Is it hard to train BCs over a year old?

[wdm08002]

I have a very loving, affectionate, beautiful BC that I have had since he was 5 months old. I took him to basic training classes but sort of lapsed in training after that (work, life, etc, the same old excuses). I really want to get into training again. He is now one year old. He responds to basic commands but not well if there is distraction. Other animals distract him totally. Is it too late for him to be trained to ignore significant distraction? Could he still perform well in further training, such as obedience, agility, if we dedicated ourselves to it? I love him so much and want him to be happy and I think he would enjoy these activities.

 

Let me know your thoughts.. is it too late to teach an "old dog" of one year new tricks?

[CMP]

Yes. He can be trained. It's not an easy road, but harder ones have been travelled by rescue folks all over the world.

 

It will take dedication but you sound up for that.

[Root Beer]

"Old dog"? 1 Year? LOLOLOLOL!!!! (That's a good natured laugh - just so you know!!)

 

Yes, it can be done. You are nowhere near the point of too far gone.

[simba]

As an indifferent-bad trainer I find it easier to train dogs who are older. They have a longer attention span, they seem to be more forgiving of mistakes, they are less horribly frustrating to deal with.

[Laurelin]

I started agility with my dog at 8 years old. Not a BC but still. She's been a complete blast. And she's actually really good at agility too.

 

She is now 10 years old and a bit. We have trialled a lot last year and she has a few titles if those matter to you. It has been such fun to have these two years of training with her. It has really strengthened our bond and given me some great memories.

 

I also did not raise her and got her at 4 years old. You definitely can train an older dog to competition level in dog sports!

[urge to herd]

I did trick training with my then 12 yr old Shoshone. She loved it. She learned nosework at that age, too, and loved that as well.

 

She had lost interest in doing anything but eating and sleeping at around 13, until we brought Gibbs home. It took her a few weeks, but she decided that she wasn't going to be left out of the action. I told my husband that we didn't have one new dog, we had two! Up until a couple weeks before we put her down, she was again an active participant in any doggy activity.

 

Ruth and SuperGibbs

[Debbie Meier]

From the standpoint of training dogs for stock work, many are actually easier to train when the reach 1 year old and beyond, especially when it comes to self control and being able to do what you ask regardless of distractions. Maturity is often times a advantage that a older dog has, some are still pups maturity wise well into their 1 year old year.

[Cass C]

I noticed that while they don't catch on quite as quickly as they get older they can focus longer so it can even out.

 

Also I have a 1 year old dog who still enjoys learning new things. We are currently working in skills for her to pass the CGC test. 1 year old is definitely NOT too old to learn new tricks.

[Root Beer]

From the standpoint of training dogs for stock work, many are actually easier to train when the reach 1 year old and beyond, especially when it comes to self control and being able to do what you ask regardless of distractions. Maturity is often times a advantage that a older dog has, some are still pups maturity wise well into their 1 year old year.

 

 

I find the same to be true in dog sport training, actually.

[Ka and Co]

I think the main question here is not the dog but you (sorry if it sounds harsh, I don't mean in any way to offend you). It is very difficult to just decide out of the blue that you would like to train your dog and really commit to it if before there was always stuff keeping you away from it (the same way I had decided to write a book and the story is there but there is always something keeping me away from writing every day). Since we took Coconut there was not a single day (except for some days that I was forced to work away from home) we did nit do at least a short training session. My advice to you is to try and enroll into a dog school for obedience/agility/fly ball/etc but also try and do a short (even a 5 min will suffice in the begining) training session every day, just dog school is not enough. I think that any dog at any age is able to learn you just have yo give it a try good luck in learning new things together with your furry and friend!

[gcv-border]

I can't add anything more to the replies above, but did want to support them.

 

"old" dog of 1 year - LOL, that is still a puppy. They WANT to work with you, but you have to earn their focus and trust.

[CMP]

Good points about working dogs.

 

On the farm, puppies live together in a kennel until they are three months old, with daily human contact, exercise and play (they go swimming and ride on the equipment and are walked around the areas for familiarity and recieve what we call "low level" training: human interaction, basic manners, sit, down, wait and are handled (especially feet) - but mostly they are left to be puppies. At three months they go into crates at night and spend time each day observing the dogs in the yard and are housed out and given further low level training (all obedience related, all very basic). At six months or so a basic cull is made where the puppies deemed to be best suitable for work are selected.

 

For the next six months the puppies do the following: bond with their handlers, learn to be comfortable around the various animals they will work with (our dogs work with cattle, sheep, goats and horses) - essentially they go everywhere with the person they are expected to work with, learn to be more or less completely obedient (as much as a good working BC should be that) - but there is very little actual "stock work training" except in proximity observation, some "puppy games" with well-dogged stock, etc.

 

At a year or so - 10-12 months - depending on the dog, they begin training for real. Dogs do not go to "work" alone until they are 18 months old.

 

Point is: you are probably (there's a caveat which I mention below) not far from this schedule yourself.

 

Caveat: they have not been allowed to acquire any bad habits, either - and their lives have been very structured.

