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I just starting taking my 3 year old female lab hunting this year. I have worked with her alot, and she does everything right but go get the ducks. I have even tried throwing birds I had to go pick up back in the water, and she just refuses to get them. She just want pick them up. Also, she has always been fine around guns, until today. After I shot by her she took off running out of the blind back to the truck. Does anyone have any advice on how I can work with her or any experience with this kind of behavior. I hate it for her, because she loves to go hunting with me, but what is the purpose if she want retrieve a duck?

Wow, thats a lot to ask in one question. First off, not to be critical of you, but how could you have worked a lot with her, but she wont get a duck? Do you mean she'll go get bumpers or tennis balls, but not birds? Or you spend a lot of time together? Or she simply hasnt understood, birds come from air? Always been ok around guns, but hauled ass today, seems weird too. If you havent incorprated birds into training, Im guessing you havent incorprated guns. Will she pick up a duck in training, and steady to gun there and this is new a problem thts come up, or have you 'trained' without these elements, hoping the hunt would take care of it? First off, id want to make sure the dog will pick up a bird in training, and a proper intro to gunfire. Gun shyness is tough, will take a LOT of work to overcome. If shes not birdy,you might not ever overcome it.
Start with her picking up birds in training have someone throw for you. When shes crazy about birds (might want to use some live birds, or fresh killed), only then re-intro the gun (at a distance). Then move in closer. You got 9 months before next season. Try to find a dog club in your area to have some folks to train with. travis

Major problems there 3-shot! You better go find a pup and start over! I think you are taking a chance-- wasting time on a dog that ain't got it. Spend the off season with a new dog.

Both of the previous posters are correct. I know a way to get a dog fired up about birds but the gun shyness is a major deal. The problem I see with Lab's today is there are too many of them. What I mean is people are breeding dogs, registering them and claiming the are hunters when in actuality they aren't. The hunting desire is getting bred out of some dogs (not all by no means) . It's real important to know a dogs parents esp. the bitch. Anyway I digress. How to get a dog fired up (guys please don't pursecute me) Take him to a shooting preserve. Buy some pen raised quail. Don't let the preserve plant them. You do it. One at a time. Walk the dog upwind to the plant site and let him find it. You'll know right away if the dog is a hunter. His tail will be animated and he'll go bezerk on the flush. To keep the bird from flying too far, tie a piece of string to it's foot and attach a length of heavy water hose. It'll still fly, just not too far. After doing this for a while. Maybe even more than one session. Take a small bore gun i.e..410g, 28g,20g at the most. Let the dog get worked up, flush and then shoot (standing some distance away you don't have to kill the bird) hopefully it'll take it as background noise. Keep it up, getting closer in each time. If the dog doesn't freak shoot a bird or two for it to pick up. The great thing about preserves is they run through March 31. My guess is, if the dog hasn't been afraid of gunfire before the incident. Gunfire isn't the problem. Something happened when the gun went off that the dog associates with gunfire. If it was the first time it heard a shot then you prob have a gun shy dog. Lot's of work then. There's a book Tarrent Train's Retrivers by Bill Tarrent that addresses that using a cap gun and feeding. Anyway, hope it was a one time thing. Good luck [img]images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

GOOSE IS RIGHT, SOMEWHERE A "PART" OF TRAINING WAS MISSED. THE REASON I SAY PART IS BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO TAKE TRAINING A DOG
LIKE LOOKING AT A PIE CHART CUT UP INTO SECTIONS, IF YOU OVERLOOK, SKIP ,OR CHOOSE NOT TO TEACH,TRAIN THAT SECTION, IT BECOMES A LARGE PROBLEM

EACH SECTION IS NESSASARY FOR THE NEXT, BECAUSE EACH ON BUILDS UPON THE OTHER.

I DONT KNOW IF YOUR DOG HAS BEEN FORCE BROKE ON "HOLD" OR "FETCH" BUT THIS COULD HELP.

