Our older Lab, Tilly, has always had an obsession with firearms. If you have one out to handle or examine it, she will stand in front of you and bark excitedly. Even if it is an air gun. She has never been hunting or target shooting, and don't believe she had ever been around firearms being fired until one time last summer. I took Cooper and Tilly out to the Skeet, Trap and Sporting Clay Fields last Fall to see how Cooper would react to gunfire (no big deal) We did not get real close to the shooters that time and Tilly did not react. She is a little nervous around fireworks when they are close (like in the same yard) but I don't think she has ever been close to firearms being shot. Yesterday Took both dogs to a sporting goods store and had forgotten about Tilly's obsession. I was looking at a Beretta 92 and she started her barking and jumping, just like at home. She is the least birdy dog I have ever seen but there is something about firearms. Has anyone else seen this kind of reaction?
My dogs don't routinely come into contact with firearms but the dog seem very interested in the smell of spent fireworks
Nope. Barking and jumping would seem to be a bit of a liability as far as interacting with people with loaded guns are concerned though! Maybe don't take her hunting until she quits!
Don't come across many guns. Thankfully. You really do want to know what's going on in your dogs head at times like these.
I've never planned to hunt with her. She is almost 11 now and has been this way as long as I can remember. She is the least birdy Lab I've ever seen so the chances of her finding or retrieving birds is not very good. I had forgotten about it until I took her and Cooper into the sporting goods store with me.
Isn't that funny. Maybe it's You. Maybe when you contemplate handling or firing a gun your excitement mounts and alerts Tilly? And since she's right there with you expects to be part of your fun? Our ESS was like that with long guns but she was trained for hunting and the OH hunted her.
