Uncle Nicky, I have trained quite a few dogs, labs and setters and my comment on the banging of pans is because you want your pup to associate gunfire to birds, not meal time. I have seen people who have done the pan banging bit, then took their pup out and fired a shotgun when the pup wasn't looking and scared the bejesus of of the pup. Acclimating the pup to gunfire takes time and you want the pup to associate gunfire with pleasure so you should never shoot unless the pups nose if full of bird scent in my opinion which has served me well. Banging a food pan may be noise, but you aren't training your dog to find kibble. I had had a dog that hated fireworks and one that hated thunder, but a gun shot got them excited, not scared because they were acclimated to gunfire. I am certainly no a dog training pro, not even close but I have seen too many people take advice from others as good intentioned as it may have been and screwed up a perfectly good pup. What I have said is what I learned for professional dog trainers and I have never had a problem.
Last edited by Oldtimr; 10-29-2017 at 01:15 PM.