New member to the family, 5 weeks old Golden Retriever. I have not hunted for 20 years. I would like to teach this dog to hunt. He comes from champion stock My last dog was terified of firecrackers and loud noise. How do I introduce the dog to gunshots without scaring him. Any advice on the best books to by would be greatly appriceated or a local trainer . I live in the seatac area Thanks JayPea OKBYE

what i've always been told is dogs are not born gun shy... but what i did is take my lab w/me to the local gun club to shoot skeet... hope this helps

The one that I used on my Lab was "Gun Dog" by Walters, he has several different books, but he keeps things simple and they seem to work well. Good luck with the puppy, there is nothing finer than the first retreive from a dog you have trained from the ground up.

Five weeks old? First of all you have 2 weeks until the little guys brain can comprehend anything....studies have shown that at or around 49 days of age the "light bulb" turns on and is actually trainable.

At 5 weeks of age you also have quite some time before introducing the pup to gunfire. For the time being I would start by making noise while it is eating its' meals. I fed my dog in the kitchen and would use that time to wash dishes, put them away, etc.....making some loud bangs and clangs while doing so. They go from being startled and jumpy to ignoring the noises in no time....it's a good starting point.

Walters books are OLD school but worth the read. I would suggest reading books from different trainers and tailoring your training to your dogs traits and personality....all dogs are different (soft vs. knucklehead) and need to be trained different, IMHO.

Goldens are awesome hunting and family dogs. Their intelligence and eagerness to please makes them among the easiest of all dogs to train. There is a reason all helper dogs are either Goldens or Labs. Have fun and keep us posted!

Ike

I've got a year old brittany. Took her to the trainer at 8 months. His advice was to build their desire to hunt/kill first, then introduce the guns. Once they're all riled up to chase birds, they'll never think twice about the gunfire. I was there for the first time with a starter's pistol and the dog never slowed down. All she wanted was blood - a friggin' machine. Granted, this is a pointer and not a retriever, but I would think similar thinking would apply. The one thing I've consistently heard is NEVER take them to the gun range. Being kenneled/leashed with all that noise is the worse thing you can do.

Ikissmykiss and salty are right on the money. Any noise and lots of it will help tremendously. The desire to do well at the scent of birds is also crucial. The thing you do not want to do most is give the dog any attention for a negative reaction to noise and or gun fire. A dog will learn real quickly to be scared of noise because it is coddled, loved and secured with the negative reaction. When you first fire your gun act as if everything is normal and shooting is what is supposed to happen in the field.

I have an english pointer and a lab that I have trained to work a little harder at the sound of the shot gun. The pointer goes into "bird down" mode after the shot and my lab will hit the water even if I miss when we are duck hunting.

We got our lab from the pound and she was gun shy as h#ll. She would even piss herself if I worked the action. To cure that I left the shotgun out so she could see it and I would pick it up occsionaly and work the action. Every time I did that she would get scared, but I would not even make eye contact with her. Out in the field meanwhile (before season) when she would stumble onto a bird (pheasant ,quaill, etc...), I would make a big deal out of it and give lots of praise. Eventually she didn't care about the shotgun and proceeded to hone her skills of finding birds regardless of what I had in my hands.

10 Minute Retriever by John and Amy Dahl.

Thanks for all the input. I will be off to the store today. The little guy is doing well We are working on the house breaking thing. He is real good if we are paying attention. I had forgotten how much work a pup can be. He is allready retrieving a ball or any other toy that he can get his paws on Getting him to let go is a chore at times. Our cat caught a large wood pecker the other day and the dog went compleatly nuts over the carcass. He turned into a raging growling snarling pit bull when I tried to get it away from him. I just about lost my cool. as he bit me and drew blood when I foolishly reached for the thing. I finaley was ableto get it away from him. not much left. I have been throwing whats left of the wing for him and he likes to chase that. A buddy is going duck hunting and he says he will save me a couple duck wings to use. These should get him chasing the right kind of birds. ok bye for now Jay Pea

I am not sure what all the rest of the guys have said, as I am just too lazy to read all the replies so far. But, my family raises, breed and trains labs. As we have litters, or new pups, we simply start dropping pots and pans on the ground as they are eating. This helps them not be afraid of loud noises. As they get older, cap guns, and then finally blanks out of a pistol to finish. Good luck. PM me if you have any other training questions. I will be more than happy to lend a hand.

I wouldn't concern youself too much regarding gunshyness. It sounds like you have a very birdy pup. If you are concerned just have someone pop off a few rounds, at a distance at first, while the pup is pre occupied chasing a duck wing. He'll probably care less about the gunshot.



If you haven't done so already do yourself and your pup a favor and get a crate ASAP and use it. The pup will not potty in it and it will very quickly become his private little condo be it at home or on the road.

Good luck and have fun.

Thanks for the advice on the crate. My wife was reluctent but agreed to give it a try. We had given the pup a small dog bed to lay on and we put that in the crate. In no time at all that was his place. He whines a little when we shut the door but that dos'nt last long. I took him on a fishing outing on friday and took the crate with us it worked out great. When he got tired out he went into it and slept. I would advise the crate thing to everyone it is great way to contain the dog and give him a place to feel safe. ok bye Jay Pea