5 month old pup scared of bell

[munsty]

My SM pup is 5 months now and I just realized I should’ve started him off wearing a bell a lot earlier. I got him at 8 weeks and have been taking him on walks with me in fields and woods on a daily basis. We’ve been working with pen raised quail, pigeons, chukar, and his drive is incredible. Firing shots out of a blank gun while he’s birdy doesn’t phase him one bit. The other day I went to go on a walk with my pup and a friend who also had a bird dog. She had a bell on her pup and asked if I wanted to put one on mine. I tried and he completely freaked out. As soon as I took it off, he and the other pup (who had a bell on) took off into the woods and started searching. He had no problem with being close to the other pup with the bell. I started wearing the bell myself while on our daily walks and it doesn’t bother him, but as soon as I try to put it on him gets scared and walks slowly behind me, will stop and hide in the brush until I get far enough away and then he’ll come to me, but he won’t go out and do his searching like he normally does. I don’t want to push it anymore and kill the fun he’s been having in the woods. Do I screw up by not introducing the bell earlier? Am I stuck now with having to use a GPS collar? I just started ringing the bell while feeding him to help him associate it with something that he loves but not sure what else to do. Any advice?

[RayGubernat]

Get the smallest bell you can and put it on him in the yard. If he is an inside dog...put it on him when he goes outside to do his business. Put it on him every time he goes outside. It is just a matter of him getting used to it. He will. If you ignore it, sooner or later he will too.

RayG

[munsty]

Thanks. I went to the craft store and got the smallest round bell and he wore it for a week no problem. I got the biggest round craft bell the next week and he’s been wearing it without an issue. It’s much softer than the dog bell but hopefully I’ll be able to graduate to that one in a couple of weeks.