Don't use them. I use plastic retrieving dummies for drills, and I use frozen dead birds for scent training.

Keep yer eyes peeled!

you mean just the regular plastic bumpers?.. don't use the deadfowls at all?

I like the dokkens as well but I do not like the price. Like duckwhacker, I really only use the plastic bumpers and dead birds. When training with my BIL there have been a few times where I borrowed his dog's dokken so that I could change it up for Arrow and it was nice. No experience with the avery trainers, but I would think it would be alright as long as you never allow the dog to have it outside of formal training (not a chew toy). And if your dog is chewing on it hard enough to burst it while doing retrieves, then you have a hard-mouth issue that you need to deal with anyway. How old is your dog? Has he been force fetched yet? Any hard mouth issues?

"Life's too short to hunt with a beardless dog . . ."

He turned a yr old in July.. He has never had any kind of hardmouth issues.. He is pretty well trained i mean i know that training never ends and i try to work with him about 20 minutes every morn and a little at night.. Right now i'm really focusing on hand signals and he is doing really well but he has def. been the easiest to train of any lab I have ever had. I had him out in dec. when i was home in Ohio and he was about five months and he went on every hunt with us and did a great job.

Fantastic -- very rewarding, as I am learning, to train your own dog! I would think that without any hard-mouth issues the avery ought to last just fine. Post a pic of your lab when you get the chance, and after a while you ought to post a product review of the avery training dummy over in the journals section.

"Life's too short to hunt with a beardless dog . . ."

Yes, I just use bumpers and dead birds. I always freeze some ringnecks and spoonbills just for training.

Keep yer eyes peeled!

Here is my big baby.

And his fav. chair....

i use the dokkens myself and training dummies. i also freeze wings of different birds and start my puppies with them. fetch first, then track, then in water, then with firearms, all with the wings and dokkens. good looking dog and i think i seen your dog with Texas sign on ducks unlimited website too.

i havent tried the averys trainer

Great looking dog!

"Life's too short to hunt with a beardless dog . . ."