Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Using blanks for gun conditioning

Some good suggestions above. Basically start low and slow and build to it, whatever scheme used.


Honey Halflab (well, maybe GR- who the hell knows? ) chose me when she was an approximate 18 mo old rescue dog out of an Eskimo village, sent to Anchorage.

She knew her name, "come", and "no" if spoken other than conversation-toned. That's it. Not house broken even. Harsh words just destroyed her day until "forgiven". Very, very needy, as would be expected from a dog that had spent the first 18 months of her life without positive attention. She had no idea what her nose was for, depending almost solely on vision (I think she has some whippet in her too- the mushers like some in their dogs for speed and size). She still depends on vision more than scent.

She was terrified of loud noises and firearms. If I picked up a gun, she would get as far away as possible and hide if she could. I figured that she was abused on her chain by village kids and/or punks throwing firecrackers, shooting her with BB guns, and she had issues with people crouching or bending over, even to pet her. Probably thinking they were picking up something to hit her with.

Some of my neighbors shoot in their yards, and she got used to that - never had to do anything.

The issues with benders and crouchers took a little corrective action, tho she still occaisionally mock nips at strangers if they do something like that abruptly. She's never made skin contact.

As to guns, I started out just picking up a firearm and putting it right back down, longer and longer. When she got used to that, I started taking one on our walks. Pretty soon she would come sniff the gun as we were getting ready.

For the noise, I started out with her in her safe place- the front pick-up seat in the garage, and dry firing a stapler, first just once, building over time on that, virtually every day, often several times a day while I was waiting for the pellet rifle to get here. When it did, same thing, shooting at an outdoor target from the garage doorway or bay, and taking that gun on walks with us.

When grouse season arrived, I had to teach her all about retrieving grouse also - first trip. When I got ready to shoot she would duck behind me several yards . Still does, 3 years later.

Second grouse hunt the next week it was "I got this, boss!!!"

She had no persistence in searching for thrown toys, etc. at first, but was inadvetantly trained out of that by house games. Making the dogs (Wiener dog too) wait in one room while a toy is hidden somehere else and they have to find it. On our 3rd? grouse hunt with the pellet rifle, I missed, the bird flew 150 yards down the road and landed in the top of a spruce. She watched until it landed, then bolted down there. She must have looked for 10 minutes for that birdunder and around the tree that, after being shot and flying up into a tree, was supposed to fall to the ground, dammit! I never did figure out what happened to the bird- never saw it fly off, nor could I see it in the tree, where it probably still was.

The plan was to transition up through cb caps, shorts, and long rifle .22, & 20 ga., but caribou season got there first (her second year grouse hunting), and we went right to high power (.260 in this case).

We bumped into a band coming toward us when she and I were going back to the truck for something, and I just sat down with her tucked against my leg and waited for them to cross 100 yards in front of us. When I raised the gun to shoot she scooted back a couple yards, I shot, and. .... We're all good.

She still doesn't like guns, but tolerate is good. Nor anything at all pointed at her, even a camera.

But hey.... if it means a hunt, she'll do guns and loud noises.

Oh yeah - she now thinks she's a princess, with aspirations of being an alpha among other dogs.

If we are out for a walk and bump a moose, she gets behind me. If I'm not along, she gets between my wife and the moose.

I think I'll keep her, neglected as she is.....