free dog

well, I hate to give up my dog, but he is just not cut out for hunting. i got to be honest, he is super gun shy, we were out there yesterday and there were people shooting pheasents like 100 yds away, and he got scared and ran off.

he is very obedient when it comes to just being a very good house dog. loves to play fetch and knows all major commands. he knows how to flyush birds too if your just wondering, but is gone shy. and at this point, i dont think i can see a way to get him to not be gun shy. to him the sound of anything popping is like the command “NO” major times. so if anybody wants a good friendly house dog, that does not bark let me know.

ps. if i can not find him a good owner, where can i take him so that i can be sure he will be safe.

It sounds like he is a pretty good dog and the only major problem is that he is gun shy. When you were given/ bought the dog you took on a huge responsibility and signed an imaginary contract that you would take care of the animal through thick and thin. Every dog will have some faults and it is your responsibility to work with him to mold him to what you want. Just because he is not your dream dog you have that responsibility to stick with him. Similar to raising children just because you do not like what they did and as much as you may like to you do not give them away. You train them and mold them the way you want them to be. If you go into dog ownership expecting the perfect dog and if it is not you give up on it and give it away I got news for you you will be going through an awful lot of dogs. Accept the responsibility you took on when you got the dog and work with him.
zoomer

You said the sound of anything popping right? So it is just guns or any loud noise?
Sounds like you need to spend some time in building him into a bold and confident dog. Both gunshyness and noise shyness can be corrected and overcome. Just my opinion here but with the hunting season almost over, I would look at it as having the next nine months to overcome the situation. Set up a training program to deal with the issues. Have fun and make it fun for the dog when you have him out set him up for success.
I have got some tips to help with shyness problems, give me a holler or PM.

What kind of dog is it? I’m sure there are many who would love to put in a little time to correct it.
DT

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It sounds like he is a pretty good dog and the only major problem is that he is gun shy. When you were given/ bought the dog you took on a huge responsibility and signed an imaginary contract that you would take care of the animal through thick and thin. Every dog will have some faults and it is your responsibility to work with him to mold him to what you want. Just because he is not your dream dog you have that responsibility to stick with him. Similar to raising children just because you do not like what they did and as much as you may like to you do not give them away. You train them and mold them the way you want them to be. If you go into dog ownership expecting the perfect dog and if it is not you give up on it and give it away I got news for you you will be going through an awful lot of dogs. Accept the responsibility you took on when you got the dog and work with him.
zoomer

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Agree 100%

id stick with him and work with him with pots and pans and twenty two blanks and make it all about birds birds birds if he loves birds he will lern the loude noise is not a bad thing i would give it a few more months of working on it but thats just me

Your dog needs to associate gunfire and loud noises in general with something good. Start out with making a loud noise over his head while he’s eating. Not too loud but enough to make him notice. Do this every time you feed him from now on and very slowly make it louder. This way he associates a loud noise with something good, food. Next is getting him to be so in the moment while retrieving he will not even notice the gunfire. Start while he is on his retrieve making a bee-line for the dummy or bird and work him into shot-then-retrieve mode. If he is anything like my dog he will want to run a half mile in any direction at the sound of gunfire because he knows he gets to retrieve something. Your are training the dog to a conditioned response. Pavlov’s experiments were just along this principle, conditioning a response triggered by specific circumstance

I agree with Zoomer. Its your dog be responsible. I to had the same problem this year with my 1yo black lab. I worked with her all summer long with wings and bringing her to the gun club. But I never shot over her head. Ist time at the game farm she hated all the shots going around her. she stopped hunting. 2nd field she went under the truck and would not come out.. I thought I was done too. I started taking her out by myself and i slowly started seeing that she liked it. The first few times I had her out we did not see a bird so I had her throwing dummy that she would have to find and each time i believe it was 3 different occasions I shot once over her head before she got to the dummy. Did she respond positive ? No but she did not quit either she would walk back to me and you could see in her demeaner that she was not sure if she liked that. But after the corn was all cut birds started showing up and the first hen she got up she jumped back the bird flew and yes I did shoot, not at the bird but a shot. and she came back to me. You no she was thinking what the heck was that. The next trip 2 hens each time I shot in the direction of the hen. You could still see she did not like the shooting but she was beginning to learn.
Then the first rooster got up, it got up behind us I shot it fell the dog came back to me like she always did. then I let her find the bird and game was on.
I though everyting was going right so back to the game farm with dad and kids day after thanksgiving, We started hunting and slowly more and more shots were fired around us and she was back in the no hunting zone again and she quit and went to the truck
Well I was not going to give up with her the kids love this dog very well behaved and comes from good blood lines so I dont know if I did something wrong. This is the way I have trained my previous dog.
So off we went again walking a strip of woods with the kids in dec. and you could see the tracks from the birds running and a rooster gets up in front of us and boom drops and the rooster runs I run to calling the dog and I try to get up in front of a dead fall were the bird was and the dog catches up to me and we see the bird running at the same time she chases it And I shot right over her head, It was like she never heard the gun. Tackles the bird , bird flapping in her mouth and she brings it right to me. Proud, Proud, Proud!! started hunting again and she goes into this clump and out pops a rooster and bam the rooster drops and she gets it and retrieves it again. Your so proud of your dog when this stuff happens, No words can describe it. Only one other trip since and shot at 1 rooster in the distance but she was sure looking for that bird after I shot.
Now did I fix the problem? Time only knows, but keep working with her she is your dog and I dont know if I just got lucky but its your dog be responsible…

Welcome to iDoHunting tobusytohunt! Very good and informative 1st post!

Great story tobusyto hunt welcome to the site
Zoomer

tobusytohunt, are you from SSP or a transplant?

I am an original!!!!

you know what, thanlks you guys, i guess i made a mistake and was just too angry. but i’ll give him another shot at this training thing.

Just keep after it. I was really frustrated too! Keep her going and going into the field. Little steps at a time. It will be rewarding for you when the dog finally gets it!

Goof for you it will take daily work and it will not be the last time you will be angry at him but watching him leran and get better will erase that anger and turn to happiness.
good luck with him
Zoomer

Here are a couple things to keep in mind. You want to consider you and your dog as a team, very important with a hunting dog. Anytime you get angry about something that is not going right, switch to something you know the dog will succeed at. How the dog handles is a reflection on you. If he fails take a look at what you did and how you can change to make him more successful.

Another bit of advice is to never “test” your dog. Some people will be apt to go through all of the retiever training and then test the dog to see if he is gun shy. This is a horrible way to do things. We tend to train to a dogs instincts, which seldom need much training i.e. retrieving, because it’s easy. You should’t have to train much to get a lab to retrieve something, it’s in his genes already. He see’s something falling or moving away from him and his brain tells him to go get it. Being afraid of loud noises however is not in his gene pool and thus must be conditioned. The amount of conditioning needed varies wildly from dog to dog even in the same litter.

Go at your dogs pace, not your own. This assures that you will never be “testing” his ability to handle the shot. Instead you will be conditioning him to handle the shot. There is a very big difference there.

I would also suggest to you and anyone training a lab to get a copy of “Retriever Training” by Robert Milner. This is an excellent book and will help immensely in your training

a dog is not born gun shy, it is made gun shy.

fish4fun, where are you located at? if it works out i would be up for helping you out with this. and in return, you can throw some marks for me…

I agree with what has been said here. The benefit you have now is time for the next 9 months. When it is all done, you will be so much prouder of the dog that had a problem, but you were able to produce a quality hunter. Stay at it.

There is no such thing as too much training and too much time with your dog. Good luck and let us know how it progresses.