Dog Park Science Part 2
The Neurobiology of Dog Training
Behavior
Reward
Behavior
Behaviors have distributions
The trainers goal is to slowly shift those distributions
Behaviors are sculpted slowly, built up by a series of approximations.  
“You can't expect a baboon to learn to flip on command in one session, just as you can't expect an American husband to begin regularly picking up his dirty socks by praising him once for picking up a single sock. With the baboon you first reward a hop, then a bigger hop, then an even bigger hop. With Scott the husband, I began to praise every small act every time: if he drove just a mile an hour slower, tossed one pair of shorts into the hamper, or was on time for anything.”

How to teach a dog to high-five
How can you reward a behavior that does not happen?
If I hold my hand up and say high-five the dog does nothing.  
I do this a hundred times and the dog just stairs at me.
The problem:
The solution:
You start with an approximate behavior the dog allredy does
You slowly shape it to be the behavior you want.
Be consistent with your verbal or visual commands
Be specific about exactly what you want the dog to do - have set expectations

Be consistent about when you give rewards.
Only train at times when you know the dog is focused and is capable of succeeding

Train regularly for short periods

Do not punish unwanted behavior.  Simply do not acknowledge it.  Starving dogs of your focus and attention is a powerful reinforcer

It’s difficult to train a dog not to do something.  It’s easier to train them to do something that is incompatible with what the unwanted behavior. 
Shaping is a general concept allowing you to build up complex behaviros from simpler ones
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General Training Tips
Reward
The most important factor in training is having a good reward.
What is a reward?
Rewards are defined functionally:
A reward is something that reinforces a behavior, that is, a reward makes a behavior more likely to be repeated.
Rewards, however, do not need to be “pleasurable.”
The concept of reward is often conflated with the concept of pleasure.
Which is a better reward for training a dog:
Sugar?
or
Salt?
Reward the dog with what they want at that moment.
Sometimes it's food
Sometimes it's simply "continuing the action"
Barking for the ball during fetch
Jumping up and down when reaching for the leash
Pulling on the leash
Some general tips about rewards
Rewards that are vairable in some way are more effective then static rewards
Food rewards do not need to be big. The receiving of the food is more rewarding then the food its self.
Secondary reinforcers, "clicker training", can be a very powerful tool when rewarding animals
The link between behavior and rewards
The brain faces a big problem when linking rewards and behavior:
A reward at one moment needs to influence behaviors that occured in the past.
Dopamine
What is Dopamine?
What words pop into you head when I say Dopamine?
Dopamine is the brains teacher.   
In an area of your brain stem called the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) are a groups of neurons that constatnly release a small amount of dopamine.
Although these neuons are in your brain stem they have very long, very branched projections, called axons, that go eveywhere else in the brain. 
Dopamine has the ability to strengthen the conections between neurons which is how the brain learns.
Dopamine neurons respond to rewards in two unique ways allowing them to link rewards and behavior.
They respond to reward with a unique "teaching signal"  
This response becomes associated with reward predictors
The reward needs to be associated with the behavior responsable for the reward.
Increse for unexpected, or better than expected rewards
Decrese for anticipated rewards that were not received
Stay the same for expected rewards
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What is a reward predictor?
Creates secondary reinforcers
Allows rewards to influence behaviors that precede them.