BUT SHE NEEDS TO "LIKE" BIRDS BEFORE MOVING ANY FARTHER ALONG. DO WHAT THE POST FROM
GOOSE SAID, HE KNOWS WHAT HES SAYING, IF THIS DONT WORK , SAY BETWEEN NOW AND MID-SUMMER, (DOING IT EVERY OTHER DAY ) YOU MAY NEED TO MAKE A DECISSION ABOUT YOUR HUNTING DOG.

REMEMBER , WE ARE NOT TELLING YOU THESE THINGS TO MAKE YOU PISSED, THIS IS TO HELP THE DOG, AND WE ALL KNOW WHEN YOU PICK A PUPPY,NONE OF US KNOW IF IT WILL BE WORTH A NICKLE UNTIL WE START TRAINING IT. THERE'S MILLIONS OF LABS OUT THERE, NOT ALL OF THEM WILL BE DUCK DOGS, ITS NOT YOUR FAULT, ITS THE BREEDING AND NATURE.

I'm no expert trainer, and my dog can attest to that, but I can relate my own experiences with a dog that has trained alot but not hunted much. My dog has done really well with retrieving bumpers during training, but is very hyperactive and doesn't have good blind manners, so I didn't take him on his first hunt till last season. This was also the first time he had seen a duck. I was going to pick up the birds myself and then throw a few for him. Sort of an in the field training session. I have always trained with patches on my bumpers that I cover with duck scent that you can buy from Cabela's or Dunn's, possibly even Mack's or Herter's. I never really knew if it was working or not until that first hunt last year. I shot two birds that fell where I couldn't see them, and my dog, who had never had a feather in his mouth before, pulled away from me and made a perfect blind double retrieve on scent alone! You might consider trying this stuff and teach her to retrieve a scent, not a dummy or a duck. Maybe if it smells like something she is supposed to bring to you, she wont care what it looks like or feels like.

As far as the gun shyness goes, I have always heard that even the most seasoned hunting dog can oneday get enough of the gun fire and tuck tail and run. It can sometimes be over come but is very difficult. The only way I have heard to over come it is to start over as if she were a pup. Start with some moderately loud pops while she is eating: a cap gun or something. Start out across the room from her and as she gets used to it (over a period of days, not in one meal) move in closer until you can fire it next to her head while she eats. Then move her up to something like a .22 city bullets in the field, then up to .22 long rifles, and progressively back up to your duck gun. Incorporate it into your retrieving practice so that she knows that when she hears the shot she needs to be looking for something to fall from the sky. Keep in mind that this may have to be a daily thing from now until next season for it to help, if it helps at all

First off forget about hunting your dog again this year in my opinion. Hit training hard in the offseason. Save a few ducks, 5-10 and use them. IF your dog won't pick up a duck on land definetly don't try to have it pick up a bird in the water. Always fix things on land before you add water. SO back to fixing the bird problem. If your dog won't pick up a bird in the yard then tak part of a wing and tie it to something it will pick up like a bumper or something and get it excited about picking that up then slowly work the birds back into the training. Then when she/he is just lovin' picking up birds introduce her to the water. Not by throwin' a duck, but gettin in with her and playin'. Then when ya got water licked, then consider throwing bumper or duck into the drink for a retrieve. As far as gun shy that's tough, some of the other advice is great. Just gotta go slow, and try and not fry your dog's mind. I fried mine's the other day, you don't have to try to do too much to push them too hard and get the response of I'm getting out of here. So try to train hard and get ready for next year.

Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it. That was really a lot of good info I will take with me into the offseason. However things looked a little more promising this morning. After I picked up a duck, I through it back in the water. She eventually picked it up and brought it back. I continued this a few more times and she got better. As for as the gun-shyness, I just believe ahe had enough that day, because she was fine today. I guess we have a lot of work to do in the offseason. THANKS!!!!