The easiest action to train first is the SIT. There are two methods of doing this.The first is to use SHAPING. This is where you wait for your pooch to sit down by himself and then immediately CLICK/TREAT. (Here after abbreviated as C/T) You watch him and every time he sits, you C/T. This requires a lot of time and patience but it does work eventually!The second method is to use the LURE method. This requires you to lure Fido into the desired position with the use of food. From a standing position place a treat just over your dog's nose then raise it upwards and backwards over it's head until their rump hits the floor. Click/Treat. Repeat this a few times until Fido sits without much luring. Eventually take a piece of food and wait. It should not take long for Fido to realise that to get the treat he should sit. Now is the time to start to fade the lure. Do not hurry this action, it is better to go back a stage until your dog makes the connection by thinking for himself.
Whatever method you chose, once Fido is reliably sitting then it is time to start adding the CUE WORD - Sit!
Now a brief word about jackpots! These are to be used when your dog finally has a breakthrough in training and does it right after lots of attempts. Give him a whole handful of treats as a MEGA REWARD.
I should mention that if Fido does the action wrong, do not use the word NO in this connection, just say "wrong" "that's not it" or "try again" and then do nothing. Keep trying.
When things are going well you can go on to slowly phasing out the clicker and treats. Start off by intermittently treating after a click. Say good dog instead. Fido will be puzzled at first but will try even harder the next time to get the reward. Next time C/T. Keep changing the patttern to say something like this:-
Say sit, dog sits, you C/T.
Say sit, dog sits, say good dog and give a big pat.
Say sit, dog sits, you C/T.
Say sit, dog sits, say good dog and give a big pat.
Say sit, dog sits, say good dog and give a big pat.
Next three repititions C/T every time.
You are strengthening the behaviour by randomly rewarding. Also you can now begin to reward only the very best, fastest and most accurate responses.
From this basic exercise you can train all the other desired actions!