When should and shouldn’t you train

You will often hear me say, train them young, from the moment your dog comes home training commences, train anywhere, train everywhere….but when shouldn’t you train? I have two hard and fasts for no training and they are simple:
  1. When your dog is not ok (physically or mentally)
  2. When you are not ok (physically or mentally)
Most people find it easy to wrap their mind around you or your dog not training when not physically able or well to do so. This for instance could be your dog is lame, in recovery from an operation etc or similar for yourself. You can of course train of sorts once physically able to do small things, training doesn’t have to involve tearing around, it can be brain training instead but I would think very carefully about if and what I trained under those circumstances. The less obvious is when you or your dog are not mentally able. We all have ‘off days’ dogs and owners included. You can spend a week training beautifully and achieving wonderful things yet undo this in one small session done in the wrong frame of mind. Many a good trainer will have a tale to share of the time they trained and wish they had not, all due to their frame of mind. Just last night I cut a session short as I could feel I was frustrated and had a low tollerance on the go, I asked for a couple of simple things and called it a day. I will equally do the same if my dogs are ‘out of sorts’, ask for a few simple things and try later or another day depending on how they seem to be. So before you start your next training session, think, are you both meeting with a smile?

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Content Disclaimer

The information contained above is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this article is not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on any of the contents of this article. Professional advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from taking any action as a result of the contents of this article. Nina Fotara T/as Confident Canine disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this article.