Dog Training: Gunshot Reports

[TackyDriver]

I have a 7 month old Belgian Malinois Shepherd. The upcoming Fourth of July will be his first. I don't know if he'll ever be much of a hunting dog but I don't want him to freak out when he hears fireworks and gunshots. Dogs of his breed are regularly used in Police K-9 units so I know it can be done.

I'm asking around and reading up on it, but if there's a place where I can ask people with practical experience, it would have to be here. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[gitano]

I've had a couple of dogs get completely freaked out by Fourth of July fireworks, nad to tell the truth, they were never the same again. I didn't work too  hard at correcting the problem, but what little effort I did spend was for naught.
 
If it were my dog and I was concerned about it, I would do one of two things:
 
1) Take the dog away for the night. If that isn't practical,
 
2) Every time a "firecracker" goes off, I'd give him a treat. Not a so-so treat, one he would really relish.
 
RockinBBar, Daryll, English, and others may have better suggestions.
 
Paul

[rockinbbar]

Buster still doesn't care for fireworks or thunder, but gunfire doesn't bother him.

I just taught Buster that when a gun went off it was when the fun started. He can sit beside me on a stand for coyotes & never flinch when I shoot. But, let a distant thunderstorm get close, & he wants inside.

BTW, I started him hunting rabbits to get him used to the gunfire.
Maturity helps a dog add up what he might not like about fireworks or gunfire -vs- what he see's as natural fun while hunting. a dog 7 months old may be a little young yet.

Barry

[jesusgecko]

My folks used to have a black lab that would have to be locked inside when fireworks were being let off.....because she would try and grab them!!!

[TackyDriver]

Thank you all for your input. I was caught up with 4th of July prep. I checked in and saw your responses. I tried to use the quick reply to respond but my login timed out before I could post it and it was lost. That's the problem with having your lips move when you type.

Anyhow, your points were well taken. Unfortunately, we weren't able to leave for the night, Paul, and we didn't want to send our dog, whose name is Sancho, somewhere without us. He's not good with the separation issues yet. RBB, I do still have to take his age into consideration. He's now tipping the scale at 81 pounds and he's pretty smart so it's easy to forget that he is still a puppy. I'm not trying to brag. Actually it bothers me that my kids are now going to Sancho when I don't know the answer to one of their questions.

The afternoon of 3 July, I ran Sancho into the ground to take the edge off of him. Actually, I ran myself into the ground and the dog just came along. I held off on his supper so he was good and hungry. Normally, when I really want to have the dog's attention during training, I use pieces of chicken franks for goodies. This time I broke out the big guns and used pieces of bacon. I had him do a few basic commands and rewarded him to get him into the swing of things. I had Sancho sit and stay and then had my son light a sparkler from 20 feet away while holding the dog's attention with bacon in my hand. I had my son stand to the side so the dog wouldn't start at having something go off behind him. It went well and Sancho held at the stay until the sparkler went out. I then rewarded the dog with bacon, and then rewarded my son with some for setting off the sparkler.:grin: After that, we went with progressively noisier pieces, about 4 more in all before I decided to quit while ahead. The last piece was a fountain that had whistling "Piccolo Pete" type fireworks worked into it. The dog and I were playing tug-of-war during the last piece and he didn't seemed concerned at all.

On the night of the Fourth, Sancho was cool as milk. He went outside and started to bark when the local, civic sponsored fireworks shows went off a few miles away but didn't seem frightened. I gave him a goody and told him he was good for letting me know what was going on. We haven't really had much in the way of thunderstorms in this part of the woods, but will sometimes get some in August when tropical systems blow up from Mexico. Sometimes, a dog in an unknown situation will look to other members of the pack in order to figure out how to react. I hope to present a calm positive attitude when a thunderstorm does happen. My wife is afraid of thunderstorms and the dog she had when I met her picked up on that. There were many nights when a thunderstorm would take place when we were asleep. I'd wake up to the thunder and find I had my wife's nose up under one armpit, and the dog's under the other. Oh, my wife's nose was the one that wasn't cold and wet. Yes, they both survived being within 5 feet of my armpits.

One other thing I've heard that is dangerous about dogs and fireworks is after the fireworks are set off. My wife read somewhere that it's really bad for dogs to eat spent fireworks because there's bad stuff left in the casing. Anyone hear anything about that?

I'll send a photo of the beasty in question later. I hope you all had a good weekend even if you're not a Yank.

[no1sweety000]

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[no1sweety000]

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