my black lab pup is 6 months old... he hates the shotgun

my chocolate that is his brother isnt gun shy at all


i am lost as to what to do with him.. fucker has no drive and is gun shy

No drive = mut= worthless= pet

he is good dog obedience wise... but idk what happened to him.. he was doing great... now its like i cant get him excited to retrieve..

he dont want to retrieve at all

I know some people with dogs like that. They don't hunt and will never hunt.

The first thing you need to do is remove the gun from the picture immediately and restore the pups confidence and drive. A shit load of play time fetch. Even if it means no formal training for the dog until he is 10 months. You can still start to train a dog later in the puppy months. Without a drive the gun is the least of your problems.

After the pup gets his confidence back then recruit the aid of a buddy to stand 60-80 yards away from you with a 22 pistol shooting blanks while you play fetch with the pup. He will be curious at first, but then realize the gun was too far away to be any kind of threat and he will have the attitude "I am going to go get that bumper!" Eventually he will start to tune out the 60-80 yard shots. Eventually over an extended period moving the shooter in every 10 yards until you can stand right next to him shooting and he could careless.

Important thing to remember is that you can take a drive out of a dog, but you can never put it back. Remove the gun immediately before it is too late. Restore his confidence then re-introduce gun in a slow phased approach.

And don't let anyone tell you it's a mutt...yadda yadda yadda. Every lab is wired to hunt. How good are you to bring it out of them?

i cant get him to do any "fun retrieves"

if he goes get the dummy he will lay down and play with it... or shake it with his head


i cant fuss him right now

not even with a ball?

might be time to lay of the training for a couple of months and give the pup a break from the pressure. But don't give up!

OR

If he is getting the obedience down (which most professional trainers do not start formal training until 6 months) complete that with him and start the force fetch. Not a very pleasurable thing to do to your dog or watch, but it is effective.

More than anything at this point though: LOVE PRAISE LOVE PRAISE LOVE PRAISE

I know its tough to do that when you're aggravated with him, but it goes a LOOOOONG way with a dog.

obiedence wise he is great.... very calm and listened well at the camp

as calm as he is seems to be what has his drive down.

the chocolate is very hyper active and has tons of drive

yeah, but don't forget he is a 6 month old lab. Something is missing. 6 month old labs don't pass on an opportunity to not chase at least something. Do you know any professional trainers? If not I have one I can PM you and he will be more than happy to take some questions over the phone and give you some pointers to help you out to get him out of this rut.

and on another note....chocolates are just flat out fricking nuts! They have an excuse.

My dog had something trigger him
To fall out of retrieving around 6 months. Mine was working him everyday and then stopping for 2 weeks durin turkey season. Couldn't make home do anything. I almost got rid of him... But I was persistent with fun, not training, and eventually he came back around. One thing I didn't do that I regret is correctly force fetching. I was too worried he might relapse, so I never finished it...

My dog had something trigger him
To fall out of retrieving around 6 months. Mine was working him everyday and then stopping for 2 weeks durin turkey season. Couldn't make home do anything. I almost got rid of him... But I was persistent with fun, not training, and eventually he came back around. One thing I didn't do that I regret is correctly force fetching. I was too worried he might relapse, so I never finished it...

barnes_53 is giving you some darn solid advice here.........

If you have the means..........a screened porch or a "hallway" made from old pallets could help.

What I did years ago with a Boykin was to build me a hallway of sorts with old pallets and worked with tennis balls and paint rollers.\

It created a non-distration "safe" place for her and I.
I just sat on the ground and tossed and tossed and tossed.
she came realize the "fun" again and we went from there.

She would never have passed any fancy hunt test, but she pused rabbits and retrieved dove functionally........and was a great pet.......

one more important thing that I forgot:

PATIENCE PATIENCE PATIENCE and when you think you have exhausted all of your patience....have more PATIENCE PATIENCE PATIENCE.

It is not going to happen over night.

Barnes, I mis stated. I trained him myself. And I went turkey hunting and quit his daily retrieving. It totally turned him off for a good while

Man this sounds like what I went through with my pup trigger , But I took barnes advise , what happened to trigger was , I had some good solid ob down and retrieve's down that were jam up loved the water loved the boat this was right before teal season so I wanted to start gun conditioning well that fuk him up good , he wouldn't do chit after the first shot with a starter pistol and I did it with my son about 60 70 yards away and through the dumby that was the last time We worked in my yard. Had to work him in the water that was the only place he would even think about retrieveing once I got him to fetch a bumper one time then I stop until the next day then I went back to the pond and did it again till I got him retrieveing again. After that we started with the starter pistol over a hundred yards away at the pond the first shot he locked up , I was pissed to say the least, So i sat down next to him petting his head and neck told himto fetch the bumper and he went and got it , Son fired another shot he paused for a sec looked at me for the command so I gave it and he went and got it. I did this for two weeks every day until The day before teal season , He ended up making 27 retrieve's during teal season for me , still working with him on other things , but this is how I got him from being gun shy, Good luck I hope this helps you out.

^^^ awesome!!! Glad to hear that it worked.

I know the following is frowned upon by big time trainers...........


but don't underestimate the power of beef jerky......
When I see my pups under pressure, like eyes wide, avoidance of eye contact, constant licking.........then I can get him settled with small piece of jerky....

I use liver treats and the clicker when Quaid was a young pup and man you could almost get him to stand on his nose...now at 18 months he is of course much bolder, but he is a soft breed so the treat brings him back to and "oh, okay you gonna feed me?" and he usually get refocused.

Look for small signs FROM the dog and I'll bet you can get him back.......

I had this problem with my female--she had NO interest in chasing or retrieving. I was really frustrated. I tried really short games in the hallway, lots of praise etc. I had almost given up on her. Then I brought her outside with my older male and when she saw him retrieve and his excitement, it just clicked (probably some of her competitive nature also clicked in). from that day on, I could throw 1,000 bumpers off the dock and she'd retrieve all day.

If your dog will run to the dummy, and mouth it, but not bring it back, try a check cord. Do a short throw and then when they pick it up, pick up the cord and gently tug it (or lead them back to you with it) to remind them to come back. This worked for my male.

For introducing gun fire, always start with a started pistol (as it sounded like you did). Think of someone shooting a shotgun straight over your head at 5'. Now think of that with hearing that 100 times more sensitive. Start very far away and when someone puts down their food to feed them fire a shot. Do this for a while and gradually move closer each day. They need to associate gunfire with something they love (you could also do this when they are retrieving if they are just totally amped up on retrieving, but in your case, I'd go with the food).

If this deosn't work. I'd go to a pro.

i can beat on a old shovel with a hammer as he eats and it doesnt bother him.

he sat and laid down on side of me the other day as i cut all my wood for my duck blind with the miter saw.

as he was eating i walked to the bayou(about 100yards) and shot the shotgun... he quit eating and went into his dog house and wouldnt come out untill i got in his kennel with him.

on the bright side i finally got him to pick up a duck and not be scared of it. he made one short retrieve with a scaup i shot the other day.

when i try a check cord for him or the chocolate they both drop the dummy. If i could combine the drive of the choclate with the obidence of the black i'd have a awesome dog

i got him retriving again... tennis balls only


working on the guns...

Id lay of the bigger caliber gun for a bit also. 22 and work your way up.

thats the plan... i cut some wads out some cheap shells and shot just the primer...

he wasnt bothered by it..

So if he's scared of the gun why you still bringing him in the blind. You only gonna make it worse

Ok miss under stood on the short retrieve.

yea that was in the yard....

i've took him to the camp... but not hunting.. he was a good dog at the camp.... just laid back