Week 7 🐾 Don’t Rush the Work – Why Timing Matters in Gundog Training

Rushing a gundog into work too soon risks confidence and control. Build calmness, understanding, and foundations for a long, successful working life.

🐾 Don’t Rush the Work – Building the Dog for Tomorrow by Training the Dog You Have Today

There’s a growing temptation to get dogs “doing the job” early — to have them out in the beating line or picking up before they’ve developed the foundations and understanding they truly need. But expecting a dog to work before they’re ready can set them up to fail.

A confident, reliable working dog isn’t just born — it’s built slowly through calm, thoughtful training, patience, and trust. Rushing the process risks overwhelming your dog, damaging confidence, and creating behaviours that take much longer to unpick.

This blog explores why timing matters — and how investing time in foundation skills now will reward you with a lifetime of confident, connected work in the field

Before a young dog ever sets foot in the shooting field, they need to be:
✅ Able to focus and take direction, even around distractions
✅ Calm enough to think clearly when things get exciting
✅ Confident in their environment and in themselves
✅ Trusting of you as their guide and teammate

When we skip these stages, dogs can quickly become overwhelmed, overexcited, and disconnected.
They stop listening, start making their own decisions, and risk running riot — or worse, ending up in parts of the shoot they shouldn’t be, disturbing game and disrupting the day for everyone.

And that’s no fault of theirs — they’re simply not ready yet.

It’s easy to get caught up in comparing our dogs to others.
Someone else’s youngster might already be in the beating line, retrieving game, or showing off beautiful handling work. But every dog develops at their own pace — just like we do.

Rushing a dog into work before they understand the job often means they spend the next season — or two — unlearning what they got wrong.
Take the time to build the right foundations now, and you’ll have a dog who can work confidently and happily for ten seasons or more.

Working dogs have long careers ahead of them. They deserve to start when they’re ready, not when the calendar says they should.

Patience now will pay you back tenfold later.
The goal isn’t to have a dog who can “get through a day” — it’s to have a dog who loves their job, works with you, and finishes each day with their tail wagging.

So take your time.
Keep the focus on calmness, confidence, and connection.
Because in the field, as in training, it always pays dividends not to rush.

Work with the dog you have today, and the one you hope to have tomorrow will be all the stronger for it.