27/07/2026
One of the things I love about dog training is that you never stop learning. No matter how many years you have been training dogs, every dog, every session and every environment teaches you something new.
This weekend we headed to a Heelwork to Music show with Cooper, and it was a great reminder that training is always an ongoing process.
Cooper is a very excitable dog, and one of our biggest focuses this year has been learning how to manage his excitement levels in the ring and helping him build the confidence to work through that excitement without getting frustrated or stressed.
We’ve made some really good progress with this over the last year, but there is always more to work on and, as our dogs constantly remind us, there is always something new for us to learn too.
On Saturday we had our first run. After having to wait all day for his turn, I was honestly expecting that it might be a bit much for him and that he could struggle to settle and work calmly.
But he proved me wrong. 🥰
When we went into the ring, he gave me a really good start to the routine. He was calm, focused and gave me some lovely work.
As we got into the last third of the routine, we lost our flow a little. Looking back after the round, I instantly knew it was handler error.
I had put something into the routine that was still a little too much for him to cope with in that environment.
It wasn’t that he didn’t know the exercise - as the saying goes, “he can do it at home” - because he can. But doing something in your training area is very different to doing it in a busy show environment with lots of excitement around you.
And that’s one of the biggest lessons in dog training: there is a difference between a dog knowing how to do something and being ready to do it in every situation.
This is why proofing is such an important part of training. We have to teach and practise exercises in lots of different places, with different distractions and at different levels of difficulty. A behaviour isn’t truly finished just because a dog can do it at home, we have to help them understand that the same behaviour applies wherever we ask them to do it.
So, back to training we go! We’ll break that section down, practise it in more locations, and gradually build his confidence so he can do it when the excitement levels are higher too.
Despite me asking a little too much of him, he still came away with 5th place in Novice Heelwork, and I am really proud of him and how much progress he has made in learning to manage himself in these environments.
On Sunday, we went in with a plan to work through the routine and remove the section he had struggled with on Saturday. However, once we started, I could tell he was much more excited than the day before.
Rather than pushing him and risking undoing some of the progress we have been making, I changed the plan and turned it into a training round.
The goal became working on calmer heelwork and behaviour, reinforcing the things we have been practising, and helping him finish feeling successful.
And that is what training is all about. 💜
Listening to our dogs, adapting our plans and helping them succeed.
Every challenge gives us another opportunity to learn, improve and strengthen the partnership we have with our dogs.
