# What is Overhandling?



## TMFranklin (Apr 29, 2013)

I heard the term over-handling when reading up on Anatolian Shepherds, a breed I am interested in, and I researched the definition, but all it came up with was examples of over-handling for training dogs to flush. 

I can't particularly related to this analogy because I don't know a lot about flushing; would it be possible if someone could explain it in a way that is in relation to basic training? From what I've got from the articles I've read is that over-handling is when you overtrain a dog beyond it's capabilities, but also when you don't give it time to use it's instincts?
Is this correct? Or does it depend on the kind of training?


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## Gally (Jan 11, 2012)

Anatolian Shepherds are a livestock guardian breed. They are bred to bond with the sheep or other animals that they guard so it is advised to not over handle them so they can instinctually bond with the sheep and not you.


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## petpeeve (Jun 10, 2010)

I think Gally's explanation is a good one, as it relates to the actual breed you are researching.



> but also when you don't give it time to use it's instincts?


 This reminds me of woman I saw at a recent ob fun match. She had an English Cocker, on lead, walking through the building but outside of the ring areas. As the woman moved along at a fairly fast pace, the dog's nose was glued to the ground, and he was furiously zig zagging back and forth at the greatest distance the 6' leash would allow. All I heard from the woman was a STEADY stream of "leave it !! here !! leave it !! leave it !! leave it !! here !! leave it !! leave it !!", combined with intermittent yanks on the leash. The dog was completely oblivious to the onslaught of verbal gobbledeegook and the lame attempts at physical correction, of course.


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## delcrossv (Jul 15, 2016)

Nope. It's an instruction to the judge not to be overzealous in checking conformation of the dog by touching too much. Potential for a "bad outcome" with an upset ASD. They're naturally suspicious of strangers and a show ring is high stress for them.


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## sydneynicole (Apr 2, 2015)

This thread is over 2 years old


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## delcrossv (Jul 15, 2016)

came up on google so worthy of a fix.


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