[fabsroman]

There is a school of thought that is a little different than taking a dog to the trap range to find out if it is gun shy or not. In hindsight, I probably agree with it, but I have taken my dogs to the clays range on a bunch of occassions.

Essentially, you want to get a dog interested in birds and once she is interested in birds, you want to introduce gun fire with birds involved. Start out with a starter pistol from afar while she is working birds. Once she is okay with that, decrease the yardage. Once you can fire the starter pistol while you walk right beside her, step it up a notch to something like a .22 or .410. Essentially, work your way up to a 12 ga.

Somehow, I think you know how to see if a dog is gun shy and/or get them over the gun shyness.

Me, I spent a lot of time with my dogs and earned their trust before we ever went into the field together. I either started with a 12 ga. from afar or a 20 ga. right close to them. I have not had a problem.

My uncle on the other hand took his dog out hunting with us once and it took off along with his buddy's beagle right after the first gun shot. Eventually, he got the dog back because it came to an old lady when the lady offered it food, but the beagle was never found because it would not trust the old lady with the food.