Pup is 8 1/2 months. I started introducing a gun at about 5 months. Started with a silenced 22, the 22 without the silencer then 410 on up to 12 guage. She has never flinched a bit. As soon as the shot was fired she would start looking for the bird or bumper. I took her out for her first hunt among other people this evening and it got pretty crazy for a few minutes with lots of shots and not many birds falling. She never got a retrieve. She ran out to a couple but a more experienced dog found them in the broom weed before her. Pretty soon she was wanting in the truck. Bad. Now she won't come to me if I'm holding a gun. If I shoulder it she tucks tail and cowers.
I'm thinking no more dove hunting and just going back to training with the 410 for a while. Bad ide? Any other ideas? Should I wait a few days or just jump right back to training?

Not that I was stopping training or anything

I'm far from an expert. I think you need to start from the very beginning. I would guess you should have tried to hunt alone or with very few other hunters at first. I'm sure the people who know will chime in. Good luck, put my GS GSP with a pro for a year and he still scared and hides when a bring a gun out of the safe.

Not good. Long road ahead for you.

Classic mistake, classic results, very long difficult road ahead.

You will have to go very very slow for a long time and she may never get over the situation. I have dealt with several gun shy dogs and during rehab one mistake and you are back at square one. I have seen success with the breaking gun shy tape. I use to have one but have no idea where it is now. The bottom line is he will not get over it in one session, or 1 month of session. No quick fix. I believe you need to get her thru her gun shyness before you do anymore retriever training.

You might want to check this out. http://www.willowcreekkennels.net/how-to-cure-the-gun-shy-hunting-dog/

My GSP bitch is 3 now. I was shooting over her at 3 months, she was retrieving well. I sent her to a trainer to be finished and she came home gunshy. She is almost over the gunshyness but its a long hard road. Multiple shooters is more than some dogs can handle. A barrage of shots nearly ruined my girl. She hunts for me and maybe one or two more now. No more groups of 10-12 on a pheasant push. She's doing well on the dove retrieves, waiting for quail and pheasant to come along.

Why?

Step one: DON'T TAKE PUPPIES TO THE DOVE FIELD

Step two: Stop hunting the dog before he's trained. This can most likely be fixed but don't do anything else without first consulting someone that you trust that has dealt with these issues before.

She's fine. We went out with the 410 Saturday and did some retrieving shouldering the gun but not shooting for a while then added a few with shooting. She was back to normal. We obviously won't be hunting any more until next season.

Why next season, just don't take to a gang bang dove hunt. You are one lucky guy!!

There are few to no birds on the properties that I have any control over. I didn't know there would be extra people at the place we hunted Friday when she freaked out. Not going to take that chance again.

You're very lucky under these circumstances. I am,good you or your pup going again.

Gun shy should be called gun fear. It is all fear based. You are the trainer owner protector provider. Think what would make a dog so fearful it would interior it's routine. Of your start thinking about how a dog perceives things, not how a human perceives things you will be much farther ahead of the game than most. That will enable you to make good choices for the dog. You know now if multiple people arrive thenbtoubhave to go.

Letting a pup run amongst other dogs is as bad a mistake as the gang bang hunt. Make it super easy for the pup. Let that pup see it Hit the ground water.