Training should be fun

I believe when training anyone, be it animal, children or your husband, they should not know they are being trained. They should think they have you trained to reward them for doing something right. They should believe that there is a true benefit to doing what they are asked not just punishment if they get caught.
When teaching Wicket to heal, we started walking towards the dog park ( his favorite place EVER) and every time he pulled I would say heal and turn around and walk the other direction. Wicket quickly learned that if he didn't pull we would get to the dog park faster. Wicket now heels almost without command and if I say heel he responds immediately. This was done without a choke, or prong collar. I even surprised myself with how fast this worked without ever punishing him or forcing him to heel. He made his own decision to listen and not pull ( I wish kids were that easy ;p). I am a huge fan of the clicker method but not the clicker itself ( the sound drives me nuts). Instead of clicking when Wicket obeyed, I said Yes and then followed with "Good Boy". I do this to reinforce good behavior and it comes naturally to me to say yes rather than to click.
I am working on getting Wicket to ignore other dogs while on a walk, something he will have to do to pass the CGC. This is particularly challenging because Wicket loves other dogs and will lunge and forget I'm behind him. No amount of treats or praise seems to stop this so we are working on the command "look". I am hoping what this will do is when I see another dog I can say "look" and he will focus on me instead of the other dog ( wishful thinking?). In order to teach this command, I say "look "and when he looks at me I say "Yes" and give him a treat. So far he is picking this up fast. I will get him doing it every time and then start trying it with dogs around. Sometimes the task of training Wicket is daunting but we make progress everyday and I know will pass the CGC.