She is twelve weeks and we are socializing her to everyone we know and to strangers at the ranch store and so on. I'd like to take her up to our American Legion trap shoot on Saturday, but I'm not sure how to expose her to that noise without scaring her to death. Can I get some advice? Abbie Mae

I know nothing about hearing pro for dogs, but that is one cute as can be puppy.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
....but that is one cute as can be puppy.

Seeing that pic, my mind immediately went to...



She is adorable though.

I don’t have any experience specifically with dogs and gunfire, but a couple of comments on how I’d handle it, probably.

1. Investigate whether or not dogs’ hearing is more susceptible to severe damage when young.

2. Introduce her to the sound from a very long distance, and do stuff she likes such as play with toys, give treats, etc. IMO you need to be far enough away that it is extremely unlikely she’ll be frightened, i.e., driving distance rather than walking. Once she shows she’s comfortable, gradually move closer in increments based on her reaction or lack there of. No need to push. Take your time and enjoy the exercise.

My old roommate was a K9 handler. I think I remember them not using protection. Training a dog to NOT aggress on gunfire was the idea...you didn't want to be shooting at a badguy and suddenly have a German Shepard hanging off your arm.

The no ear pro is just my recollection. I am not an expert and may be completely wrong.

I know most people don’t, but I’d be sure to have ear protection for my dog if around gunfire.

http://m.safeandsoundpets.com/index.html

Twelve weeks seems kind of young to me, but I have no recent experience with dogs. The last hunting Lab I had was over 50 years ago, not a pup when we took her out, and had no problems with her.

That's a cutie!

60-70 yards behind a trap line will be no big deal as far as noise volume is concerned.
Just act like it's NBD and you couldn't care less, as the dog will take it's cues about from you on how to process it. Continue your walk/play on the leash (or between you and someone else with a toy) and the pup won't associate the noise with something scary. Don't coddle it, just act normal. The noise is NORMAL.

I've had chances to introduce young dogs to gunfire. Told my wife to take the dogs away from me on leash about 50 yds and when the noise starts, act like this new noise is perfectly normal. I started shooting a 22lr pistol which of course immediately got the dog's attention. Wife said nonchalantly, "Huh, wonder what that was? No problem" and she continued to just look and poke around at nothing in particular. I told her to let him off the leash.
The dog came trotting towards me and I kept firing until it was about 25 yds away. I would have stopped sooner if he slowed coming towards me.
Next time about 10 minutes later, I continued shooting until he was right next to me, then he wanted to chase the brass.
He was GTG!
(although some magnum revo loads later in life rightfully earned me some really dirty looks from that boy!)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: KMitch200,

No real experience to give on this type of training here, but I have an do share my home with a Rottie and two GSD. I am very familiar with the dogs. The advice given above is exactly what I would have said. Do it from a great distance. LE K9’s are trained with “the dog must be able to “hack” it IMO with noise. I’ve never seen any type of hearing protection for K9’s. I could be wrong... you’ve got a precious dog. Rottie s can be horribly stubborn, make sure she knows her place in your pack and she’ll take care of you all.

The answer to your question is slowly. When training a bird dog you start with a starter pistol 100 yrds out. Throw a live bird shoot the pistol and release the dog. Eventually the person with the starter pistol walks in 20 yards at a time and make sure the dog doesnt react. If it reacts you back up to where it was fine, fire more shots then move in. Then once it doesnt react to the gunshot when standing right next to it you start over at 100 yrds and up the caliber.

It also helps to slam cabinets and stuff as the dog is eating to get it comfortable to loud noises. Also makes storms easy to tolerate in the future.

If it were me going to this event i would go an hour early, start 150 yrds back from the shooting since you cant control caliber and play with his favkrite toy. Work you way in slowly if the dog reacts to the shots move back and try again. If you rush the process you risk making the dog gun shy.

