They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. I have to tell you that's rubbish. You only have to look at the number of people who take on adult rescue dogs and successfully turn them into well adjusted members of a brand new household, or the growing number of animal behaviorists who manage to totally eradicate long standing behavior problems.

In spite of that, believe you me when I say life is infinitely easier all around if you just do the job properly in the first place so you don't have to try and teach that old dog new tricks. When you try and replace a long standing behavior pattern with a new one you'll (usually) find it takes a lot more time and patience than it does to teach a brand new behavior response. I'm sure you know this instinctively from your own experience anyway.

What I'm getting at is to try and make a plea that you do things properly from the word go with your dog. This was brought home to me yesterday afternoon when I saw a ten week old puppy a friend of mine has just got. He'd been looking for a very specific type of crossbreed - Bedlington terrier x whippet. This makes a small lurcher which is excellent for catching rats and rabbits, which is what he wants the dog for.

A few weeks back by chance I heard of a litter of pups of that exact breeding and put my friend onto them. Two weeks ago he went to see them and came home with Maddie, a gorgeous female pup. Yesterday was the first time I'd seen her. Having owned three of them myself over the years, I have a real soft spot for all types of 'sight hounds' - lurchers, whippets, greyhounds, deerhounds, salukis, etc - and I was immediately smitten with young Maddie. I find it mighty hard not to fall in love with any puppy, but with lurcher pups I've got no chance!

Watching Maddie frolicking around in my friend's garden yesterday it really hit home to me just what you have with a puppy. It's like a lump of clay. You could just toss it in a corner and forget about it, so it dries out into a rough ugly lump, or you could roughly mold it into a primitive dish or plate shape which wouldn't take long and would give you a 'workmanlike' end result. You might 'throw' it on a potters wheel to make a vase or a pot. This would involve a bit more time and expertise, or you might decide to be more creative and make a delicate teacup or teapot. This would call for much more care and precision. Then again you might decide to put hours and hours of loving care into hand sculpting an exquisite figurine.

The choice is yours, but whatever you do, that lump of damp and malleable clay that you start out with isn't going to stay the same forever. What happens to it is going to be as a direct result of however you decide to treat it. D'you see what I'm driving at? The gorgeous Maddie is like a lump of wet clay at the moment, or a blank canvas and how she turns out in adulthood will be as a direct result of the choices my friend makes over the weeks and months ahead.

The raw material he's got at the moment is exactly the same as you and me started out with when our dogs were newly weaned puppies. Yet we all end up with dogs at different standards of training. It's us who determine what standard our dogs reach, and like so many things in life, it comes down to how much time we're prepared to put into it.

If you're going to get around to training your dog 'one of these days', chances are before you know it the dog's eighteen months or two years old and you've still not made a start. You've got an unruly adolescent on your hands that causes you all sorts of aggravation. Why? Simple - you just chucked your clay in a corner and let it dry out without giving it another thought.

Did you see any of the recent TV coverage of Crufts? Did you see any of the agility? Or the obedience? Or the amazing choreographed dance routines? These are all examples of people who took their lump of wet clay and put hour after hour of love and care into crafting an exquisite figurine.

You need to decide what you want from your dog. We're all different, so it's OK if all you want is a dog that will respond to a few basic commands. It's equally OK if you want a lot more from your dog, but you have to realize that you get out what you put in. You can train your dog to fantastic levels of achievement if you want, but it's only going to happen if you spend the time doing the job properly. In fact, doing the job properly is important whatever you want to train your dog to do, even if it's only basic stuff like coming when called, sitting, and walking to heel.

If you're starting out with a brand new puppy, the chances are it's going to be sharing your life for anything from 10-15 years. That's a mighty long time to have to put up with unruly adolescent type behavior. Take the time to do the job right from the word go. That way you'll have a companion you can be proud of and you can completely avoid the aggravation that comes with having to try and teach an old dog new tricks.

If you're not sure how to go about doing the job properly, get your hands on a copy of my complete dog training package "Dog Training Blueprint To Success". It shows you step by step how to take your dog to whatever level of obedience is right for you.

This article is the copyright of Andrew Chastney, author of Dog Training Blueprint to Success. To read more of his articles and Section One of his book, go to DogTrainingBlueprint.com.

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