Blueditch42

I totally agree with jonsey. There is nothing more exciting for a dog than chasing birds. Let the dog mature a little bit.Sounds like to me that the dog needs some confidence building. If you show the dog birds for the rest of the off seasonit will do just that. You still have plenty of time to finish breaking your gsp. Just like Jonsey says patience is a virtue!

Flairball

You never mentioned what type of gun breaking you did prior to your hunting trip. Hopefully the dog was gradually expossed to the sound of a shotgun, not just pots and pans, and cap guns. If so, there wust be another reason the dog went shy. Was the dog gun broke to the sound of just one gun, or multiple guns? Where your hunting buddies on that day the usuall group, or were there different players involved? Was everyone on their best behavior? There are so any variables to concider.

As stated earlier, I agree that pots and pans won't help at this point. Train only by yourself, and keep the dog in lots of birds. Buy them if you have to. Get the dog so excited that he doesn't notice the sound of the cap gun from 100 yards away. Fire it while he is occupied with the bird, either chasing it as it flys, or aggressively trailing, not while pointing. Always act like nothing happened after the shot.

Also, after you have the dog cured keep the number of guns shooting over it down until the dog is well matured.

I have always gun broke my dogs independent of the bird field. I start while they are eating, move on to walks and exercise sessions, and eventually move on to the skeet field. I want my dogs to be completely gun broke, not associating gunshots with reward. they will learn that later by themselves.

I also limit who I hunt a new dog with until the dogs second season, and sometimes late in the second season if I feel it's necessary. I don't need too many gun shots, and too many people confussing my dog.

tailcrackin

One of the biggest things alot of trainers or handlers never think about......Miss the bird on purpose. When any dog comes here, that is a priority in my book, when the dog leaves, been lotsa shots, and few birds. Reason... because I know for a fact, you are gonna miss a bigger ave, than the owner is gonna hit. Yes, I do kill, and I do let the dogs be dogs, but the bigest thing is to put them in the positions they are gonna be in at home. And 9 outa 10 times, its gonna be watching the bird fly away. That will definately be a for sure, plus the other advantage is that the dog wont know what to expect the next time out.

Flairball

I, too miss a lot of birds when training my dogs. That's because,.....well,.....I just miss. What can I say?

tailcrackin

Man I was just pickin little bit, we all miss, just explaining what and why. This way there is less confusion

daleh

Blueditch42,
were did Jonesy say anything about your post
Sounds like what i said earlier.


Sometimes you have to take a step back to go a step forward.I often take dogs that other trainers or owners mess up. sometimes i take them all the way back to when they were a puppy.


I still believe that avoiding a problem is better than fixing one!!!!!!!!!

tailcrackin

I will assume from prior post from other topics on different problems

Mite

I would hesitate to take the dog to a gun range. The dog needs to make the connection of birds and guns. Much easier if the dog ends up loving the sound of gunfire. Even at half a mile away, a gunshot can startle a dog. In my teen years, I took my first setter hunting. She wasn't introduced properly. We were hunting on the volcanos of Hawai'i when a gunshot firedfrom miles away. Too me it sounded very faint but the dogtucked it's tail between it's legs and jumped/ran 20 feet the other way. It took several pheasants to overcome her hesitation.

Get a .22, ahelper, and a two-way radio (cheap frs ones).Takeseveral clipped wingbirds. Let the dog play with a couple first. Then let the helper fire the .22 from far off. But make sure she's on a bird first. If she acts startled put it away. Do it again the next day.

3Ddepression

Well, all I can say is that it worked on the two dogs Ive seen it used on.The dog will get the big picture when hunting starts. He will just have lower stress levels, wichmeans that he can accessmore of his brainpower to the hunting training.

If the dog starts to show inconvienience at a mile away then start the training at that distance. Im sure there are many ways to train dogs.

Phil from Maine

Your first problem doesn't sound to bad I like to tease my dogs with a
shot bird to get it to want it. Then throwing it and saying retrieve,
and after a while she will start getting it!
For your second problem I'm not to sure but, I believe someone was
too close when they shot. This causing a concusion from the noise
and scaring the daylights out of her! I believe keeping a little distance from my dogs is important as they are young still. I also believe what
Daleh is saying except I'm not sure about the pan banging. Birds,
birds, and more birds and alot of time. I wouldn't push her to hard and
good luck.