Any hope for this spinger ?

brianfrancis45

I got (free of charge !) an springer off an old friend who had several and was looking to sell off a few of his very young dogs as his kennel capacity was maxed out. At the time I was just looking for one for a bit of rabbit and foxing ,without a gun.

The dog is about 2.5 years old and I have him since he was about 1 year old. From day one he was a keen hunter and driving out rabbits and foxes from heavy cover well, much to the delight of my collie/greyhound cross. His major fault was that sometimes he would become too keen and when a fox would give him the slip he would follow up , ignoring my attempts to call him back and before long he would be a field away , not necessarily on the same fox but just nose to ground and driving on looking for another fox or rabbit. He seems to have a good nose and soemtimes heads off himself in the field near me and returns to the house with a live rabbit in his gob. He also is mad keen to retrieve from both land and water and invariably walks around with a ball or stick in his mouth which he is keen for you to throw and let him retrieve.

Lately he has steadied up quite a bit and is getting better in terms of not ranging out too far and returning when I call him up. I decided recently to get back into shooting , bought myself a shotgun and took him for walk up the fields . He hunted well and was reasonably o.k. in that he did not range out too far and was reasonable (but not perfect) on the recall. However, when I took a shot he was spooked and when I took another one, he panicked and bolted home.

I've since spoken to the guy who used to own him and he told me that the sire and dam are excellent shooting dogs but that he never put any training into the dog as he just didn't have the time and the dog had never been shot over.

I realise now that I probably made a big mistake by shooting over the dog without first checking if he had any previous exposure to gun shot .
Any of you guys who have experience with shooting dogs feel that I could somehow possibly get rid of the dog's obvious fear of gunshot and maybe go on to train him a bit further. Or, due to the fact that he bolted when he heard the shot and is now 2.5 years old, is this a pretty firm indication
in your opinions that there is little point in me trying to train the dog to be a reasonable rough shooting companion. ?

Whilst I have had many hunting dogs down the years , I've never had a gun dog before so am a complete novice in that respect. Any advice, frank opinions or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

cavan shooter

Two dogs my brother has had were given to him because they were gun shy. Both turned out great dogs one I nick named one CSI, his nose was brilliant.

He managed to coax them around and the way forward here is to gently introduce the dog to the shot. Put him on a lead and get someone to ,at 100 yards let a shot off, at the same time be petting him and re assure him and work back. BTW how would you react if someone fired a shot without you knowing what it was?? It's the same with a dog

Getting him to stay in hunting in range is simple call him back and put him in the ditch (point go ditch) call him back when he strays put him back in. Eventually he will cop on eventually work up to firing a shot when he is hunting. Try a shell with no shot or powder only a primer and work up.

Even when your out and about the house have the whistle and call the dog with the whistle get him to associate coming back to the whistle "with a good scratch and pet"

It will take some time but it will be worth it

EPointer=Birdss

I agree. I'd start off with a cap gun. I've always used them with pups. I throw the dummy & fire the gun. They are about as loud as a good clap of your hands. After awhile I build up to what CS said about shots at distance etc It's all about reassuring him that the noise is a good thing.
I would not give up just yet though if he's working well...
As for giving you the deaf ear, I'd put an e collar on him because running off wild after a fox will get him squashed by a car some day!
He needs to learn that if he ignores you that you can always reach out & grap him!

sonofthegun

uncle was given a " gun shy red setter " he used a small amount of cotton wool in the ears to dull the bang kept the dog with him and reassured him constantly after the shot was fired took a few weeks of building trust between the two of them but now the wool is out and the dog is starting to work.he has trained a good few dogs in his day and reconks it works but thinks hat the bond u have with the dog is very important

brianfrancis45

Thanks to all who replied . I will certainly try out some of the tips given and see if I can get the dog used to gun shot.

As far as improving recall with the dog , I'm a bit iffy about the suggestion of using a shock collar . The dog is a bit nervous at the best of times and my gut instict tells me that the e collar might prove to be counter productive.

Has anyone here tried an e collar on their dog(s), especially one that appears to need a soft handling ?.

homerhop

The e collars have a range of settings from a very soft tingle to a good strong dart. Perhaps its just a case of having to go back to basics in the back yard of getting to sit and stay and after a while start adding a few distractions.

s-cogan

see if you can get a few gauge reducers for the gun, so you can start of the dog with the report from a .410 and built up through the gauges. just a thought cos i seen em on some website but i know nothing about traing dogs

http://www.cabelas.com/p-0012774.shtml

EPointer=Birdss

I have always used them in conjunction with hours of training.
Great tool if you use them right! I remember a dropper once who had the best nose of any dog I've seen but he would range out, not set & not keep close no matter what! If only I had it then he would be up there with any dog in the country no exageration! Could not reign the dog in as he knew when he was out of range there was nothing you could do to chastize him & no point punishing him when he comes back!!
Put in on your harm & test the settings! Low setting is a mere tickle & high is a fair aul dart as said! Obviously if you go around blasting them for nothing your wasting your time!

vermin hunter

how you doin a friend of mine had simlar trouble to yourself and what he done was he waited till the dog was on a rabbit he let a shot of the dog was so busy chasing the rabbit he didnt even look when the shot went off he done this a couple of times and thers not aq bother on him now.