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The Profit Motive
Give your dog a reason to obey, and he will. The reason (or profit) is almost always food, but it could also be a particular toy or just praise, petting and attention. When you create an association between the desired behavior, the profit, and a command word and/or hand signal, you are training your dog using positive reinforcement.
One of my favorite examples of the Profit Motive at work: Food Guarding "Exercises". Many people (and veterinarians -- and dog trainers!) believe that you can reduce the liklihood of a dog bite due to possessiveness by picking up your dog's food bowl while he is eating and then putting it back. For some reason, everyone believes that this is not annoying to the dog. I've had several people tell me that they did these exercises for years and were very surprised when one day the dog "suddenly" lunged -- and in 2 cases actually bit -- at them.
Now come on. If you picked up my dinner every night for 2 years for apparently no reason, I'd bite you too!
What is missing from this "exercise" is the Profit Motive. It's easy. When you pick up your dog's food bowl, put something better than his food in the bowl and THEN put it back. The dog immediately has made a profit from allowing you to pick up his bowl. Not only that, but he will grow up actually looking forward to people approaching him while he's eating because it almost always means something yummy!
There are countless ways to put a profit into your dog's training. Think before you follow your neighbor's advice on different dog training techniques. It's really just common sense. What's going to make this enjoyable for my dog? Provide a profit consistently during the training months, and your dog will start to habitually execute the desired behavior on your command whether or not you deliver the profit.
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