Gun shy Advice

Straffan1979

I've a 10 month old cocker who was flying , hunting cover, bird mad retrieving to hand and her training was going great I thought. I wouldn't have huge experience training dogs but I thought she was shaping up very well. I'd been firing a cap gun in the garden while she was retrieving and no problem at all, and no nervousness with anything.

As an introduction to the gun I Took her thru a big field of rushes full of snipe a few weeks back. My mate was 600 yards away and I hunted her towards him and he fired the odd shot until we were 50 yards away- no problems at all. Did the same last week and even fired a shot while she retrieved the dummy again no problem.

Was out a couple of days ago with her for a few hours. Had the gun but didn't intend to shoot over her as she's a bit young. She put up 3 birds and plenty of snipe and that was grand- thought this is going great.However while nearly home as things seemed to be going so well I stupidly fired at a snipe without really thinking. She took fright.

Disaster, she's now a bit of a nervous wreck around the gun and walking behind me in the field yesterday. Have I done irreparable damage?its a real sickener as she looked like she had great potential and I'd paid a lot of money for her when she was 6 months or so. Any advice welcome!

snipey

start again, banging pots as your feeding and so on, using the starting pistol, he'll be alright but it will take a bit of time, i used to bring a dog to a claypigeon shoot and stand well back, but i think thats not for your dog for a while, plus always bring another dog with you that not gun shy. hope it works out.

deeksofdoom

All may not be lost yet but if you fire another shot near her you might.

You need to start from basics again with the gun my GWP was very nervous of the gun when she was young and unless I introduced her gradually she would have been gunshy.

You need to get the dog used to the sight and smell of the gun now, that means lots of positive reinforcement i.e. when it sees the gun it should be doing something nice i.e, being fed, being praised, being played with.

Feed the dog with the gun lying next to its bowl, let the dog smell the gun and give it loads of praise. Do this for a couple of weeks until the dog isn't taking anymore notice of the gun.

Then introduce opening closing the gun or if its a semi or pump racking it back and forth and getting used to the different noises it makes.

Then start taking the dog out again with the gun unloaded no shooting under any circumstances even caps, put it up to your shoulder as if going to fire get the dog to sit beside you loads of praise for the dog, you can do this in the garden.

Then in a few months using caps leave the dog hunt away on rabbits and while its not taking any notice fire a cap, just the primer, throw the ball and give a retrieve.

Then shoot a rabbit for it some day all of this can be done on your own.

The more time you put into this the better the results, if you manage to cure the dog in a month well and good but if you don't fire a shot again until next November you'll have a gun shy dog again.

Its something you can work on, but if you rush it your going to make a balls of it. You won't be shooting over the dog for the rest of the season.

hathcock

Straffan1979 wrote: »

I've a 10 month old cocker who was flying , hunting cover, bird mad retrieving to hand and her training was going great I thought. I wouldn't have huge experience training dogs but I thought she was shaping up very well. I'd been firing a cap gun in the garden while she was retrieving and no problem at all, and no nervousness with anything.

As an introduction to the gun I Took her thru a big field of rushes full of snipe a few weeks back. My mate was 600 yards away and I hunted her towards him and he fired the odd shot until we were 50 yards away- no problems at all. Did the same last week and even fired a shot while she retrieved the dummy again no problem.

Was out a couple of days ago with her for a few hours. Had the gun but didn't intend to shoot over her as she's a bit young. She put up 3 birds and plenty of snipe and that was grand- thought this is going great.However while nearly home as things seemed to be going so well I stupidly fired at a snipe without really thinking. She took fright.

Disaster, she's now a bit of a nervous wreck around the gun and walking behind me in the field yesterday. Have I done irreparable damage?its a real sickener as she looked like she had great potential and I'd paid a lot of money for her when she was 6 months or so. Any advice welcome!

