re-gun proofing help

[eckum54]

I have a 9 month old yellow lab and over the holiday weekend some rather loud fireworks were accidentally lit off about 15 feet from him which scared the spit out of him to the point where he was hiding under the patio...fast forward a couple days, I went to shoot trap and brought him along with me and the second a gun was fired he ran and hid under a truck. I worked with him last fall and went through the steps to gun proof him starting with a cap gun all the way to a twelve gauge...do I need to start all over again or does anyone know any tricks to get back in the right track. I love the dog but how am I supposed to hunt with him if he doesn't like guns and I don't shot a bow and arrow.

[shnelson]

Start from the very beginning again, and I mean before you even tried to introduce the cap gun.

Get the bumper out and get his drive to retrieve going again. Keep it fun, and only introduce the cap gun to gradually move up as he's ready for it. If he shows indication of uncertainty, back up a step and keep building the drive. He needs to be so excited about the retrieve that the gunshot does not register. Stay patient too, this isn't something you'll cure over night... it could take days, weeks, months or even all year.

Absolutely do not discharge a firearm within range of him unless he gets a retrieve out of it. This means no trap shooting and keep him out of earshot of the neighbors blackcats from here on out. All this will do is reinforce his reason to dislike it, as there is no reward (the retrieve).

I'm going through the same motions, only slightly different circumstances. I can tell you with enough patience, what I thought was a forever gunshyed dog is making great progress.

[Todd Caswell]

Two Tough lessons learned, 1. leave the dogs in the house, with the tv turned way up during the, 4th. And 2. never take a dog to the trap range. Hopefully the dog has a huge amount of prey drive and is crazy about birds. As stated above you will have to start from the begining.

I have never done anything special with introducing guns to the pups, they get put on the truck from 8 weeks old, on training nights and leand to associate the shot with retrieving, never had a noise shy dog, most aren't GUN shy there noise shy. Good luck

[MuleShack]

It may help to get some live birds such as pigions or chuckars to work the dog.

This will help his prey drive and focus on the birds while flushing. Then start with the cap gun or a .22 when the bird flushes. If he is comfortable, then slowly move up to the louder guns over time. You want him to associate the noise with something fun and when he hears it, he will get to retrieve a live bird. Dogs can only focus their attention on 1 thing at a time (so I've heard) so if he is going bonkers trying to find the bird and it flushes, that is where his focus will be when the noise happens and then the bird drops and he gets to retrieve. The variation to this is the bird flys away and you throw out a frozen pigion for him to bring back.

If he is skiddish like you say, live birds would be better to work around than just dummies. IMO

[Ufatz]

As others have said, you'll have to go back to ground zero with this puppy but it can be done. Patience, patience patience.

[kupman]

Everything I've read, it's fixable.. Good luck and listen to people here. Our 4 mnth old Setter was barking in kennel on 4th, let her out w/us, and was bored w/the fireworks.!