my question is i have a very timid dog and is very shy and jumpy to noise is this a problem or just him? he has not been started a whole lot because i am new but it seems when i take him hunting he is not bad he will go out and hunt he really likes skunk but breaking that but does not show his scared side while hunting. what i have done is have him in the house alot because it is noisy with 4 kids and stuff like that and he seems to be adjust more but still he likes to shut down if i discipline him and will coward towards me. how can i get him out of this or is this the way he is going to be, and again i have not seen this while hunting him though. the one problem i have had while hunting is he is gun shy maybe you can tell me also some ideas on that. and when do i just call him a loss. he is a good dog though. well thanks for you help

You said when you discipline him he acts scared, to me that is a sign he is showing he is submitting and sees you as the alpha of the house. That is better than having him stand up to you which would be a much worse problem. Loud noises in your home I think will not be so scary after a while. Our hound was so scared of the metal TV trays that are in the corner of our living room. She once knocked one over and she figured a monster was after her. She still gives them respect but will sleep in the corner by them now but that took a while for her to brave up to. Now we are working to desensitize her to things like opening up a grocery bag, you know how you pop it in the air. She's not gun shy but every once in a while we find something that will spook her. And in the woods she is all hunt, nothing bothers her. She had lots of woods time as a pup so it is her favorite place.
The gun shy thing can be worked on, there's a whole routine on here to try to work that out. Being loud at feeding time with pans is one method. I just took a shotgun along when we went on walks in the day and took a shot when I saw her really working some scent. She looked up then went back to it. If you like the dog for a hunter and works well for a family dog don't give it up yet.

my 1 year old puppy was identicle to him scared of his own shadow the hole 9 yards, he was also gun shy but the more i took him out this summer the better he grew out of everything you mentioned above so your dog should be fine the more you mess with him

yeah he would head for the hills at first when i shot out coon but now he will just leave a go about 20 yards and kinda cower and want nothing more with the coon i would like to shake some out but just need the right trees should i keep shooting them out and try to get him on the dead coon? when i got him he was 9 month and i think disciplined hard at first he couldnt even stand seeing a rifle but i have been setting the gun around all over the place carrying when he plays and setting next to and on top of his crate and is better at the sight now. i just dont want him to think he trees a coon and then here come the gun shoot he hates. an ideas or suggestion i should do on the tree. maybe i should tie him back i little bit when i shoot and then move him closer each time. or maybe muffle his ears so the sound just doesnt bother him as much i just want to make sure that i keep it positive for him while he get over gun shy! i am planning to take him out to where the duck hunt a there is alot of shooting. am i doing the right things? mainly what should i do at the tree is the biggest question i have!

Kill season doesn't open til 11/15 in Oregon.

I'm sure all those duck hunters would welcome you and your hound with open arms. Good luck.

hey libby its Ben from the night hunts i have meet you twice with my black dog havent got him out much this year i am talking about last year with shooting them out and as for the duck hunters it is on a dam me being down below having my dog there wouldn't bother them at all.

Hi Ben,

Sorry if that came off snotty. It was and I shouldn't have posted it that way. I am quitting smoking and can hardly stand to be with myself right now.

Always tie the dog to the tree far enough away so the coon won't fall on him and he can't run away. It's good practice tying them for nite hunts, too. Bring him to Mary's Peak for the grade hunt! Getting him out will be good for him, and once he associated the gun with good things coming from the tree, he'll like seeing the rifle bag being loaded up. That happened with a skiddish dog I had. She would not go to a tree with other people's dogs on it unless she saw the gun...then she had no fears! They learn what is a good experience from a bad, so correcting for the skunk won't harm him. He'll figure out skunk bad...coon good. Or he won't, like Huck...he'll know what's bad and be quiet on it!

Or take him somewhere you can target pracitice with the kids and a big bag of french fries. Tie him up so he can't run or even move much, and have the kids feed him a fry when you shoot. That taught our gun-shy dog not to fear the gun shots. Suppose you could use proper dog treats, but the kids prefer fries! Got to the point she run out looking when she heard backfiring cars or nail guns in the neighborhood.

