Decided it was time to see how Bentley would react to loud bangs, what with bonfire night coming up soon etc.

Well, not good was the answer. I set off a couple of fireworks at the back of the garden with Bentley sat near the front with Sarah. He wet himself and ran inside. It took me most of the rest of the day just to get him to come back out into the garden. Not how I envisioned it!

Any suggestions on how best to get him over being scared of loud bangs? I did cut the grass yesterday with a new petrol lawnmower for the first time and he was scared of that but I forced him to stay outside and after ten min he was romping around wanting to play with it.

Would forcing him to stay outside for more bangs do the same thing? Maybe starting at a greater distance and working closer?

Thanks guys. With it being fireworks night soon i'll just leave him in the room with me while they're going off and ignore them and him. See how he gets on, if he gets THAT distressed then i'll turn on some music/tv to drown them out. I'm sure he'd be ok in time. He was scared of me shutting the kitchen doors loudly to begin with but doesn't bat an eye lid anymore so i think it'll just take a little time for him to do it.

Jackie, I don't have a gun so i can't really fire blanks. Guns are very hard to come by in this country and we have very tight licencing for them. Maybe a small cap gun from a toy shop? About the best we can do. I think some gunshot MP3's might be good.

pixie is spot on with her posts. The only other thing I would add is if you get a response and a slow recovery then you are too close, so move further away.

Splat - When you introduce Blitz to the quail be sure you don't scare him with a flapping bird or let the bird hit him with a flapping wing (you can dizzy the bird to prevent flapping). Keep Blitz back from the bird and get him excited about the bird and make sure he is down wind and gets a good nose full of scent, and then flush the bird and let him chase and have fun. I wouldn't even get too worried if he catches the birds at first. Let him have fun. Does your friend have pigeons too? That is what most of the shorthair folks here start out with because they fly better and are cheaper than quail. The only caution with a pigeon is they are bigger so we dizzy them so they are not flapping around.

I am going out to a hunt club in a few weeks with the intent to join. It is pretty close to me and I can take as many dogs as I want out there and train. They have birds and any equipment I might need. They also allow hunting on their property, so I can actually take the dogs out their on a hunt too. Not like wild birds, but it is close so I can get out their on the weekends. Right now the place I take Ringo, which is wonderful, is pretty far away, so I end up having to leave him so they can work with him during the week, and it is hard for me to get back there on weekends to work with him. So, I am hoping I have found a good solution with this new place.

Good luck on your training.