Gun shynesd

[Naj]

You occasionally hear of young dogs in the U.K. suddenly becoming gunshy at the start of their second shooting season and I suspect that is because they haven’t been carefully reintroduced to the gun prior to the season starting. I always give my young dogs a refresher course before the start of their second season if they’ve spent the close season without hearing the sound of gunshot in close proximity to them.

Naj

[PRH]

Daft question but has the dog been near a rifle when that has been fired? I know of a couple of good gundogs who were made gunshy because of close proximity to rifle shot.

[Savageak]

No she has never been very close to rifel or pistol fire,she does hear distant gun fire almost daily.There is a public shooting range a mile and a half away and many of the neighbors can be heard shooting rifle and pistol on their property very regularly ,she will sometimes look in the direction of the gun fire when it starts but then ignore it.

[westcountry]

Have you checked her ears? Sometimes waxy ears can distort sound, also did you fire the gun somewhere she is used to? One of my dogs dived for cover when a gun was fired close to trees, we think it might have been the echo as she was fine both before and after.

Try going back to basics, getting someone to shoot a fair distance away while you give her a retrieve, gradually bringing the gun closer just as you would with a puppy.

Common sense and the best place to start.
Try going back to a childs cap gun and reward calm behavior with a retrieve. Recently did this with a gun nervous labrador over several lessons and he is now fine. went from kiddies cap gun to starter pistol and worked our way up to actual gunshot at close quarters. Takes time and patience but well worth it.

[Nickheref]

Although not really answering your question I had a long discussion with a few people the other day at what age to test if a pup is gun shy. After various ages had been suggested I told them I thought they were talking rubbish and that I didn't "test" the pups but brought in the gun gradually and I had never had a problem, I am almost certain that any dog who doesn't like gunshots has almost certainly been made that way by something happening to it rather than being born with an inherent problem, this seems to have happened with you but you don't know why. Start again as Judy and Westcountry say would be my view.

[Savageak]

Asking this question has made me ask myself what I was missing,it occurred to me over the weekend that this started on a Ptarmigan hunt about 2 weeks after we had a major earthquake which I had not considered before since she didn't show any kind of trauma from the quake

[Nickheref]

I took on a two year old untouched dog who was very worried about shots and would distance himself from the source if he heard one (not run off terrified but move what he considered a safe distance away - about 100 yards in his case and stand and watch but refuse to get involved) he was a very keen retriever and once he understood that a shot meant a retrieve he got over, it took two launches with a dummy launcher with me standing some distance away from him, the first one he watched unsure, the second he was up for the retrieve, the third he was sat 5 yards away unconcerned by the noise and twitching with anticipation at being sent for the retrieve, he never worried again about shots!

[newf]

Asking this question has made me ask myself what I was missing,it occurred to me over the weekend that this started on a Ptarmigan hunt about 2 weeks after we had a major earthquake which I had not considered before since she didn't show any kind of trauma from the quake

Unimportant guessing how it happened. If the dog or any dog acts negatively towards shot then it would it be remedied all in the same way. As others have all said: vet check and start as you would a pup.

[Savageak]

Thank everyone for their replies y'all are so much more civil and helpful than any American gun dog site I have sought help on. We will start over with conditioning to shot this summer ,if we ever thaw out.

[CockerCanuck]

Some thoughts on gun shyness. I am willing to bet it is a bigger problem here in NA than in the UK. It seems to me that your shoots are probably an almost ideal way to introduce a pup to the gun. Lots of birds, lots of excited happy dogs and people and gunshots going off, at least somewhat, distantly.

Much too often here the scenario runs something like this. The pup is taken out rough shooting, or worse warterfowling, after some time a bird presents itself, the pup may or may not be aware of it, and suddenly a 12 ga blasts close by. Not surprising many are startled and the insidious roots of nervousness get planted.

Since retiring a couple of years ago I have been taking part in a couple of retriever training groups here and have observed they are also a very good place to introduce a pup to the gun. They can be introduced at a bit of distance but they see exciting objects in the air, happy dogs chasing associated with the pop of starter pistols. Of course the pup quickly becomes keen to join the fun and associates the sound of the shots with all this wonderful play.

When training on your own it is more difficult, but not impossible, to create the happy, exciting environment that is ideal for gun conditioning. Sadly many try to take shortcuts, and many dogs are made gun shy who would have become happy serviceable shooting companions if just a bit of care was taken.