Obedience is the basics to everything.

We train our dog in a creative and positive manner. They learn quicker and are happy to what is asked of them. We have trained in various clubs, nowadays we mostly train at home and go to Päivi's dogclass once a week. (mostly to let the dogs roam with other dogs and get a good distraction whilst doing obedience)
I've written a few bits and pieces of information about training underneath. Now it's all in you hands and in your creativity.

Treats - the key to motivation

The treats are there to help you in training. They guide the dog in where it should be and what it should do. Later, when the dog starts understanding what is expected of him, the treats should be left away and given as an extra praise when the dog does well.

You can make them yourself: dried liver and heart are the usual favorites. Cut them into small pieces, it's only supposed to be a treat, not a whole lunch. Try to train always before you give food when they're still hungry. It's useless to train after their meals, they're not motivated. If you have many dogs, train them individually to new exercises. Later on they can act a a distraction.

Toys are also as good a treats, a little playtime after an exercise should speed things up. Just keep the toy a special favorite that they normally don't play with.

Come

The come-command is always the most important, because unless your dog know it as a reflex it is impossible for you to let the dog run free in a non-fenced area. The best way to teach it is to teach it with the name of your dog. Always when you say your dogs name, you give a treat. Even if it takes a while to come. After the turning head and coming to owner is a reflex, you can start rewarding only when it is a fast come.
Remember to not only call when you need to attach you dog, because that will only make to coming a negative thing to the dog, even if you give the treat. For every attachment there should be at least five treat-moments. Remember to be irregular. If you do it every second time, the dog will soon start counting and coming only when he gets a treat.

Repetition

Repetition is the key word to successful obedience training. Repeat it at least a hundred times before you can ask anything new of our dog. Remember that it's harder for the dog to learn new things in a new place, but that he will also forget it all once out of the training place, unless you have trained it in various different environments. Dog are dogs, but newfs are newfs, which means that they do what they want to do when they want to do it. That's why you have to try to teach them in a way that they want to do it.

Clicker training - a positive training method

Clicker training is a fantastic way to teach you dog new tricks. It means clicking a little box every time your dog does something right. It doesn't have to be a whole sit, it only has to be a small look towards the right place or a small step towards where you want him to go. Everytime you click you give a treat. Even if you miss place a click, you give a treat. Eventually the dog will associate what he has to do to get a treat. Slowly you build up the pieces and movements to a whole new exercise. They you can start to use a commands and slowly leave the clicker out.
Try it yourself; click for your friend to take a mug out of the cupboard and fill it with coffee. If they succeed, you are ready to click for your dog. Just remember to advance is small steps and click often enough. One click = one treat. And NO words, NO hand signs.