Bird Dog

[8 Shot M1 Super 90]

We have a 12 week old Black Lab puppy at our house. I am trying to get him used to (and not scared of) the action of my guns. Any good online traning manuals? Ive never trained a bird dog before

[Commando]

Originally posted by 8 Shot M1 Super 90:
We have a 12 week old Black Lab puppy at our house. I am trying to get him used to (and not scared of) the action of my guns. Any good online traning manuals? Ive never trained a bird dog before

You should check out the DVD called water dog this is a updated version of water dog the book by richard walters. I would also recomend the book, British training for american retrievers by Vic Barlow it has many good ideas.

[sdkidaho]

One of the best pieces of information I received for getting your pup used to gun fire (I assume that's what you refer to when you say "the action of my guns") was loud noises at feeding time.

I have metal feeding dishes, one for water, one for food. When meal time came I would bang away at those and make a rucus and be sure to play with the pup while he was there so that it became a game. I also tried to have him around whenever I was making a lot of noise, hammering, things like that.

Introduced him to the gun about a month and a half ago. He never batted an eye.

Lots of noise, and fun. Then be sure to follow the instruction for introducing them to actual gun fire.

Best of luck.

[Phyte]

Start off with smaller guns...... after he starts getting used to it maybe bring him to a gun range and tie him up

[Gundog4hire]

The first time my dog was exposed to shotguns she sat in the truck and watched the other dogs hunt. After an hour or two watching she wanted out so bad that she never noticed the second shot. I also shoot alot of clays in the backyard. At first I kept her up close to the house and far enough away that the noise didn't scare her. Pretty soon she was sitting under the tailgate by me. Gunshots don't bother her a bit any more. Now they mean bird down and she's looking the direction I shot.

[Candor7]

For Black Labs, first train him to stay. Then train him to retreive a ball from stay. ( I used bright red or orange rubber balls, so I could find them in the water). Then make him stay, throw the ball into the water, and shoot at or near the ball with shot gun. He will likely bolt after the ball, but thats OK.

This technique has worked for years for me with both setters and retrievers. You have to train him to stay through the shot if you hunt from a boat. I sort of let mine bolt, it builds their initiative.

Then you can graduate to multiple balls, 3 or 4.
My dogs would never stop until they had cleared all
the water of balls or birds, and then would always go back looking for more until I got em back to stay.

Never had a gun shy dog using this technique. When they see the gun at home, they jump for joy.
And when you miss a pass, they really get miffed at you ( look, roll eyes, its quick, like all dog gestures!)

[8 Shot M1 Super 90]

Hey thanks guys. When I said the action of my gun, I ment just that, the action of my M1 slamming shut. Ive finally gotten him broken of that. We have him trained to sit right now. Just watching him when we throw a stick in the back yard reminds me of some of the best birddogs ive seen. He is smart. We dont have the luxury of hunting ducks from a boat, so Im not gonna make him go with us and sit in the cold water for an hour and a half at a time. Ill take the food bowl idea into consideration. Might take him to some walk in hunting and knock a few shots off, just go get him used to the sound.

[sdkidaho]

Might take him to some walk in hunting and knock a few shots off, just go get him used to the sound. [/QB]

I would get him used to some form of loud noises before you do that, or at the very least keep him on a leash or line of some kind when you fire off the rounds.

I had a dog that as soon as he heard a loud noise he would take off on a dead run and wouldn't stop until he couldn't run any more. That would pretty much suck to find out while you are out hunting.