216. The Dog Training Problems You Can Ignore, and the Ones That Come Back to Bite You

The backs are lovely, so you do backs. The lefts and rights are a bit wobbly, so you do backs again. Heelwork feels like wading through treacle, so you skip straight to the retrieves your dog adores. The certificate says Foundation, the next one says Novice, and that one niggle quietly comes along for the ride.

Most of us have done some version of this. Training the bits that feel good is completely human. The trouble is that the bits we step around don’t disappear. They wait, and they usually wait for the moment we need them most. This post is about spotting what you’re avoiding, knowing what genuinely matters, and finding the smallest place to start.

Everything in this post comes from my conversation with Claire Denyer on episode 216 of Found It, Fetched It.

Every Handler Avoids Something, and It Is Usually the Boring Bit

Claire was clear from the off that every handler avoids a problem at some point. It might be a behaviour or a training issue, minor or major. It’s tempting to focus on what’s going well, because that’s fun and you can push on to the next level of it.

She sees two other versions too. Some handlers get so hung up on what isn’t working that they never notice or enjoy what is. Others manage a problem day after day when it actually needs training through. There’s no one-size answer, because it depends on the dog, where they live and train, and what the handler can realistically do. But some things you can’t avoid, some you shouldn’t, and some don’t deserve the mountain we make of them.

When I asked what handlers dodge without realising, Claire’s answer came straight away: the boring stuff. The things that need the most repetition and time. Heelwork tops the list. Some dogs grasp the heel position quickly and just get on with it. Hunting-driven dogs, the ones desperate to get on and do the flashy retrieves, often don’t, and their handlers quietly decide they don’t really need to practise it.

That catches up with you. A walk up at a working test needs heelwork. So does a relaxed family walk with your dog on a lead. I see heelwork being the nemesis for so many of our members, and Claire’s explanation of why made complete sense.

Key takeaway: Name the exercise you skip most often. If the honest reason is that it’s tedious, that’s the one to put first in your next session.

The Niggle You Brush Over Now Is the One That Bites You Later

So where’s the line between sensible avoidance and the kind that costs you? Claire used lefts and rights to explain it. Picture a dog who runs a lovely straight line out and a cracking back, but whose lefts and rights are scruffy. It’s very easy to brush over the wobbly bit and celebrate everything else.

As you develop your dog and move up the levels, though, that gap comes back to bite you on the bum. If your dog can’t stop and take a tidy line left or right when you need it, your handling falls apart at distance. That’s a niggle you simply can’t let go. You have to take the time to teach it properly.

We see the same pattern with our members working through the certificates. Something isn’t quite right at Foundation, and the temptation is to move on to Novice anyway. But moving up a level doesn’t fix the thing. It just carries it somewhere harder.

Key takeaway: Before you move up a level, write down anything that’s still wobbly at the level you’re on. Those go into your plan before the shiny new exercises do.

How Your Dog Behaves at Home Is How They Behave in the Field

Claire talked about this with the ladies at the last of our LWDG training weekends. You ask your dog to sit in the house, they don’t, and you let it go because in that moment it doesn’t matter. Then a squirrel runs past on a walk, you ask for a sit, and your dog has already learned that the word is optional.

Most handlers don’t see the connection between those two moments. The same goes for letting your dog break off the bed you’ve sent them to while you’re busy, or letting them ignore you when you call them in from the garden. Every one of those seeps into your recall out and about. Each time, your dog learns that the cue can be ignored.

Claire also mentioned steadiness around water. During the hot spell, plenty of dogs were taken out early and late for a swim and allowed to charge straight in. She’s seen a lot more unsteadiness around water since, and it filters into other things.

I say this to my children so often they roll their eyes: how you do anything is how you do everything. If we let it slide in the kitchen, we’ve let it slide in the field too.

Key takeaway: Pick one cue you usually let slide indoors and follow it through every single time this week. It’s the cheapest recall training you’ll ever do.

Do Not Leave Today’s Problem for Tomorrow’s You

I’ve been a bit obsessed with decluttering lately, and I picked up a line from a decluttering lady about the dishes. You walk past them thinking you’ll do them tomorrow, and the next morning you’re making breakfast and dealing with last night’s dishes. Her rule was not to leave problems for your best friend tomorrow. I’ve turned it into don’t leave problems today for Jo tomorrow, because it’s still going to be me, just with a bigger pile.

Claire’s point is that training works exactly the same way. Every day you put something off is another day of the habit you don’t want. Training builds muscle memory, so the unwanted behaviour becomes more ingrained each day you leave it, and harder to change.

When a behaviour has only happened once, twice or three times, it’s much easier to shift because it hasn’t become a habit yet. Leave it six months and you’re taking apart something deeply set in. Claire sees this when she’s the second, third or even fourth trainer a dog has had. She often has to go right back to the roots and start again, with both the dog and the owner.

Key takeaway: If something new has cropped up this week, deal with it this week. It will never be smaller than it is right now.

