Training your Older Dog

If you were to say that you were thinking of training your  older dog most people would probably stare at you or worse tell you the old cliche ,"You can't teach an old dog new tricks".The first thing that pops in their minds are puppies and basic commands.

But while it may be a little more difficult to do than with a pup and you may have to overcome some bad habits,older dogs like to learn new things too.Learning new things help keep his mind sharp,keep him occupied and having fun.You like to learn new things too don't you?

Something to take into account in the training of older dogs is that they may have problems with their sight or hearing.Just make sure to speak loudly and clearly.If he doesn't respond to your commands, cut him some slack during your training,you might have to make some adjustments.Unfortunately they have not invented dog hearing aids or glasses yet that I know of.

Older dogs probably won't have the stamina that younger dogs have so you might want to keep your training sessions shorter.This of course depends on the dog and what shape he is in.If his life up to this point has been active he will have more pep.On the other hand if he is like most people are, and is out of shape, it may take a little more effort to train him.

If you have adopted an older dog, that's great, I commend you.Keep in mind though, that they may come with baggage.Just like you and I they can have bad habits which have been ingrained in them for years.Or worse, he could have been a victim of abuse.But don't give up, be persistent.Training an older dog will pay off.

One thing that you should do to help your dog and yourself,is to make sure he gets the proper nutrition.This could really go a long way to keeping him fit and healthy.Make the effort to feed him a good quality commercial food or maybe even better is to make him homemade foods.Which way you go depends on your budget and your time constraints.Just try to make sure that the main ingredient is meat.

Remember,while your dog may be the equivalent of a canine senior citizen,he can still be trained.Best of all for him is that he gets to do that with you.Take your time and have fun training your older dog .