Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

People often ask, “Can you teach an old dog new tricks?”

My answer is always “Yes”.

Yesterday I saw an 11 year-old Poodle who has moved into a lifestyle village with her 80+ year-old humans.
She has become reactive to other dogs on the lead and even hesitant around new people.

Change will do this to dogs. If their environment becomes something they have not previously known, then they will often need to be desensitised to the new environment. The population in the village is far denser, the dog population is greater, the streets are narrower so everything is closer than it’s ever been before.

We are now trying to give her space to learn some coping strategies at a distance and to gradually operate closer to these new scary things. Thank goodness she’s a real foodie so we can use this to
desensitise her to the change.

My answer to the old dogs/new tricks question always has two parts:

We haven’t tried any strategies yet and
What’s the alternative: live with these behaviours for the rest of the dog’s life?

Barkers in Balance where optimism and perseverance prevail!

Here are some stories from our older dogs, learning new tricks in our classes

MY NAME IS “H”. I’m a Cattle Dog and I’m 11 years old. I’m afraid that at my age I don’t cope with change all that well. I used to live on a larger property where passers-by used to fill the voids in my days by saying ”hello” as they passed, when my humans were not home. Now we live in a more suburban area, no-one drops by to see me and I howl and bark with loneliness. Today we had a lesson to learn lots of new techniques to help me settle on my own and not panic when my humans are out of sight. My humans were so motivated after the lesson they headed straight off to the shops to buy me some now bits and pieces to help with my “calm training”. Who’s a lucky boy then?

MY NAME IS MOLLY. I’m a Border Collie. I’m seven years old and I’ve been with my human for four years. Because my past is a bit blurry and my start in life probably not ideal, I’m a bit snappy around things I don’t know or trust. This can also cause me to bark more than my human would like. We did a private lesson to learn some calming techniques along with strategies to help me feel less anxious around new things. My human and I now believe that you can teach an old dog new tricks!

MY NAME IS CHIP. I’m a Bull Terrier and I’m 4 years old. In my second private lesson we practised walking on the lead out on the street for me to practise not jumping on people who compliment me because I’m so gorgeous. I’m learning to sit and wait calmly for my adoring fans to be allowed to pat me. If I jump the fans will back away until I settle again. Fair enough, I guess. Who wants to lose their fan club?