I need the dog whisperer of gun shy

I am almost certain this is a behavior that I caused or could have prevented if I would have known more when he was a tiny pup. 3 years ago after three fields of doing great, staying close and flushing birds- running around with other dogs in South Dakota, my golden decided that he was going to be gun shy. He had a little blood on his leg so I don’t know if he somehow got peppered a little bit, or cut on something, but from that day on he has been deathly afraid of ALL loud noises, thunder, fireworks etc., and will even claw at the ground and doors to try and get away. If this dog even hears a shotgun engage, he bolts. These past couple years, I have really started to enjoy everything about pheasant hunting and it kills me that my dog is sitting at home, when he could be having so much fun. I don’t have the heart to give him away because he is so gentle and kind to my kids, and my wife won’t let me have two dogs so I am stuck. Is there anyone that is a legit trainer that would be willing to accept an extreme challenge for a fair price? I just want the poor guy to find some peace, and not be scared of loud noises. Thank you for your time in reading this, this is the best website available for fishing, I am sure it is the same with hunting. Thanks

P4- From what you are saying it sounds like the dog may have been hit. That will make it tougher on you.

First et me tell you this is going to take a lot of time and paitence on your part to make it work. I have brought some dogs back from being real bad with time. If you go over to coondawgs.com you will find a very good article under the training tips forum. This will give you a start.

Now using that method which is tried and true you will need to start out a little slower. What I would do is start by feeding dog then while it is happy and eating work your shotgun. Since you said this noise scares her, this would be my starting point. Do this from a distance so it is not as loud. Gradually work your way to the dog over a period of a few days. DO this until you can work the action right over her while feeding with no response to the noise. Remember if she pulls away from her food wait till she goes back to do it again. Once theaction does not bother her you can move on. I would get a cap gun then and start the process over. Either that or use an air gun with 1 pump at first. Again gradually working to the dog. Once you are able to work the air/cap gun up close move on to a 22. Then up to your shotgun.

As you can see this will take time. When I am doing it for someone else with time constraints as to the how long the dog will be with me. I will work these tatics as many as 3-4 times a day. For this then I use food they cannot resist like canned food, hot dogs, meat scraps, etc. The goal here is to have them associate the noise with a good thing. I start all my pups this way by banging the food dishes around while they are feeding. By the time I am ready to start laying drags for them, and get them treeing the nosie don’t bother them.

Once you have the feeding thing down you can also paly around with retrieves and shooting again going from quiet to loud. Even getting a dummy laucher works good.

It’s all about making it fun, and assciateing the noise with good things. My dogs go nuts when they hear a gun shot as they know they are going to get to pull some fur. I tell ya the gun deer season is a treat around here. With all the guns going off they don’t shutup all day.

Please keep us posted and ask all the questions you need to. Feel free to contact me as well when you get frustrated, because you will! Just keep telling yourself it will take time!! There are no over night fixes for this problem.

Your friend in hunting,

Steve, I sincerely appreciate your time in replying to my post. I did one thing right in that I have been getting the shotgun and case out when he is eating just to get him used to it being around, I will start engaging it as far away possible in the house and gradually move closer over time, and then move on accordingly using your advice. Thanks again, this is going to take a year, I will keep you posted with any progress, p4.

P4- It’s no problem at all. I have been training dogs for about 20yrs now. It’s a frustrating, but very rewarding thing. I did not invent the method of breaking gun shy dogs. It has been around for a long time. One just needs to be able to adapt it to the dog.

Here is a link to the article I was talking about.

http://www.coondawgs.com/articles/gunshy.pdf

Wally is a very knowledgeable trainer. He is also a police dog trainer out west. Great guy.

It may take you a year, but I doubt it. Just take your time and have fun.

Your friend in hunting,

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Is there anyone that is a legit trainer that would be willing to accept an extreme challenge for a fair price?

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Give Jerry Sather a call. I’m very confident that he can help you out. In casual conversation with him I was told that every year after the 4th of July he receives several calls and takes in a few dogs for shyness due to fireworks. If you visit his facility you’ll notice radios playing all the time. This is to drown out the gun fire and other loud noises that may scare the kenneled dogs.

Let him know that Francis referred you to him if you contact him. Keep in mind that the call is free and I’m sure he’d be willing to talk to you about your situation.

Good luck and I hope it work out favorably for you.

Labs Unlimited

P4 Good luck in your quest, as Steve said it will take a long time. I to went through a situation quite similar to yours. I have a lab that went from excited around guns to deathly afraid of them. It was to the point that if you raised a broom handle to your shoulder she would cower (sp). All because one day we were shooting trap in my backyard, and something spooked her. I was fourteen or fifteen at the time and wasn’t sure what to do, but i did exactly what steve said, Make it fun for the animal. So i grabbed my pellet gun and went off hunting blackbirds and pigeons. For months her and i would walk around snooping through the swamps and woods, and i basically would shoot stumps trees and various blackbirds, soon she wasn’t afraid at all. I graduated to the .410 and she didn’t even blink. Now i can’t sneak out of the house without here knowing if there is a gun outside of the safe and ive had six phenomenal years of hunting with her. Good luck and keep us posted on how things are going.

