Lab likes spent cartridge cases

[Vegeta]

Hey all earlier in the year we bought a trained Labrador. He is a joy to shoot with.

 

Unfortunately he has started to develop a bit of a nasty habit in the last few weeks. My brother and I both shoot with semi autos.

 

He is going mad for spent cases and is ignoring the direction of the shot and not marking birds properly. If we fire a shot he will watch for carts coming out of the gun and if left unchecked he will retrieve them.

 

Now other than switching to an O/U does anyone have some advice on correcting this?

 

We were thinking some back to basics. Work on steadiness a bit for the next week. He's usually pretty solid, dropping dummies in front of him and he will leave them be. Once we're happy with that.

 

Bring out my dad's S/S.

 

Holding a dummy tell dog to Mark

Throw dummy and fire while dummy is in the air

Hopefully dog will watch dummy and not look for spent carts (will be none out of S/S) anyway

Then give fetch command

 

Do this until the dog is doing it perfectly.

 

Then introduce the semi again slowly

 

Anyone have some tips or better idea??

[cracker]

Wager this to be a byproduct of a dog trained with the hand-held dummy launcher. Don't fault the dog for this "nasty habit." It's either the autoloader that's nasty in spitting out spent shells, the launcher that's nasty (or outmoded) or else it's a nasty thing in not having trained a dog to mark off a gun. But not a nasty habit for the dog which is only doing what's been trained to do--trying to follow a moving object propelled by a device that rests in the hands of its owner.

 

Have your bro' throw the dummy whilst you shoot after telling the dog "Mark."

 

Have your bro' shoot after telling the dog "Mark" whilst you throw the dummy.

 

And both of you--stand out about 25 yards (to infinity ) when throwing. The dog's learning to mark, and that means using sight over scent. Challenge its eyesight, the nose is fine and dandy.

 

MG

[Vegeta]

Cheers appreciate the advice

[silver_pigeon]

Although our Bryn is not a trained gundog...when he comes shooting, I shoot with a Semi-Auto and he is very interested in the cartridges ejecting!

 

He watches the gun for the eject, and sometimes bark, which we sternly stop!

He will attempt to retrieve the empty cartridge cases, or in the event of a jam, he'll go for a unspent cartridge too if not watched like a hawk!

 

In terms of your dog being trained, I don't know how you would solve this without as you say, swapping to an O/U or SBS...but I just thought I'd say that you're not on your own with the semi eject being of interest in the field!

 

[Vegeta]

but I just thought I'd say that you're not on your own with the semi eject being of interest in the field!

 

 

Thanks, it is very frustrating as the dog really is a great worker and so so eager to please.

 

We have to change this trend asap.

[lurcherboy]

You have PM

 

 

LB

[dogman]

Can you not use a shell catcher on your auto? When the dog understands empties are no longer coming out, it will be keen for something else to look at, your quarry coming down with luck.