I just got a new Springer pup.  I am looking for suggestions on what I might do to avoid making the dog gun shy when it comes time for field training.

For our labs we would make loud noises while it ate. bang pans and eventually worked up to a dummy launcher or starting pistol.

some just never seamed to mind and others never broke stayed scared of thunder and firecrackers and guns.

For what it’s worth, one of my best friends bought a really cheap cap gun (remember the ones we used when we were kids) and would fire that off occasionally around his pup.  When the pup got comfortable, he worked his way up to a 22 and then his launcher.  The idea about the pots and pans sounds smart too as it just continues to condition your put not to get really nervous around loud noises.

Yup pots and pans,loud hand claps,then I always liked a cap pistol before moving up to a starters pistol or launcher.When the pup wont look up from his food while you are banging stuff around you know that you are well on your way.

I have always used a starters pistlol when feeding a puppy, never had a gun shy dog, ( knock wood) I hear it’s tuff to overcome gun shyness.

Got a buddy with an 8 month old Chessie pup,he wasnt having any problems with loud noises til july 4th when one of his neighbors set of a string of firecrackers when the pup was outside by the fence.He is coming out of it but it will be a slow process.The guy is a real a$$ that did it I would have most likely ended up as a visitor of the city while he ended up visiting a hospital after that as he had though it was funny in doing what he did and had waited for my friend to let him out just for that purpose,needless to say there is some bad blood there now.

But yes you can get the dog over it but it takes time and a lot of paitence.

Had a Gorden Setter mix that never got over it. The 4th did him in too. He would still come along, but when the shooting started, he’d go off ‘bout 50 to 100 yds, and find the stinkyest dead thing he could find to roll in, just to get back at us for making all that noise.

It took 2 years and a lot of birds to totaly break my birddog of being gunshy. Alot of work and not very fun.

Have a two year old yellow lab (Fred) that never had a problem. Dumb luck I guess. Everyones info is right on from what I’ve always done.

This is the only dog I’ve had this problem with. The person who gave me this dog didn’t try to break this dog of being gun-shy anymore, he just didn’t want it anymore. It turned out to be a decent dog but took alot of work to get him to where he should be. (Wing & Shot, Honor another point,Retreive on command, and took hand signals better than most women…LOL Just kidding)

I wish my wife was as bad at hand signals as Fred is!