its a great feeling when you make pregress isnt it, mine was a great retriever in the house as a pup, bring back nothing outside (sticks balls etc)but retreives fine when hes working, theres never any guarantees when you start taking them out but the work your doing is definatly swinging the odds in your favour, i would try a rabbit covered dummy if you want cant see it hurting the situation. what type of retreiving work are you doing and where are you doing it