I think I screwed up

[GSP4EVER]

I have a 10 month old GSP. We went hunting last fall and everything went well. A friend of mine and his wife were at the local gunclub yesterday shooting some trap. I decided to take the dog with. In the truck he did fine with the gun fire. Once we got out he freaked out. Ran back to the truck. SO now I have a gun shy pup. Last year he enjoyed it. Got excited everytime I got the gun out. So my question, did I ruin him or is there still a chance? Do I need to start over with the gun introduction? Any advice?

[kentuck_ike]

birds, birds, birds, and more birds. no gun for a while

[LABS4ME]

Start over with the gun intro.

He wasn't ready for that at 10 months old. Go slow. Add birds to the mix. Very little shooting up front...

He's young and with a good program of nird and gun intro, he should be fine.

Good Luck!

Ken

[DuckDog]

You have all summer to re-introduce him to gunfire. Start now -- back to the banging pots and pans - work your way slowly.

[DuckDog]

What really helped me was some feathers attached to a dummy - which my puppy loved and a starters pistol - first I had it covered to keep the sound down then worked my way to louder and louder.

[Bryce]

Pretty limited info to formulate ruined or not. Definitely tread lightly and follow the above advice. My guess is no pemanent damage depending on how well the initial intro to gunfire was done. Mainly wanted to comment on this thread because I know there will be a debate here this spring/summer on intro to gunfire at the local trap range. Can be done but terrible, terrible idea for the average pup owner.

[GSP4EVER]

Thanks everyone. I fell better knowing that I am back to square one instead of a lost cause.

The initial gun intro (late august early september was done with my dad shooting a 22 and we were playing about 100 yds away. Did that a few time and kept working our way closer. Then went to a 20 gauge working the same way. Thats where we were working with a feathered dummy being thrown, the the shot and his retrieve. At the end he was sitting by my side while i shot at clays and my dad throwing the dummy. He wanted to chase the clays more than the dummy.

Again, thanks very much.

Mike

[Ice Shack Baby]

There is good advice stated above. One thing that I did to work with our dogs is when you are feeding your dog, make noise with the pots and pans or whatever. Your dog will associate the noise as a good thing because he is eating. As you dog gets more accustomed to the noise, I would take him to a trap shooting club and start off in the parking lot away from the guns. Bring food again to reinforce that noise is not bad. When your dog is doing well with that, then I would bring him closer to the guns.

[Bryce]

Sounds like you had a good start flock. Go back to the basics and by all means, stay away from the trap range until you have progressed to shooting over the dog. Trap range = bad advice.

[Hd Wtr Hillbilly]

I did the exact same thing with my Springer, introduced her in the fall when she was young and she got used to it, then in the spring I was at the farm and shot trap with my brother the and she freaked out...I think it was because she hadnt heard the shots in 4 months and forgot about the noise...

Anyway as said above, I started over from scratch very slowly and she was fine- one thing that really helped was a dummy launcher- it makes the noise and they also see a toy go flying so they associate the noise with a fun activity.

Good luck