 

You will need patience and I would guess the biggest hurdle will be undoing the habits your dog has learned during his time of being his own boss.

[Laurelin]

I wanted to add that I am actually looking for a 6 months to 2 year old rescue dog for the next agility dog.

[Debbie Meier]

You will need patience and I would guess the biggest hurdle will be undoing the habits your dog has learned during his time of being his own boss.

Changing the rules that you aren't aware you are changing can make a dog appear to be difficult to train. People forget that the entire time the dog has lived it has been in training, by a year old they understand how thing should be. If you now try to retrain them they will fight you simply because they believe that they know how things should be and you are wrong. The fight is not a lack of trainability, instead in indicates how well a dog can learn any one thing and not need to have the training refreshed.

[CMP]

Changing the rules that you aren't aware you are changing can make a dog appear to be difficult to train. People forget that the entire time the dog has lived it has been in training, by a year old they understand how thing should be. If you now try to retrain them they will fight you simply because they believe that they know how things should be and you are wrong. The fight is not a lack of trainability, instead in indicates how well a dog can learn any one thing and not need to have the training refreshed.

 

Indeed. Good point.

 

How many times have you heard, "How did he learn that? I didn't teach him that!" Dogs learn every second they're awake - the "training" is just the small portion of time you are imposing a special set of rules you expect him to apply over his own understanding of things. Sit, for example. You do not teach a dog to sit - they know how to sit - you are teaching him to sit when you want and so on.

[Tommy Coyote]

I got Bandit when he was 5 and he knew absolutely nothing. No one had ever worked with him at all.

 

I used food. He learned sit, down, stay in about 20 minutes.

 

Of course you can train a 1 year old dog.

[juliepoudrier]

You can train a dog of any age. It just takes consistency and a plan on the human's part.

 

J.

[Smalahundur]

One year is nothing in my experience.

I got Gláma when she was just over a year old.

She had learned next to nothing at her previous home, I was even cautioned never to let her off leash because she had no recall.

She took to training like a fish to water, you really got this feeling she was going "finally, someone who tells me what to do!".

And that recall took just a couple of minutes....

[RemsMom]

I know someone who competes in agility with her Border Collie/Cattle Dog mix. The owner got the dog at a year old. The dog was crate trained and housebroke and that was it. The dog didn't even know "sit".

[geonni banner]

I think that success with dog training has more to do with the mental age of the trainer than the physical age of the dog. I find that dogs are much less likely to get "old and inflexible" than humans. It's important not to think this is how this is done, but rather, this is how this is done with this dog, now. If you watch, listen and respond appropriately to the dog you have now, the dog will likely respond in the same way.

[Maralynn]

Agree with all the above. My first dog came to me at 3 y/o, second one came to me at 1.5 y/o. They were both incredibly trainable.

[alligande]

I agree with everyone, your dog is still a puppy and still very open to training. I got Brody at 3 1/2 and we started agility then, he always found any sort of training hard work but he learned that playing with me was fun and you earned cheese. I have had older (10+) in my house and they are always able to learn new house rules and even improve things like recall. Dogs are just like us never to old to learn.

[ourwully]

During my training of Juno (now 10 months) I found that some days I was tired, other days I was busy, and most days I was overwhelmed by the possible number of training techniques, games, suggestions etc. To help myself I typed out a training protocol (specific things to target) and an ongoing list of activities that could be done at any time (on walks, watching tv, etc). Most days I try to do the training protocol or part of it, but for sure I do some of the ongoing activities everyday. By having it written down I know that she is getting at least some training every day. The other thing I did to ensure that she got some training everyday was to feed her half a cup of kibble in the morning in her bowl and then give her the remaining kibble for the day in some type of training activity. At this point I am nowhere near where I would like to be even with some of the basic commands (ie recalls) but I am addressing the issues everyday. It sounds like you are a busy person so this type of built in training might help to maintain your training progress.

 

At present my training protocol includes: go to your crate, release word okay, go to your mat, leave it, whiplash turn, look at that game.

 

My ongoing activities include: some of the above activities plus fetch, come, stay, wait, heel, slow down, proper exits and entrances and give.

 

Good luck

Bill

[dogrsqr]

We have always had rescued dogs and only one has been under a year old when we got her. Others have been anywhere from 2 to 5 years old. We almost never start formal (class) training right away. We typically spend a few months working with them at home and then start with obedience class. After they have a good handle on obedience in a class situation, good focus with distractions, and a good recall we move on to more exciting things like flyball, agility and herding. I agree with what others have said about older dogs having a longer attention span and you don't have to worry about what you should be asking them to do before growth plates are closed.

 

If an older dog has never learned how to learn I would suggest using a clicker and shaping. I can see some of the eyes rolling now, but in my experience with my own rescues and foster dogs shaping is the best way for a dog to understand learning and that it's ok to be wrong. I've seen too many dogs shut down because they want to be right and when they're wrong they don't know how to handle it other than not playing anymore. Shaping actually seems to engage them and creates a thinking dog.

 

Gina and Abbey