I have a golden. He is a good retriever but he is horribly gun shy...Im talking he is affraid of gum popping.. is there in hope in him overcoming it? How should i go about it

Look down below for the thread titled "Gun Shy Lab".

have you had any success? my nova scotia duck tolling retriever is similar...awesome retriever, hard worker, always attentive to command...but is quite gunshy...let me know if you have found anything useful,
thanks,
jcallaway

Me too! My dog, wirehaired pointing griffon is 2 yrs old. I started him out when he was 1 yr old, taking him up in the woods, when he was about 100 feet away sniffing at something, I shot one .22 rimfire out of my pistol, held the pistol behind me and pointed it to the ground to minimize "blast". My dog 'flinched' but did not run away.

Over a period of time (4 months) I did this "explore the woods" method and shot the pistol when he was closer, and eventually took a 20 ga. shotgun and fired it when he was approx 40 feet away, in the bushes on a scent. He would flinch, but not run away.

So I thought, great! Maybe he is not Gunshy, but Gun-sensitive.(one of the classes NAVDA dogs are classed).

Next my BIG MISTAKE happened. I took him to the river, we sat together in the bushes, and all of a sudden a small group of geese flew (silently)directly over us. My dog did not see them as he was drowsing. I shot 3 quick shots from the 12 ga 11-87, BANG-BANG-BANG. No goose fell. My poor dog, (who was leashed to my side), abruptly surprised was now STRAINING on the lease AWAY from me. He was frightened BIG TIME. That was last year. I spent the past several months trying to associate fun-time with me carrying a shotgun, and finally he accepted that without shying away.

ANOTHER BIG MISTAKE, last weekend, my son and I went to the river, My son walking about 40 feet in front of me and my dog (not leashed) between us. All of a sudden my son blasted away 3 shots at a low flying duck that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. No real chance to see the duck coming. My dog turned tail, and ran as fast as he could toward and going beyond me out of sight, AWAY from us. I was really crushed, and now believe the BIG MISTAKES have been NOT allowing the dog to see the game flying BEFORE the shooting.

So now that I screwed up a good dog, I am really searching for opinions that will help. Hopefully, I will be able to "undo" the damage. Maybe the best thing is to pay the price, and go to a game farm, and let the dog have some experience seeing game birds fluttering around. And maybe not do any shooting until he is 100% familiar to seeing the birds. Your thoughts are welcome.

Novice from Montana

i also have a pup who seems to be gunshy. She is a beautiful black lab who is only 16 weeks old. I took her in a field at about 12 weeks at least 150 yards away from occasional gunfire. It never seemed to bother her. I was playing fetch with a dummy and she was doing great.

Later, we tried a dummy launcher. She just won't retrieve even with it a ways away. Also, I have tried the firing a cap gun while she is eating as it says in the book "Water Dog," she just quits eating, walks away and lays down. Almost like she thinks that means she is supposed to quit.

The only thing I can think of is one night we were outside and some people were riding extremely loud motorcycles. When one of the passed the house (very loudly) she jumped up in my lap and was shaking. But I have never heard of loud motorcycles making a dog scared of guns.

I don't know if she is trying to become gunshy or if I am just worrying too much. She hasn't been around big guns that I know of though. I just can't figure out why she had no problem a few weeks ago, but now she doesn't like anything loud.

Can anyone help with this? I have already read all the other postings on gunshy dogs on this. ANYTHING else should help!!!

i have read that. I was also wondering if someone had ever heard of the audio CD called GUNSHY CURE