Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks
You Can't Teach an old dog new tricks........or can you?
One of our viewers recently asked us the following questions.
- Will you please tell me if there is any truth to the old adage, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."
- Do you have any evidence or anecdotes to support your position?
- What, if anything, can be done to improve the learning in "old dogs?"
Here are two responses.
The adage "you can't teach old dogs new tricks" is a total falsehood! I could give you many examples. The one that comes to mind first is a 68 year old woman and an 6 year old standard poodle that I worked with in Boca Raton,Florida.
The poodle ["Roy"] belonged to the woman's husband, who had died a month prior to my first contact with them. In the first interview [I always interview people before any lessons to get a grip on what's going on] the poodle [70 lbs], was unruly, didn't listen to the woman[80 lbs], and intimidated her. I could see a moderate fear in the woman's eyes, and she admitted so [thank God for truthful people].
The short story is after three months of training, not only did the poodle obey commands from the woman but he had become protective of her in the process [natural protection-no training]. It takes a lot more work[serious practice of commands] and no fear to accomplish this. It also takes time and patience, and practice, practice and more practice time.
This lady and "Roy" are a great example of "old dog-new tricks" being not true.