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

I never posted it, but my Redline Airedale passed in April. Terrible circumstances, he was only 15 months old, got out while I was at work and got hit by a car. The guilt still is lingering.

Thanks to a buddy of mine, I am getting a awesome female Airedale here in a few weeks. With my last one, I waited too long to train/condition him to the sound of gunfire. When I did, he did ok but I would like to start younger with this one.

This brought me to the idea of using blanks from a .22 revolver, but I have 0 experience in this field. I would like to start from the lowest noise level and work up. A little research has shown most to be unpredictable and flat out unreliable.

Does anyone have any pointers or suggestions on where to start?

Sorry about your dog.

For blanks, I've used primed cases in a revolver, which weren't too loud... I used to start my bird dogs out with banging a pot or something while they were excited about eating their food and worked up to louder noises

Hi Casey long time since we last talked. Having trained bird dogs for over 30 years I have a few ideas on what you should do to condition your new pup to gunfire. PM sent

Ross

If you, or anyone else needs blanks, go to Lowes or most any hardware store and get blanks for a nail gun.
Lowes only has yellow here as the most powerful. Red will get my launcher dummies past the 100 yard line !

I never used blanks. Started with loud hand clapping while feeding. Progressed to banging pots then to a toy cap gun. After that, we progressed to being around live fire. Hank goes nuts when we shoot now. Nuts is an gets the zoomies looking for something to retrieve!!

Start with good socialization by introducing the pup to many new and varied locations - but not the gun range. Take the pup with you where ever you can so it acclimated to many different places as well as travel in the car. This is why I like getting a pup in April or early May as the weather is still pretty cool and there is little stress on the pup tooling around town. One can do the noise thing when feeding and such but the pup gets enough noise stimulus traveling around that I don't think it necessary.

Around 14 weeks when the pup has "come" down well and it has some confidence to range a bit from me I'll start introducing gunfire. I use a crimped cap such as used in starter pistols. I put the gun behind by back and fire a round when the pup is headed away a good 15 yards from me.I keep walking as if nothing happened with no interaction with the pup, especially if the pup reacts in any way. One round per session is all until the pup ignores the sound as much as I do.
When this occurs, I'll fire off caps a couple times per outing and do the same. If no reaction from the pup, two shots instead of one is fired. When there is no reaction from the pup and the pup ranges further out, I'll move up to 22 blanks then shotshells.

I don't take the pup to the range as the possibility of too much stimuli is there. If the pup reacts negatively to any degree, "reassuring" the pup is teaching it to react in a negative manner to the noise as is removing the pup from the scene. I want the dog to not react to loud noises at this stage, then I can teach it to react as I want it to at a later point. I like going in individual steps as one is only introducing a single component which is easier to control.

Always carry a .22 pistol while running your pup. Only fire it behind your back when your dog is chasing birds.

Always run your pup in places where wild birds reside.

Start with whatever air rifle/pistol you have from the time you get the pup. Each time you feed, open the nearest door/window and fire it, then put the food down. Don't make a big deal about it - it is just a normal part of the feeding routine. After a few months progress to your blanks or a rimfire. Same deal, just open the nearest door, casually fire it then put the food bowl down.

Easiest and simplest part of pup training and works a treat every time if you start with a young pup, are consistent and don't make a big deal about it.

I totally get your point and the reasoning, and that makes me want to move to Montana. Ability to find wild birds simply for gun conditioning your dog. Not possible for much of the country.

Kind of like the Field of Dreams movie



"Is this heaven?"

"No, its Montana".

I start all my dogs with a pellet rifle. And use food rewards. Then 22 shorts. The shotgun at 50 plus yards


I’ll introduce live birds in conjunction with gun fire once conditioned. Starting first with pellet rifle. Off season frozen birds if can’t get live ones with a pellet rifle or 22


As mentioned wild birds as much as possible

I have a lot of quail , grouse Huns and sometimes a pheasant on property so they get exposed to wild birds at least a few times a week

You can make fair wages and have a reasonable cost of living, or you can live in Montana.

Why would you own a bird dog if you live in a place with no wild birds?

I have trained all my dogs, two setters and 3 labs with 22 blanks while they were working birds. First about 30 yards and working up till I was right behind them. The trick is for them to be concentrating on birds when you shoot and to start small, .22s or primers.

When training my lab, she seemed a little gun shy at first..so i brought her in the yard on a leash, with a pocket full of treats and a .22 rifle with the nail-gun blanks. I would shoot, then immediately give her a treat, over and over. After about 10 minutes she learned to love the sound of the gun because it meant a reward was coming. No problems since.

My experience with many bird dogs over 40 year period is that the ideal situation to introduce gunfire is when a pup (ideally over six months of age) is really excited about birds and is into them, whether pointing them or flushing them. This has worked for me on even timid dogs.

While some may not be around wild birds to do this, just as good or better is planting a number of pen raised birds. I don’t pressure a pup, preferring him or her to figure it out. Associating the gun with finding a bird is a positive experience.

I would avoid at all cost just tying up a dog at a shooting range to acclimate him to shooting. Good way to ruin a good dog.

I am also sure other positive stimulus could be used to introduce the gun, but I really like birds. If the dog has the instinct, I’ve found even very “soft” dogs take to the gun just fine.

Every time I hear some idiot say to take your dog to a trap range and let them get used to the gunfire I could choke them!!

I used a Lucky Dog dummy launcher that shoots a 22 blank and shoot a bumper. I use it with an older dog and let the pup watch from a distance. With the excitement of the older dog the pup gets used to the shot real quick. I even used this process with my Teckel (wirehair dachshund) who knows what a gun shot means, something dead. The wife had a blow out on a mower trailer (I over loaded it) and all 3 dogs went running out the fence looking for something dead

Update on this.

I have used the green box of CCI blanks and high value treats and she doesn't bat an eye.

I have a frozen teal that ill be taking out with us tomorrow, along with the yellow box if cci blanks.

So far so good.

We have wild birds, but getting into chuckar is a lot harder than walking up pheasant, Huns, and sharptails. Finding quail is a great training aid, however. Unfortunately most are on private land with many close to or in towns.

So, it's planted birds for the most part. I wish I still had my Montana house.

As to gunfire training, after I transition from banging pots and shooting cap guns I cut off shotgun shells at the top of the brass and shoot off the primers in guns we'll be using in the field. I just pop out spent primers and put new ones in.

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.....

I used 22 cal blanks to get them use to the noise and it worked fine.