gun shy dog

tika.308

Well-Known Member
i know,nothing to do with deer but iam after any help going.i have spent the summer training my lab bitch and she has been doing well.introduced her to guns going off, she was fine no problem at all.shes 13mths old now and on thurs i shot a duck for her to pick,she turned, tail between legs and off the other way,anyway on saturday i was picking up on a shoot with my older lab so she came with me and she spent the day on the lead she was fine after the first drive,so good that i let her have a simple retrieve on the last drive.anyway tonite got my gun out of the truck and guess what.no good again.i have not given up with her but i am just looking for any tips.
 
Hi Mate

try getting the gun out when you feed her so she sees the gun as something nice lay it infront of her food bowl until she gets used to it then start lifting the gun as if your going to shoot something.

13 months is a little early to be shooting over her. imho

Lee

swingtip-gundogs
 
slowly slowly

I don't know if I was lucky, or whether my approach was what made my dog OK with gunshots. What I did was to walk/play/train him half a mile or so from a clay shoot. Little by little I reduced the distance, he never noticed the guns, as he was more interested in what we were doing. Give it a try, time spent with your dog is rarely wasted.
Good luck,
Mark
 
hi tikka.308 , hav u ever diciplined your lab with a stick i am not saying that u beat it but a freind of mine used a stick to touch the dog when it walked to heal to far ahead that then caused the dog to be weary of the gun as it associated any thing he carried as possible punishment he got rid of the stick time then healed problem solved this time. another thing is i hav found is dogs that are first shot over are diciplined from the word go instead of letting them run in u can always cure running in , these are some of the common problems i hav come across it is sometimes just a process of elimination or she is just not sure of the big sticky thing that makes a lound noise just needs a little reassurence and a bit more time just leave the cartridges behind for a while
 
thanks for everyones help on this one.i seem to have cracked it with her i have been carring a starting pistol with me when we have been out first of all firing it inside my game bag then with it behind my back then gradually holding it in the air bringing the dummy or a tennis ball into play.some days went better than others but you have to be prepared to creep and go.any way started carrying gun but firing the starting pistol and she seemed ok, went out the other day and shot a few pigeons and she was great sat at the side of me in the wood and did a few great retrieves.
 
good going tikka.308
there should be alot of years happiness to be had from now and a few moments of madness with some embarresment thrown in for good luck
ATB
stone
 
l got my pups used to loud noises from a young age, l had them in and around my workshop which can be pretty noisy at times with plenty of banging and machinery going, also what l did was when l go for a zeroing session l got the other half to stand well back with them while l had a shot or two reassuring them and praising them and gradually decreased the distance, they are still quite young but know they either go to sleep while this is going on or they are wondering when they will be let of the leads to have a play :D they do get so excited that to do any obedience training after that is a non starter, anyway just going to start a bit of blood trailing work with them if l can knock over a beast in the next day or two it could interesting, l have never trained a gun/deer dog before so its not only them that's learning :eek:
 
hi monynut
good luck if you need any help just ask i hav had some great advice of several members on this site and i am sure they and many others will pass on some good advice to you and others who are just training there first deer dog
ATB
stone
 
Cheers stone and Tika

Its still early days with the dogs, l am sure things will come along that l will need advise on so its good to have people here to seek advise from.

As l said its not just the dogs that are learning its years since l had a dog, she was a springer and l got here already trained and she only worked to the shotgun on game never on deer as l was doing much less stalking in those days.
 
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