Any help would be appreciated, I have a 1yo lab who has been introduced to gunfire and shot over with bumper work. However, today all of a sudden, she got spooked by the gun shot and it seemed to startle her. She still retrieved but retrieved somewhat cowardly. It was also a 22 as apprised to a 12 faucet that she was used too don’t think that would matter but I thought I’d note that. How should I approach this situation?

Did you throw anything for her after that?

If so what was her demeanor?

Do you have access to dead birds? Live pigeons? Ducks?

I'd get her very excited with fun bumpers and birds if available. I'd probably do a few days without gun fire.

I'd come back and get her very excited with a bird, throw bird, introduce gun fire at a distance. Note reaction, move closer depending on the dog's reaction.

Bradley... I ran into the same issue a few years back. I couldn’t figure out the fix or the issue. Family friend picked her up and brought her back good to go. Started back to the basics he said with running live pigeons for excitement and smacking pans together before moving to bumpers and gun fire. 2 weeks of this and she ran Birds for 2 years until getting a small foot injury from a Praire Dog hope. she is working in VA as a Drug dog with a Sherriffs Dept. now and is The first Lab that dept has used for running drugs.

I’m with these guys. Get a buddy to help and shoot from a distance while he fires the dog up with pigeons and fire while the dogs chasing them. Any reaction and you need to back up the next day and try again. One shot is plenty the first day. If you get no reaction move closer the next day and try another shot. Progress slowly. Dove season is still several weeks off. I wouldn’t take her out to the field with a bunch of other guys opening day even if you do get her out of it. Keep it just you and her until you’re sure she’s not scared of gunfire.

I had two that came back soft to the gun after their first season. They were both soft dogs. They both came around. Take your time and follow the good advice.

I can get access to dead pigeons, however I keep bumpers to work only so she gets just as excited when she sees them, I was just running normal double marks with her first shot she was fine second she flinched. She didn’t run away still went and did her retrieves just seemed as she was startled definetly flinched towards my side as I felt it.

Try some frozen birds.

Update: Got the .22 out two days after the incident and fired it from a distance to where she let me shoot from heel, found some old wings in the freezer I had saved and those have her fired up. I’m starting to think it could’ve been the location, which was very echo prone which made her sensitive rather than gun shy. I found some 12ga Winchester AA 26gram 50% recoil and noise, should I move to a 20ga light dove load next then the AA?

No adverse reaction to the .22?

0 reaction at all just kept her head down in retrieves, I should’ve clarified the shot she seemed to flinch she broke right at the trigger pull so I’m curious if she just happened to be in front of the barrel at the slightest and got her bell rung. The first day I was watching a hunting shot not thinking, where was skiddish, but now it’s back to the tv watching a duck hunt just as interested as I am

Keep it at a distance, read your dog, move closer as you see fit.

Any adverse reaction move back.

You are doing good to take your time. A gun-shy dog is very hard to fix so keep that from happening.

Thank you, I’ll keep you updated! It’s just so bizarre to me how after 4 weeks of not shooting over her we developed this issue

Final update: She is all fine! I don’t know what the issue is but over the week I started small and got bigger with shots and successfully shot a 12ga from heel with 0 issues

Didn't really sound like it was as bad as a typical gun shy issue but better safe than sorry.