This kind of leadership is  in a word "Management". Modifying behavior through management can save time, stress, and build a relationship worth having. I started 5 years ago with the J & P (jerk and praise) compulsion methods that are unfortunately, still quite popular. Using compulsion and food, I had been unable to fine tune their performances and help them generalize without losing confidence. Yes, I accomplished obedience but at a cost to my relationship with my dog. Positive techniques have not only "tweaked" the minute details of each exercise, but have made practicing much more fun for both me and my dogs! Positive training even reaches into the souls of the rescue dogs who have so much emotional baggage. This training method in no way reminds them of their past abuse and in this way we are able to shape and remold their attitudes and behavior. These methods are less stressful on the dog and owner. By simply reinforcing good behavior and ignoring bad behavior, the dog learns without stress or emotional upheaval. Positive Motivation Obedience lessons are discounted to rescue aussies!

"Location, location, location."
Also known as "Place conditioning"
Dogs have great memories for what happens in certain places. Good or Bad. One of the quickest ways to
train a dog is to teach him to perform a certain task in a specific place.

"Seize the moment" (Purely Positive Dog Training by Sheila Booth) Timing, timing, timing. the owner's
primary role in training is to provide immediate feedback(3 to 5 seconds) to the dog.

"Get the Food Out of the Bowl and into the Training Session. " Stop giving free food. (S. Booth) Food
training in no way cheapens the bond with your dog! Take advantage of the most powerful reinforcer that
exists and associate it with your leadership.

"Premack it" (S. Booth) The dog learns to perform a certain behavior (one that you want him to do) for
access to what he wants to do. (i.e. sit before you open the door)

"Good Trainers fix problems. Great Trainers never get to the Problems" (Ted Turner) Be Proactive. Prevent
unwanted behavior.

"Positive Training foster willing communication, a cooperative attitude and an enthusiastic love of
learning" (S. Booth)

"Positively reinforce any and all behavior you want to continue" (S. Booth)

"Forgive Forgetting" (S. Booth) "Train by Direction not Correction" When was your last mistake?
"If you can manage to forgive yourself you should be able to forgive your dog!"

"If You Are in a Hole Stop Digging!" (Patty Ruzzo) If behavior deteriorates Go Back! Go Back to the step
the dog is able to earn reinforcement for. A rule of thumb for reinforcing behavior, when you make it
harder (distractions) you go back up to 100% reward. As the dogs performance becomes flawless go back
down to 50% before making it harder with yet some other variation on how you want it done. When all
the criteria have been added you may go for a lower maintenance schedule than 50%. (S. Booth) Get over
any obsession you have with commands and start focusing on providing the consequences. Commands are
just signals which inform the dog which behavior might earn him reinforcement. You have to have the
behavior first. If the behavior is weak there is no point trying to signal it. This is such a hard thing to
resist, I think it is so ingrained in us to say something. It is truly to our benefit in training to refrain from
adding a signal too early and misleading the dog. A final note on reinforcing is to try and end session on a
high note. Quit while you are ahead by creating something small to reinforce.

"Do No Damage" (S Booth) This is a super feel good principle. If my timing is off and I fail to reinforce a
behavior, the worst that happens is it takes the dog longer to learn the behavior. The relationship has not
suffered. "Freedom from Fear" for the dog. During training the dog is free to take a chance and show you
every behavior they have and you can reinforce what you are working toward. Punishment introduces
suspicion for the dog and slows down learning. It is not unusual for positively trained dogs to initiate
training sessions.

To Further explore behavior modification through positive only reinforcement read
"Culture Clash" by Jean Donaldson
"Purely Positive Training Companion to Competition" by Sheila Booth
"Clicker Training For Obedience" by Morgan Spector

Why switch to Positive Reinforcement Training and what exactly does Positive mean?

