Dog Training For Older Dogs

You’ve often heard the expression, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” but how does that help you if you have an older dog suddenly come into your life?  The truth of the matter is that dogs are just like people in their learning abilities.

You may catch a newspaper story now and then about somebody who is graduating from college at an advanced age, and you know it must have been hard for them to have gone back and accomplished this endeavor.

It is no simpler to train an older dog than it is to teach an older person.  The way of training a puppy just doesn’t work when you have a dog advanced in years, and the best dog training advice for an older dog is to make him think that your ideas are his own, and he will be more apt to learn them.

Your dog will not be convinced of anything as easily as he was when he was a puppy since he is older and wiser, as strange as that seems .  If he is going to sit down, and you recognize that is what he’s up to, tell him to “sit” and then praise him because he did it.  You have to continue with this consistently for some time before he finally gets to the point he will do it when you say it rather than when he wants to do it.

For an individual dog this is a simplification of what can be a long process , but for an older animal this is one way to start training and teaching him some important basic commands .  Giving your dog a treat or reward still works for this process but make sure to give him the reward only when he is actually following your commands.

Even though older dogs are different from puppies, one of the same things is always true .  If you want to reach your training goals then you will have to do things repetitively.   Since all animals associate things, even an old dog will eventually associate the sounds you are making with something he is doing.

Some dog training advice is not to be disheartened, because it is not always an easy task to train a dog, and an older one will require more time.  As you have learned regarding getting upset while training a puppy, it is much easier to do with an older dog.   If you lose your temper with him, it might take a long time to regain his trust.

Your dog will eventually learn to trust you if you try to keep training fun.   When you reach that goal, it will be easier to get results because the dog will want to make you happy.  Until your dog is comfortable around you, no amount of dog training advice will help you in the training process, so win his trust first and you’ll be much more successful in your training endeavors.