Originally Posted by
waiting for a gift
I have a 6 month old lab mix pup, half german shorthair. I started by firing .22 pistol a few times on walks. Now, in the dove field when I shoot she runs up to me and jumps up on me and mouths and bites me. What's the deal? I try to reassure her and calm her down. My 10 year old neutered male lab mix is also present, but he doesn't do anything different than normal.
Like already said, the accustoming to gunfire should be done with well laid plan. And using plan like that helps in your situation and prevents the situation from turning into worse. Casually firing with a gun is not a good idea.
My dog had already heard distant gunfire when I executed the plan to accustom it to gunfire. It happened on a field. I standed on the field with my dog and my assistant shot with a .22 pistol at about 130 yards away and he slowly approached us (shooting now and then), until he shot couple shots right beside us. Then we repeated the same thing with shotgun. Following day we had very short session with shotgun and that was it. The dog was with me, and he could observe me and the shooter, my reactions, etc. It makes it much easier.
If there would have been some problems in the accustoming, it would of course have been longer and more complex.