sadly my retriever never did get over her noise phobia. It was a true phobia and cost her life in the end as she had a nervous breakdown. We tried desensitisation, joined various therapy groups and tried alsorts of drugs etc but everything made her worse. She self harmed if exposed to loud noises and couldnt tolerate even normal everyday sounds in the end. She did however know the difference between real noises and recorded noises as would happily watch a fireworks display on telly but if one went off local to us she would start her self harming. She just couldnt live in our world so I meade the heartbreaking decision to have her PTS it took me nearly 2 years to even contemplate having another dog and now we have Willow who is brilliant with everything. Amber was very much loved and will never be forgotten but her noise fear was a nightmare and has in fact made me decide on a lab instead of a golden retriever which I had owned up until then for 45 years
I used a dictaphone to record the whole sound process of me vacuuming as Luna used to find the tightest corner to hide in an shake and drool when it came out.
I then played the recording randomly in different places when she was doing different activities eg outside, in toilet, bedroom, kitchen, lounge, car, when she was sleeping, eating, playing, chewing,........ only a couple of times a day and started so low that I couldn't hear it at all. I would keep the same level of volume until she showed no signs of noticing the noise eg ear twitching or stopping and listening etc. And whatever I was doing cooking, driving, sitting, typing etc etc I completely continued and completely ignored her. I think I used it for a couple of months.
Luna no longer shakes, drools or hides when the vacuum comes out. She will happily have it in the room with her now but the second I move it she legs it for another room until the vacuuming is done. She doesn't like it but she accepts it as part of life without being mega stressed anymore.
Have you got an old tape recorder or dictaphone or can you record sounds on a computer/laptop/camera? Take it out and record the actual guns shooting if you can and all the other associated noises that occur on a shoot.
Hope that you can get that super staffy unstressed. It sounds hopeful if he can overcome problems with hammering so quickly. And because he finds everything else so fun and exciting on a shoot it would be lovely if he could get past it all! Good luck!
Oh love him - look at that smile! What a cracker great pic
I would be worried about tugging because if you do want to do some picking up with him and get of his gunshy issues, trying to stop tugging could be a whole new problem....
I personally would have a 22 pistol, you prob got one already, if not, your launcher will fire them. Get the OH or mate to walk away 200 yards with the 22 short blanks.
Lots of fizzing Billy up, and as the shot goes off, throw his fav thing in the whole wide world.
Proper puppy stylee fizzing. lots of chit chatter and "who's a good lad" and all that lot.
See how he reacts. If his reaction is good, then gun comes towards you 10 yards and keep repeating.
If his reaction is bad at that distance with a 22 short, then I would prob call it a day that day, and then re try a day or so later but at 300 yards.
At that sort of distance, it wont be scary at all and just slowly pull the gun in.
If he gets to the point of being scared, Stop and give it a day or two, add 30 yards to the distance and try again.
But its all about shot=best thing in the world so yout timing needs to be good.
if it takes several months then so be it.
I would think of doing anything with a 22 long until you can get to within 30 yards with no issues.
Then once thats all cool, get your gun to go back to 200, and repeat all over again with the 22 longs.
Likewise, as soon as you are up to 30 yards with the long blanks, thats pretty loud at that range so i suspect you are nearing a mended dog.
But dont risk it.
12g back out at 200 yards,
can anyone personally recommend a good one to buy?
Helen I've got a Sounds Scary one that I was given by Jon Bowen for taking part in a study he was doing on the effect of fireworks on dogs.
Let me know if you'd like it and I'll put it in the post. Jx
there is some sound advise being given in my opinion, but none of us can see the dogs reaction so it will be difficult to gauge the best way forward.
what i will say is, in my opinion the best place to try to cure this is in the situation where its a problem, i honestly don't see any benifit in playing sounds in a situation that doesn't usually faze the dog.
We had the same with Wispa. Fireworks from a neighbour very late at night just as she was settling down for te night. Got to the stage where we couldn't even go to gun dog training classes.
I was invited down to a shoot, and the chief picker up noticed she was not at all happy with the guns or gunshot on the first drive. Basically he put me in the middle of the gun line and told me to send her for everything. If she ran in, fine. Just let her. Now when she hears a gun shot, she's looking for the retrieve. It got to the stage that she would decide herself which bird she would go for. Usually the runners, or the most difficult she could find. We've stood and watched her work out how to get a runner out of a hazel tree. We were all amazed at how she did it.
A huge thank you to you all for such great ideas and advice I really do appreciate all your replies and comments.
Jenny, thank you for the offer of the CD, Andy very kindly put his in the post to me earlier this week, so we're all sorted on that front.
Regardign the CD I'm wondering if sandyback above has a valid point, in that playing such noises in the home is not the same as the real thing, out in the open. Why I say this as unbelievably, and certainly not what I was expecting, Billy has shown no reaction to the CD at all. Even at a loud volume, when I gradually realised he was oblivious to it! That said, non of my labs reacted, and when they hear gunshots normally, they all sit up and take notice. So now I wonder if it might even be my CD player that's a bit cr*p and the noises are meaningless to them all?
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great pic
I really do appreciate all your replies and comments.