In all Positive Training (Operant Conditioning) the dog's behavior is shaped through positive reinforcement (e.g. food) as opposed to the Command Based Training where the focus is on eliminating the behaviors you don't want through the use of aversives, such as the leash pop. Using Positive Reinforcement the dog works with drive and happiness. He learns to try , try , try. He wants to get it right! Dogs trained this way will initiate training sessions. They want to learn. Shaping teaches the dog to think. Dogs trained with PR are usually more consistent because they understand the desired behavior better. PR training produces dogs not afraid of failure. instead , they try harder to attain their inevitable reward. The dog learns that how it acts determines what will happen. This empowers the dog. He generalizes this lesson and his behavior now works the environment to produce the results he is looking for, (food, toy, play, your attention, outside, inside etc.) In this method of training the behavior is displayed first and then the cue (command) is added. This is the opposite of the Negative Reinforcement Training, Jerk and Praise. With the Command Based J & P training the word comes before you force the behavior on the dog. In J&P negative reinforcement squashes the dog's behavioral repertoire. The dog fears consequences so much that he offers little. If you train with Negative reinforcement (aversives) the premise is that you are taking something undesirable away in an effort to reinforce the behavior that has occurred. What R- ultimately teaches the dog is how to avoid something . You can train behaviors using R- but it is a constant battle with avoidance. Another problem with aversives is that it suppresses behavior, not only the one you want is suppressed but any other you might be looking for in the future.. I have switched to Operant Conditioning and it has changed all our lives. It is about love and the quality of life in our dear little furkids. My perspective has changed from "why is this dog disobeying?" to "What did I accidentally teach?" Operant Conditioning far outclasses and out performs R- training. Shaping responses through R+ and putting them on variable reinforcement PRODUCES VERY INTENSE , LONG LASTING behaviors. These are the OMNIPOTENT fundamental laws of learning available to everyone and THEY WORK MAGIC!!

WHAT IS A SECONDARY REINFORCER & WHY DO I NEED IT?

Whether you are conscious of the fact or not your reactions are constantly reinforcing any action that the dog is doing at any given time. Any behavior your dog exhibits YOU HAVE CREATED. It is CRUCIAL that you are intuitive to what information and or reinforcement the dog is  assimilating in his every interaction with you and his environment. Think of it as, I did this and the dog did that or vice-versa. The dog did this and I did that.

Reinforcement is the powerful tool behind behavior. It is the big muscle that gives you increased repetitions of whatever behavior you want the dog to execute. This real life everyday cause and effect principal is the big bonus to positive training for the pet owner. You are training every time  you interact with the dog. Simply by flexing your "muscle" in accordance to what the dog does, you can strengthen the behavior you want while empowering yourself as the generous genie leader. (the dog wants to go outside, you ask for a sit, the dog sits, you open the door. This kind of relationship give you an aura that the dog will find appealing, He will soon be in a "what's next" mode. This is how the training game works. It is a game of "hot and cold" for the dog. You can tell the dog he is "hot" by reinforcing him.

"What is a Reinforcer? "
A primary reinforcer is anything the dog instinctively wants.  Food, play ,
companionship, touch and sex are all primary reinforcers. As you can predict depending on the dog's mood he may or may not want one or the other of these at any given time. For example if you just fed him breakfast and now you want him to practice sitting  while the mailman walks up the steps, it is possible he may not be interested in food right now when he would really like to play and chase. It would be more conducive to training to have not fed him breakfast but to wait until the mailman arrived and then use his food as a reinforcer. How desirable the reinforcer needs to be is directly proportional to how stimulating or distracting the environment is.

You may succeed in teaching the sit in your kitchen with dry dog food but without a doubt you will need to up the anti of if you are going to ask the dog to sit in the middle of a circle of dogs. You are going to need something more along the lines of steak to initially teach this behavior in a tough environment. Imagine how easily you would bend over and pick up a dollar bill on the sidewalk and now compare it to crossing a four lane highway in rush-hour for that same dollar bill. Not! Would you do it for a million dollars? Remember the primary reinforcer is something the dog instinctively wants.

