[wob]

Originally Posted by Blue77FJ40

Start by acclimating the dog to noise. While puppy is eating, take a ruler and lightly fwap it against the floor. Puppy will be startle. Calm puppy down and do it again later in the meal a bit louder. Not much. Calm puppy again. Continue this with each meal until you're really fwapping the ruler and the puppy totally ignores the sound.

At that point, you're ready to take puppy out for a walk in the woods with cb shorts. Pop one straight into the ground, calm the dog down and walk a while. Do this a few more times until dog ignores pops. Do all this gradually, acclimating the dog to increasing loudness. e.g., 22 regs, then someone shooting off shotgun shells at a great distance, then a bit closer, all the while calming the dog. I have a skeet range where I could heel the dog from a distance, slowly, approaching the parking lot where it was plenty loud.

My dog went from running wilh tail curled from a .22 to totally ignoring a 7mm magnum shot over her head. It just takes time and patience.

All this is from Wolter's 'Gun Dog'.

also see http://forum.ih8mud.com/hunting-fish...n-shy-dog.html

Originally Posted by wob

Turning a gun shy dog into a good hunter is just about impossible, and RARELY worth the effort even if doable.

see?


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