Gee, Teeny - you were doing great until you said "one word commands are a must". One word commands do work, of coourse, and that is the common method of training. In Thor's (and Lady's) case, we spokle ONLY conversatinal English as we, of coourse, had done with our kids. One word commands were deliberately avoided. The success of that method, for US, has been phenomenal. And great fun, too. It also seems to have allowed better mutual complrehension and understanding between our two species.

Sadly, Lady is now deaf, and blind in one eye, so communication now has degraded largely to hand signals and body language. We still get along great, but it sometimes requires more imagination on both our parts. She's worth it!

I dont follow pack hierarchy cause Vegas already knows his place is beneath me and i allow him on sofa,bed etc.He is dominant,but only tries it on with other dogs-never humans.

Vegas is pretty well trained now and his recall is 100%,but i do have to lower my tone so i sound like i really mean it.If you tell him in a nice jovial way-he will completely blank you!

Here here Azz.

I am from the same school of thought and following exactly the same training techniques and so far it is working an absolute treat with Ivan. I also talk to him and otherwise treat like a baby too.

I like many of the above posts train with a mixture to suit me and my dogs. I do think that training can be slightly different with different breeds and different size dogs. My dogs are happy, obedient dogs but also outwit me on a few occasions which in my opinion is part of their character. I happily admit that I have had conversations with them. I think it's because they always agree with me and don't judge me That's not to say they are not above answering me back They all sleep in the bedroom with me, more for me I think than the dogs I love giving them a kiss goodnight and having a lick back when I wake in the morning. The only thing I haven't managed to train them to do is to stop lying diagonally across the bed giving me very little room
I do believe it is important to teach one word commands for the dog even though at home I will have a conversation with them. When you're outside though, one word commands are very important especially the "Down" command or whatever one word people like to use. In the case of an emergency this has not only saved one of my dogs lives but also I have been told alot of others. When you have a few seconds to get your dog to respond to you, you don't exactly want a conversation with it.
I have control in that I can stop play and the dogs will do what they ask but I haven't stopped them instigating it or them coming to me for affection. They always seem to know the right time to jump up and give me a loving lick or cuddle.
The only thing they are not allowed to do though is beg for food. They eat better than me at the end of the day. If I want to share my tea they have it in the bowl as part of their tea.
I haven't delibrately subscribed to the pack and top dog order but my dogs will do what they're told. More for their safety first and foremost.
Now if I could only relay that to my cats I would be fine. Have to say I'm below them in the pecking order I think
I see my dogs as my kids and my best friends. Yes I'm too soft on them alot of the time, but I will train them to a level that they are safe and to maintain harmony in the household and outside I think consistancy in whatever you do with them is the important thing. They are happy with their day to day routine. They certainly recognise the different days and know when it's agility night or swimming night. Thinking about it now. I'm not sure who's got who trained