Helping Your Dog Through Stress Will Not Damage Your Bond

A lot of us avoid tackling a problem because we’re scared that pushing through will harm the relationship with our dog. Claire was working with a client the day we recorded whose dog is quite fearful, and makes poor choices when frightened. The natural instinct is to calm, console and mollycoddle.

Claire is clear that we should be empathetic and mindful of how our dogs feel. But what a frightened dog needs most in that moment is a calm, confident leader showing them how to be. For that, the handler has to know how to hold a lead, when to praise and when not to, how to apply lead pressure, and when to release it. Those tiny details are where the change happens. If Claire can’t change the owner’s habits, she can’t change the dog’s.

A dog who has never been taught how to respond to lead pressure will drag their owner to get away from whatever scared them. That’s flight mode, and a dog in flight mode can’t learn. Teaching them that pressure on the lead means come back to you, let me guide you, gives you something to work with. It’s the same thinking as the leave command we talk about so often on our live Q&As: gentle, clear guidance to break focus from something, whether it’s exciting or frightening.

Claire uses eustress, a small manageable amount of stress, to show dogs they can cope with a wobble and recover. Your dog probably values someone helping them through far more than being protected from everything.

Key takeaway: When your dog worries, ask what clear guidance would look like rather than how to make the feeling go away. Leading them through it is the kind thing to do.

Where to Start When You Have Been Avoiding Something for a Year

If you don’t know where to start, Claire’s honest answer is to get an expert eye on it. Very often the problem you think you have isn’t the problem you actually have.

Her example was a super social dog who loves every person and every dog, and has no recall at the park when others are around. That’s all the owner sees. But at home, when a guest walks in, the dog jumps up and can’t be asked for anything else. That’s where Claire would start, because at home the dog is usually calmer and you have more control. Teach them not to jump up and to recall away in a small space first, then build out. The park problem is often a symptom.

I was chatting to a member recently about how our experts see one exercise as fifteen smaller pieces. Claire had a perfect example from a foundation client with a young dog not yet a year old. The dog wouldn’t pick up Claire’s dummy, and the owners wondered what on earth had gone wrong. Nothing had. Claire’s dummy didn’t smell of them. She had the owner pick it up, hold it, walk out and put it down again, and the dog retrieved it straight away. Now they know they need to generalise to different articles.

Not everything needs this treatment. If your dog gets spooked on holiday by something they’ll probably never see again, Claire wouldn’t make a mountain out of it. The red flag is anything that makes you unhappy, stops you progressing, or restricts your life with your dog. That’s when to act, and ideally before.

Key takeaway: Look for the home version of your outdoor problem. Start there, where it’s quieter and you have more control.

Questions people ask about avoiding problems in training

How do I know whether to train through something or just let it go?

Ask whether it will affect your everyday life or your training going forward. A one-off spook on holiday at something you’ll never see again can be let go. A cue your dog ignores at home, or a wobbly left that you’ll need at distance, can’t. If it filters into the bigger picture, it needs training.

I’ve been avoiding this for ages. Is it too late to sort it?

No, but it will take longer than if you’d tackled it early, because the habit is more ingrained. Start with the smallest, calmest version of the problem, often at home. If you can’t see where it comes from, get an expert eye on it, because the root cause is often somewhere you wouldn’t think to look.

Won’t pushing my nervous dog damage our relationship?

Not if you’re giving clear, calm guidance. Claire’s view is that a fearful dog needs a confident leader to show them how to cope, and that dogs value being helped through stress. Small, manageable challenges teach them they can recover. Constantly protecting them from every wobble can leave them stuck in flight mode, where they can’t learn.

Does it really matter if my dog ignores me in the house?

Yes, more than most people realise. Every time a cue is optional indoors, your dog learns that the word can be ignored, and they carry that outside. Following through on a sit, a settle on the bed or coming in from the garden is some of the best recall training you can do.

When is it time to get professional help?

Claire’s rule is simple. If something makes you unhappy, stops you progressing with your training, or restricts your life with your dog, it’s time to act, and preferably before you get to that point. If you don’t know where to start, that’s a good sign it’s worth asking.

Face the Bit You Have Been Stepping Around

If you recognised yourself in this, you’re in very good company. Gravitating to what works is what any handler does when they care about getting it right and want training to feel good. Avoiding something doesn’t mean you can’t do it. It usually means nobody has shown you where to start.

The shift is in seeing the little things for what they are. The sit in the kitchen is the sit in the field. The wobbly left is the handling at distance. The niggle you leave today is still there tomorrow, just a bit bigger.

So pick one thing this week. One cue you’ll follow through at home, or one wobble you’ll put first in your session. Start small, start where it’s calm, and deal with it today rather than leaving it for tomorrow’s you.

Tags:

• Found It Fetched It
• Gundog Training
• heat safety for dogs
• high-drive dogs
• hot weather dog training
• indoor dog training
• LWDG
• summer dog training
• water retrieves
• Working Dog Training

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