Factoid: Pavlov's Dogs
You CAN Teach An Old Dog New Tricks
By Laura French

Instead of saying," You can't teach an old dog new tricks," it might be more accurate to say that old dogs can’t unlearn old tricks. Ivan Pavlov demonstrated the canine tendency toward conditioned response back in the 1890s. He discovered that dogs would start salivating when they heard a signal they associated with dinner, long before the food itself actually arrived.

“Pavlov’s dogs” were key to the development of behavioral psychology. Interestingly, though, Pavlov’s field of research at the time wasn’t psychology. He was researching the role of saliva in aiding digestion. Pavlov actually used whistles, tuning forks and metronomes in addition to ringing a bell to call his dogs to dinner. The accidental discovery was more interesting than what he had originally intended to prove. He focused on conditioned behavior for the rest of his long life.

As Pavlov learned, dogs will repeat behaviors that have had successful outcomes. The older the dog, the more of those behaviors it will have learned, from chasing the mail truck to sleeping in a favorite corner of the sofa. Old dogs can be retrained. It requires recognizing the existing behaviors and making changes in small steps, with lots of rewards along the way.

Of course, people who use the expression are usually referring to people, not dogs. But that’s a different story.

Laura French is a freelance writer who lives in Roseville with three cats — Gracie, Tennessee Tuxedo and his pal Chumley, and Sofie, whose breed(s) will forever remain a mystery.