gun nervous

[lilliegez]

hi my 3 year old cocker is nervous of the starter pistol.  she rarely hears one only when we are at training class but she will stop work and begins to shake.  she is fine with other noises fireworks etc.  I also have a cd with gun noises on and she takes no notice of it.  I have bought a cap gun to try to sort the issue, and am hoping over time she will manage.  its such a shame she is doing so well with training but next step would mean being in a gun environment.  can anyone give me any advice, thanks.

[daw]

I've had four cockers, two working, two show. Of those both show and one working were gun shy- and I have to say in the case of our last working cocker, irretrievably so. He would only react to the real thing and not TV or sound effects. But the fear response was horrible to see.  Dogs have a different hearing range so are often reacting to things in high frequencies not reproduced. Having worked for spaniel rescue I do know there is a small but steady stream of gun shy dogs being rehomed as pets only and I expect many things have been tried with them before they were given up. My feeling is that some dogs are just not meant to be around guns and you have to accept that. I was pretty glad of it too because I got one of my dogs that way, when he'd been labelled 'failed.'     

[MIN]

its like hoping your baby daughter will be a ballet dancer and then finding out she has flat feet .
 I do not know if it can be mended. Gemma works with guns and has no problem. But loud gun fire on telly or fireworks has her running for her cuddle toys      Really hope you can get her sorted 

[Pearly]

Is she shaking with fear or excitement?

I have two cockers - the older one sits on the sound of a gun and will wait to be directed on.  The younger doesn't always sit but does stop and mostly waits for instruction - both did this without training as if it's pre-programmed.

If your girl is ok with other loud noises I would suggest stopping the starter pistol as it does have a very different sound to a gun.  You can get a shotgun blank firing adaptor for a 20 or 12 gauge which has a more "dead sound" and isn't as loud as a gun - firing it at distance may be a way to either test or check if she really is gun shy.

If you are in open space or public land then you can use party poppers....

I took both of mine through introduction to gun shot - there is no substitute for the real thing so visits to clay pigeon shoots, walking at a long distance so it's just in human ear shot, getting closer until the point that she either isn't bothered or you know if there is a problem.  The pup was in the car during shoot days last season and not close to any drives which meant she could hear the sound but it wasn't loud and she had nothing negative to associate with it.  We also went to a few game fairs/gun dog days plus working tests to observe as they also fire shots throughout the day.

Reward if she is excited or shows interest and ignore otherwise.  If her shaking really is with fear does she associate the sound of the gun with something that has occurred during training or working? 

At training after the gun has fired, does your girl get to retrieve? 

[lilliegez]

thanks all.  she does get really excited when she is out training.  she is always eager to get on.  I think its a bit of nerves as she isn't use to the sound of the starter pistol and also excitement.  today I took her out to the woods and took a childs cap gun.  I took her off a distance away and got her into a really fun game of finding her tennis ball while a friend fired the cap gun to which she looked up once and carried on.  we used 6 shots to which she was fine as I got her really engrossed in the game.  I know its not a starter pistol but cap gun is a good start and she did fine.  really pleased, will take it slow and gradually build it up.  fingers crossed.

[JeffD]

have to agree with Pearly, some dogs just do not like the sharp high pitched crack of starting pistols where as they are fine with shotguns.