[img]https://i.imgur.com/OlYp51h.mp4[/img]
Dont know why i cant get a vid to work? Took Jag on his first hunt. He’s just 4.5mo old. He was excited, as you can see Im no dog whisperer either. We’ve been working in the yard some. Weren’t any birds so we went out to see how he would react to a live shot. Of course 2 birds fly over n cuz knocked both down, so we had real birds to bring back. Thought he did pretty good.

Taking a dog to a dove hunt to see how he reacts to gunfire is not a good idea.

We've been doing the block smacking (a lot) and a couple .22 blanks fired at a distance. I wasn't gonna throw him out on a 10ac 20gun shoot. There were only 3 of us and my plan was not to hunt, but to just work with him and ease him around it. He responded much better than i actually anticipated.

Nice dog

Why not if they aren’t gun shy? That’s how I trained mine. Started shooting a variety of guns around him at 10 weeks old.

You want to introduce a new dog to gunfire in a controlled environment from long distances away and then gradually work closer. The gunfire needs to be associated with retrieving obviously. Anytime you take a dog to any hunt you should know already that the dog is fine with guns going off. Taking a dog hunting to see how it reacts is asking for it. Im training a lot of gundogs for people around the state and you wouldn't believe how many are scared of gunfire due to their owners making this same mistake. It is one hell of a bitch to fix I can guarantee you that.

Good looking dog - looks happy in that pic

Gun shy dogs are created. They are not born that way. Shooting over their head to see how the dog reacts is a good way to create gun shy dogs. Glad it turned out well but I will continue to use Juice's method.

Pretty sure i didn't say anything about shooting over his head. Pretty sure i said I'd been working him with clapping blocks and a couple .22 blanks. In the video, the shooter was 20+ feet away. After he'd already not reacted to 2 shots when shooter was 50' away. The next weekend, my son took him and the pup's dad on a small hunt. Maybe 5 people that killed 20-25 birds. Jag's only issue was Cash was faster to the downed birds. Gotta work on them working together for duck season.

Sounds like a better job of prep than is described. Pretty sure no preparation was described in this thread until your last post. You have a nice dog that isn’t gun shy & that is the end goal.