Steve has given you some great information that I will add to. When I deal with this problem I want the dog to accept that noise and guns are going to be part of a normal life. The first thing I do is make sure the dog still has the prey drive. if they have that, I have been 100% successful curing the noise shyness. Once I am satisfied with the prey drive of the dog, I then get the dog to trust me. The first few days I just take the dog out off leash and be around normal everyday noises. I will also use “steadiers” I will take along 1 to 3 other dogs. When the shy dog is uneasy, besides having me he also has the other dogs to key on. He sees that the noise does not bother me or the other dogs. One of the keys here is to keep an eye on the dogs reaction. They will usually look back at you, Make sure not to make eye contact at this point. Keep going on as nothing has happened. Next they will look to the other dogs and see that they are just going on about thier business. The shy dog, I’m pretty sure thinks- “hey it does not bother my buddies, everything must be ok”. Next I will start clapping my hands, whistling, blowing duck calls behind the dogs. Again when he looks back, don’t make eye contact and carry yourself bold and proud. Along with this you can also throw bumpers and have some fun, making noise in the process. Also anytime I take the dog out,a gun goes with us. Also, I start to uncase the gun around the dog, just to get him used to it. When the dog is used to the noise so far I then switch to a starter pistol. At first I will fire a round while the gun is in my pocket. I do this when the dog is around 25 yards from me. As he gets used to it I then will fire it out of my pocket. Now if everything is good I will put the gun and birds together. I will start by having the dog out in the field chasing birds. No guns to start just out in the field having fun. While doing this I also play a game when we are at home. I will place a dead bird outside while the dog is inside and does not see it. I then will run to the door hollering “bird-bird-bird”. After a couple of times the dog knows whats going on and gets real excited. Now when I have them racing out to get the bird, I start grabbing a gun on the way out. Usually after a few times of grabbing the gun, the dog realizes that it is now part of the game.
Now back to the field. The dog has been getting out and chasing birds in the field. Now While we are out I will toss a bird for the dog to retrieve.When the dog has retrievd about 20 or so birds over the course of a few days, I will add gunfire. I start out with a starter pistol aboout 100 yds away from the dog. I will then toss a bird. As the dog is charging out to get the bird, I have a helper fire a shot. The dog should continue to the bird and pay no attention to the noise. If the dog is fine with this move the gun in closer, say to 50 yds. As things progress, you move the gun in until you are firing at about 10 yds behind the dog. When all is good, I then will move the helper back out to 100yds and start the process over using a .410. I repeat the process again using a 12 gauge. This is not going to be a one or two day process. I like to toss about 15 or 20 birds before I move the helper closer. If at anytime the dog flinches on a shot, I go back to tossing birds without any shooting.
I have had great success curing shy dogs, although I have not worked with one that has been shot. If you are interested in having me work with your dog give me a shout.

P4- Give it some time on your own before resorting to a trainer. It will be more rewarding for you and the dog this way.

I did not even bring that up as it is a costly venture. It’s always best when going that way to try to find a guy close to you so you can be involved if you wish. I have heard of Jerry Sather, and good words have been spoken of him. Don is closer to you then I am, and would be a good route to go as well. I’m at least 6 hrs from you. In most cases for me only the bear hunters are willing to send thier dogs that far for training.(Not that lab guys won’t, as they tend to spend far more on training!!) If you can find a guy close by to work with that you can visit daily or a few times a week it will cut cost some. Sending the dog out for a month at a crack will cost some extra cash.

Several of us on here myself, and Don included are more than willing to walk you through it, and help as much as possible. Don’t be afraid to ask questions anytime.

Your friend in hunting,

Thank you all for your time in replying to help myself and my dog out. I will be using this information daily. Best wishes, p4.

Good stuff posted.

Here is what has worked for a few dogs I worked with that were gun shy.

Find a near by trap range. Find out when they do league. This is simple and effective. Get on the outer range to where you can BARELY hear the range. Long check cord and toy so you can walk and play fetch with your dog while working SLOWLY towards the range. Take breaks, stop for 10 minutes, play, comfort, praise. Walk closer, play along the way. Keep getting closer till the dogs actions start to tell you your close enough, he’s still comfortable but that’s enough. This may be a half mile away, that’s ok. At that point stop and play again or just sit and pet/comfort the dog…PRAISE! After a 10-15 min. back out, lots of praise throughout the entire exercise. A few days later repeat. Each day you should find the dog will get closer and closer to the range. Don’t over do it or push. One britney I was working with took approx. 15 sessions. When we were done she was playing fetch with me at the range parking lot…didn’t bug her one bit. A gsp I did this with took about 8-10 sessions, he was fetching his fav. rope right in the parking lot as well. At this point they weren’t getting the full blast. From there I brought them to the farm, had birds planted and 22. blanks. Didn’t bother either dog. Just made sure to get them excited about the hunt. From there worked our way up with larger guns till we were at 12 high brass.

I havn’t seen that GSP since bud have had contact with the owner, the dog is doing good in the field. The brit I hunt over several times a year, she’s fine with guns and a good hunter but thunder storms do bother her. The owner is happy with the results, just has to comfort the dog during storms.

BIRDDOG

It is pretty radical and this is not the time of year to be able to do it but you withhold water for a period. Then you have put water in front of the dog vs waiting for feeding time. The water is removed if there is not progress in the dogs response. I’ve never used this technique and I think it is a Delmar Smith dealio. If you want to look into it check out the book written by Bill Tarrant about Delmar Smith. It is all pointing dog stuff but a dog is a dog.

I have heard of using the water tactic. Personally i don’t like it as it is hard for them to get excited over water.

Good point Steve, I agree. I think it can be accomplished when the dog is having fun.
P4Walleye, it has been a couple of weeks since your first post. Any updates on how things are going?