218. Are You Boring Your Gundog? How to Keep Training Fresh Without Losing Consistency

The dummy goes out, your dog runs it, sits and delivers to hand. Lovely. So you do it again on the same bit of grass. And again. By the eighth go they’re trotting instead of running, and on the ninth they pick it up, give it a good shake and take the scenic route back to you.

You stand there with the lead in your hand wondering what you’ve undone. Most of the time, you haven’t undone anything. Your dog might simply be bored, and trying to tell you in the only way they can. This post is about spotting that early, and changing just enough to keep your dog keen without throwing away the consistency you’ve worked so hard to build.

Everything in this post comes from my conversation with Claire Denyer on episode [EPISODE NUMBER] of Found It, Fetched It.

More Reps Is Not Always More Training

Repetition matters. You need it to proof a behaviour and turn it into a habit, and if you’ve been around LWDG for any length of time you’ll have heard us bang on about doing the reps. Claire noticed something in her clients, though. Some of them had taken that message so completely to heart that they were running the same exercise, in the same spot, day after day. Then their dogs started doing things they never normally did, and nobody could work out why.

Claire asked them whether they’d considered, even for a minute, that the dog was trying to inject a bit of fun into proceedings. They’d been living Groundhog Day, and the dog was asking to be stretched.

Then she asked the harder question. Are you doing those reps to proof the behaviour, or because it’s familiar to you? Repeating the thing your dog already does well feels good. It’s a comfort zone. Stretching it means it might go wrong, and that’s exactly why so many of us quietly avoid it. Claire’s point is that the dog often pays for our comfort zone with boredom, and then stops doing the very thing we were proud of.

I used to tell my kids, when they started dating someone new, that if there are always biscuits in the biscuit barrel, what’s the point of biscuits? Be exactly the same every time and you become a Rich Tea. Present, but nobody’s that excited about you. Our dogs feel that too.

Key takeaway: Pick the exercise you practise most and ask honestly whether you’re still proofing it or just enjoying it. If it’s the second, it’s ready to move on.

Your Dog Will Tell You They Are Bored, Just Not Loudly

Growing up I had a push-button pony who would jump anything. A friend had one much the same, and at our local show we’d enter every class going and spend the whole day competing against each other. My dad would say, “Enough now, or she’s going to tell you she’s had enough.” I never listened. Mine stayed a darling about it. My friend’s didn’t, and by the fourth class he’d be bucking and making it very clear he was done.

Our dogs rarely do that. Very few will turn on us or tell us outright that enough is enough. They tend to endure more than they should, so the signs are quieter. Claire sees a retrieve that slows down, a dog who looks like they’re going through the motions, or a dog who starts making their own fun. Showboating with the dummy, a little loop on the way back, a bit of extra hunting when they knew exactly where the dummy was.

Then there are the high-memory dogs. These are the ones who learn your pattern and start pre-empting it, because you do the same thing every time and they’ve clocked what comes next. That can look a lot like disobedience. Often it’s a dog who is three steps ahead of a plan that hasn’t changed in weeks.

Not every dog is the same, either. Claire was clear that some dogs will drill the same thing happily and get better and better at it. Others got the memo twenty reps ago and are wondering why they’re doing it again.

Key takeaway: When your dog starts showboating or getting ahead of you, read it as information about the session before you read it as something wrong with your dog.

Even a Brilliant Training Field Can Become a Second Back Garden

Claire’s two training fields are big, open and full of varied terrain. There’s a jump. They are not boring fields by anyone’s standards. But Rose, her older dog, spends hours there sitting in the car watching Claire train other people’s dogs. Claire thinks Rose now sees them as a second back garden. Ask for work there and Rose will do it, with the air of a dog doing a chore.

Then Claire was invited to train with friends an hour’s drive away, somewhere Rose had never worked. Memory retrieves, blinds, ignore that one and pick a different one. The kind of exercise Rose might turn her nose up at on the home field. In the new place Rose was like a puppy, tail going the whole time, giving Claire the look of love. Claire drove home buzzing.

Age plays its part. Jeanie, Claire’s youngster, still thinks a retrieve anywhere is the coolest thing in the world. Rose was exactly the same at two, three and four years old, and Claire expects Jeanie to change as they mature.

Our dogs also read the day before we’re out of the door. Claire’s dogs know from her clothes whether it’s an admin day or a field day, and Rose knows that if Claire is rushing about, it’ll be a five-minute mooch and a couple of informal retrieves before a day of teaching. The same goes for us on autopilot. Out the front door, end of the street, turn left. If we’ve switched off before we’ve started, it’s no wonder our dogs switch off from us.

Key takeaway: Take one behaviour your dog already nails at home somewhere new this week. Same skill, new place, and you’re proofing it while making it exciting again.

Change the Reward and the Same Exercise Feels New

A new location isn’t the only lever. Claire is currently proofing Jeanie’s stop whistle at different distances and across different terrain, which already keeps it interesting. On top of that, she changes what happens after the stop.

Sometimes she walks out to Jeanie and rewards with physical praise and maybe a treat. Sometimes she releases Jeanie to chase a thrown reward. Sometimes Jeanie watches a dummy go down and is then directed onto it. Sometimes the stop is followed by a hunt. Right now Jeanie thinks the stop whistle is life. It sits alongside hunting as one of the two best things in the world, and that’s no accident.

