Articles

If you are thinking about adopting a dog;

by Margaret Elmendorf

Did you know an old dog CAN learn new tricks??? As you probably already know, training takes a lot of patience,especially with a puppy.
But training an older dog to do new things is much easier cause the dog is already mature enough to listen and so has a longer attention span. In other words, training an older dog is not as difficult as training a small very energetic puppy that is only interested in playing or just plain being obnoxious.
And the sad part is that a lot of dogs are given away or given up when they get a little older and bigger because they bark a lot, or nibble way too much, or even bite and most of the time , the reason for this is that they haven't had any training at all.
Older dogs are quite often overlooked when someone wants to adopt a dog. And the reason is that people think that the older dog cannot be trained but they certainly can be trained without any problems. I know someone that trained a 7 year old dog to do agaility. And the dog had never ever done it before.
Now if the do that you are looking at to adopt, is known to chase other animals and you have cats or lots of other dogs or horses etc. then you might have to think hard about adopting the dog. But I truly believe that with tons of patience, you could probably reprogram the dog to not chase other animals.
And some older dogs would make super therapy dogs. They also would make great companions for older people.
So, please consider an older dog when you are thinking about adopting a dog.

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About Margaret Elmendorf Senior     

241 connections, 13 recommendations, 519 honor points.
Joined APSense since, June 22nd, 2007, From Anderson, United States.

Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

Comments

Jill Davidson Advanced   
Great article, Margie. There are a lot of dogs in shelters who are there because they have "behavior problems," but usually they are just acting like dogs! Their owners did not take the time and effort to socialize them properly. Many of them would benefit from a loving home with a caring owner who is willing to teach them how to behave acceptably.
Sep 28th 2007 14:59   
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