Oldtimr

Forget about the pan banging nonsense. When you want to get your dog ready for gunfire start small with a .22 blank about 20 yards away after the pup's nose is full of bird. Once the dog shows more interest in the bird than the gunfire, move closer until you are finally shooting over the dog. Then start all over again with a shotgun shell with a primer only. Don't rush it, plant 2 or three birds each time and then increase until the dog is only interested in the bird and ignores the noise. You want a hunting dog to ignore gunfire, r look forward to it when they are hunting, gun fire has nothing to do with beating on a dog food pan.

Uncle Nicky

Not sure banging a pan is nonsense, what is wrong with trying to condition a dog to loud, sudden noises? I've trained 2 dogs, neither was gun shy (or scared of firecrackers, thunder, etc.). The advice I was given was fire a cap gun (not in the pup's face) whenever you feed them, let them associate the sound of a loud pop with something they enjoy (food). But I agree the rest of your suggestion makes good sense.

Oldtimr

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.

Uncle Nicky

I'm no pro either, just a guy who likes to hunt turkeys with a dog. I believe the whole idea of banging pots and shooting a cap gun at meal time is supposed to be done when they are fairly young, and obviously there is whole other protocol involved when you take the dog outside and train it on birds and acclimate it to gun fire (around 6 months). It's more of a "build up" to the actual process of field training. It's worked fine for me, and was suggested by "real" trainers, so if it does no harm and probably some good, why not?

karlhunter

everytime you go out to the field give the dog smell and taste of game .eventually he will start to get the instincts

thaechten

I've heard britts are real temperamental and if you upset them, they're no good for a while because they're real sensitive. I haven't personally owned one so it could be hear say but I'd wonder how they'd do bird hunting. Anyone else know about this?