"I learned that pouring hot sauce on a small piece of meat will train a dog to ignore any food found lying on the ground. Is this practice of obedience suitable and safe?"

No! And double No! Any person promoting that method had better go back to dog training school. It may teach a dog to not eat a piece of meat that has first been dipped with hot sauce, but a person bent on teaching a dog to avoid something with chastising him with hot sauce does not have positive effect on your dog during training in the forefront of his or her mind.

"My dog is 13 years old, healthy, with no obvious physical defects. My enrollment was rejected in an obedience class by a trainer who said that a 13-year-old dog couldn't be trained. This trainer is quite well-known locally and has authored several books. I simply cannot accept the fact that 13 dog years is a standard for training. What is your opinion?"

The one thing that I can recommend is that you enroll your dog in a class with a dog trainer that will accept a 13-year-old. If your dog is healthy and happy, I can see no better token of your love for the dog than to registering together in an obedience class. A dog is never too old to learn, in my opinion.

"My sister recently gave me her 6-year-old German Shepherd male. She wanted to get rid of him because he is so frightened of thunderstorms that he tears down the door of the home to get in. She says that she has replaced three doors because of the dog. He does not seem to be improving but getting worse with as the dog gets older. Is there any way to help the dog overcome his fear of thunderstorms?"

One way that you can actually help is to open the door and let the poor dog in! His fear of thunder is as real as our phobia of heights or closed-in places. It's an innate neurotic syndrome that he'll probably live with until the day the day he dies.

To make life easier for the dog, simply allow him to come in the home and be with you during those thunderstorms. You may be able to relieve some of the fear by "conditioning" your dog. Simply, follow each thunderous roll with a food reinforced "reward".