Gun-shyness - Page 1

Hello fellow GSD lovers, Good day to all. I would just like to ask everybody about my bitch gun-shyness. She used to be not gun-shy before but when I entered her at our National Sieger show, she was gun-shy. I really don't know how she develops the bad trait. Can anybody give me advice on how to correct her gun-shyness? Thank you and I hope to hear from you all.

This may be corrected, or perhaps not. The best way to do this is to take her out on a field, play with her, get her really engaged in doing something she likes with you and from a LONG DISTANCE away, have someone fire some shots from a starter pistol. The trick is to gradually desensitize her. You can also do this in the house by playing music, thunder etc., at a low volume while she is doing something fun and gradually increase the volume. If she was not gun shy before, then perhaps you simply did not do enough to test her. Keep working at it slowly and hopefully you can correct it. This is one reason why we try to fire repeatedly during our training sessions, always starting from very far away, gradually coming closer, but not closer than required. The most important thing is to keep the dog occupied doing something it loves. Some obedience, upbeat and positive can also help. Good luck.

Hi Hodie, Thank you very much on your inputs. I will try it during our training sessions. Thanks again.

This could also be a double handling issue - I have seen doublers come out of hiding just before the gun is fired, causing the dog to lunge to get to them, which can be misinterpreted as a reaction to the gun. Yet with other dogs, being out of sight during the shots can be too stressful. The training tips mentioned before are super, but also look at it from a show standpoint, if this one show is the only place she has exhibited this behavior. If this is the case, then setting up practice show situations with gunshots could be another suggestion - experimenting with where the doubler is standing, and so on.

train41902 - thank you for your insight as well. I had not considered the double handling issue, but you are also right on the mark.

Thank you also train41902 for your helpful tips.

I had a female GSD that came over very sharp to the gun fire...what I did was carry a "cap gun" with me everywhere...even when I took her out to go to the bathroom...I fired off 2 or 3 shots everytime...after awhile she didn't mind them at all...then when I trialed her she didn't even notice the gun fire...as I fired off shots I never let her see the gun or where the shots (noise) came from...I know she could smell it but she never saw the gun...

I used to train bird dogs when I was younger and I can tell you that it is NOT a good idea to go and play with something she really likes and start shooting. Nothing against you Hodie it sound very reasonable but then you might need to worry about her no longer wanting to play this game. Someone posted above it might or might not be fixable which is 100% the truth. Sometimes it is easy to hide a genetic fault (which will always show its ugly head from time to time). Sometimes it is just one bad experience and I feel that is fixable. Here I go: 1.Get two handlers 2.You each need a food bowl 3.Snap gun/22 blank gun 4.Kibble dog food 5. Long Drag Line 5:A ton of patients Do this away from the training field at first You hold the dog, the second handler puts a few peaces of Kibble in the bowl and rattles it and calls dog. Dog is on long drag line incase she react unsurely As she runs to the food. Behind the bowl holders back snap off two shots (with a snap gun at first NO REAL GUNS) then put the gun into the bowl so she smells the powder while she eats. Do this for her meals each day until there is no reaction just running and than eating. Back and forth until she eats enough for her full meal. You can then up the ani with a 22 behind the back same place same people just a bit louder and keep working this until the shots mean food. Take her to the field same thing two handlers the long line and dinner. Than run around the ring stand for gun fire and then immediately feed the dog her food. So on and So on. The reason we always used food is the drive for her toys are not as important as eating and you could cause her to not want the toy anymore. this is how we worked gun shy bird dogs until either the dog got better or we could say we did everything possible to try and fix the problem. Hope this helps and take it slow....