Blaze is now 12 and not too different from before. He’s a little slower, but still faster than me. He’s starting to loose his hearing and sometimes needs help getting into the car. But I still have to manage his life to keep him safe.
People who have puppies or young dogs often ask how long management practices need to be in place. I always say it depends on puppies, and give them the example of Blaze and Griffin.
- Griffin would let me know he needed out when he came home as a 9 week old puppy. Blaze doesn’t tell me, I have to watch him carefully.
- Griffin could have a bed as a puppy. Blaze chewed up a bed last month.
- Blaze still needs gates, crates,doors, and a leash in the house to help him stay out of trouble. Griffin doesn’t.
- Blaze is still closely watched inside so that he can’t get into anything or ingest things he should not. Griffin hasn’t needed that.
- Griffin has self preservation. Blaze is more motivated to get reinforcement. Last month he ended up swimming on a 30* day when the water was just above freezing. He couldn’t help it. He knew it was cold, but water has such a reinforcement history, he couldn’t help it. I have to work hard to keep him safe.
Most dogs fall somewhere in between. Learning is always happening and old dogs can easily learn new thing – good or bad. Griffin is 100x easier to live with than Blaze, but Blaze is far easier to motivate!
Here’s us doing some rally training. We’ll probably be doing an APDT/WCRL trial in April. Horray for old dogs!