I have long observed that a farm dog learns what we do with a gun and over years of observation
develops a phobia which is not irrational.

Last summer a cow broke her back and had to be shot to relieve her suffering. Pink was there, keeping the other cows who had gathered to provide support to the injured one, away.

Last deer season, I noticed some nervousness over gunfire at a distance.

A week ago, coming back from town, my husband stopped the car in our driveway and shot a skunk.
Pink got into a complete panic, left the back of the car, claimed over the seats and into the footwell.
He would not come to or respond to my husband for an hour.

Last nite, the neighbors were target shooting. Someone has bought a " big " gun, must have a hell of a kick, "BOOM".

My guy had full on panic, wanted to climb into the dishwasher, panting, eyes bugged out,heart rate racing. Would barely respond to commands.

What to do? I let him sleep on my bed ( NOT the right thing to do, I know...but he was SO pathetic)
Crate him?
Gun fire is part of our world, unfortunately.

The pointers have become more sensitive to gun fire, fire works and bird scarers in the fields as their hearing has diminished, they were fine as youngsters, but as old dogs it's become a problem. I try not to react to the panting, pacing and drooling as I find it makes them even more anxious, but what I really want to do is get them on my lap and cuddle them!

I know there's a train of thought about flooding to make them face their fears, but with the temperament my old black and white has, it would just distress him too much.

As you've said, it's unavoidable where you are, so I wonder if it's something he could be conditioned to accept with distractions? I feel for you with this, because it's wretched seeing them so frightened.

Is his hearing going along with his vision?

I agree with you, Tracey, about not flooding ....

I have read a couple of good articles about noise anxiety (specifically gunfire and fireworks) ... I'll find and link them a bit later.

It's so awful to see -- so hard for the poor dog.

An acquaintance once acted in a dangerously unsafe manner with a firearm in my and two of my dogs presence. Suffice it to note he, without prior warning, lit up his 12 gauge to make noise.

I was getting the two dogs out of the truck when he fired, and out of a long ago reflex, I hit the deck. Probably the suddenness of the discharges, five shells, and my immediate reaction and attendant adrenaline fueled anxiety, caused an ongoing anxiety in anything loud from thunder to the mere racking of a shotgun.

It took quite a while but they no longer display serious anxiety bordering on panic. The sudden gunfire incident triggered a reaction to thunder, though Thunder no longer bothers them but the racking of a shotgun still gets their full attention and watchfulness,

The process of trying to get them to not be overly anxious or fearful, with the attendant panting, movement and hiding, and hyper vigilance, took some trial and error. Initially I tried to get them to confront their fear of thunder but found that to be unproductive. Then I tried to provide overly solicitous and protective confidence building comforting. That failed too.

Finally, I simply ceased to be overly concerned about how they would react to thunder and acted normally, without fear, with confidence and normalcy, and the dogs, over time, seemed to derive some comfort and confidence in my outward and visible lack of concern for the suddenness of a thunder clap. Now the sound of thunder does not result in demonstrated anxiety.

Firearms discharge took a different approach. I took a .22 to the cabin and had a neighbor go about 150 yards away and shoot a few times, much like the inciting incident. I acted normally, and continued to do stuff not reacting to the shots. I did that a few times over the course of a few weeks, and when the dogs seemed to not react to the shots, I moved to 125 yards, and repeated.

Over the course of the summer, as the dogs demonstrated less reaction and more tolerance of the shooting, I continued to reduce the distance between me and the firearm discharges. I stopped at about 25 yards, and the dogs seem to be OK. Along the way I introduced the sound of random 12 ga. rounds, shells for the purists.

It took time, and my moderating my reaction to their anxiety by either trying to get the dogs to face their fears or to try to overly comfort them. It seemed to me, that the real determinant in addressing the issue was me not reacting to thunder or gun fire in the presence of the dogs. I concluded that the dogs couldn't be forced into facing their fears or coddled into being less fearful. In the end, it seems to me that my reactions reinforced the dogs anxiety, and that by not reacting the dogs seemed to gradually be less concerned.

Now a smart, aware dog does not ignore surprises but how I react to a surprise in the presence of the dogs can amplify and condition anxiety responses, I think. If the dog is afraid and wants to seek shelter, I think it works best for me to simply ignore the behavior, more or less, and continue on normally. No reinforcement of the behavior by actions likely to reinforce the unwanted behavior.

Makes me sound hard hearted but...

I don't do firearms with the acquaintance any more.

Too long. Anecdotal. Take it with a grain of salt.

Gun dogs are I suppose conditioned to the reward of chasing the bird after the sounds of gunfire and learn to love it.

Here on our farm nothing "good " happens after gunfire for my dog. I will have to think about that and see if I might make a positive association.

Thank you guys for your input.

My guy isn't worried about thunder. Or fireworks. At least he didn't used to be.

I don't want to be banished from the board for anthropomorphism but it is like the dog sees the human "turn" on the stock or the
varmit, whatever we are shooting, and that "turn" scares the day lights out of the dog. He doesn't understand it but he knows there is the gun, the sound, then humans are hunting.

I'm not sure that I can convince him gunfire is benign.

To add on to Betty's observation.

When my now passed GSD Thunder I would take him out to my buddies farm while my son and my buddies son shot traps out in the field.

Thunder was a naturally retrieving freak and when he was 12 weeks old when I started playing fetch about an 8th of a mile from the shooting.

Within a 15-20 min period we wee playing fetch within feet behind the shooter. He was a totally solid dog from the get go with firearms etc.

When he as about 10-11 yrs old he started getting nervous around 4th of July fireworks at the park near my house.

Playing fetch with him again worked but during the night I could hear him pacing in the yard.

Not overly excited but definitely nervous.

I don't know about most breeds but I do know that Border Collies can become prone to noise sensitivity in their later yrs.

Mike's protocol really resonates with me, after working on desensitizing with several dogs.

But I also totally understand what Betty is saying about Pinker ...



I'm thinking that maybe the goal might not be to convince him that gunfire is benign, or that it can result in anything "good," or to try to make positive associations ... but more that gunfire is neutral insofar as he is concerned ... (what I aim for with desensitizing a dog-reactive dog).

I'll find and post links to those articles I mentioned tomorrow.

I agree that it should be a neutral happening.

Even at a Schutzhund/IPO trial there will be gunshots while the dog is heeling.

The dog is expected to ignore it completely.

Any reaction from the dog can results in lost points.

FOR ME, I expect any dog I own to be neutral to "anything" I expose it to.

Thank you guys!

Last nite we had a wicked thunderstorm and my fella was unconcerned.

I think my go to plan initially will be to crate.

I was trying to act completely unconcerned and going about household duties the night that the neighbor was shooting. My guy was underfoot, panicked....attempted to go into the cardboard box
that holds recycling....when I was loading the dishwasher he tried to climb in. My reaction was, "knock it off!" ....which made him even more anxious.

Next time, crate.

He used to be neutral about guns. Theres a range about 5 mi from here and if the wind is right in the fall you can hear shooting all the time. Background noise. We fire at coyotes several times a month, have forever, since he was a little pup. He never cared about it at all.

This reaction is new, since the cow, about a year ago, this gun phobia has been building.

Well, turned out that the articles I had in mind are geared more to thunder, and kind of vague besides.

But here's one:

https://www.alldogsgym.com/behavior/articles/behavior/fear-of-gunfire


This involves a recording (started on low, of course) and a combination of counter-conditioning and desensitizing. It's a slow and gradual process, involving patience.

Mike's post pretty much echoes that blog post.


I pretty much see resorting to crating him when there are gunfire sounds as counterproductive.