Melinda Dog Training 101 Series
){kind=avatar}
)
)
Communication—Bridging the Human & Canine Communication Gap
Episode 1
Training is best described as building a bond and a new line of communication with your dog. It’s not about party tricks or impressing your friends. Rather, we are helping them develop life skills that will aid them in being great canine citizens in their human world.
Vocabulary & Basics for Starting Training
Episode 2
What does ‘prompting’ or ‘capturing’ mean in dog training? Melinda explains common terminology used in this series and in standard dog-training practices, and also shares some helpful tips while starting out on your training journey.
Classical Conditioning—Building Positive Associations
Episode 3
Classical conditioning is all about making associations–understanding that two things are linked and that one predicts the other. No matter what a dog is doing, they are always making associations, regardless of the behavior.
Operant Conditioning—Consequence-Based Training
Episode 4
Operant conditioning is consequence-based learning, in which the pleasant or unpleasant consequences of the dog’s behavior create the learning opportunity. It is broken into four quadrants: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment.
)
Teach Your Dog “Sit”
Episode 5
In basic obedience, one of the first skills we teach a dog is to sit. It’s a great start to creating impulse control and teaching your dog an alternate behavior to jumping up and begging for attention.
Teach Your Dog “Wait”
Episode 6
“Wait” essentially means don't cross the line or hold on. This is a good foundational skill to teach impulse control at a door or threshold.
Teach Your Dog “Down”
Episode 7
Teaching your dog to lay down means teaching them to relax their body on the floor and hold it. It is a great tool to have when guests come to your home or when you’re in a new environment.
Teach Your Dog “Place”
Episode 8
Place training is teaching your dog to stay in a dedicated spot without being restrained in any way for an indefinite amount of time. This is a great foundation skill to build towards more advanced behaviors, but a beginning practical use is teaching your dog to lay comfortably on their dog bed to relax and find a safe space.
Crate Train Your Dog
Episode 9
Supervising your puppy is important for their health and safety as well as training. If you are not watching your young, developing puppy, then you are missing very important training moments. Your dog is also missing out on having a den that will act as a safe space.
Teach Your Dog Recall
Episode 10
A reliable recall is a highly valuable skill to get your dog back to you when off-leash. A solid recall can also help you manage and avoid potentially dangerous situations. As dog owners, we often see different dangers in environments that our dog is possibly not aware of, and being able to call them back to us will help us avoid these scary situations. Besides the dangers we can run into, it’s also nice knowing that when you let your dog off-leash, you can easily get them back.