[FredMurphy]

We're picking up a family dog, soon. We've found an 8 month old young'un who's captured all our hearts, but I'm worried he's too far past the puppy window to train without having some kind of late-dog-training issues. Because of this, I'm wondering if we move past our doggie crush and commit to a 2-month-old pup who we know is a clean slate, and we can raise fresh.

Can you begin training at 8 months and get the same results as starting when they're 2 months old?

Thanks for any advice. Hope you're all well.

Fred

 

[marvush]

You are right, as a major exposure phase is already past you, we are currently on the same situation.
My belief is that any, but ANY dog can be trained to fit your needs, some just may require more effort.

In our case, the dog was in a family, so he came house-adaptable, but that family never took him out for walks (they let him go to the yard), resulting in him being terrified from other human or dog encounters.

After 2 weeks of working on that stuff with him, he immideatly started showing progress, and getting better by the day

What do you think your dog lacked in training up to his current age? where was he and what was his status?

I would also add: think about how much you are helping the dog.
you are already taking on a hard mission, and the older the dog the lesser the chances someone will give him a family he deserves - maybe you can be the one rescuing him.

 

[pandora]

Ive adopted dogs from 1 to 3 years old. They have all been trainable.
What level is this dog at and what do you want..?

I had one with a brain injury, he had basic housetraining but nothing else. He was taught a good recall so he could walk off lead, he was taught house manners ie no begging, no stealing,no chewing things. He could give a paw and sit on command and various other basics. OK he was no genius but as a pet he was just great.

 

[parus]

It depends on what you mean.

Any age dog is trainable. If you're talking about teaching the dog to perform behaviors on command, you haven't lost anything by starting at 8 months rather than 2. If anything, the dog will probably be way easier to train at this age. Little puppies are dumb babies.

If you're talking about socialization, yes, some of the windows have closed for early exposure to certain things - other animals, strangers, weird stimuli, etc. But older dogs can still be conditioned (and counter-conditioned). And temperament is mostly genetic, anyway, which largely governs how the dog reacts to other animals, people, etc. regardless of how socializing was conducted.

If you're talking about training of good habits, like crate training, not jumping up, not being a pest when the family is having mealtime, etc, IMO yes, that area is easier with a "blank slate" little puppy than an older dog that might have picked up some bad habits. On the other hand, 8 months is not very old at all and again, all those issues are correctable, it just requires more effort if the dog needs to unlearn a bad habit. Probably the bigger challenge you'll have in this area is that in my experience around this age the dog is heading into adolescence and starting to feel his oats. This would have happened regardless of whether you'd gotten him at age 8 weeks or now, it's just that you haven't had the opportunity to become fond of him as a cute little tiny puppy before getting his teenage sass.

FWIW I adopted a literally feral 1 year old dog and she ended up being a fantastic housedog and friend after some time and effort. She lived to be 17 and traveled all over North America with me. Dogs are genetically programmed to work with humans.

All in all, as cute as puppies are, IMO most dogs don't really get particularly fun to work and live with until they're 18+ months old, so I'd consider adopting an 8 month old an overall pro (versus adopting a younger puppy) as you're getting to skip past a lot of pooping, gnawing, and whining.

 

[LeoRose]

Not too late. One of the best dogs I ever owned lived on a chain the first two years of her life. She had a naturally good temperament, which as Parus mentioned, went a long way towards that, but she was a good family pet.

 

[Shell]

Parus nails it IMO for the description of age and training

Personally, I would take a confident "wild child" at 8 months or 2 years over an unknown background 2 month old dog. Even one with bad habits, excluding true human aggression.

I can train a dog but I can't change inherent personality more than a tiny shift.