Once the dog is actively pointing and bird crazy, I like to introduce the dog to the gun. Unfortunately, many dogs that come into the rescue had bad prior experiences with the sound of gunfire due to poor introduction. Err on the side of caution and treat all dogs as if they are gunshy. Gunfire is one area in dog training where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I remain optimistic that most dogs, if they like birds enough, can overcome gunshyness with a patient trainer.
Don’t ever test a dog for gunshyness by shooting over him! Condition a dog to the sound of gunfire and you’ll never have a gunshy dog.
We’re going to use a behavioral term called counter conditioning, combined with desensitization. Counter conditioning is a form of classical conditioning. Classical conditioning pairs something that has no meaning to something of high value to achieve the same response. Do you remember back in school learning about Pavlov’s dogs? Scientist Ivan Pavlov learned that every time he rang a bell prior to feeding dogs they would salivate. Counter conditioning is the same as classical, except instead of pairing two things to achieve the same response, the goal of counter conditioning is to change the response. The gunfire isn’t neutral to the dog anymore. We want to change to dogs fearful response to the sound of the gun, to “alright! I heard a gun! Whoo hoo! Where’s my bird!”
We’ll achieve this by exposing the dog to gradually increasing sound levels of gunfire (desensitization) while pairing the sound with something of high value…..a bird.
Here are the pre-requisites you and your dog need to get started.
- Your dog needs to be bird crazy. He needs to be actively pointing birds and aggressively hunting.
- Your dog needs to like retrieving, not necessarily to hand just likes to get his mouth on a bird.
- You need the ability to be patient and work at the dog’s pace. The dog will determine how long this takes, not you.
Here are the items you need.
- A good supply of live birds. I prefer quail for this because they’re small and won’t spook a skittish dog on a retrieve, but you could also use pigeons. Don’t try to skimp and use a dead/frozen bird. Nothing is more exciting to a pointing dog than a live bird.
- An open mowed area to work that you can also shoot a shotgun. It’s imperative that the grass isn’t so tall as to hide a bird on the ground. The dog must be able to see a bird on the ground. This is very important.
- .22 blank starter pistol
- Bag to hold your birds
- An assistant
- A small gauge shotgun, .410 with ½ oz. load (preferred) or a 28 gauge or 20 gauge with a ¾ oz. load max. If you have a break action gun, another option is to buy .410 gauge reducers. Gauge reducers are sleeves that go into the chamber of a larger gauge shotgun, that enable you to shoot a smaller gauge shell in your larger gauge. Fiocchi also makes ¾ oz. trainer loads for a 20 gauge that is relatively quiet compared to a standard 20 gauge load. Our goal with the light loads is to keep the noise level down. We don’t want to be using a super loud 1 1/8 oz. trap load.
- Bright surveyors tape
- Children’s cap gun
- 20 ft. check cord
Let’s get started.
If a dog is really, really gunshy, they may panic at just the sight of a gun. If this is the case, I would take a gun out just prior to feeding each night. Let the dog see the gun and then feed him. Do this every night until he makes the connection that every time he sees the gun, a good thing happens. He gets fed.
Once the dog is ok with the sight of the gun, it’s time to work on the noise fear. First thing you need to do is get set up in the mowed area and have 2 quail ready with 4 or 5 primary flight feathers removed from each wing to limit its flight. We only want the bird to go about 15 to 20 yards then flutter down. Have your assistant step off about 40 yards with the toy cap gun. Remove a bird from your vest and tease the dog with it. The dog should be focused completely on the bird in your hand. With the dog focused, throw the bird and let him chase. With the dog in hot pursuit and about 2 seconds before he gets his mouth on the bird your helper should fire the toy cap gun. It’s very important to have this timing right. You don’t want to fire as he’s retrieving or after he has the bird. Nor do we want it 10 seconds before he has the bird. For the best association, it should be within a couple seconds prior to the bird in his mouth (remember Pavlov’s experiment). This is why we’re using a mowed area. If the grass is too high it will take the dog too long to find the bird and the association won’t be as strong. If all goes right, he will have a bird in his mouth and be happy about it. DON’T rush and take the bird away. Let him hold his prize as long as he wants. If he wants to chew it, let him. We don’t want any bad association at all. Only take the bird when he’s dropped it on his own accord. If at anytime during the chase the dog took notice of the noise, (even just a look back) the shooter must move at least 20 or 30 steps back before you do another bird and start over. Even if he retrieved the bird with enthusiasm. This is rarely a problem with the cap gun but it can happen. If he doesn’t take notice, then have the shooter move up 20 steps and repeat the same drill. If he doesn’t take notice from there then move up another 20 steps until the shooter can fire right next to you and the dog will take no notice to the cap gun while in hot pursuit.
