From 7-12-16
Took Voodoo to the nearest outdoor gun range today to ensure he continues to do well with gun shots (so he can do gun dog sports). I parked a few streets away and we walked up and down the street for a bit (parallel to the range) with the shots at a distance. There were more people shooting as we did this, so the shots were frequent. Then I moved my vehicle a bit closer and walked to the range entrance from there as the shooting died down a bit. We didn’t get any closer than the entrance because the shots were quite loud there and when they got a bit louder, I realized (right before we left) that they were now shooting TOWARD us! Just bird shot, so it couldn’t reach us, but still a bit unnerving to have 3 guys pointing their shotguns your direction and I could hear the shot falling through the trees across the driveway.
There were some nearby construction noises on the other side of the road, including nail guns. And we were right next to the road where light traffic was whizzing by. He had no issues with any of it. We had to walk along the narrow country road to get to the range, so when I first parked, I was off on a side road and we walked toward the main road so he could see/hear the vehicles before we had to walk right next to them (no shoulder to walk on, since it was either a ditch or a hill).
I purposely didn’t work on anything that required rapid fire treats because I wanted to see what his body language was when he wasn’t focused on treats. That way I could ensure that if he got nervous, we could get out of there quickly. But he was happy to pull me toward the gun range to follow a scent and (not on video) he got bored with walking back and forth so he laid down and chewed on a stick for awhile (till I realized we had become “down range”).
Sorry if this video makes anyone dizzy. It’s really hard to get video when he’s walking right next to me! https://vimeo.com/174457193/aa6387778d
Raising a Genius Puppy 