Which is the best non violent way to teach my dog tricks!?

[Alpha Dog]

I have a dog who will be turning 2 in August.
heres a pic of him as a pup
http://s256.photobucket.com/albums/hh196/wolfgirl23_2008/?action=view&current=AWWWWW.jpg
anyways , he is very smart, but hates learning.
hopefully later this year we will be entering contests.
the only problem being , i cant get him to do tricks!
ive heard about the telling him then saying good boy, but that doesnt work , ive tried the command then if he doe sit treat method but it doesnt work!
it really stinks!
i want to teach him to sit , stay, rollover , jump , playdead , come , run over there , jump over that. but he hates learning!
please no nasty comments about me getting him to perform in contests as i am NOT doing it for the money i am simply doing it for the enjoyment of my dog !
oh and i forgot to mention he is very easily distracted!

please help as i am new to training dogs for contests!
umm phycol :
whats postive reinforcment?
xx jul / what do you mean my dog is too old?
he's very enegetic and playful ,
he's so energetic and playful , that i could say he's a few months old and theyd believe me!
ninjaaa thank you so much , im probly gonna choose you for best answer!

[ninjaaa!]

You have an adorable dog.

I would definitely start off with taking him to a basic obedience class. If you want to start teaching your dog tricks, it's essential that you start with the basics. Sit, down, stay, come, for example. Not only are these basic manners that every dog should know, they're also required for a lot of the more advanced tricks (for example, you'll have a hard time teaching your dog "roll over" or "play dead" if he doesn't know "down" already).

Once you've got that down pretty well, you should start reading about different methods of training. If you are teaching tricks, clicker training is a really good method of teaching your dog all kinds of things. It can be used for everything from teaching your dog to sit to teaching your dog to open the fridge and get you a drink.

http://clickersolutions.com/
is a pretty good website to start at.

Positive reinforcement basically means that you are encouraging your dog to do a certain thing by rewarding him when he does it. Clicker training is based on positive reinforcement.

You will need to do a lot of reading. Learn about positive reinforcement, targeting, behaviour capture, classical conditioning, operant conditioning. I could tell you about each of these things here, but there's no point if the information is already out there for you to read. One really good book that will help you out with this is Stanley Coren's 'How Dogs Think'.

Lastly, remember to be consistent and keep it fun. Your dog will not learn to roll over in one day. If he is easily distracted, train in a low-distraction area (like inside your house, in a familiar room) with high-value treats (stuff that he REALLY wants, like small pieces of hot dog, spam, cheese, chicken). Never train in a bad mood; he will pick up on it and nothing will be accomplished.

Lastly, keep it short. It's important to end the training session before he gets bored or distracted. My dogs get distracted SUPER easily, so instead of training once a day for 30 minutes, I train three times a day for 10 minutes each. Always end on a positive note and keep it fun for your dog.