Is It Okay to Take a Break w/ Dog Training?

Question: For this question I will be talking about my 8 month old male pup, Tickle. Out of no where this week a bunch of issues have started to happen. He is breaking on marks, not picking up a certain bumper, spitting dummies; generally just not typical behavior for him. He seems very distracted. I have gone backwards in our drills and tried to simplify things and also increased our heal work at start and finish of sessions. One of my biggest concerns, I have never struck this dog, ever. A little bump with the knee to position or a foot sweep when the nose drops. When he breaks from stay I will pick him just as you did with Bella and put him back. He has started to cower from me like I am beating the shit out of him. I'm kind of lost and would appreciate some general perspective if this kind of a regression is normal or if I am totally screwing up. Also what do I do on the cowering? Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciate.

Jer's Answer: I think you're dogs telling you something. I can't be totally sure because I haven't seen everything that's led up to this point...but the good news is you're recognizing it. So stop trying to "push through" and take a step back. I do it all the time. The dog will tell us when it's time to move forward, stay where we're at, or move back. The problem is most people tend to progress at the rate they want to, and the dog isn't always ready for it.

Simple answer is slow down. Your pup is 8 months old. I have one now that is 13 months old and I haven't started steadying her yet at all. Every dog's different so maybe yours is or was ready for it, but either way, he's telling you now it's time to regroup.

I don't think you can go wrong with working on a dog's foundation. In fact at that age, most of my focus would be on just that. You will have to earn his trust again and I think you do that by being very predictable and "fair" when it comes to interactions and expectations with him. That can take time and is 10x more important than having a steady dog at 8 months old in my opinion.

I hope this helps, keep me posted.
Your friend,
Jeremy