Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Can you take an adult dog that comes from good stock but hadn't been trained and make a hunter out of him? Justin Tackett says you absolutely can, and you can have a lot of fun in the process.

Tackett is a professional dog trainer, and he's also host of the Water Dog TV show seen on ESPN Outdoors. Here's Tackett's take on breaking a mature sporting dog of bad habits.

"If I sat around and told you all the dogs that I've seen at 4 and 5 years that turned out to be good gun dogs, we'd be here all day long," he observes. "Can you make him a good hunting dog? The answer is yes."

He concludes, "Just go out and spend time training, using repetition and patience. Even better, join a dog club or run trails for dogs at his level of performance and maturity."