The human brain is amazing.  As a baby growing, the brain is like a soft blank block of membrane waiting for experiences to be etched.  These etchings, stroke by stroke, added to the brain never stopped forming.  As you get older, the brain less pliable, is harder to make these etchings but very possible.  The important part is to load this membrane early on and give a child a strong foundations of experiences already in place to draw from.  Although a old dog can learn new tricks, a new dog can learn an infinite number of them and without bias can allow the body to do amazing feats.