[RSBob]

I have excellent luck training my dogs with a very simple technique. I use one word commands like, come, sit, stay, down, outside, up, down, etc, rather than expecting them to understand sentences like some folks. When they successfully do the command, I simply say good (come, sit, stay, down, outside, up, down, etc) and pat them on the head, or play with them. It’s very simple and works beautifully. For more complex training like how to heal, I would use treats as a reward and when they started getting proficient then reward them every other, then every third or fourth time until I finally stopped because praise was enough. This is called, variable ratio reinforcement which is the same technique effectively used on people playing the slots.

Also trained my puppies to nuzzle a bell mounted low on a doorway using treats to let us know when they had to go pee. Unfortunately our too smart cat watched this and would go over and ring the bell too even though it had its own cat door.