I typically don’t like to do more than 2 birds per day. The reason being is I always want to end with the dog wanting more. I don’t want him to get bored of the retrieve. He’ll come back the next day and want the birds twice as much.
Ok, we made it thru the cap gun with the dog’s tail wagging. Now it’s time to step it up to the .22 starter pistol. This time we’re going to have the shooter step out 100 yards. We’re going to do the same drill. Pull out a bird, tease the dog with it, throw it and have the shooter fire 1 shot about 2 seconds before the dog gets his mouth on the bird. (Note: at 100 yards you’re going to have to do some orchestrating with the shooter. You will have to tell him when to fire because he probably won’t be able to see well enough to time it right.) Just like before, if the dog shows even the slightest sign of noticing the shot you must move back farther. We’re building on success here, not failure and once again, don’t take the bird from the dog. Let him do what he wants with it. This all must be a good experience. Only take the bird when he drops it on his own.
If all goes well and the dog doesn’t take any notice, move forward 10 steps and repeat the drill. From now on, because of the increased noise level of the .22, we’re going to move forward in 10 step increments only, unless the dog takes notice. Then you have to move 20 to 30 steps back and start over. Don’t ever move forward if the dog takes notice. Even if it’s just a pause or a look back. No more than 2 birds in a day.
Repeat this drill with the .22 until the shooter can fire right next to you without the dog taking notice.
Once you can fire right next to the dog with the .22, you can now move up to the .410 gauge. Yeah, you guessed it, right back to 100 yards and repeat exactly what you did with the .22 until you can fire the shotgun right next to the dog without him noticing. Through all this, his whole focus should only be on the bird.
Now we can move to the field and actually shoot a bird for him. It’s not uncommon for a dog to get a little unsteady on his birds after this. After all, we did give him a lot of free retrieves. Don’t sweat it. You can fix that later.
When it comes time to shoot one over him I still like to make sure he gets a quick retrieve. I’ll plant a bird in a launcher with a couple wing feathers removed to make sure the bird comes down just in case you miss. Tie a piece of surveyor tape to the bird’s leg so it is easier to spot in taller grass/field. Once again (I know I sound like a broken record) but don’t take the bird away from him until he drops it. I firmly believe a lot of dogs are turned off to retrieving by people taking the bird from the dog too fast, making the dog think he did something wrong, especially softer dogs.
Congratulations! You’re now shooting over your previously gunshy dog!
What we’ve done here is desensitized the dog to gunfire by gradually bringing the noise level up slowly, while making a positive association with the gunfire by the dog getting a bird in his mouth a split second after hearing the shot every time.
A few things to keep in mind. Even though you’re shooting over him, you must still be careful of a few things when you take him into the field.
- Don’t shoot near him unless a bird is involved, for example: keep him away from target shooting etc.
- Don’t shoot non-pointed birds. Only shoot when he’s pointing a bird. Shooting a non-pointed bird could catch him off guard and startle him.
- Don’t have multiple people shoot at once over him. Too many shots at once sounding like World War III can still spook him. I have a 2 shot limit per bird.
I also use this same system for introducing a dog to gunfire that has never been exposed to it before. The only difference is if the dog has never been exposed to gunfire before, I can move thru the program much faster. I will typically move ahead in 20 step increments instead of 10. And if all is going well I might do up to 6 birds a session versus 2 for a gunshy dog. I can typically do the whole .22 segment in 1 session, and the shotgun segment in another session with a dog that has had no previous exposure to gunfire.