Dog Training - How Illness Or Injury Can Affect Dog Training

By Carol Bennett

I've had many times where I've wanted to pull my hair out during dog training. One of my dogs had been doing so well with her house training and then all of a sudden, she started peeing in the house again. I could not get her to stop doing this, even though she seemed to have gotten the idea I wanted her to go outside. I asked my veterinarian about this and after running some tests, he told me that my dog had a bladder infection. This will definitely affect the dog training we had been working on. After the treatment for the infection, she was successfully housebroken.

My oldest dog, who was absolutely totally trained with each command of "sit", "down" and "stay" could no longer seem to do any of these. At first I thought he was being stubborn because I had introduced a new puppy into our home, but after talking with the vet again, we discovered that my dog has painful problems with his hips. Even though he had gotten the dog training down and had learned very well, he could no longer perform those simple commands I had taught him. Even though he could not perform these commands, there were still a ton of other things he could still do. So, we focused on those.

A friend of mine was going crazy trying to figure out why his newly adopted puppy would not listen to him at all. After trying to help work with her myself, I told my friend it was as if the dog just is not hearing anything. A trip to the veterinarian confirmed that his new puppy is deaf. This affected how he had to work with and train the pup. She is still young, but given the guidance, my friend is well on his way to training this girl successfully.

An illness or injury of any kind can most definitely affect the way your dog performs during dog training. Before jumping to the conclusion that your dog just isn't trainable or is just being stubborn, seek the advice of your veterinarian to rule out any health issues.

Do you feel the need to learn how to retrain your dog? Are you at your wits end wondering what happened? Learning How Illness Can Affect Dog Training can help solve some of the problems. Visit A Dog In Training to learn more about training your dog and issues that may affect this training. Dog training is an important and vital part of your dog's life. A trained dog is happier, healthier and safer. Visit A Dog In Training for more dog training tips and resources.