Re: Dog training?
Merle,
There are couple schools of thought regarding the gun shyness issue and dogs. The bottom line is conditioning IMHO. You have to condition the dog to associate the firing of a gun with something very positive. You can turn almost anything into positive reinforcement.
For example, dolphin triners at Sea World requested their dolphins do a behavior. To reward the dolphins for the behavior they would feed them fish. They progressed to feeding them fish and offering other positive reinforcement vocally. They took another step further and instead of rewarding the dolphin with fish and a couple "atta boys", they gave out the vocal reinforcement and while sweeping the pool deck with a broom. Eventually, they were able to just use the broom as a reward for the dolphin doing the trick! The dolphin regarded (I know, anthropomorphic) the sweeping of the deck with the broom as reward for doing his trick.
How do you apply this to your situation, and what about those different school of thought? Well, I have tried a couple different methods. I'm a big spaniel fan. My first was a Cocker (everybody laugh now). He was from a hunting line and he was a great dog. I started conditioning him to the gun at about six months of age. I went out and bought a cap pistol and right before I put his two scoops of food in his bowl, I fired a cap off. Eventually, we played this game with everything. He loved to fetch. I would fire the cap pistol before I threw his dummy. Pretty soon, when he heard an explosion, or gun fire on TV, he would wag his little nub of a tail thinking something good was coming his way. From there I didn't think twice about gun shyness and fired many a gun over that dogs back a flushing roosters and quail.
My next dog was a Springer. He was much more sensitive than my Cocker and didn't react well to the cap pistol at all. In fact, he curled up between my legs the first time I tried it. I knew I had some work ahead of me. I started reading, and many people were reccomending placing the dog in hunting situation, having him flush a bird, and then shooting the bird. The theory is that the dog is doing something very fun to him (flushing and retrieving a bird) and he will immediately associate the sound of the gun with a dead bird.
So, I got a couple pigeons and went out to a field. I left drake in his crate and went out to plant one of the birds. It was a damp morning, with a little breexe blowing. I dizzied the bird and tossed him in a bush about forty yards from the pick-up. I went back, loaded the gun, and gave lots of good boys to Drake in a sothing, but excited voice. We had worked many times in the field with his dummies and pheasant scent. So when I got him out of the crate he immediately went to the passenger door waiting for me to reach behind the seat and fish out his dummies. He started looking at me strangely when I whistled and said, "Hunt 'em up!"
That was all I needed to get him underway. He started working the ground in front of me into the wind. It was like a light went off when he stopped, sniffed the air and made a right turn toward the bush with the pigeon int it. His little tail wagging quicker and quicker until his hind-end was almost out of control with excitement. There is just something that fills you with pride when you watch your dog get "birdie". With his nose in the air and on the ground seemingly at the same time he almost dove into the pigeon populated bush. The pigeon didn't get out of the bush right away, it took a cold springer nose in his butt for him to put it in high gear and high tail it out of that bush. I clicked the safety off with a little apprehension telling myself that he was still a great dog even if he ran and hid behind the driver side tire of my pick-up. I took aim and pulled the trigger of my 11-87. The bird crumbled and fell to earth. I caught Drake running out of the corner of my eye. He just about caught the bird as it hit the ground (we worked on hup to flush later).
Looking back, Drake never did like loud noises, but if you shot a bird or even at one he was happy as a lark.
I've always regarded the trainers who told me the played classical music with gunfire in the background to overcome gunshyness as a little lazy. Not that it won't work, it's just not very proactive.
In conclusion (sorry so long) each dog is different and needs to be handled differently with regard to gun shyness. Good Luck
Corey
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