Looking to adopt a 2 year old American Cocker Spaniel from a resuce. She was rescued from a breeder, and seems to by shy, slightly timid, and flinches to movement behind her and when going through doors. The dog is MORE comfortable OUTSIDE than inside.

I've trained with a Brittany before, I've had an English Cocker before growing up, and I've had rescues that have been timid and with time they get over it.

I have never had a combination of all three, and I am fairly sure this dog is going to be gun shy.

I dont need responses saying "Find a breeder". Im already considering it. What I am wondering, and the only advice I am soliciting, is regarding training a 2 year old pup that may be shy to hunt again, not alternative ideas. Thanks.

Will they let you do a weekend trial? See what happens?

Yes, actually. They do a week long trial adoption where I can see if it works out or not. But even so, I really would like a dog right now, but I'm not sure I could have time for a pup. Which is why I would like to adopt a young, but housebroken, dog.

I just read some articles where in under a week the owner acclimated the dog to gunfire. He fed the dog, fired a round, and for the first two days the dog ran and hid. Day 3, the rog ran, stopped, went back to eat. Day 4, dog flinched, but kept eating, Day 5, same but got better. Im going to do the same. I'm going to get a metal/tin dish and bang it when its time to eat. Start slowly introducing noise with food, and associating noise with GOOD and POSITIVE encounters with the dog.

Isn’t that jumping the gun? You don’t know if the dog is actually gunshy yet. I’d test it first, with a gun, not banging on a pan. Then if it is, go on trying to desentize it.

When my boy was a pup, he was scared of the vacuum cleaner until he realized it was also a treat dispenser.

won't be able to fix it quick,but is fixable if all else is good take it home. Desensitization will take patience and time

where is this?

Not in Texas. Havent lived in TX for a couple years.

Hope this helps...

My Brittany was showing signs of being gun shy. I tried starting with a 20ga and her 50 yards back with tons of treats working her way up.

Failed when I got to a 12ga over the course of a few days. The thing that really clicked for her, was once a living bird was introduced. She could care less if an atomic bomb goes off, she's so focused on the bird and makes the connection of a gunshot and a reward.

I would say in a couple days, you'll be able to tell if the dog will be able to hunt or not

I had a black lab female that was afraid of loud noises like thunder and gun fire.  I worked her with the retreiving dummies until she had that down, very excited with the retreive.  I then used a training pistol, stood 30 yds away, threw the dummy, shot it in air and my wife released the dog for the retreive.  One or two sessions like that, moved in to say 15 yards once or twice, then I held the dog, threw the dummy, shot and released her for the retreive.  It was very brief training period.  The dog associated the shot to the bird very quickly.  Read the dog as to how quickly to progress.  She became a good hunter, never gunshot shy but would still get scared by thunder.  Use a little love.

Not a huge trick to this.  It takes birds.  Start with a cap gun > then starter gun > then low noise 20ga, etc.

The first thing is get the dog fired up over birds.  Without gunfire.

Then You only shoot when the dog is in full chase, and a good distance away to start with.

Honestly some dogs are so fired up over birds you can go straight to a 12ga after the starter pistol, but with a shy dog I'd sure would work up slow and back off at the slightest sign of distress.

What I sure wouldn't do under any circumstances:  Shoot a gun around a dog that wasn't full onto a bird.  If the thing has any breeding it will be bird crazy and you attach gunfire to something it loves and create a good association.