The dog is a pack animal and as such, can readily be taught his place in the order of things.  If you do not establish that you are the leader, the dog will quickly assume that role.  The degree of dominance in a dog will have little effect on training as long as you establish that you are the boss.  This does not mean punishment.  The dog reads your body language and his world is controlled by it.  Your movements, attitude, and tone of voice tell him who is the boss.  He will perceive whatever that body language tells him and you cannot mask it with a few words.  You must also learn to read body language since you cannot dffectively train and handle him without this communication. 

A command is and order delivered with authority by tone of voice, by hand, by whistle or other alternate means.  A command is not a request, suggestion, question or plea.  A command is given firmly in a normal speaking voice.  Since instant obedience is expected you must demand it.  The dog must be trained to obay all commands and to expect that a command will be given only once.  There fore, do not give a command that you are not acpable of enforcing or that you are not prepared to enforce.  Commands should be simple words or sounds given crisply which will carry well for the distance required.  Do not use the dogs name in conjunction with, or ahead of, a command.  It is convenient if a dog is taught that his name means Fetch in and obvious retriving situation and should only be attempted after the dog is well trained.  It does not matter what word you use for a given command.  Just remember that you may have to use it when you are excited, so dont get too fancy.  One word that may cause you a problem is "okay" since it is used so frequently in normal conversation. 

The dog must instantly obey any command given and mustbe controlled or guided by that command until a counter command order is given.  The counter command order for Fetch is Out,  not Heel ot any other command.  A dog can be told to Fetch and when he has the object, instructed to Heel.  He must continure to carry the object, no matter where you go, until the Out command is given.  The Heel command does not supersede the Fetch command but is complementary.  When properly trained, the dog can make that distinction easily.  The Whoa command take precedence over all others and must be obeyed immediately.

For every command that you teach a dog, you must know the distance at which he wil obey the command and never use the command beyond that distance.  Remember that there is a tremendous difference in the distance over which you can control a dog in water as compared to on land.  This is especially true with the Whoa command as you progrss from the table to over the hill and out of sight.  Every time he disobeys a command when you give it beyond your control range, the job of training is made more difficult.

The only way to gain control of a dog at greatly extended distances is to begin by gaining complete control with the dog beside you.  You must be a position to insure flawless correct repetitions.  If there is any minor flw in the dogs response when eh is besid you in calm conditions, there will be no control when he is excited, particulary when he is some distance from you.  Each time a new command is introduced, the training sequence is initiated with the dog right beside you on the short lead or off lead at short range while maintaining eye contact.  This approach facilitates the utilization of all forms of control.

The primary control that any anmial over another, including humans, is the force of physical presence.  It is this aura that you must extend during training os that the dog believes he must obey at any distance.  It has much to do with attitude and body language since dogs understand body language very well.  This physical presence or sphere of influence at times seems to have an energy of its own that radiates outward and demands obedience from the dog.  The voice comands complements the sphere of physical presence and all commands must be given with a tone, not volume, that demands action.  It si assertive and you are telling the dog to do it ----not asking him.

The first tool that you will use to extend and enforce vocal control is the short lead followed by the use of the long lead.  In order for a lead to be effective when a dog is moving, you must be holding it at all times.  If the dog is stationary, the lead is a form of control that can be used in various ways such as holding it, laying it on the ground while it remains attache to the dog, laying it across the dog's body,  or laying it onthe ground near him.  The lead will be used in all of the ways during training,  but not in the presence of game.  The object of the training is to get the leadd off the dog as soon as posible and rely on voice or whisle commands and hand signals.

As long as the dog is on a lead, he knows that you have control of him if you use the lead properly.  The problems start when the lead is removed.  All to often the lead is removed and the dog is given a command at 50 yards of more which he promptly ignores.  He probably would have ingnored it at 20 yards.  Therefore, all commands that will eventually be used at considerable distances must be taught beginning at very short distances and worked outward.  Such commands should start at about 5 to 10 yards, depending on the command, and not increased until the dog is performing flawlessly.   If you have only so-so performance at 10 yards, you will have no useful control at 50 yards.  You must obtain flawless work at each increment out to the maximum range that you intend to use it.  The commands Whoa and Come must also be taught with the dog at a distance, and also when he cannot see you.  In most cases, when a dog will obey at 100 yards he will obey at any distance at which he can hear or see the command.