Dogs and Shooting - How to Protect Their Ears and Keeping Them Calm

[Hook686]

My 75 # Lab/Golden handles the sounds with Mutt Muffs (previously mentioned)

 

[dangerranger60]

My dad was a bird dog trainer, He used to take in gun shy dogs for retraining. He would get the dog really interested in something and fire a 22 short blank from a distance away and then as the dog returned to being interested in something else fire again. Eventually he would move the shooter closer. After awhile it would be 22lr blanks, 22 mag, then a 410 shotgun. its a process not something that just changes over night.
One other thing, Dogs have the ability to raise their ears for better hearing or let them close to choke out loud noise. They learn to flatten their ears when the guns are out.
I would not take my dogs to the range . There is no reason to pound there ears for a couple hours at a time. When I go hunting I may fire 5 or 10 rounds all day! But at the range I'll fire 150 or so in an hour.

 

[Ferryman]

I don't know how to fix adult dogs, but with puppies I'll step out on the deck and fire a few rounds from a starter pistol while my wife puts the feed bowl down in front of them. They learn pretty quick that them bangs mean something good is happening.

 

[bgdawgrr]

Similar to dangerranger's post, I used to train/compete in French Ringsport.
With the dogs, we used starter pistols to acclimate them to the noise. Young dogs would get super hyped up and happy. Even some of the more skidish dogs got over the fear quickly as it became background noise.
Something I've done with older dogs if they like to ride in cars. Take them to the range in the car. Stay with them, engine running, windows up, fan on. Slowly turn things off, crack the windows. After a few trips, 4th of July is not nearly as traumatic.