Introducing a dog to gunfire.

[quneur]

There is some good advice here from people who have done this kind of training, so I won't reinvent the wheel, so to speak. But one thing I would emphasize, having been around both dogs and guns, is have control of your dog while introducing it to gunfire. Don't begin the process off leash, or you could end up with a lost dog. Also, I would suggest that if your dog is frightened by fireworks, you have little chance of training it to be a gun dog. But, I don't know that for a fact. I am not a dog trainer. It's just an observation. But one thing I do know for a fact is that dogs are like people in that they are all different.

That said, I have always wondered how the military trains war dogs. I have seen film from WW2 where dogs participated in battle with the sounds of not only small arms but also artillery and mortars, and remained perfectly calm. Can anyone who handled military working dogs provide any insight?

Firecrackers are, IMO, useless for training dogs. Owners will light a firecracker for the sake of lighting it. There isn't anything for the dog to associate the sound with. Different situation when the dog is so concentrated on something. I've seen an owner use firecrackers once on a dog. The dog slunked away with its tail between its legs, gun shy. Too many people think that, 'this or that' is a good idea but usually end up, 'it's the damn dog's fault'.

The distance really doesn't matter that much as long as the dog isn't within a yard of the gun. A retriever sits next to the shooter until released to retrieve waterfowl. An upland birddog, pointer type, the hunter flushes the bird while the dog is on point. As for military dogs, I'm sure they go through intensive training.

Most of my hunting has been upland hunting. The most satisfying and memorable hunting have been shooting over my dogs.

 

[Cavedweller]

Firecrackers are, IMO, useless for training dogs. Owners will light a firecracker for the sake of lighting it. There isn't anything for the dog to associate the sound with. Different situation when the dog is so concentrated on something. I've seen an owner use firecrackers once on a dog. The dog slunked away with its tail between its legs, gun shy. Too many people think that, 'this or that' is a good idea but usually end up, 'it's the damn dog's fault'.

The distance really doesn't matter that much as long as the dog isn't within a yard of the gun. A retriever sits next to the shooter until released to retrieve waterfowl. An upland birddog, pointer type, the hunter flushes the bird while the dog is on point. As for military dogs, I'm sure they go through intensive training.

Most of my hunting has been upland hunting. The most satisfying and memorable hunting have been shooting over my dogs.

I wasn't suggesting that fireworks be used to train dogs. My comment was related to an animal's reaction to fireworks on 4th of July or other such occasions. Sorry for not making that clearer What I meant was, if hearing fireworks on holidays causes your dog to go into a frenzy, I doubt if it can be trained not to do the same when it hears a gun. But I could be wrong. Like I said, I'm not a pro dog trainer.

It would be interesting if someone could describe the type of training military dogs get, where sounds of battle are concerned..