Good luck, Ben. Look forward to seeing you and your black and black&blue dogs this winter. I promise to be nice or go back to smoking.

i cant catch my dog. shes shy and timid and the whole nine yards but when i cut her loose in the woods shell come about 20ft from me when i holler for her and stops. then when i start to try to catch her she takes off. i cant stand this and would like a lil help on it please

Some Shy or timid dogs are born that way.Many are made that way becasue they have not been messed with enough real young. Or made to be that way because of how they are keept and takin care of ....One way that really helps a shy or timid dog. Is to chain them out next to a dog that likes to run a circles all day on a chain.Soon they will be doing the same...Also let kids mess with them as much as possible..To gun break a dog the best way is to beat metal pans together as your getting ready to feed the dogs..I always do that with small pups just as they start eatting.....If you do that will pups they will never be gun shy........Some dogs will never come out of being shy 100%..But some of the best dogs I ever hunted with were a little shy or timid...

Another thing you can do along those lines is chain your dog out. Tie the end of the chain to a tree limb and hang pots and pans on the part that goes from the tree limb to the ground. Be sure the chain is long enough that the dog has plenty of movement. It will get them use to noise and build muscle. Just differant sizes of wind chimes help to. For pups you can make a wind chime out of pots and pans on a rope and make the rope long enough the pups can tug and play with it.

I have a 12mth walker male had him for 2 days now. Has not been hunted only been in the woods 1 time. Hasnt been eating much an not doing much but finding a corner to lay in. the guy i got him from said he had got sick and wasnt eating so he's kind of poor now. He said he just started eating wen i came to pick him up. I went out there this morning he seemed to have some bounce in him an my dad said the same thing wen he went out there and his bowl was empty. I started beating his bowl(not metal so it wasn't loud) with a stick because it had ants in it an he ran an hid. Now he is timid an usually cowars away from me but he didnt this morning he kind of met me.

I think he was beaten a lot wen he was younger im thinking thats why he ran wen i picked up the stick an started hitting the bowl. My question is do u think he will ever come out of this. It will make it kind of hard to train him wen it comes time to discipline an correct him.

He is bred real good. He is outa timber tiger who's outa Rat Attack and Brown's Hailey. The dam is outa Stylish Harry and Night Heat Trixie

On the timid part its good to get down on one knee to get the dog to come to you also pet him up when he gets to you and try to get him on his back to rub his belly if he does that he is submitting to you the lower to the ground you get the dog will be more conferable to come to you this is a time consuming every day but he will stop being shy takes about 1 month shoot I fixed dogs with that problem that people would need a fish net to catch.Gun shy will be fixed after the dog gets rid of his timidness then he will trust you with the noise but your not gonna fix the gun shy unless you fix the timidness.

i think getting the dog around the kids is great a idea, don't believe playing with a hound hurts their hunting ability. i got a female i got her when she was 4 months the guy i got her from only mess with her when he fed her she, she never had much human contact, she was real shy and jumpy when i first got her me and the kids would play with her, i would take her to the kids ball game you know how loud they can be plus all the kids want to pet the dog, then i take her out in the day time get her use to all the sights and sounds of the woods, when you hunt the dog at night with a old dog, the first thing you do is tie the pup when you get to the tree back soon don't get in touble with the other dogs and the tree is where the action is, shooting out coon i would shoot shorts or cbs and have a buddy do the shooting and pet the pup while the shooting is going on, then make sure the coon is dead before you let the pup get a hold of it and make sure the old dog don't jump on the pup, once he learn the pop of the gun means he is getting a coon he should be fine

You don't want a shy dog to submitt to you. You want them to come and stand with confidence. I just got a 11 month old BIG B&T gave to me. He is the same way. He has been kept in a pen all his life and not socialized. I am doing him the same way I have done several in the past. I do it with the e collar. I call him and start a low stemulation nick till he comes to me. Some I have to start on a long line at first but if they know what here means I just do it in the fenced yard. Once he comes to me I get other people to call him and force him to go to them. When they figure out that the people calling them makes the nick go away and they get petted by them and a treat to boot. It don't take long till they will go to about anyone. I have had this pup less than a weak and he is comeing out of a lot of it allready. Just use enough nick to make the neck twitch when you nick him. Not enough to make it hurt or scare him. It just makes them face there fears.

any body that owns a dog should have it submit to them even if it is just the sit command. its a forced command.your doing the same thing at first with the nick the dog submits to the nick.my way the dog submits to his brain.Both will work but its still submitting.