You Can Teach an Old Dog New Tricks

[Paco Dennis]

I started wondering if the phrase "You can't teach old dogs new tricks" was similar to humans. ( As it is sometimes used ). There certainly is a difference in the senior category when it comes to being able to discriminate the choices necessary to be correct. The seniors were better when the choices involved logic though.​

As I am experiencing old age now, I have noticed quite a few changes in the way I can navigate in my environment. "Sluggish" is a pretty good word to describe it. Not lazy though. "Worn out" is another. Less dependent on my identity that I needed to survive out there. I am a little concerned about how to stay as alert as possible as long as possible. So I learned things I will remember from this article. ​

"Old dogs may learn more slowly, however they will remember."​

 

[dseag2]

Great post. Wow, "Surprisingly, the older dogs did better than the younger dogs in this inference or reasoning task. Range summarizes their findings saying, "The older the dog, the better it performed, while younger dogs were unable to master this task. This is probably due to the fact that older dogs more stubbornly insist on what they have learned before and are less flexible than younger animals."

There is hope for us after all!