How to cure a gunshy lab?

[davinci]

I'm trying to help a friend train his lab retriever to be less gunshy. He got this bitch about a year ago when she was a pup, so she really doesn't have any experiences with guns or anything loud even, but she seems to run and hide anytime he pulls out his shotgun.

Even cycling the action sends her off, hiding in other parts of the house. very strange, indeed...especially for a hunting dog.

Ideas welcome!

 

[Cougfan2]

The key is to get the pup to associate the sound you want them to not be afraid of with something pleasant. Please DO NOT do what some morons do and walk up to the pup for the first time and blast off with a 12 ga while she is right next to you. There is no surer way to make her gun shy!

I trained my dogs by starting out when I was feeding them. My brother would stand at the back of the back yard with a pop gun and when the pup started wolfing down food would fire the pop gun. When the pup would glance up I would show NO reaction. Eventually worked my way up to a blank pistol right be her while she was eating. Again show NO reaction if she jumps a little. Finally took her out to shoot some clays in the country thrown from a hand trap, with a few biscuits thrown in!

Hope it works out for your friend.

 

[Kingcreek]

A dog needs to be introduced to the gun properly. Your buddy's dog may not have been given the chance to get used to it gradually and does not equate the loud sound with joyous lab things like birds, fetching, etc.
You might be able to undo the damage with enough time and work.
I start this with a pup and 2 people. I get the dog all excited with a bumper or a dead pidgeon and instruct my helper (who is standing some distance away with a .22 or later a .410) to shoot into the ground and away when he sees me throw the bird into the air. As the dog gets used to the sound, the shooter moves closer. I move up to live wingclipped pidgeons when I get to shooting right over them. If the dog spooks or gets freaky, you gotta back off and start again until he is comfortable with it.
The kind of people that shoot a 12g over the dog the first time, to find out if he's gunshy, are the same kind of people who will throw thier kid into deep water to see if he can swim.

 

[Big Az Al]

Or do what some guy's have done

Go to a trap club, when there will be shooting going on, start off as far away from the shooters as possible, and work your dog like nothing is going on.

Drop a treat that the dog will find if paying attention to surroundings, and get it to act as naturuelly as possible, and let the dog be the one to decide to go see what all that noise is.

It has been fun to see Lab's (mostly) pulling the owner up to the seats to see what the heck is going on!

But those where not already known to be gun shy to start with, just owners wanting the dog to learn about shooting noise! Those dogs reacted like "I know what that is! FUN!!!!!!"

Be gentle, a truly good dog will learn what pleases you, and if your expections are not somehow weird, become a really good dog. trying to please you!

 

[Kingcreek]

My 2 labs go absolutely nuts (in a positive way) when they see a gun or guncase. My female got mad at me the last time I went to shoot skeet and wouldn't even come to greet me when I got home. She thought I went hunting without her.
The best "cure" is to not let them become gunshy in the first place.
The clay range would be a problem for me. My dogs would think they were s'posed to retrieve the pieces of those orange things.

 

[LT1coupe]

My Lab knew there was, or should be a squirrel coming from were ever I shot. He learned to watch were I was aiming & position himself to catch what ever fell out of the tree. They rarely ever hit the ground . The downside is when you're just shooting at a target, the dog keeps looking at you like you're a lousy shot cause there is nothing to retrieve.

 

[Cougfan2]

The clay range would be a problem for me. My dogs would think they were s'posed to retrieve the pieces of those orange things.

This actually happened to me many years ago with my first Lab. I was behind the line at the trap range and she slipped her leash and went after the bird. Luckily several shouts of cease fire went up. Boy was that a red faced walk back with her for me! Luckily they all had a sense of humor.

Actually they were laughing their a$$e$ off.

 

[davinci]

good advice, we'll try this desensitising stuff.

 

[koja48]

I basically use the method King described, but I have the dog/pup retrieving for a bit first, then introduce a 22 in the background & proceed from there.