Gun shy dog
 

Hi guys,

I come here from the muzzleloading forum looking for help.

I have a 1.5 year old dog, half lab and half boxer, totally afraid of loud noises, gun shots, thunder, fire works, etc. She runs under the bed and hides, litterally shakes she is so scared. Just wondering what is the best way to cure her of this. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!
Thanx Dale

RE: Gun shy dog
 

unfortunatley there is no quick fix for this.

It is going to take a lot of time and patients and even then it may not work and you will just have to except that you have a dog who dosn't like loud noises.

Is there anything specific in the dog's past that you know of that may have caused this to begin with?

if so avoid that like the plague.

Here is a post I put up a couple months ago about how to introduce a dog to gunfire you can you the same method here i believe

RE: Gun shy dog
 

Here's a link to ESPN Oudoors.
It has an article on gun-shy dogs.

Hope it's helpful.......Jimmy

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/hunting/columns/story?columnist=stewart_mike&page=sd_col_Stewa rt_gunshyness

RE: Gun shy dog
 

Get two metal food bowls. Have some onehold your dog in front of you when it is feeding time. Put the food in one bowl so the dog can see. Then bang the bowls togather, not to loud at first. Call the dog and let him come to you as you hit the bowls togather and call it's name. Do this each time you feed him and increase the loudness of the banging each time. after a week or so put the food in the bowl and use two other pans that make more noise. This cac be done outside after a few weeks and a cap gun or startergun can be shot. The dog will get the hint that noise is a good thing and he gets FOOD.Then take him to the farthest point you can from a gun range and work closer to the noise, prase him and you might have to give him a treat.
I have done this with several dogs and it has worked every time.
Never shoot over a puppy!!!

RE: Gun shy dog
 

Jimmy S posted a worthwhile article to read. Follow it as closely as possible. There's many ways and methods people use to introduce the gun but the method Jimmy S posted works and should be used. You can adapt the method for birddogs but here are some reasons why I don't suggest other methods:

1. Banging pots on a pup while eating will sometime make a pup more skittish. If the pup is skittish (you yell at it alot or alot of loud noises around you), banging pots may put it over the edge. Plus, you can use feeding time for more beneficial conditioning like a whistle for recall or what I did, steady the dog to woah before eating.

2. Never take an unexposed dog to a gunrange unless you can snap your fingers and magically appear 20 miles away in an instant. Or you can plead your case to other shooters to stop shooting just enough time to get out of hearing range of your dog. Because if your dog shows any tendancy of developing gunshyness, you can't get away fast enough. The worst is when there's a high powered rifle range nearby. High powered calibers are 'supersonic' range, ie. faster than sound. It builds a doppler effect which can hurt a dog's hearing. That's why a rifle sounds different and hurts your ears when shooting as opposed to a shotgun.

3. Never shoot more than one gun at a time. Even if you've accustomed the dog to gunfire. Lets say you've gone over the hump and able to shoot 12 ga. shells over him. Use several sessions or one season with just one gun. Then slowly add another gun for the next season if you wish but don't barrage the dog with 4-5 automatic guns all firing at one bird. Most likely, your dog will digress.

Alot of this is for birddogs as I only know one way to properly introduce gunfire and that's using birds. How well does it work? After introduction at nine months, I took my dog out to the hunting field (no gun). A sound of a gunshot pulled my dog's attention - tail went high, ears perked up and she ran towards it. She knew someone had found a bird. To this day at 3 yrs old, she gets excited at balloons. She will pounceto burst them then excitedly search upwards to look for the bird.

I've triedthe gunrangeand the.22 blanks to 20ga/12ga (faraway)but the best method so far is using birds (or whatever excites the dog) to introducegunfire. No waiting for the dogtofigure out that shots are good and no hoping the dog can handle the gunrange (btw, the dog was thickheaded enough for me to try it).

RE: Gun shy dog
 

Mite,
I would not let you trainone of mydogs to piss outside.
The rest of you have read my reponses on banging food bowls and still did not read it right.
Gun Shy is what you make, no dog is ever born with it.
Introducing a gun has no effect on the dog if done correctly.
Quit thinking of problems and quit making them. Take the dog out, get them in birds, ans shoot one when it it is time.
THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE

RE: Gun shy dog
 

Heh, daleh
At least I tryto help. Instead ofbashingpeople try writing something constructive.

If you would have read the original post, he came from the muzzleloading forum and likely hasn't read anything you wrote. Come to think of it, I don't recall anything you wrote about banging pots.

The problem already exists. He wants to know how to fix it.

How many times? How does one know when it is 'time'?

RE: Gun shy dog
 

How many times? How does one know when it is 'time'?
[/quote]

Until the dog is no longer afraid of the shot. If you have a dog running making chase on a flushed bird, I think it's a clear indicator that it is time.

Personally, I wouldn't mess around with pots at this point. The owner needs to see what the dog is made of. If he has the desire, it shouldn't be a problem. If not, it'll be a nice house dog.

If the desire isn't there initially, I would throw a flightless bird on the ground and see what the dog does with it. If he wants to hunt you should be able to get through this.

Good luck

RE: Gun shy dog
 

I would say that there is not a "gun shy" dog but rather dogs that do not assoiate the loud noise with something good. You have to make these loud noises mean something to the dogthat they enjoy. If you are looking for a retrieve, the noise should get the dog fired up because they get to do something fun. Doing this is the trick. I would try using a small cap gun and use that doing simple retrieving drills. Throw the bumper and when the dogs goes to retrieve it fire a small cap. Make sure the dog is in a full run at this time. They shouldhardly notice the cap gun. When they seem comfortable with that try shooting the gun during the throw. Then start all over but step up the noise to a starters pistol. You should be fine just take your time and make sure the noise is fun for the dog.

RE: Gun shy dog
 

Hey guys,

Thanx for the suggestions, I hope we didn't start any serious arguments. I guess what ever the situation is everyone has different opppions, and what works for one might not work for the other. Anyway, this is not really a hunting dog but more or less a house and outside dog. I can't think of anything that should have caused her to be so afraid of loud noises, the first time she heard a gun she just took off running and ended up a mile away.
I think I will do like a couple of you suggested and get her really excited about something that she really likes and start with a small cap gun and work our way up to something bigger. I'd just like to shoot my muzzleloader outside, but she just gets scared and hides somewhere. Anyway thanx for the help and I will let you know what happens..