Training

Katie Locks is the owner of Lucky Dogs Training and More in Amelia Court House, Virginia. Since 2004, she has worked with rescues and individuals to strengthen the bond with dogs through training. She trains for the Southside SPCA as well as Lab Rescue of the Labrador Retriever Club of the Potomac, is a mentor trainer for Animal Behavior College, and is the lead trainer for Pixie's Pen Pals, a prison dog program.

Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus. Dogs are from Neptune. A well-known trainer recently made a public comment about men’s inability to act silly with their dogs, to the detriment of their ability to use positive training methods effectively. Are we really three alien species, destined to live forever in a world of miscommunication and misinterpretation? Is one gender truly better suited to bridge the communication gap between the human and canine species?

“Place training,” or teaching your dog to go to a certain spot on cue, or at a certain time, is easy and invaluable.

Prevent complaints about your dog in multi-story housing or dog-friendly high-rise offices – and keep him safe – by managing his behavior in the building’s elevators.

which includes social facilitation, mimicking, and trial-and-error learning.üFollowing the dog who responds properly to the Come!" cue helps the newcomer learn it

Switching to positive training? At first, it might be frustrating for you – and your dog. The benefits, however, will last a lifetime. In positive training, the goal is to help the dog do the right thing and then reward him for it, rather than punishing him for doing the wrong thing. If he makes a mistake, the behavior is ignored, or excused with an “Oops, try again!” to encourage the dog to do something else.

The perfect storm, canine edition: Combine one dog who is accustomed to and prefers spending time outdoors; a spate of hot, dry weather; a lush, productive garden full of herbs and tomato plants growing in raised boxes full of expensive, loamy soil and moistened three times daily by an automatic drip system. What do you get? Holes dug in the garden and an irate husband! Our new dog, Otto, nearly made himself quite unwelcome on his second day in our home. Every time I turned around, I'd find him digging in any place we'd recently watered, including the lawn, a flowerbed in front of the house, underneath a gorgeous hydrangea bush that's already hard-pressed to survive our hot summers, and, most seriously, the vegetable beds in back. Can't you train this dog not to dig?" my husband implored. But this wasn't a training issue; I've been trained enough by Pat Miller and our other contributing trainer/writers to recognize a management situation when I see it!"

Remember when you were a kid and your mom would catch you doing something you weren’t supposed to be doing, even though she wasn’t...

The best training tip out there is so simple it likely slips your mind: Catch your dog doing something right.We all notice when our...

Some dogs can’t really help but urinate when they are frightened, anxious, or excited. What can you do to prevent this untimely submissive urination?

When it comes to puppy training, it’s never too early to start. Puppies are more than ready to learn by the time they leave...

Ten years ago, a new dog training tool hit the market. Known generically as the head halter (or head collar), it is a device similar to the halter commonly used on horses. It provides a greatly increased degree of control over the dog who is dedicated to pulling on the collar and leash, without the punishment or pain factors associated with choke chains and prong collars. The head halter has a strap that goes around the dog’s nose, and another that clasps around his neck, just behind the ears. The leash attaches to a ring below the dog’s chin. Just like with halters on horses, bulls and other large animals, it works on the principle that where the nose goes, the body must follow.