Training Tips for Sporting Dogs

Sporting dogs are among the most loyal and obedient types of breeds. These dogs were bred as hunting companions that could perform specific prey-related duties, including pointing at it, retrieving it, and flushing it out.

Crucially, unlike dogs bred strictly for hunting and tracking, sporting dogs are supposed to perform all of their duties directly alongside their masters. In the meantime, they are supposed to be patient and wait for their cue to act. These bred-in traits make them not only athletic but also highly responsive to commands and environmental triggers.

Like working dogs, such as shepherd breeds, sporting dogs can sometimes assume an “always on” mentality when they don’t have their instinctual needs met. Sporting dog training requires understanding these instincts and carefully working alongside — not against — them. Taking this approach can keep your dog happy, healthy, active, and engaged.

Greenlin Pet Resorts offers Hershey dog training programs for all breeds. Our courses can help you quickly build up your relationship with your dog. You’ll also learn skills that make training not only more effective but also more fun. Schedule an appointment and free evaluation today to learn more about how to build the most productive training approaches possible, all tailored to your dog’s unique needs and motivators.

Below, we have provided some of the top training tips for sporting dogs that we have learned over our years of helping out many canines like yours.

Understand Sporting Dogs’ Lineage to Understand Their Mentality

Sporting dogs exhibit key differences from other groups of dog breeds.

Foremost, they were bred to work as a team with their humans. While many dog breeds were created to perform adeptly, they were also likely to perform these tasks independently.

With sporting dogs, successful lineages had social graces, making them ready to perform their task at any moment. While their instincts can make them quite driven — sometimes even borderline obsessive — they also want to be a good co-worker at the end of the day. 

This key factor gives them an “off switch.” It also means that your dog may be waiting for you to flip their “on switch” at any moment. If you don’t show strong, consistent leadership in this matter, the dog may engage into “sporting” mode when you don’t intend them to. They are especially likely to find their own “job” to do if they regularly feel bored, understimulated, or under-exercised.

“Sporting dogs are high-energy dogs, which require lots of mental and physical stimulation,” observes Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, an online school providing instruction for competitive dog sports. “They are intelligent, and if they are not provided with a job and plenty of enrichment, they will make up their own games, which usually includes destroying things.”

With this precaution in mind, consider training your sporting dog as a team sport. You are both accountable to one another to meet one another’s needs and navigate your environment in ways that are not just safe but that feel rewarding. 

You will look to your dog to remain calm, respect boundaries, and reliably perform as they have been trained to. Your dog will rely on you for clear direction, understanding of their instinctual needs, and a level of activity that satisfies their innate drives.

What Are Some Examples of Breeds That Are Sporting Dogs?

Sporting dogs include a wide range of athletic, intelligent, and widely popular breeds, including the following:

• American Water Spaniel
• Cocker Spaniel
• Chesapeake Bay Retriever
• Curly-Coated Retriever
• English Greyhound
• English Setter
• English Springer Spaniel
• German Shorthaired Pointer
• German Wirehaired Pointer
• Irish Setter
• Irish Water Spaniel
• Labrador Retriever
• Vizsla
• Weimaraner
• Welsh Springer Spaniel
• Wirehaired Pointing Griffon

Tip 1: Treat Your Sporting Dog Like the Athlete They Are

Sporting dogs love exercise, and they love having a job to focus on while they do it.

Just like with human exercise, though, there is a risk of injury or serious medical harm if the right approaches aren’t taken.

Ensure They Get Good Nutrition

If you’ve ever delved into the world of pre and post-workout nutrition, you know that there’s a lot of jargon that basically amounts to “you need to eat the right molecules to maintain energy levels and rebuild muscle.”

The same is true with dogs.

Highly active dogs will need a greater volume of protein in their diet, as well as high-quality fats. They also need all of the amino acids, vitamins, and minerals required to ensure a healthy, lean muscle composition.

You may, therefore, end up needing to invest a bit more in your sporting dog’s food than you would expect. You will need to be especially choosy about the food you give them if you plan on taking them hunting or want to enter them into actual competitive sports, such as agility or dock diving.

Talk to your vet to get recommendations on an ideal diet with respect to your dog’s breed, age, unique physiology, and level of activity. 

When it comes to feeding, be strict about portion sizes and precise with your timing. Your dog should ideally be restoring their nutrition after activity, and not before. Try to feed them a good breakfast after a long morning walk. Then, hold off on their dinner until after they’ve had a good afternoon workout.

Don’t Neglect Hydration

Like humans, dogs tend to only want to drink after they are thirsty, and not before. Unfortunately, dehydration could lead to muscle injury or, in the worst case, heat exhaustion.

Make sure your dog drinks lots of fluid throughout the day to prevent these risks. You can add water to their food to increase their intake. If they are reluctant to drink before bouts of intense activity, you can motivate them by adding a bit of low-sodium chicken broth to their water.

You may even need to keep a squirt bottle on hand to keep their mouth and soft tissues moist during intense workouts or training. You can squirt the bottle into the sides of their cheeks, rather than directly at their throat, to prevent them from getting dry without risking them choking.

Give Them a Good Warm-up

You can’t go from a pee-wee player or couch potato to a star athlete overnight. 

