I have a eight month old yellow lab. And i think she is more on the gun shy side of dogs then not. I just started to work with her with the .22 cal. cap gun and when i shoot it she runs for the garage. Does anyone now of what i can do or any suggestions. Anything will help. Thanks
I copied and pasted this from the thread titled need some help/advice. This is from Don Hanson, our resident gundog guru. 
A little more detail. Get a few live birds and do 6 or so short sessions of letting her chase and catch birds. Do this in a field setting. Soon she will have only one purpose, Being in the field means finding birds! next when out in the field, toss the birds as I mentioned before. Do this a few times. Next, have a helper with a .22 blank pistol stand about 100 yards away. When you toss the bird, have the helper fire right before the bird hits the ground. What you want to look for, is no hesitation from the dog. As long as the dogs focus remains on chasing the bird, move your helper in to 50yds. Do this over a matter of time, we are in no hurry. Soon the helper will be able to fire from about ten yards behind the dog. repeat the process using a .410. At anytime the dog looks towards the gun or even twiches, go back to a greater distance away or throwing birds without gunfire. When everything is good with the .410 move up to a 20 or 12 gauge. Remember when switching guns always start at 100 yds away. I would be looking at a minimum of 50 tosses to complete this. If it takes more that is fine.
When things are good with birds and guns, you can start on the retrieving.
I usually feed my dogs in the garage since I have two on a senior diet and two on a high energy diet.
When I am feedng the ones in the garage, I make a lot of different noises. I beat on the garage door, beat on the floor with a broom stick, run the compressor etc…
If she has not been introduced to birds,thats where you want to start. Go to a game farm or get a chucker or two and find a wide open field with very little cover. Pull the flight feathers from the bird and let it go. Then let the dog loose to chase the bird. When she catches it, let her do whatever she wants. We are just introducing birds, not looking for anything else. After a session or two of this you can then plant birds to let her find. If she brings em back, thats great and you then can toss the same bird for her to chase. I know it is not easy to hit a game farm everyday so here are a few other things you can do. Carry a couple of birds with you on walks. Whent the dog is not looking, toss a bird to the side and let her find it. Carry a duck call with you and start making noise when the dog is walking in front of you. carry the pistol with you fire a round with the pistol in your pocket. Do this when the dog is 25 or so yards in front of you. When the dog looks back at you, just keep walking as normal.
Another thing that I use is a “steadier”. Find a someone who has a dog that is used to noise and walk them together. As you are making noise or shooting the pistol your dog will react off the other dog.
When you take you dog outside, lay a shotgun on the table or lean it by the door. Take the dog outside and play with her for a few minutes. Play her favorite game while you are out. Take her back inside for a few minutes and then take her back out and play agian. On about the third or fourth time doing this, pick up the gun and take it out with you. As she gets used to this, start working the action on the gun. When you come back in, put the gun in a place where she can sniff or check it out.
When I do this program, I usually am shooting birds over the dog at the end of two weeks. Remember the bird and gun field training is the most important.
We had a rather long discussion on this a few threads back. A lot of good info to be found there.
Steve
How is your dog doing?
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