Whenever I shoot, the dog gets all riled up and tries to take the gun out of my hands. He's done this since he was little, and I've never really addressed the problem because I could either put him away or have someone hold the leash. The leash isn't an option anymore, because he snaps at it. It's similar behavior to when he really wants to go play when he sees kids throwing around a ball.

The guy I got him from acclimated all of his pups using a starter pistol and treats. From what I can tell, he's definitely not afraid of the gun, he just wants to take it for some reason.

How do I make this behavior stop? He does it with handguns, and he also does it with relatively quiet air rifles/pellet guns. Last night, he was fenced, and I was on the other side of the house where he couldn't see me, and he started whining and barking and trying to get out when he heard me fire an air rifle.

I tried nicking him with the collar while giving a verbal correction, but that just makes him more intense to get it.

Thoughts on how to solve this?

Back up a step.

Why does the dog get to decide he won't wear a leash?

I'd get that one worked out first, then you can move on to firearms.

He stays on the leash. He just very clearly does not like it when he's intent on something. This behavior has improved dramatically by putting a choke on him and just turning around and going the other direction. To the point of where it's been mostly a non-issue.

But the whole firearm thing has brought the behavior back full force. I know the leash thing needs to be worked on more, but are there other things I can do concurrently to "desensitize" him to firearms?

Is fencing him and shooting for a period of time each day an effective way to get him used to it? Or is that just going to escalate things?

How is his every day obedience around other distractions? I'd start with that until his OB is rock solid and then move to firearms.
Research "Desensitize" in the advance search- expand the time period to a couple years, then apply the info that frequent posters have written and you should be set

Lots of good threads here on desensitizing.

You'll want to start out far enough away from the gunfire that the dog has no reaction at all. This will require a helper to fire the gun, while you are with the dog. You'll reward the dog for offering no reaction to the gunfire, even if you have to be a half mile away.

Then you'll gradually, over numerous sessions, reduce the distance from the stimulus.

If the dog reacts, back up to the most recent point of success, reinforce, then continue.

Putting the dog behind a fence alone and firing the gun nearby would be a technique called "flooding"--and I have no experience with it as a desensitization technique. But I have my doubts.

 Quote: Tracy Collins

... Putting the dog behind a fence alone and firing the gun nearby would be a technique called "flooding"--and I have no experience with it as a desensitization technique. But I have my doubts.

I agree. Flooding is best left to experts. And it goes very wrong sometimes with experts, too.

We "desensitize" dogs to gunshot in schutzhund training. Before I say how, however, I'd like to point out some things.

As Tracy immediately pointed out, leash behavior needs to be straightened out first...no excuses. You need 100% compliance. "Most of the time" shouldn't be your goal.

Desensitizing a dog to a gunshot does not make him a gundog. If the dog is interfering with the handling of a weapon, hmmmm, "That's baaad". This dog should not, IMO, be accompanying you on shooting excursions. I mean, someone could get dead. If you want a shooting companion, you need to turn to hunter training resources, and this dog would need to be evaluated by a good trainer.

Some dogs CAN ONLY BE desensitized to gunfire. If the dog is sharp, it may always go into drive when you fire a gun, like my dog, and though forced to stay calm, may never completely settle if you're shooting. This is a temperament issue.

We desensitize the dog by having a helper fire a blank gun while we do OB. It's very simple; if the dog breaks on the shot while heeling, it gets a correction. We start at a distance and do everything we can to make the dog comfortable, but in the end it comes down to obedience.

Have you been doing personnal protection work with him John?

What reasons do you have to fire a gun around the dog?
As per Steve's question? Hunting?

His OB is good otherwise. The only two distractions that cause problems are kids playing, especially if they are throwing around a ball. He loves kids and wants them to play with him. He is around kids for at least a couple of hours a day playing with them outside. I'll get to the reason below. The other is firearms.

I have done personal protection training with him. It never got to the point where we were using dummy firearms. But, like I said, the breeder "desensitized" his pups to firearms with a starter pistol and treats. I think this is probably the cause of this issue. On one hand, it's better than having him cower in fear in the corner. Like someone else mentioned, if he's trying to take the gun, someone could end up dead due to an accident. Not good.

Guns were "play" when he was a pup. And kids are play for him now. Given he has nearly the same reaction when restrained by a leash, I'm thinking that this is something he thinks is a lot of fun. I don't know the exact method the breeder used, but when I was out there and he had 10 or so pups there, when he fired the starter pistol in the air, they all came running as fast as they could from 100 yards away and were jumping all over him.

When I'm outside, the dog is usually with me, and I almost always have a gun on me. I have a serious coyote problem, which is made even worse by people feeding the coyotes. They are no longer afraid of people, and have followed me and the dog 1/4 mile or more growling at us. The dog will walk right next to me when this is going on, but if I give the word, he'll go after them. I only did this once when the coyote got too close (10 feet), and the coyote took off and I called my dog back. So this is the reason he's outside with the kids. It's not so the kids can play with him, even though they do. The few times a coyote has come around during the day, he's stood between the kids and the coyote(s) and either scared them off or put them off long enough for the kids to get into the house/garage. The city and the DNR will not do anything about the problem, and I've been told to go ahead and shoot them even though I live in the middle of the city where that's technically not allowed.

When I go up north, I like to take the dog with on walks or a gun to plink around. I cannot do both. He's fine as long as I don't fire at anything, but as soon as I draw a handgun or put a rifle to my shoulder, he's trotting around the gun and making half-hearted attempts to grab it. If I fire, he'll go after it.

My first thought was that maybe some kids shot at him at some point with a pellet gun or an airsoft, but he's been this way since he was a pup. A long time ago, I had a dog that had been shot at with a pellet gun, and he was deathly afraid of anything that sounded remotely like a gun. I don't think this has ever happened to him. He's in the house when I'm gone. And when he is in the fenced yard, we're home, and I have a good view of the surrounding area either from the windows or from surveillance cameras (I'm a security specialist). All motion on the cameras is recorded, and I've never seen any of the neighbor kids harass him at all, let alone with a gun of any sort.