Bird Dog Gun Shy

[whitetaildeer87]

Does anyone know how to get a bird dog gun shyness away? or is it hopeless?

[Rachswid]

Try shooting off a shot or two at feeding time from a distance so not to further spook dog, I had a setter here who would hit the deck at the sound of a gun, was also afraid of birds after I told the owner that this dog would never make a good bird dog he told me to keep trying so I got the dog birdy as it would ever get and I would go out in the field with a bag full of birds and have some one with a starter pistol as far away as it would take as not to spook the dog and every time I would realese a bird he would shoot and move forward till the dog had a even a tiny bit of negative reaction, then stay there till the dog was able to handle it was not but a couple weeks and the dog was associting gunfire and birds as good things I thought this dog wouldn't amount to jack but good progress was made you just have to be inventive sometimes, I also would have someone fire the pistol at feeding time and I did not seem to be making any progress with that method.It took over 200 blanks but we got it done, the most important thing about this is was we did not indruduce birds and gunfire at the sametime but rather used that dogs new found love of birds to our advantage in this case there was nothing more to lose.

[Doc E]

Go to www.coonriverkennels.com Over on the lower left side of the page will be a link called "Mark's Tips and Tricks" -- There is an article about Gunshyness.

[deer-hunter18]

What i did when my uncles dog was doing this was have someone hold the dog about 100 yards away from the shooter and shoot 1 shot do this every night and every night get a little closer to the dog. Just my opinion it worked on my uncles dog.

[GSPsnFORDs]

^^^Do exactly what he said. It's a very good method in that it's a cautious way to do it. Also, try the feeding way as mentioned above. I've done it both ways and have had no troubles with either.

[uplandchessies]

NEVER shoot over a gunshy dog until after you have gone back to basic intro to gun. Even then, the dog may still not be ready. It's a very tedious process and requires utmost patience.

Although I haven't seen the site that Doc recommends, I'm sure he is not steering you wrong. Or, go to the Pointing Dog Journals BBS and look for the thread on gunshyness.

Again, DO NOT shoot over the dog until he is ready for gunfire!

[hoghunter51]

And then you have the ones that will never get over it LOL

My bull dog cody runs and hides when i get the keys out to open the gun locker. Never tried to get her out of it ,,brought her in the house and what a fine watch dog she is ,as long as there isnt a gun involved LOL