“My Chihuahua is 9 and he’s been mine the whole time. Is it true about teaching old dogs new tricks???” emailed Michael who, along with Besos, starts training with me this weekend.

That’s a very good question. If I had a Dollar for each time I’ve been asked that question…

Think of a dog as a sponge: A puppy is like a brand new sponge. It’s clean and can absorb a lot of liquid; An older dog is like a used sponge. It can still absorb liquid, but not as much. Of course you could always wash a used sponge to make it absorb a bit more but it will never be as clean as a brand new sponge.

You can “clean” a dog by making it unlearn some (usually bad) habits or, more accurately, replace old habits with new behaviors. It’s like renovating a house! But those of us who’ve gone through this ordeal would know that oftentimes renovating a house can be more tedious, stressful, time-consuming, or expensive than building a brand new one from the ground up.

Not only old dogs have bad habits! Countless clients have contacted me with 5-month old or 8-month old “puppies” that, by then, had already been allowed to get away so much. In these cases, just as in the case of an “old dog”, learning is still very much possible.