1. Your dog will repeat ANY behavior that results in a pleasurable experience. Be this training or unintentional such as when a dog gets attention when they jump up or eats a tasty treat stolen from the counter. Making sure your dog is rewarded only for the actions you like so he will begin to choose that option more often
2. Good timing is critical. The longer you leave between the action and the giving of the reward, the less likely it is that your dog will make the desired association quickly. Scientific research has shown that the quicker the reward arrives, the faster an animal will learn. Ideally, this is within 3 seconds. Why verbal reward pairing with the food is ideal. Then when working far away from your dog verbal praise is useful to “mark” the correct response which you can then follow up with a reward.
3. Punishment has problems. Training is meant to be fun. The timing of punishment is even more critical than for rewards. Unless the aversive experience occurs just as the dog is doing something wrong, it will have limited effect and will cause a dog to lose confidence in you.
4. The payment is the reward. You may feel that you want to use your own reward or something you think sounds rewarding (ie expensive treats, own dog food etc). While this will excite some dogs, for others these rewards are far less interesting than other things around them. Why should your dog work for another piece of their dog food when he gets a bowl full of them twice a day for doing nothing? Or they get a yummy treat again for nothing. If your dog learns to associate a highly valued reward, such as a ball or “dog crack”, with an action, he is far more likely to want to try to earn it again later. Think “would my dog jump through fire for that?”
These are things that everyone has problems with and takes time for the human end of the leash to learn! Dogs are very forgiving. Why they are mans best friend.