How To Teach An Old Dog New Tricks

Hi, I'm Stan Rawlinson, I'm a dog behaviourist and obedience trainer. I'm a dog listener, in fact, I'm the original dog listener, I've been doing dog behaviour for many years now, and today I'm going to teach you how to bring up your dog correctly. I don't train any of my dogs any tricks normally, but this is one where I want to prove that as an old dog, they can learn new tricks.

What I'm going to do is try to teach this dog to give paw and to give paw on command when I say "paw". Now, I'm going to give the dog a treat to start off with and I'm going to say "good, take it". Edward, sit! Good! Take it! I'm going to do this a couple of times to get him used to it, the word "good" is exactly the same as a "clicker", so it's a target word and it's there to mark that the dog has done something right, so he just needs that set on him first, he's quite fixated by food.

Good! Take it! Good! Take it! Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to touch his paw and say "paw" and lift it up. Paw! Good! Take it! And I'm going to drop that and I'm going to do that again, I'm going to lift it up. Paw! Good! Take it! I'm rewarding him for lifting his paw.

I know that I'm lifting it, but that is a respective, he needs to know why I'm praising him, yes. So it's lift. Paw! Good! Take it! Now, I'm going to say the word "paw" and just see if his leg will lift up. Paw! Good! Take it! Yes, good boy! This might seem a little bit strange but I have not taught this dog paw before, ever.

Paw! Good! Take it! And that's how quickly it could be done. I'm going to put that back down again. He is food obsessive, so he picks up things very quickly.

Paw! Paw! Good! Take it! Yes, that's a good dog! I am pleased for him given his age. Okay, one more time I'm going to see if I can get him to put his paw on here. Here! Paw! Here! Paw! Paw! Paw! Not that one, I want the other one first.

Paw! Paw! Paw! Good! Take it! Just to show that it wasn't just automatic, I had to really persuade that particular time. One more time, just to see if it's coming through, so literally you touch his feet, pick it up and go "paw". Good! Take it! So he knows the word "paw", now I'm going to just verbally, give me a bit.

Paw! Paw! Paw! Where's your paw? Here! Paw! Good! Take it! Yes! So, an old dog can learn new tricks, it just takes just that little bit more time.

Yes, good dog, what a good boy! Yes, you are! There.