When a GSD goes Gun shy. - Page 1

Anyone ever have a K9 Go gun shy? Where you ever able to rebuild the dogs confidence back up to not be afraid of the noise?

I have never seen a dog go from being gun sure to gun shy later on in life.

Was there a particular incident that preceeded this?

I had a friend who used to shoot the neighbor's dogs with a pellet gun to make them stop barking when their owners were gone to work.  She had them well trained to stop barking on command!  They weren't Schutzhund dogs, but is there any chance this could happen to your dog?

Some use a .22 with bird shot for the same thing, which would make a dog gun shy. ~ Veronica

Get a Real Dog,

Local Police Department training, Officer and K9 talking with a subject and the subject pulls a gun (starter pistol) fires 2 times, then turns to run away. The Dog goes out after the perp and takes him down. Now they had done this hundreds of times and they have trained with firearms all the time. This dog has never faulted ever in the 5 years of service. But last weekend when they went through the training they do as soon as the Perp fired the gun the dog ran off and coward at the patrol car. And any sight of a firearm the dog would cower and try and run away.

My question is did some body pistal whip the dog? Does he react the same without the noise of the shot? Pinpoint the fear, man, gun or noise.

This just doesn't sound right. Something must have happened.

Did the dog have real tough street bite recently?

Depending on the type of starter pistol and round, most "blanks" have a wad that takes the place of the bullet and holds the powder in the casing. The wad will some times keep its form or not totally blow apart when the round is fired. This wad then becomes a projectile the same as a bullet. Could the helper inadvertently pointed the gun toward the dog when they fired? Even if they did not point the gun directly at the dog, if the gunfire was very close to the dog, pieces of the wad may have hit the dog when it was fired.

Maybe it isn't really the gun fire but something about the presentation of the gun itself the dog associates with whatever is screwing with it's head. My first thought would be a tough live bite where the dog was hit or injured in some way. Did someone hit this dog recently? (be honest I know how some police guys train) Does the dog show the same behavior if teh gunfire is from farther away and not right up on the dog?

I would fire the gun from about 15-25 yards away. If the dog does not have the same re-action as when the gun fire is right up on the dog, it isn't the gunfire it's something else. DO NOT try to "fix" this by repeating the excercise over and over.

For a dog to be completely stable and then one day freak out over something, something had to have happened. The only other thing I could come up with is some kind of medical problem?

If you can provide any more info, or what has been done since the incident, maybe I can give you some more ideas.

I have heard that dogs that are not sound sensitive can become that way with age. Not sure if something about their hearing changes or what. I think there was a thread on this forum something like "how did your dog do over the 4th" that brought this up.

The dog has never been shy of anything. I know at the 4th of July fireworks the town had this year,  I personally saw the dog take down a drunk with a knife while the fireworks where going off. We where very close to them. I have also seen this dog work in a thunder storm.  The dog has never been shot, never been beaten so the Handler/Officer told me. He has had the pup since it was 9 weeks old. This weekend they are going to the State Police training center to see what they can do there, they have taken the Dog off duty status for another week and the officer was told if they don't get it taken care of the dog will be retired and replaced.