Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

There is an old saying that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. This idiom has been passed down through generations that refers to the resistance to change that many humans experience as we age. The older we get, it is allegedly harder for us to take in new information and to change our way to doing things.

Let’s start with dogs.  

It has been my experience that old dogs can, in fact, learn new tricks. Dogs are pretty adept at reading our commands and observing our behaviors. Last year when the good folks at Wiscoy suggested that I change up the rawhide strips that I was giving my dogs each morning to give them something to chew, it might cut down on allergies and stinky ears. In just a few short days, my two dogs (ages 6 and 7, old by canine standards) figured out that the morning treat was coming from the freezer and not from under the sink as it had for the previous 5 years. They now stand by the refrigerator and wait. Of greater import is that I have now trained myself to make them dog food yogurt parfaits using sterilized bones that I put in the freezer each night.

I wonder which old dog learned the trick in that situation?

My friend Maggie Peacock is all about old dogs learning new tricks. As a dog foster parent for the Brookline Labrador Retriever Rescue organization, Maggie takes in older, often unsocialized labs and trains them to be pet ready. Her latest is a beautiful, yellow, 6-year-old girl named Ruby who has spent her entire life as a breeding dog on a Lancaster county puppy mill. Ruby has never known the experience of being part of a family. Maggie and her family will work with Ruby and in a few months we’ll see pictures of that sweet old girl with her new forever family. I am inspired by Maggie’s work. (It might be time to teach those puppy mill breeders some new tricks too. )

Old dogs can definitely learn new tricks but what about humans?

The answer is when open or motivated or forced to change, homo sapiens are just as capable of learning new tricks as our canine companions.

I’m going to use the example of recycling. I’m all about recycling at home and do a pretty good job of pulling out the cardboard and making sure the kids put any plastic or glass in the bin for the weekly pick up. I’ve been known to put my hand in a garbage bag to pull out something that should go in the recycling bin. I was, however, among the first to roll my eyes a few years ago when Penn State rolled out their new recycling program. They took trash cans out of our offices and put bins for compost, plastic, mixed paper, plastic, metal and even an “Are you sure” bin for non-recyclable trash in community areas. “It is going to smell” I told my co-workers through the filter of my resistance to change.  

Someone give me some kibble because the new program taught me a lot. I now rarely put anything in the “Are You Sure?” bin. I pull out the plastic from my lunches, compost the remains from snacks and fruit I bring to the office and either shred or recycle any and all paper. In fact, I start to get a little twitchy at home when I am forced to put an empty plastic container in the garbage container since residential recycling in Centre County doesn’t take all plastics. The cycle of resistance to being open to making change has been a good thing.

We are never too old to learn.  

Studies have shown that staying active both cognitively and physically can help us as we age. The benefits of trying and learning new things apparently maximizes the benefits of staying active. In one study, older people were asked to do 15 hours of activity per week. One group was sent home assigned to tasks for which they were familiar. The other group was assigned new tasks for which they had little or no experience. At the end of the study, the “new tricks” group reportedly experienced greater benefits than the group that stayed within its comfort zone.

This and other research tells us that we both can and should teach old dogs new tricks to add to our personal and physical health.

There has been a lot of flurry at Penn State this semester as the University transitions from several major administrative systems at what seems like the same time. The course management system is going from ANGEL to CANVAS.  Student records are going from elion to LIONPATH. The testing center updated the SCANTRON system and classrooms are now being assigned with a system called OPTIMIZER.  I have heard a lot of collective bellyachin’ as we try to figure out how each of these systems will impact the way each of us does our job. Through the stomping of feet and all of the Chicken Little’s saying the sky is definitely falling,  I say bring it on.   

Staying in one place either physically, emotionally or our day to day tasks and habits and can lull us into sameness. Change, as they say, is good. Stepping out of our comfort zone is good. Becoming old is when we are no longer interested in learning new things – regardless of our chronological age.

This old dog wants to learn some new tricks.