gun shy dog

Levi

New member
Hi all,

I have a 1 yr old Springer who is gunshy. I have been trainign him on Dummies with pheasant wings attached and he can find en anywhere. I used a cap gun to test him for shyness but he ignored it. I was shooting a shotgun outside, the dog was in the house, and when I came in with the gun, he seen the gun and ran.

I took him outside with a 22 and tried shooting that to see if he was shy and he freaked.

So now realizing I'm an idiot, I need to cure him of his gun shyness.
I seen there is a CD by masters voice that does this in a months time. Does anyone have it? It cost 45 bucks which I can't afford. I would like to borrow it or buy it of it's priced reasonable but 45 bucks is too much.

??

Levi
 
I am no expert but this is the method I used for my ESS.

I would try going back to basics. Place your dog in its crate or kennel bang lightly on a pan with a wooden spoon at a distance then immediately feed the dog. While the dog is eating lightly bang on the pan with the wooden spoon. Over the next few weeks make the noise louder. Bang softer if you notice a bad response from the dog. Once you get to the point where you can be in the same room as the dog while it is eating and bang on the pan with the spoon and the dog ignores this noise, try going back to the field with a 22 cal starter pistol. If all you have is a primer pistol I would increase the distance between the dog and the pistol. Use a helper as the shooter and place the shooter about 100 yards away from you and the dog. Toss a dummy have the shooter shoot and see if the dog will retrieve the dummy. If you don't have a starter pistol a shot shell with primer only no powder will work just fine. Don't use field poppers they are louder than live rounds. Then over the next few weeks have the shooter move closer and see how the dog does. Continue with the pan and spoon at feeding time. Once the dog is responding well to the gun shot start toss a wing clipped pigeon for the dog every once in a while this should really turn the dog on.
 
Gun shy

Not a pro here, but an old man once told me a sure fire way to get a dog over being gun shy. He told me to take a dog out in a boat or out on a dock, and throw them in the water. As they are swimming back to shore, shoot shots from small caliber pistol, then eventually bigger one. He told me the dog can care less about shots, but swimming.

Never tried it, might be an old tale, who knows

Good Luck.
 
I am with Brandy has it close. I have not heard of the banging a pot and pan but it does sound like it should work. The most important part is to spend time with your dog. Shoot and doing the retrieve thing. Make it fun. It will take awhile but you can do it. And do it often as you can.
 
Gun Shy

I am not an expert but I do have a hunting dog I raised and is now successful. A few questions: Is the dog inside with you? I was told by other hunters to have them inside to get used to you and people. It developes trust. How much time is spent each day with your dog? The more time spent working/training the better repore you will have between the 2 of you. 10-15 min per day training at least. Make reteiving fun. When they bring the dummy back to you act as though it is the greatest thing in the world. Who cares how dumb you look to others.
The dog will get to the point where all they want to do is please you. Make sure you are in command.
 
I broke my bassett of gun shyness with food. At first I would just call her over to me with the gun to get a snack. At first she was nervous but soon she put the two together and loved to see the gun. After a bit of this I took her out to the field heeled her and fired off a shot followed by a quick snack and some praise of course. Soon she came to accept this also and we could move on to shooting and retrieving. Good luck it takes patience what ever method you use.
 
My first golden was so gun shy that a toy cap gun would cause him to stop whatever he was doing and slink away. I was unable to make any progress using desensitization techniques. He loved retrieving and finding and flushing quail as a pup. He progressed to pheasants- as long as no gun was involved.

When it finally donned on me that he was also afraid of unexplained noises, and was especially frightened of thunder, I began to think that the loud noises scared him primarily because he did not understand their purpose or genesis.

Luckily, I was able to acheive an immediate and complete cure of his gunshyness by the following method:

I got him as birdy as I knew how by putting him in the closed garage with a couple of hens.

I then took him out to the field, planted a dizzied up rooster, let him find and flush the rooster from ideal downwind conditions, and then dropped the rooster right in front of him from 30 yards with a light load.

Buck stopped, turned around, and looked at me and the gun for about 3 seconds.

I could almost see the light go on as I believe he realized for the first time, that the gunshot was the cause of the bird falling from the air.

Instead of slinking away, he turned back and grabbed that rooster, and brought it right back. Magnum shotshells discharged from close range never fazed him after his epiphany.

Unfortunately, thunder and fireworks continued to terrify him 'till the day he died.
 
