Are older dogs trainable?
The expression “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”; is really not applicable to dogs. First you need to separate behavior from obedience and determine which one you are trying to teach your dog. Obedience is accomplished by conditioning your dog to respond in a desired manner. Time and practice is needed and of course incentive to cooperate using a reward system. The reward does not have to be food/treats.
Behavior is, in a way, hardwired into your dog. You may have to “undo” the behavior your dog has been doing for many years and re-direct his behavior to a more acceptable one. Think of it as someone trying to stop smoking. Behavioral training usually takes longer to accomplish.
In either case, the age and the physical and medical condition of your dog must be taken into consideration. Not all dogs young or old can learn the same things or at the same rate. Just the way children learn different things at different amounts of time, dogs are taught on an individual basis.
Older dogs can learn, just not as quickly (especially if there are physical problems — e.g., mine is blind and partially paralyzed). Older dogs tend to respond well to touch as both command and reward. For “sit,” I say it, then push her bum gently down, then pet her gently and say “good girl.” After doing this about fifteen times, she will simply respond to verbal “sit” and wait for the gentle pet. Walking can work in much the same way — Trust and small increments. Lucy (my dog) was afraid to walk after her injury and blindness. We started with a harness and leash (less pressure on neck) and did small “walks” in areas she was familiar with in our yard. We then ventured out into little circles in the neighborhood so that she could become familiar with them and begin to trust me that I would not let her trip on curbs, etc.
A lot of working with an elderly dog is intuition — Feel out what they respond to, continue it, reward it. Please let me know if this helps or if you have any more questions!
Older dogs are absolutely trainable! Dogs never stop observing and learning. Dog training is nothing more than manipulating the associations dogs make–whenever they sit, they get a treat, and so they learn that the immediate consequence of sitting is getting a treat. Many older dogs have pretty set routines and understandings of how things work, so it does take quite a bit more time to change these than with a young dog, but it is very doable. Think about it–say, if every time you wanted food you pressed a big green button and it appeared in front of you. Your life was like this for ten years, so of course it became habit. Then, one day, the only way you could get food was to spin in a circle, and the button was suddenly useless. It would take you a long while to stop pressing the button and start spinning in a circle when you were hungry. It was a part of your routine for so long that you had to stop and think to keep yourself from doing it. But, eventually, you’d start spinning every time and stop trying to push the button. This is how training an older dog is. They aren’t any less smart than young dogs, they just have habits.
