Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks (Part 1)

Common knowledge and witticism tells a person that old dogs are incapable of learning new behaviors as is often bespoken in the adage, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. Despite the numbers of people who would proclaim this decree to be solid truth, we are here to tell you that it nowhere near the being an accurate description of the truth. While it is a little more difficult for an older dog to be trained, it is entirely within the realm of possibility if one uses patience and remains consistent in the dog’s lessons throughout the process.

The first step in training an older dog is remembering that this dog has, most likely, already been trained once, be it properly or improperly. The older dog already has preconceived notions as to what acceptable behaviors are and what behaviors are not welcome. If you wish to change one of these behaviors you have to reprogram the dogs thinking process. For instance, a farm dog may have been trained to protect the barnyard and chase stray animals and predators away from the barn. Unfortunately, the dog now lives in your townhouse and thinks your cat is its mortal enemy. We have to reprogram the dogs thinking to make it understand that chasing the cat is not acceptable. So how would we handle this situation?

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