5yr. old too old to train?

[McBeard]

I have 5 yr. old husky/shepherd/mutt. She has the coloration and the will to fetch downed animals (steals rabbits from our cat & brings them to me). She was a rescue and hasn't had much water & obedience experience. Just curious on what everyone thought I could do with her, if anything?

[NuffDaddy]

If you can make her sit still untill the ducks are laying on the water that's all you need if she already likes bringing you back dead things.

[jmitch]

Depending on her drive you could probably do something with her but I wouldn't be expecting too much. I know of people who have taken older dogs and made good hunters out of them but you never know what kind of bad habits she has made over her life. Plus neither one of those breeds are really known for being bird dogs. Really won't hurt to try, maybe you'll be pleasantly surprised

[Matt Duncan]

I have a 5 year old female lab that was brought here in May. When she showed up she didn't know she was a retriever, didn't want to retrieve and hadn't been introduced to anything outside of being a pet. As of now I'm shooting over her and she is marking singles well out to 125yds. Last week we did gun dog set ups 3 days and she is doing very well through decoys retrieving easier doubles in hunting type set ups. She is not from what I'd call a strong pedigree but the one thing that has helped her is she is a very eager to please type dog. So far she's been through formal OB, Force fetch, collar conditioning, intro to birds, intro to water, singles, early in doubles now, and we're working her off the dog stand or out of a dog blind most days. Started her just like a 4-5 month old puppy and went from there. She will be hunting this year without a doubt. Starting that late is doable but can also be difficult. I had days where I thought I was just going to have to send her home but with enough patience and lots of consistency the light bulb finally turned on over her head. Here are a couple of suggestions that will help you.. Make sure the dog is having fun and crazy about retrieving BEFORE starting any kind of structured or formal training. Move slow, in training slow is smooth and smooth is fast also it's easy to overwhelm a dog by adding to much at once and they WILL shut down on you. Be fair, do not correct the dog for something it hasn't thoroughly been trained to do. Follow a program of some kind and stick to it. Skipping around will leave holes in training and will leave the dog confused at some point or another. It's not impossible to do but it is difficult and generally takes some experience to be able to read the dog and know when and if to keep moving forward. Have FUN, if you aren't the dog won't either leaving you with at the end of the day with a dog that is not receptive to training or interested in working.