I don't like the advice you've been getting about how to break a dog to gunfire. I've broken in dogs now for over 40 years. It doesn't start with gunfire. First, you need to make the dog comfortable with NOISE. When the dog is eating, and presumably happy and focused, make some noise. Bang a pot, drop something (NOT right next to the dog mind you). The exercise is to just get the dog feeling like noise is no big deal. There are lots of ways to make noise, but the gun should NOT be the first thing it's exposed to. Because I live in the country, I then transition to the outside. I feed the dog outside and, again, while the pup is eating, I may fire a .22 at 40 yards away or so. (I have blank pistols that work too. A Cap gun?) I'll do that a number of times, moving closer as the pup allows. The key is to connect noise with FUN, GOOD, etc. After those things, I usually take a dog in the woods and fire a shotgun while the dog is focused on a bird. In your case, sans the bird, you could be feeding or giving treats while the dog hears the sounds of guns at some range. However, I wouldn't have the dog really close to the guns right away for sure. Hope this helps.

provident is right. Make some noise around the house and see how he reacts. If a door slamming or a pot hitting hte floor causes him stress alarm. work on common issues first. once he is good with all that then go into gunfire. Not neccesarily needed for a non hunting dog but probably benficial for thunder or fireworks!!

With my dog...i did all the common noises first and then drove towards the gun range with the window open and monitored his reaction. Kept going until I was at the range and shooting my shotgun with him at heel.

Having trained dogs to ignore, or overcome sensitivity, to loud noises, advice given above about starting at a distance is key.

Work up to full level slowly, especially with a pup. The pup will be going through two fear phases, one around 3 months and the other around 6 months. The phase at 6 months is more critical than 3, but 3 is still important. You don't want to spook her/ freak her out with anything during these periods, otherwise you could wind up with a lifelong issue.

Start off at a distance where there is very little reaction to the gunfire and definitely no trying to escape/ hiding behind you. Play with a favorite toy, give favorite treats, lots of affection, anything/ everything that the dog enjoys. Make the association to gunfire an extremely positive experience. Limit it to just a few minutes at a time. You want to leave while you still have the dog's attention and is enjoying your activity with her.

After she no longer shows any reaction to gunfire at your initial distance without any distractions from you, you can move closer to where she again shows a slight reaction to the gunfire. Repeat the process.

Dogs usually go through a period in their training where they backslide. If she does, back up to where she is showing no/ or only a slight reaction, and work back up from there.

Good luck with her!

Provident is SPOT ON with every he explains. You want the dog to associate gun fire with everything GOOD in his life (hence the food at first step).

I'll add suggestions to help his first trip to the gun club successful. Park a ways away from the commotion and noise of the shooting. and spend some quality time around your vehicle with pup playing with something he loves and will focus on. Lots of love here. When he starts to loose interest (short attention pans, right), ON LEASH!!!, just let him start to explore around the new smells, etc. Eventually move a bit closer to the range and action. At his pace. If you can have some guys from around the club give him some lovin' that helps too.

The whole key is to make his first experience at the club a happy, gradual, and non-threatening one.

You are doing well, stick with it!
Gun fire, just walk her into it from a distance where she is comfortable, be excited your self and if she shows any fear start over, sometimes a few cheese balls help.

Show her everything before she is 6 months old and you should be OK, including riding in a boat, that is tough in the winter, but just a ride in a boat on a trailer or in the snow works.

Don't forget to socialize her to little kids and babies, I did once and had to watch my older dog constantly around them.

Agree with provident. The way we did it is a loud clap or pop ( like one of those big packing bubbles while they eat. Once conditioned to that in the parking lot of the gun club with shooting a good distance away. After a shot give them a treat. With each trip to the club move closer to the firing. They then associate the noise with good and there is no problem

Good advice up thread. To make it easier, I bought a cap gun and when feeding would fire it multiple times. Getting closer as time went on winding up right behind her head (not right next to the ear). It was a complicated process for me as the adult daughter had moved back in with a bad case of PTSD and I can't fire that capgun if she's anywhere in the house. I moved onto .22 pistol in the woods, starting with the hungry dog in the car, windows up, can of her fav. food (Alpo) dumped in front of her and me off firing at a nearby target. Then later her out of the car. Eventually, going to the range with the pup (@ 6 months old) and picnicking and letting her sniff around where I knew mice would be (the boy scouts had eaten in the vicinity so there were mice smells everywhere) as folks fired their weapons a few hundred yards off.

Nothing worse than a dog that goes gun shy. 4th of July will forever suck. @ 30 years back I saw one go from being OK with gunfire to gun shy in one shot when she got to close to a fella with a 50 cal Hawkin rifle, so take it slow and careful. I wish it would be that easy with the kid, she's doing therapy and it's slowly helping her to come out of it.

Recreate the drug-deal scene from Boogie Nights.