Acclimatisation of K9's to gunfire

[HeliPilot]

Ok gents I'm lookin for some advice on how to train my German Shepard to deal with gunfire. She'll be a year old at the end of May and overall is pretty well trained so far, although she still needs work. However she has had only one exposure to gunfire, when I had her with me shooting one day, and she didn't do well with it.

What are some methods I can try to get her used to being around me while I'm shooting and not have her panic? Thanks

[steyrman13]

Try the book Gun Dog.
A few points from my hunting dogs;
Bang pots and pans during feeding time and other enjoyable activities. Making the noise fun. Start off with little banging then progressively more. Eventually he will just go to sleep under your chair at a skeet shoot.

ETA: http://www.chicagonow.com/training-the-wolf/2013/07/hunting-dog-training-gunfire/ for a quick read close to dang as in the book. Since it's not a bird dog, you might can substitute fetching balls or something instead of birds although birds are VERY exciting for dogs

[joe138]

You might check with a local PD that has a K-9 program and get with their trainer.

[Airhasz]

I use an air rifle to shoot black birds in the yard when my labs are pups. They soon learn the rifle means they will get to retrieve game and anticipate the shot. I soon move to shot gun and larger game and never had a problem. They get excited anytime I remove a weapon from a case or holster now.

[HeliPilot]

Pretty good advice so far. Steyr I think that link you posted is the method I'll try first. I'm not trying to train my shepard to be a bird dog so I'll probably substitute birds for tennis balls. My end goal is for her to be next to me while I'm firing an AR and not have her run for the hills, shes a good dog and with my wife helping me out I think we can get the dog adapted pretty smoothly, hopefully.

[bjxds]

From my experience with hunting dogs and personal non hunting, I agree, make the association with gun fire enjoyable. I don't think 1 year is to old, but you can/could have started sooner. Try taking her to an outdoor range or have someone shoot while you play and work with her in the distance, then gradually move closer as she feels comfortable.

As a side not I had a dog once that gun fire didn't bother in the least, and would chase fireworks, but freaked out during a Thunder storm....

BUT be aware, not all dogs can be broken and she may remain gun shy. Best of luck.

[Gadsden11]

As has been said, association with something fun, a Kong or ball, is how we train the K-9's in my unit. Start small with a pellet gun, then progress, .22, ar w/ blanks etc. Each time you fire praise him up and throw the toy for him. It wont take long.

[ColdDeadHands]

Train him as usual and have someone shoot a blank gun randomly during your training session. If he pays attention to you instead of the noise praise him, give him a treat or ball. Positive reinforcement. If he pays attention to the noise give him a command like heel or down to get his attention back. Start the gun shots gradually from a distance and have them come closer.

[bjw182005]

Use distance to acclimate to new stimulus like gunfire. Have someone else fire while you start 50 or more feet away. Praise and reward neutral or positive responses and ignore negative response and give more distance. You want to be careful about any kind of correction when dealing with something like this as it may manifest itself as fear and aggression when re-exposed to this stimulus. Let me know if you have any questions. I have been a .mil K9 Handler and Trainer for 5 years and have worked with a number of K9s, both .mil and local LEO and have yet to have absolutely failed in my methods.

[dudenick4]

Wish I had more science behind it, but I had started shooting with my dog, a GSD, since he was around 3-4 months old... loud noises don't bother him one bit, sleeps right through fireworks shows in the back yard as well as days on the range (friends back yard). Sounds like a lot of solid advice mentioned above.