re: Duck Dog

quote:

---

Hijack: if raised untrained as a duck dog, at what age is there little hope for training one? Ie can old dogs learn new tricks.

---

My sister has a golden retriever that I was dogsitting when she was 4 or 5 years old. In about 45 minutes I'd trained the dog to roll over and play dead when she heard "would you rather be a dead dog than an auburn fan?" Just using ice cubes and praise as a reward.

Her only previous commands that she knew were "sit" and "come"

In short, yes you can teach an old dog new tricks. Be patient and figure out what they're motivated by. Even "dumb" breeds can be trained how to do most anything a smart breed can do, it just take a a lot more time and patience. Dogs are pretty simple creatures, when they figure out that doing this or that will get me what I want they are motivated learners. Retrievers and herders are just really easy to train because they're people pleasers. There's no doubt in my mind that my Aussie shepherd would fetch ducks all day long if she got rewarded for it a few times