Teaching An Old

Dog

New Tricks

They say that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks,

are they right? They are partly right. An older dog

will take a heck of a lot more training and

dedication from its handler than a younger dog will,

basically because an older dogs mind is a lot more

“set” in its ways. An older dog will have passed

that crucial period in its life that influences what

the dog will behave like when it is older, therefore it

already thinks it knows how to behave and trying to

teach him other ways to behave can take a lot of

time and effort.

It is not impossible but you can’t train an old dog like

you train a puppy. You have to be a little bit stricter

on an older dog because they have a lot more

intelligence than a puppy and know how to drive you

round the bend. An older dog will more likely do

something if he thinks its his idea rather than yours,

for example if he goes to sit , say sit and then praise

him, he will think it was his idea and if you keep on

repeating this process sooner or later you will have

him sitting on command. This process will work for

many of the commands, like fetch, come, stay and

heel.

In saying that you may find that your older dog is

particularly easy to train, some dogs have a streak of

stubbornness which means they do not train as

easily as others but some are a lot more

susceptible to training methods. Training an

older dog will of course be difficult but bad habits

need to be broken and long term habits need to be

stopped. Your dog will thank you for it in the end and

the end result will be well worth the trouble.

Training an older dog can be a grueling task but try

making it fun by joining a class (they are not just for

people with puppies) or try to get some support from

family or friends, invest in some training products

like toys and treats, or even go as far as a training

school, but one thing is for sure once you’ve taught

your dog what he needs to know the bond between

you will grow and you will become inseparable.

To Learn More About Dog Training, go to

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