gun shy

[rebel]

A friend of mine has a 9 month old black lab this is gun shy. I have a German Pinscher that loves to see a gun when we go ATV riding.
The labs name is Rebel. This is my friends second Black lab and he tried to break the new on the same as the old dog. Duke( old dog) loved to see a gun come out of the cabinet he would go crazy. WE don't bird hunt, but do some clay bird shooting, target practice, and ground hog hunting. Not many birds in our area. A lot of deer.
Anyway, he has shot the gun let the dog smell it, as long as the dog is on leash he has to stay put. But Rebel will run home if he is off leash. If I am there with my dog Rebel will hang around for a while, then he just takes off. Rebel is AKC regisiter and comes from a huntiing blood line.
What have we done wrong, and how can we start to fix it?

[Country-Side Breeders]

Is Rebel actually gun shy or is he noise shy? There is a big difference between the 2. In order for you to get him to love the gun, you need to have him associate it with something that he loves, so that he doesn't notice when the gun goes off...assuming that it's gun shyness you're dealing with. Here's a link to a good article explaining gun shyness and one approach towards it:

http://www.gundogsonline.com/ArticleSer ... 78B707B4D1

[icefire]

gun shyness is one of the easiest things to prevent but if introduced incorrectly it can also be one of the easiest problems to create. how exactly was the dog introduced? if he was shot close to (on the leash?) as his first intro, it is not suprising that this happened. Your friend needs to back way off. we start gun introduction long after bird introduction and after we have established a "play" retrieve with dead, usually frozen birds. starting with a blank pistol from at least 100 yards away. the person with the pistol fires when the dog is not paying attention then the person with the dog (on a check cord) tosses the bird right in front of the dog. if there is NO negative reaction (which that far a way with a fresh dog there should not be) this is repeated until the dog starts looking for the bird after the shot. it usually does not take to many repetitions before the dog begins to make the connection. then over the course of a week or 2 this distance is slowly shortened untilyou are within 20 feet of the dog. then start with a 20 guage back at least 50 or 60 yards away and go through it again until you are close enough to start shooting birds for the dog. if the dog is actually gunshy now, your friend has a long though usually not impossible road ahead of him. he should start back with the blank pistol at least 100 yards away and as soon as someone shoots (once) present food. do not present the food first! one shot, one meal once a day until the dog gets excited at the sound. then slowly over the course of a month or 2 work your way closer.

ice

[Decoy]

I noticed in the original post that they did not bird hunt.

If you just want to prevent or curtail the gunshyness while the dog is doing something fun shoot a 22 a few times (start far away then move closer)

a good time time to shoot might be when the dog is chasing a squirrel rabbit groundhog etc....
The dog's mind is on the chase and it is not likely to be spooked from the pursuit because of a little rimfire.

Next move up to a 20 guage.

Then just for fun kill the rabbit / squirrel or whatever ---- now the dog will associate gunfire with a kill or a retrieve -- something fun.

Forget about letting the dog smell the gun -- i dont think that servs a purpose -- the dog will eventually get excited over the sight of a gun not the smell of it.



This i not how i would do it with a pointing breed but i think it might be a good way for your situation.