"What is a Secondary Reinforcer?"
A secondary reinforcer (or conditioned reinforcer, CR) is something you teach the dog to want through association with the primary reinforcer. The jingle of car keys is a CR for some dogs. It signals they are going for a ride! The CR is the 44 Magnum of the positive trainer's tool belt.. It is supreme! It is the "promise signal" that the primary reinforcer is arriving. The dog soon realizes that the primary reinforcement only comes after the CR.  It is now your responsibility to ensure the at the CR is immediate, concise, precise, and omnipresent. These qualities are what make the clicker so enticing. It is small, portable and has a distinct ,quick sound that precisely marks a moment in time for the dog. It tells the dog exactly when he was hot and that a reinforcer is coming. This marker is a perfect CR. It is a constant unlike your voice which fluctuates with your mood , energy and distance from the dog. The sharp sound of the clicker will escalate the learning process in regards to correctly timing the reinforcement.. When you develop good timing with the clicker (preferably with 1-2 seconds of the behavior.)  you will see your training progress SKYROCKET! Foremost in your training objective must be "What behavior am I trying to reinforce? " and What behavior did I actually reinforce?" (Karen Pryor) This is the crux of most training issues. This is also the beauty of Positive Reinforcement. Who cares if you screw up and reinforced the wrong thing? You have the power to stop reinforcing the behavior and start reinforcing what you do want. Presto! The problem is  solved and you come out smelling like roses because you did not damage your  relationship with your dog you gave him everything he wants and more.

Charge your CR! Whatever you decide to use as your Crs you need to charge them up. Give them meaning You want the dog to learn that the CR signal means the primary reinforcer is on its way. If you are using the clicker you would click and immediately feed. Repeat ,repeat, repeat, repeat! Go for a hundred repetitions in 10 different sessions over a day or two. Do this in different places, with different postures, and the treats on and off your person. Use this same exercise to pair other Crs with food. "Yes" "good", whistle or whatever you have decided to use. You will know the association is made when the dog hears you click and comes to attention. If there is no response the lesson is not learned..

The secondary reinforcer can also be used as a KGS (keep going signal) It can inform the dog that what he is doing is right and that he is on the right track and to keep going. To convey this meaning to the dog simply start using it before the primary reinforcement click. Pick another precise conditioned reinforcer specifically for  this purpose. Be creative . Conditioning your dog to your smile can be useful as well. This works especially well in herding.

Schedules of Reinforcement are perhaps the part of this training game that takes the most skill. Many people lose the muscle in their conditioned reinforcer by relying on food as a constant. They become discouraged and feel that this method of training doesn't work. Their lack of progress to get behavior without food is usually due to poor timing, incorrect sequence (sequence should be  cue, signal, praise and feed/reinforce). and or failure to keep the food from being foremost in the picture. You need to move the food off your body and to move to variable reinforcement schedules for learned behaviors. You need to reinforce learned behaviors unpredictably and randomly. To evaluate what your dog has learned and when he is truly ready for a variable reinforcement schedule requires you to be able to scrutinize your cues to the dog and the specific training environment in each session. for each . I heartily recommend video taping yourself in the training sessions.

Many, many times it is the trainer who is unconsciously changing his body language  to the dog. The first part of the plan is to specifically pick a very small piece of behavior that you want to reinforce and or build on. Initially any new behavior is deserving of constant reinforcement while in the learning stages. Thereafter, you will move to variable reinforcement schedules keeping in mind that any new distractions or environment changes will require more frequent reinforcement to encourage the dog to respond appropriately. Don't be afraid to go back to more frequent reinforcements temporarily, the dog will realize there is a pay off for increased difficulty and you will be able to go back to less food again. Don't be afraid to play with the reinforcement schedules using more a less frequent reinforcement. The worse that could happen is it will take the dog longer to learn. Rest assured you wont have damaged your relationship with the dog .Instead if you have properly conditioned your secondary reinforcers your little friend is hanging on your every word and gleefully reaping the occasional food rewards. He feels great about himself and feels a deeper connection to you through the enhanced communication feedback.

For more info on reinforcement schedules go here: 

http://www.clickersolutions.com/clickersolutions/articles/ratios.htm