04/02/2026
It’s not normal for a dog to quit working—
Recently, at a trial it was said some folk consider this a part of training; it’s definitely not.
Turning a dog off of wanting to work, or diminishing his enjoyment, is rarely intentional but almost always has serious consequences.
Even if he doesn’t quit but shows signs of stress,
such as: sniffing, coming back to you, picking at grass, going half hearted around the sheep, going very wide or other, it’s important to recognize your dog is telling you something is wrong.
Additionally, dogs shouldn't need a ‘break’ or ‘time off’ training. However, some trainers use this rationalization because their method applies too much pressure.
If your dog has experienced diminished joy for working, the first step is to give yourself grace; you don’t know what you don’t know.
The next step is to become educated.
It may be as straight forward as trying to go too fast too soon,
didn’t include enough balance point, used discipline before cultivating desire, tried to force your dog, did too much drilling,
made the work too difficult, or even unintentionally, trained for an agenda rather than your dogs needs.
It could be more complicated, such as an excitable dog that underneath has a soft nature,
a type of eye that you don’t understand,
a temperament issue you inadvertently exacerbated or other.
There is no simple fix.
You can’t recreate initial enthusiasm but in many instances you can:
employ exercises, techniques, philosophical and mindset adjustments that can make an enormous difference.
When you put great effort into developing partnership with your dog, you can have amazing results and doing everything you can to help your dog enjoy his work is the best first step you can make. macraeway.com
