actually benefit from using them. gqhoon, I read what you write, a bit like the opening of a bird launcher...?

With a pigeon launcher, the proximity is much different. The launcher is used 5-10m plus from the dog, so there should be little influence on the dog (if not, then it isn't being used correctly). However, the bolting rabbit it used right under the dog's nose and can often have negative association for the dog.

Personally, I'd teach the stop on the whistle, transfer that to stop on the thrown dummy, then transfer to stop on hand-thrown pigeons before repeating the process with a rolling ball and then a wing-clipped pigeon (flies low to the ground....not a bolting rabbit, but as close to replicating it, within reason, as possible).