Quote:
Originally Posted by wghuffman
I have a Mountian Fiest Dog. He is skiddish around loud noises. I have tried working with him to no avail. I belive he was abuse before we got him. He also get skiddish at the sight of guns.
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I have a female shorthair who we believe had been abused by her past owner. She is timid and scared of anything new. I have worked her on birds without a gun and later with a gun at a distance. She is "gun-nervous" not gun-shy. What you described above is a dog who is gun shy. The sight of a gun making him skittish means you have alot more work ahead of you than a dog who is fine until the boom. My female will hunt fine until the first shot then her range is much closer and eventually she follows behind instead of hunting out in front. She gets better with every trip in the field. With her consistency will be the key to getting her to overcome her apprehension to the gun.
The Gun-nervous term can also be related to field-nervous, If a dog has been shocked by a handler while on birds the dog becomes nervous anytime it gets on the scent of birds. Like stated above, Gun shyness is a manmade problem caused by someone who did't have the sense or patience to lay the foundational work first instead they skip over steps in a rush to hunt their dog.
E-collars have ruined as many dogs as firing over a dog too soon. The dog's instincts tell it to do one thing and then the handler not knowing any better punishes the dog instead of honing the dog's abilities to the next level. Shocking a dog while on point is NEVER to be done, it will ruin or set back even the best trained dogs.
I know I got a little off topic but I feel there is not enough instruction out there in terms of E-collar use and being that the dog is nervous around loud noises could mean more than the dog was improperly introduced to gun fire. Also by shooting over a dog on point who isn't conditioned to the shot could create a bigger problem... A dog who is nervous of birds and guns.
I agree with what Roo posted except for allowing the pup to catch the birds. By letting the pup do this you are creating another bad habit that you will eventually have to break. It causes the dog to be less steady and often the dog will creep if it has been allowed to run right in on the bird in the past. I train my dogs from the start towards being a master hunter. More progress will be made faster if you don't have to undo what you have done earlier in training. Just having a pen with a few quail in it is enough to increase your dog's bird drive. Encourage him to "Hunt the Birds" every time you take him into the yard and then praise the hell out of him for going to the pen. Once he is going to the pen every time you let him out the dog is ready for you to start whoaing him on the pen. Whoa training should be practiced after the basic-sit, come, down, commands are understood. The dog needs to understand the command and do it consistently before putting him on uncaged birds that he could catch if they don't fly. By the time the pup is whoa broke and he will be a couple months old and on schedule for live bird introduction and beginning gun fire conditioning. IOf these steps are taken it should be easier for you train him to be steady to shot as well without having to back track again later.
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