Training your gun dogs to hunt, whether it’s for flushing, pointing, or retrieving, there are great tools at your disposal. Bird and Dummy Launchers are available with remote control devices that can be used together or separately to fill your training needs.
Remote Bird and Dummy Launchers
Whichever launcher you’re using (bird or dummy), you can use a remote control with it, allowing you to train your dog without having extra trainers to run the launchers for you. Without a remote, you’ll need a person at each launcher to “man the switch.” This can be distracting for the dog.
Other extras with bird launchers include bird calls, sounds, and beeps that can be used to train your dog in field craft and hunting. Which kind of launcher (bird or dummy) will depend on the specific type of training you are doing with your dog. Your goal is to make an effective and confident hunting companion and launchers can be an essential tool towards this goal.
For those who work alone and who would like to be able to launch a dummy more easily and to greater heights and distances than they can by throwing, this is the solution. This allows you to train your dog to retrieve game that is further away and allows for more realistic “launch, shoot, retrieve” scenarios versus the hand-thrown method. Using a remote, another great feature is added: sounds and surprise. This allows you to launch the dummy from somewhere not next to you and to do so while holding the gun poised to fire. This gives more realistic training.
If you are training either a pointing or a flushing dog, you will want to use bird launchers. One of the most significant advantages to these is the ability to set up multiple launchers to act as if it were an actual hunting area. Since dogs are hunters by nature, they need only be trained to honor another dog’s point and of course to effectively flush out birds. Bird launchers offer the best opportunity to do this. Pointing dog trainers have effectively used these for many years and currently flushing dog trainers are beginning to use them more regularly as well. Since bird launchers have a spring latch that releases the prey low to the ground, they are ideal for training your hunting dog to quickly learn the skills he needs to successfully hunt quail and pheasant.