Are you overtraining your dog? The signs to look for, and how to put it right

A reader this week suffers from a dog who can’t concentrate and is getting distracted all the time, but with things now going badly our dog training expert Ben Randall takes a look – and suspects that overtraining is the problem.

Here’s a question for all dog owners: why did you buy a dog?

The answer for almost all of us is the incomparable love and companionship that come when you bring a canine friend into your family.

Yet all too often owners get so focused on their training that they forget about those warm, fuzzy feelings which prompted them to get a dog in the first place. There’s a scene in The Sound of Music in which Captain Von Trapp orders his children around with a series of peeps on his whistle; their behaviour is immaculate, but the kids are cold and joyless. And I think if most people tried to do that in really life, their children would quickly rebel. Both options are as bad as each other — because overtraining is no good for anyone, as this week’s reader reminded me via [email protected].

“Hi Ben. Training with my dog, Bobby, went well at first, but now I find he keeps losing concentration and gets easily distracted. I’ve persevered and kept at it in hopes that it will ‘click’ but we’ve been stalled for a long time now. Help!” — BW, Derbyshire

In my years developing and running my Beggarbush training,  I’ve seen so many clients come to me with this problem — they start detailing what they’re doing training their dogs, and all I can think is ‘Whoa!’

Yellow Labrador retriever puppy in training to become a service or disability assistance dog

They seem to be training their pets in what seems like some sort of vigorous 24/7 routine. Training a dog should be closer to the kindergarten than the rigours of boot camp. Your dog should be happy, calm and relaxed in the house, spending plenty of time snoozing in his or her basket or crate — not being turfed out of that dogbed to be drilled afresh every few minutes.

Signs you’re overtraining your dog

Once you’re looking out for it, the signs that you’ve been overtraining your dog are easy to spot:

• Is your dog easily distracted while training? Do they seem bored or disengaged?
• Does he or she do what you ask, but only for a few seconds? One client of mine recently was practising walking to heel, but her dog would only take a few steps without wandering off, then coming back when called back — but expecting another treat for doing so. She couldn’t walk the length of the drive without a pocketful of kibble.
• Are you going through the dog treats at a rate of knots? A treat as a reward is fine, but not every time: dogs who do nothing without a treat have forced you into bribery.  If seen so many people come to me who’ve not even noticed it, but they’re constantly pouring food into their dogs.

How to stop overtraining your dog

Remember to go at their pace, not yours

Dogs — and especially young dogs — have a limited attention span. Don’t be too regimented, particularly early on in their lives with you. Let your dog relax, sleep, chew his bone, and just be content around the house. That’ll mean that when you do start working on something with them, they’re much more likely to be ready to go and keen to get it right.

Keep training to certain times of day — and make the rest of the day relaxed and enjoyable

With our new puppies I use their three feeding times per day to maintain focus and start to teach life commands. I always start with training the young dogs to sit and show patienceand slowly building up the duration that they can stay calm in face of distraction — i.e. their bowl of food.

As I’m doing this, I’ll also build in other commands. I’ll call them to their bowl with a recall commandor perhaps have the dog walk to heel as we come up to the food, and practice the leave command if they start going for their food before I’ve given them the signal.

Young dogs also tend to need to go to the toilet half dozen times and more each day as well — usually some of these coincide with meals, but the others are great opportunities to train the toilet commandrecall and heel.

And the rest of the day? The dog should be happy sleeping in his or her bed, dog crateor on the sofa in the lounge if you’re happy for them to do so (if you’re not, training your dog to keep off the sofa is doable too).

Be sensitive to your dog’s mood — and let them be themselves

Sometimes you’ll want to work on something specific at another time — stopping your dog from jumping up on peoplefor example, or getting them to stop barking at the doorbell. If so then keep an eye out for telltale signs of boredom and staleness: your dog not wanting to comply, or getting easily distracted from the task. Catch them in the right mood and things will go much more smoothly.

That extends to other times as well. If you’re walking along the street with your dog on a normal errand, you don’t need him to behave as if he or she is on display at Crufts: it’s fine for dogs to want to stop and smell things, and take in the world around them. You want your dogs to be switched on when you need them to be, but otherwise relaxed and happy.

For more detailed advice about Ben Randall’s positive, reward-based and proven BG training methods, one-to-one training sessions, residential training or five-star dog-boarding at his BGHQ in Herefordshire, telephone 01531 670960 or visit www.ledburylodgekennels.co.uk. For a free seven-day trial of the Gundog appwhich costs £24.99 a month or £249.99 a year, visit www.gundog.app/trial

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