You may have done some inadvertant damage,but all is not lost.The fact that the dog stays with you means it's not gunshy but gun nervous,leave the gun at home and go back to basics, this will restore the dogs confidence,it may take a while,at this point the gun can gradually be reintroduced,just carried for a few outings so the dog becomes used to the sight of it,and then very carefully reintroduced to the sound of gunfire,emphasis on slowly.If you take it slowly it will all be ok in the end.

Straffan1979

Cheers I'll have to start again as suggested.

To be honest I'm in a bit of a state of shock that a dog who was so confident and a bit of a lunatic could turn like this after an amateur mistake on my part of firing a shot so close at a young dog. I've learned the hard way it seems.

hathcock

Straffan1979 wrote: »

Cheers I'll have to start again as suggested.

To be honest I'm in a bit of a state of shock that a dog who was so confident and a bit of a lunatic could turn like this after an amateur mistake on my part of firing a shot so close at a young dog. I've learned the hard way it seems.

Don't be too hard on yourself,we all make mistakes,it's onward and upward from here on,best of luck a chara.

snipe49

Straffan1979 wrote: »

I've a 10 month old cocker who was flying , hunting cover, bird mad retrieving to hand and her training was going great I thought. I wouldn't have huge experience training dogs but I thought she was shaping up very well. I'd been firing a cap gun in the garden while she was retrieving and no problem at all, and no nervousness with anything.

As an introduction to the gun I Took her thru a big field of rushes full of snipe a few weeks back. My mate was 600 yards away and I hunted her towards him and he fired the odd shot until we were 50 yards away- no problems at all. Did the same last week and even fired a shot while she retrieved the dummy again no problem.

Was out a couple of days ago with her for a few hours. Had the gun but didn't intend to shoot over her as she's a bit young. She put up 3 birds and plenty of snipe and that was grand- thought this is going great.However while nearly home as things seemed to be going so well I stupidly fired at a snipe without really thinking. She took fright.

Disaster, she's now a bit of a nervous wreck around the gun and walking behind me in the field yesterday. Have I done irreparable damage?its a real sickener as she looked like she had great potential and I'd paid a lot of money for her when she was 6 months or so. Any advice welcome!

U may have made the mistake 4 months ago did he say she was fired over. If your buying a pup 6 months or so for big money best so check this first. do u know where any of the litter brothers or sisters went and how they are. Dis u see both the parents were they both bold or shy. Why was he selling this pup . T here a great c.d i have used in the past 100 spectacular sound effects plat this on low into her kennel and as she gets confident with it turn it up.Good luck with her pal.

Straffan1979

snipe49 wrote: »

U may have made the mistake 4 months ago did he say she was fired over. If your buying a pup 6 months or so for big money best so check this first. do u know where any of the litter brothers or sisters went and how they are. Dis u see both the parents were they both bold or shy. Why was he selling this pup . T here a great c.d i have used in the past 100 spectacular sound effects plat this on low into her kennel and as she gets confident with it turn it up.Good luck with her pal.

Yeah to be honest no issues there, she was 110 % when I got her and has only improved.I assumed she wouldn't be shot over at 6 months so I thought I'd done enough in the garden and firing at distance and she'd shown no sign of any nervousness of any kind to step it up a notch-She is bird crazy. I've had a truly gun shy dog before who was afraid of its own shadow as a pup and never came to anything- hes sitting at the fire here!

I can see this is very different and is truly the fault of the handler. I fired at close range while the dog was tired and not really hunting hard. If I'd fired earlier in the day when she was in full flight flushing a pheasant I'm certain I'd have no problem and could have progressed to the next stage but I was trying to be cautious. Anyway spilt milk now but I've just made a pile of work for myself and even then the outcome seems uncertain- I might have a pair of them at the fire next Christmas!!!

coolhandspan

hi, I have a working cocker, they are a bit wild, dog will come round. dog should be highly excited before next shot fired. not in relaxed state. my fella got fright from shot as pup, but his excitement at going hunting gets them past it. god idea to bring to a clay shoot if possible before next outing.

Vizzy

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