My wife saw a movie when she was a teenager (60's). She has a brief discription but cannot remember what the title was. It was a real tear-jerker.
From what she can remember; There was an old man who had a small dog who did tricks when they were in the park. A young girl accompanied by one of her parents would come by often. This young girl wanted the dog because he could do tricks but the old man would not give him up. Eventually, the old man died and somehow the young girl got the dog, but the dog would not do tricks for her. In the end the dog dies and is reunited with the old man. ( I think there was a staircase to Heaven involved)
Any help would be appreciated...

I don't know. But I hope you have luck with it. I am pretty sure you can type in some keywords on google.com and you can find it. Good Luck.

It sounds like Three Wishes, but that wasn't that old. Maybe Three Wishes was a remake of the movie you are talking about.