When my mom was training Toby, she went about it the usual way, where you say a command, and give him the treat when he does what you taught him to do.  What she didn’t realize was that she not only said the command, but she also did a hand motion with each command.

Toby picked up on not only the words, but the hand motions as well.  So eventually, you didn’t even have to say the command.  You could just do the motion and he would perform the trick.

When my brother Michael was in high school, he had a project for his Spanish class.  He decided to “teach his dog Spanish.”  All he had to do was learn the Spanish words for sit, shake, lie down, roll over, and play dead.  He took Toby to school with him, gave him all the commands, and did the hand motions.  Of course, everyone was looking at the dog, not at his hands, so it looked like he had actually taught the dog Spanish.  And he got an A.