In fact, going from zero to sixty in this manner can risk serious injury. It also fails to provide you with the slow build up of muscle and endurance required to actually get the most out of each workout.

Dogs are the same! They need time to ease into training.

Referring to training regimens for hunting dogs, the Texas Parks & Wildlife foundation recommends starting each session with a gradual warmup.

“Stretch muscles, gain eye contact, expend a bit of excess energy all while awakening the dog’s physical systems,” they suggest. They also note how “the out-of-shape dog’s level of impact activity is slowly expanded over weeks, not hours.” This approach will show concrete results: “pads toughened, weight declines, fat becomes muscle, and the respiratory system is conditioned.”

If your dog is just beginning their training, you can alternate high and low-impact days throughout the week, with at least one day of total rest (regular walks, aside). Introduce any new activities or exercises gradually. Focus on form and consistency, rather than intensity.

As your dog conditions and gains new skills, you can let them show you when they want to “max out.” But always be willing to pull back with a cool down or a rest day that follows in order to reduce the risk of injury.

Tip 2: Practice Makes Perfect

Consistency is the biggest thing you will need to make your sport dog training techniques effective. To get consistent, you must be disciplined with your routine and patient with your dog.

Make Work Fun

Your training is important, but it shouldn’t always be serious. Let what feels fun guide both you and your dog, especially if you’re starting out with a puppy.

“Bold, confident dogs come from being able to do what they love to do,” says Lone Duck Kennels trainer Bob Owens. “Let your puppy be a puppy. Play with him, let him make mistakes, and focus on awakening his natural instincts. That’s the kind of dog that is easy to train, handle, and enjoy. Perfection comes later, and that’s when your puppy is done being a puppy.”

Your dog will get more out of training the more they enjoy it, in other words. That doesn’t negate the need to stay focused, set goals, or push yourselves to improve. But it does mean that training shouldn’t be too frustrating or grueling since enjoyment and fulfillment are the whole point.

Build and Expand

Start with the basics of obedience and simple commands. With a puppy or an untrained new dog, that means recall, sit, stay, and “leave it.” 

They should also become a pro at disciplined leash walking, both while leading you and staying at heel.

However, for sporting dogs, it’s important to go beyond the basics to keep them stimulated and in-shape. 

One way to start building is through target training. This method rewards the dog when they make contact with a specific target with their paw, nose, or seated position.

You can start with an easy target: sniffing your palm. When the dog does this, give them a clear positive signal, like a “good!” a “yes!” or a clicker click. Follow up the verbal reinforcement with a high-value treat, but make the affirmative cue something that’s not food. That way, they become conditioned to the signal, not the food.

You can expand target training to have them make contact with areas that you directly point out. As your dog masters this, you can switch to verbal cues instead of gestures. Have them target their favorite toy, a spot in the yard, the corner of the couch, etc.

Expanding on taught skills in this way can quickly help your sporting dog master other skills — while getting better at the process of learning itself.

Be Patient

If you want your dog to be disciplined, lead by example. Try to avoid giving negative cues like frustration, impatience, or aggression. 

If a lesson isn’t working, divert to something simple, like a leashed jog, then wrap things up early.

Your patience helps avoid confusing the dog or making them think that a fail state can mean you get angry or annoyed. They will be better able to grasp your commands. They will also be less likely to respond with anxiety or stubbornness.

Tip 3: Redirect Their Instincts

Training sporting dogs can sometimes lead to challenges when the animal’s instincts seem to “take over.”

German shorthair pointers, for example, may get distracted by prey. They may also obsess with hunting and pointing out critters in the yard when they are supposed to be relieving themselves or getting light exercise.

Know that you usually can’t block out these instincts entirely with a command like “no,” or “stop.” 

Instead, what you can try is to teach the dog that tracking prey for you —- along with responding to your other commands — is much more fun and rewarding.

In other words, try training through rather than against the activity. For example, a pointer who’s fond of chasing lizards can be trained to hunt out their toys or scent-marked things throughout the yard. Any time they are focused on something you don’t want them to be, get them to focus on something equally fun, and follow it up with an award.

With this approach, you are teaching the dog to focus on you instead of the distraction. It builds stronger connections that make the dog more likely to actually stop or come or sit down, all of which would break the spell of obsession. This happens because training with you ends up feeling more rewarding than sating boredom with random fixations.

Get Help With Sporting Dog Training at Greenlin Pet Resorts in Hershey

Training a sporting dog can be highly rewarding but also challenging. You need to adjust, in many ways, to a “champion’s” mindset since these dogs are all about executing a few things very well.

Greenlin Pet Resorts in Hershey, Pennsylvania can help you develop the sport dog training techniques that have the highest positive impact. We evaluate each dog individually, with consideration for your own goals and their typical routine. Each training program is completely personalized to the dog, so there’s always something to learn, whether they are a beginner or a seasoned pro.

We also offer dog daycare and dog boarding in Hershey to give them a positive environment and plenty of friends any time they need a break from home.

Find out more about what Greenlin Hershey has to offer — and book a free training evaluation appointment — when you call us at 717-707-7900, visit us at 7945 Red Top Rd. in Hummelstown, or contact us online.