07/10/2025
๐๐ฉ๐ค๐ฅ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐จ๐ข๐๐ก๐ก ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ง๐ค๐จ๐๐จ ๐น
Not necessarily quite literally. However factoring in breaks and pauses when out on walks or training sessions is an important skill to teach any dog, but especially a busy working line gundog. Teaching them the ability to wait patiently when anticipating an exciting activity, or to switch off for periods of time is important for a variety of reasonsโฆ
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Teaches ๐ฅ๐๐ฉ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐, just because we are in an exciting environment it doesnโt mean you automatically get to run around like an idiot ( spaniels Iโm looking at you ๐๐).
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Helps to ๐ข๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ค๐ช๐จ๐๐ก ๐ก๐๐ซ๐๐ก๐จ. Factoring in breaks/pauses can allow time for your dogs to bring their arousal levels down, especially important for young dogs who havenโt learned how to keep their cool very well yet.
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Teaches ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ช๐ก๐จ๐ ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐ฉ๐ง๐ค๐ก, there may be lots of fun things you could be doing but you need to hold your horses! ( delaying gratification).
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When built up gradually can ๐๐ซ๐ค๐๐ ๐๐ง๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ง๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ฃ. Nobody wants a dog who whines, barks, or exhibits various other frustrated behaviours whenever you stop to chat to a friend, or have a picnic on a walk etc. If we factor in training doing nothing into our outings, we can avoid having that frustrated dog.
Some dogs have no problem with this and require very little training from us, other dogs really struggle so we have to spend much more time training these skills. It is however something which is very often looked over when training, and it is such an important skill to teach.
