RE: Training a dog for doves.
Tell him to be carfull when training with real birds, especially if it is hot! Dove feathers come out real easy and if the dog is panting hard he could suck a few of the feathers in and get turned off of them. I would also recomend going out a few times without his gun and say have you do the shooting and have him handle the dog. I think dokkens makes a dove sized bumper, but I don' t know about scents. It is hard for a dog to mark something as small as a dove so I would work on that a lot until you could get a bunch of birds or scents to start working on scenting.
YL03