Hey new to the board, i have 3 1/2 year old yellow lab. got her at 1 1/2 years old, shes a great dog loves the ball fetches, retrieves drops the ball in my hands when i ask her to the whole bit, i take her out to a local field now and then that has pheasants, shes sniffed em out and flushed them but not sure if she understands yet what exactly is going on. Im taking her hunting sunday for the first time, and advice on doing something with her before i go would be great. Thanks
Newby here
- Thread starter Tippy
- Start date
c_d
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+1 on the gun shy warning. THAT is your biggest concern at this point. Do NOT just start firing away if your dog hasn't been introduced to gun fire yet. Many more experienced here than I can explain in greater detail. But that's something not to be missed before your dog's first hunt day.
do a search if you can, you'll find many threads on the topic, but I'm sure others will chime in here.
I would have to agree about the gun shyness and it comes from a "don't do what I did" standpoint. I had taken my dog to the shooting range and had him around while several of us were shooting clays on a few occasions, and he was never bothered by the sounds at all. When the season opened and he started flushing birds, he associated the gun shot with him being in trouble for flushing. I had assumed that the noise not bothering him was enough, but it wasn't. It took a lot of begging, pleading, and praising on my part to get him to understand that it was a good thing to find and flush a bird. Live and learn.