My new best friend

[guppie9]

Hey everyone...just wanted to post a pic of my new best friend. She will be 1 years old on Saturday and we got her from a military family that just couldn't keep her anymore. They only wanted her to go to a good family. She is a registered full-bred lab and I look forward to getting her out in the field once or twice before the snow flies to see how she does with the shotgun. Her name is Chena.

 

[DRAFTSTUD]

Gup, I Got a Sweetheart of a Lab that a Girl in the Air Force was forced to give up when she was sent to Germany. He was one of those Adopt a Pet day deals. I walked up and said SIT, he sat, I said Shake and he Shook! Well we had gone in there for a picture frame and the wife comes out and my son and I have adopted this 112 pound Lab. Yeah, She was so proud of us!!! Good Luck with your Dog, John

 

[1_pointer]

Looks like a keeper!!! Are you gonna cut the stock down on the shotgun for her to use???

 

[Ithaca 37]

Nice lookin' dog! Do you gradually break her in to loud noises to decrease the chance of gun shyness?

 

[schmalts]

How is she working out?

 

[JoseCuervo]

cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[guppie9]

So far, so good. She is a bit hyper because of, what I think are, two reasons. 1 - She is a lab! 2 - She has never been around another dog before and she is having a lot of fun playing with my 8 year old chocolate lab. She is definately keeping him young.

IT - to tell you the truth, I'm not really sure how to do this. I really need to read up and get a hold of some local people for some help. With her turning 1 year old in a couple days, I am worried about getting a late start. So far, she has shown a soft mouth retrieving a ball. She retrieves and drops on command. The previous owners didn't attempt anything other than basic obedience training. By looking at her registration, she sure looks like she came from a good line so I may give it a try.

 

[Ithaca 37]

gup, 90% of gunshy dogs wouldn't be that way if they were properly introduced to gunfire. The ones that are gunshy are usually that way because their owner never took the time to make sure they were comfortable with gunfire. Some nitwits never shoot a gun off around their dog until the first day they take him hunting, and then they blast off a 12 gauge right over the dogs head and scare the hell out of him. No wonder some good dogs become gunshy! Then the owner acts like there's something wrong with the dog.

Start by making medium loud noises anytime the dog is excited or happy. Like feeding time, for instance, or when she's running around having fun and playing with your other dog. Put her food down and start clapping your hands. As you see it doesn't bother her, get louder with it. Bang pots together, hit the side of the shed with your hand. Do anything that makes noise. While she's running after a ball or chasing a bird make loud noises any way you can. Start quietly and get louder as you see it doesn't bother her. Next, try breaking balloons or shooting off a cap pistol. Anytime she stops and looks at you when you make a noise just act naturally, like nothing happened, just go on walking and don't even let her catch you looking at her to see her reaction. Act like everything is completely natural and nothing happened worth noticing. Next, start shooting off a .22 in the other direction while she's all excited and running after a ball you've thrown or chasing a bird or sniffing something and getting excited. Then shoot it more in her direction as she gets used to the sound. The whole idea is to make her associate loud noises with fun and excitment and something good happening. Graduate to a 20 gauge and then a 12 gauge. Never act like the loud noise is anything out of the ordinary. Don't do it all in the back yard, either. Go away from home as she gets used to the early part of the training.

My pup is now 5 months old and ever since he was about 12 weeks old he thinks, when he hears a gun go off, "Oh boy, something great is about to happen! I'm having fun!"

The fact that your dog is almost a year old isn't any problem at all. Just start out like you would if she was a puppy.

If people properly broke in dogs to gunfire, gunshy dogs would be very, very rare.

There's probably some good advice in these links:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=preventing+gun+shyness+dogs

 

[schmalts]

So far, so good. She is a bit hyper because of, what I think are, two reasons. 1 - She is a lab!

I dont know if i would agree with that. Is she a smaller Lab? I also think the females are a little more hyper than males.
Most Male labs i know are pretty laid back lugheads.

 

[guppie9]

I hve to agree with you about the male/female thing. It seems to hold true. She is about 60 lbs right now. My mutt male chocolate lab was pretty hyper for the first 2-3 years and than really settled down. Although, if I think back, the craziest dog I ever had was a AKC yellow lab. She was a little psycho. She may have been papered, but I think she had a few screws loose.

 

[Calif. Hunter]

Ithaca has given you good advice about getting the pup used to loud noises and eventually gun fire. Once the dog was used to .22 blanks from a starting pistol, I would throw a dead quail or chukar in the air, shoot a blank and then send the dog to retrieve. Note that a mostly thawed, but still frozen in the middle, bird helps reinforce a soft mouth with birds.

 

[wyomuley]

She isa good looking dog sounds like she will do fine if you take you time with her. My Chocolate just had 10 pups Thursday night they sure are fun dogs to have. I always start my dogs with cap guns playing around and work up. Good luck