Thread: Gun shy

Originally Posted by Wirehunt

I call BS to the age you start a dog with the gun. The sooner the better.

There is a 10 week old pup here that is well broken to the gun and comes along for a walk whenever I go (four days a week) Same goes for all the other pups I've bred.
I will say that of the god knows how many other dogs I've been through that are the six months plus the fail rate has been massive when it comes to gun shyness. And yes, I did the slowly slowly thing.

That maybe true, but with your experience you would be able to see something Jord may not have. By reading the dogs reaction to loud noises, you would back off a step before you created a problem.

Jord I'll leave it at this before it turns into a shitfight, but my only advice would be this. As with all dog problems you start at the issue and work backwards. (not the human approach and go straight to the source). You need to address the issue of the dog being aversive to the sight of the gun before you even think of any conditioning to sound, not the other way around, as if you do all the conditioning to sound then whip the gun out, you will be back to square one. Start bringing the gun out at feeding etc, hell even stick one in his kennel and run. Then increase this to walks with the gun, or any gun shaped object. Then when he comfortable with that, only then go on to sound conditioning. Don't put a timeline on this too by the way, this could be a 3-6 month project if you are lucky. All the best.