# Is a 17 Month old dog too old to train?



## jakeinAK (Sep 17, 2012)

Im new to the forum and am thinking of adopting a gsd that is a 17 month old male pure bred. He knows simple commands like sit, stay, and laydown and is potty trained but thats about the extent. My question is, is he passed the point where training him will be a very difficult task or with a good amount of time and pataince invested can he still turn into a great dog? My main goal is to keep him from wanting to jump up on people and put his paws on people, which he even does to his current owner. He will be strictly a companion/ home protection dog.


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## Kwolf94 (May 4, 2012)

No dog is "too old to train". With persistence and patience I bet you could teach him lots of stuff! And congrats/welcome! You will find that you can ask any questions you have about your shepherd here, and people (who are far more knowledgeable than I am) will be happy to give their insights and suggestions


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## wildwolf60 (Apr 13, 2001)

*Never too old to train!*

We adopted our male GSD, Jaeger at 17 months. He was and is, very quick to train, eager to learn and loves doing things to please! Each dog is going to be slightly different of course, there are always things that one might learn faster than others, but in our experience, the age never made a difference. And, he's our third adoptee, the other two were varying ages from 1 to over 2 years, and each was trainable. So just work with him and be patient! Lot of love and consistency will work wonders. Good luck!
Forgot to add, our Jaeger was one we had to to teach not to jump on people, he did that all the time! We have him now trained to do it on command, and if not commanded, when he gets excited, he will just do a sit-up in front of you and give you his paws!


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## Mrs.K (Jul 14, 2009)

jakeinAK said:


> Im new to the forum and am thinking of adopting a gsd that is a 17 month old male pure bred. He knows simple commands like sit, stay, and laydown and is potty trained but thats about the extent. My question is, is he passed the point where training him will be a very difficult task or with a good amount of time and pataince invested can he still turn into a great dog? My main goal is to keep him from wanting to jump up on people and put his paws on people, which he even does to his current owner. He will be strictly a companion/ home protection dog.


One word: NO!


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## Muneraven (Sep 4, 2012)

*Age doesn't matter that much.*

My oldest dog is 12 and is a GSD mix. As long as what I ask her to learn isn't beyond her physical abilities, she still enjoys learning new ways to get treats! In fact, I kind of have to come up with little new tricks for her or she will try to do what the younger dogs do to get treats and hurt herself, lol. 

She and I agree that "roll over" and "dance" are retired from her repertoire. She can still "lie down" with the best of them, though.


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

17 months is still young. Lot's of Police Departments just start training with their new dogs at this age so both handlers and dogs learn tons together as they progress!


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## Hrachia (Dec 10, 2011)

Kwolf94 said:


> No dog is "too old to train". With persistence and patience I bet you could teach him lots of stuff! And congrats/welcome! You will find that you can ask any questions you have about your shepherd here, and people (who are far more knowledgeable than I am) will be happy to give their insights and suggestions


Agreed fully. As long as the dog has a drive, and you find what that drive might be. You can work and train them regardless of age.


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## jakeinAK (Sep 17, 2012)

thank you very much for so many responses so fast everyone, i appreciate the insight and advice and am looking forward to getting a move on in training him to be a polite obedient dog. Oh and thank you for the welcomes, im also looking forward to doing more reading and learning on this site about GSDs. cheers!


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## KZoppa (Aug 14, 2010)

I adopted a 4 year old female with NO training whatsoever. She'd been shoved in a backyard and left to her own devices. She ended up being my heart dog and she learned things so fast, I was constantly looking for new things to teach her because she soaked everything up like a sponge.


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## martemchik (Nov 23, 2010)

You'll probably get through to him faster than you would a young puppy lol. Although he's bigger and its worse when he jumps on people...he'll figure it out faster if you teach him not to do that than if he was a young pup. This should be a very trainable dog, 17 months is a great age. They are maturing, but especially the males are still young puppies at heart.


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## cliffson1 (Sep 2, 2006)

Great age for training!


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## The Packman (Jan 31, 2011)

IMHO...it depends on the K-9 and the trainer.


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## CarrieJ (Feb 22, 2011)

jakeinAK,
Sorry, I popped in late for your question but here's my story. A few years back my mother passed away and my vast inheritance is a 12 ish Jack Russell/Pom/Papillion thing. (otherwise known as The Devil)

This dog had to be re-crate trained, re-potty trained, environment trained (would mark territory relentlessly) resource guarded, is a reactive barker......(still is, but has gotten much better with outside exposure to different things)
She's now a pretty well balanced little PIA. She grows on me like a tumor and does a fine job at rat elimination.

We have an eight year old female GSD at my job as a foster that has had bounds of obeidience training but no structure training. She is going to make someone a wonderful companion as long as she has some boundaries.

Good Luck....and 17 months is not too old.
I read somewhere that: yes old dogs can learn new tricks it just takes them longer because their brains get softer....that still makes me giggle.


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

I will be starting formal training with my oldest dog(non GSD)...I can't wait to see what she doesn't know I am pretty confident that she will be able to do it


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## e.rigby (May 28, 2011)

My most recent dog is 15 months, I got him just a few weeks ago  My other Shepherd was 4yrs old when I got him and had absolutely zero training! Both dogs have learned tons with me. So the answer is no, no dog is 'too old' to train!


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## CarrieJ (Feb 22, 2011)

e.rigby said:


> My most recent dog is 15 months, I got him just a few weeks ago  My other Shepherd was 4yrs old when I got him and had absolutely zero training! Both dogs have learned tons with me. So the answer is no, no dog is 'too old' to train!


No kidding! I've seen your pictures!!! 

Right now as I sit here, I have put flea stuff on the dogs, given them bones and the girls are in their crates. 
Zoey the little weasel terrier doesn't want a raw bone in her crate....she wants to bring her bone out.
So, the iPod is on.
She doesn't have to potty, she isn't in pain, in fact; she loves raw bones. She just doesn't want to be in her crate.
So she's making this *really* high pitch arf sound about 45 seconds apart.
It's not effective with me, but for over ten years it was very effective with my mom.


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