I cured my lab of his gun-shyness. When we was young I was at a new years eve party and everyone was firing fireworks and shooting shotguns that first got him terrified. Then I was at my house in mid september and had some family over to shoot some blue-rock. He wouldn't even come out of the kennel. I tried a cap gun when i was playing with him. There was even someone firing a rifle a mile or 2 away one day and he was still terrified. So finally 2nd weekend of pheasant season the first time i had taken him out i just let him run. I took my little brother who had never been hunting before. My brother had a 20ga and I had a 12ga. I didn't worry about actually getting any birds I just let him run and do his own thing in the field searching and exploring for birds. He flushed a few and just got excited about being in the field. I didn't even shoot until we were on the way back to the truck and i made sure he was a ways away from me and behind me some. We flushed a rabit and I fired. He came running partly because he was scared and out of curiosity. We left right after that.

Second time out we found even more birds. This time i wasn't concerened about him being scared i was just seeing how his reaction was gonna be. Mostly we saw hens and got his excitment way way up. I shot twice killing one rooster on my second shot of the day. The first shot he was concerned a bit but then he remembered seeing all those birds out there. He knew that there was more in the field then just the gun and us working.

Basically I had to make so much fun for him that the gun shots just became part of the land scape and part of the enjoyment of running around finding birds. Now I know I got lucky with my method but it worked and worked very well. I didn't try and comfort him after I shot the first few times he was concerned. I just acted like it was normal. Now I'm shooting nearly a half a box of shells over him each time out (I'm a terrible shot!) and he couldnt be happier. He flushed a hen last time out in perfect range for me to kill. I could have shot it 8 times thats how perfect its flight was. He got excited when it flushed and waited for me to shoot but of course I didn't. He gave me a look that said "WHAT THE HELL?! WHY DIDN"T YOU SHOOT IT?!" and started to chase off after it. I had to explain to him that we only shoot roosters.
 
This post is old, from 2007. But many of the things first brought up may not be the exact way you want to aproach things. First Avoid getting the dog shy of guns to begin with with proper training to start. There is a very good way to intro a spaniel to gun, Or any dog for that matter. And I have yet to see one gunshy using it. Pros and trial trainers all pretty much do it and it worked for litteraly thousands of dogs. This is a good topic though. It is one of the biggest mistakes that people who do not know how to train a gundog do. If you don't know how to introduce a dog to gunfire, find out from someone you trust, well rather someone who truely knows. There are tried and true meathods, that are easy that work well. the threoy of the cast and blast is also not the best idea, the idea of just start shooting on the dogs first hunts. This works for many but it's like gambling at Vegas. A dog that might have turned out to be a great gundog can be ruined on one shot. Get some good books from respected Authors or help from a trainer. Once you learn from someone the right way, you have that knolege for the rest of your life.
 
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I agree with you, it is good of you to bring it back up.
It doesnt matter the age of the dog but weather or not his mind is focused.
I have done all my dogs on birds and at around 4 months of age. I would plant a couple of birds out in a field and let the dog hunt-em-up. the first bird the dog would point or flush and let go, no shot and let the dog chase. The second bird point or flush let the dog chase and shoot the bird, (they act like they dont even here it)

What not to do,
I had this happen with a pup i sold; Take the dog in a duck blind with four other people and unload on geese>>>> Scared her pretty good.

If you all are hunting young dogs and want to take them leave the gun in the truck and let someone else do the shooting and you run your dog, For me that is much more fun and a better learning experence for the dog,
 
Strange Behavior

Hi all,

I have a 1 yr old Springer who is gunshy. I have been trainign him on Dummies with pheasant wings attached and he can find en anywhere. I used a cap gun to test him for shyness but he ignored it. I was shooting a shotgun outside, the dog was in the house, and when I came in with the gun, he seen the gun and ran.

I took him outside with a 22 and tried shooting that to see if he was shy and he freaked.

So now realizing I'm an idiot, I need to cure him of his gun shyness.
I seen there is a CD by masters voice that does this in a months time. Does anyone have it? It cost 45 bucks which I can't afford. I would like to borrow it or buy it of it's priced reasonable but 45 bucks is too much.

??

Levi

I wonder why your dog ran at the sight of a gun you carried into the house. Maybe the dog has been struck with a stick before and thought the gun was a stick?

With my pup I took hum out in the country for off leash walks where I could fire a weapon. I carried my .44. At random and when the dog was paying no attention to me I would fire a shot and just keep walking as if nothing unusual had happened. I would shoot three or four rounds in a 30 minute walk.
 
my dog was afraid of seeing guns too. He figured out that its what made that awful loud noise and wanted nothing to do with it. After a while of me cleaning my gun several times he got to a point where he would tolerate it. But once I would open and close the magazine like I shucking a shell out he would sulk and go to another room. Dogs are smarter then we give them credit for. The associate very well, especially with what they like and don't like. Now my dog is to the point that when I bring it out he's ready to go find some birds. You wouldn't ever know that he was previously gun-shy.
 
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