There’s a second benefit. Jeanie can’t guess what’s coming next. If the stop is always followed by a hunt, a keen dog will start breaking the stop to get to the hunt. When it might be a hunt, a left, a right, a back, or Claire walking out, the only sensible thing to do is wait and listen. It keeps them on their toes and thinking.

The same applies to your heelwork. Could you reward it more dynamically? Get your dog to catch the treat, or throw a ball, rather than handing over a treat the same way every single time.

Key takeaway: Pick one behaviour and give it three different rewards this week. Your dog stays keen and stops guessing, which is exactly what you want from a stop.

Your Dog Does Not Get to Decide When the Session Ends

My old spaniel Ella was famous for this. Three canvas dummy retrieves and that was your lot. Ask for a fourth and Ella would look at it like it was a complete stranger, and it certainly wasn’t getting picked up. It didn’t matter if we’d trained in five different places over ten days. Three and out, because Ella wanted to get on to the hunting.

So how do you tell a bored dog from a dog using boredom as a way out of the work? Claire’s answer is to take the decision back. With a dog like Ella, she’d slip in a fur dummy every third retrieve, then go back to canvas. Or she’d reward two good retrieves with a mini hunt, then ask for another canvas retrieve, then maybe another mini hunt.

It’s an intermittent pattern, so the dog isn’t the one dictating how many they’ll do. The hunting becomes the reward for good work, given on your terms, rather than the thing your dog holds out for by going on strike.

Key takeaway: If your dog has set their own limit, change the pattern around it. Use the thing they love most as the reward for good work, and you decide when it arrives.

You Only Need to Change Ten or Twenty Percent

Here’s the honest bit. We’re creatures of habit. You can listen to this and swear you’ll do it differently forever, and by next week you’re walking the same walk again. Claire isn’t asking you to overhaul everything. Ten or twenty percent is plenty.

Her approach is to make a list, on paper or in your head, of the things your dog is very good at in known locations, and take those into new places. Things you’re still developing, keep proofing somewhere familiar but change how you reward them. If you need a plan to feel steady, have five plans and run a different one each day rather than the same one five days in a row. Give your dog a day or two off formal training for a fun walk or a play. Use natural barriers in your training.

Claire even keeps a bag of each dog’s favourite dummies, six to eight in each, so she isn’t pulling out the same four every session. When I was updating Claire’s Hold and Deliver masterclass for 2026, module nine covers all the different dummies we can use, and it made me realise I reach for the same few in my bag far more than the rest.

I’m the same with food. I’ve had the same breakfast for sixteen years, a chocolate shake and a peach tea, and don’t try to take it off me. Give me spaghetti bolognese seven nights running, though, and I’d be begging for a burger. Some things we’re happy to keep the same, and some things need freshening up. Our dogs are no different.

Key takeaway: Write down five things your dog does well at home. Next session, take one of them somewhere new. That’s your ten percent.

Questions people ask about keeping gundog training fresh

How do I know if my dog is bored or just being cheeky?

Look at the pattern rather than the moment. If your dog starts slowing down, showboating or pre-empting after lots of reps of the same thing in the same place, boredom is the likely answer. If they’ve set a hard limit, like three retrieves and done, that’s a dog who has learned to run the session. Either way the fix is the same: change the pattern so you’re the one deciding what comes next.

Won’t changing things up undo all the consistency I’ve built?

No. Consistency is how your dog learns, and variety is what keeps them interested in learning. You’re not changing the behaviour itself, you’re changing the location, the reward or the order. Take solid skills somewhere new, and keep developing skills somewhere familiar with a different reward. That’s ten or twenty percent, not a new system.

My dog used to love retrieving and now seems flat. Have I done something wrong?

Probably not. Claire’s own dog Rose did everything with the same enthusiasm at two, three and four, and is choosier now, especially on the fields she sees every day. Age and over-familiar places both play a part. Take your dog somewhere completely new and watch what happens to the tail.

How often should I train the same skill?

It depends on your dog, and it’s worth watching rather than guessing. Some dogs will happily drill the same thing and keep improving. For others, Claire finds less is more, and working one skill once or twice a week is enough, with the other days spent on something different. Your dog’s enthusiasm is your best guide.

Is it okay to have days with no formal training at all?

Yes. Claire actively suggests giving your dog a day or two off formal training to go for a fun walk or simply play together. It isn’t lost time. It keeps the training days feeling like something worth showing up for, for both of you.

Give Them Consistency to Learn and Variety to Stay Keen

If you recognised yourself in any of this, good. Repeating what works is what careful, committed handlers do. It comes from wanting to get it right and not wanting to wobble your dog. Nobody gets stuck in Groundhog Day because they don’t care.

The shift is small. Your dog needs consistency to learn and variety to stay interested, and you get to decide where each one goes. Keep the behaviour steady. Change the place, the reward or the order around it.

It helps you too. When life gets busy and training slides to the back burner, a new spot, a new routine or even a new dummy can be enough to get you enjoying it again. Nothing beats watching your dog love doing their thing. So this week, take one thing your dog is great at somewhere they’ve never done it, and let me know what happens. And maybe buy a new dummy, because why not.

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