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Dog Training Workshop, and an element of the Dog Science Network
How to Teach Your Dog to Eliminate on Command
For example, if every time your dog relieves himself, you speak the words, eliminate now, to him, he will soon come to know what those words mean.
If you continue to speak those words to him every time he eliminates, and you keep that up long enough, the day should eventually come when you will be able to get your dog to eliminate simply by saying those words to him.
Teaching your dog to eliminate on command may be a good idea, because it gives you a way to say to him, "Do it here, and do here now," which is a concept you may very well need to convey to him if he is about to go on an airplane or be shut inside a closed room for a period of time in which it simply is not going to be possible for him to get outside for some time to come.
If your goal is to train your dog to eliminate on command, then, you should choose the words you want to use, and speak those words to him every time you see him eliminate. After a few weeks or months of that, wait until it gets to be a time of day when you know the animal must really be in serious need of elimination. Then, take him to the spot where he usually does his business, and quickly, before he has a chance to start to do it on his own, command him to eliminate by using those words.
Remember that the consequence of a first response (what happens the very first time your dog does something), holds tremendous sway over the animal's future behavior. That being the case, the first time your dog responds to your command to eliminate, you need to make it a point to present him with a little taste treat, a quick rubdown, and warm words of praise, spoken in your best gladdening voice.
Please notice that at that point, you will have facilitated a shift in the dynamics of the situation, as suddenly, rather than simply speaking the words as he eliminates, you will have suddenly switched over to commanding him to eliminate, just a few seconds before he was probably about to do so anyway. It is a subtle, but meaningful shift in the interplay between you and the dog. Now, instead of simply observing your dog's toileting behavior as you say the words, you are suddenly speaking the words as you command him to do that which he was just about to do anyway.
Dogs are creature of habit, that is part of what makes them to readily trainable. Because they so quickly fall into habits, after you have given your dog enough time for him to come to associate the words eliminate now with the act of elimination, it should not take more than a dozen or so repetitions, in which you command him to eliminate - just before he was about to do so anyway - until he learns what is expected.
However, as always, if you want your dog to continue to do that which he has learned to do, you need to make it worth his while, by continuing to immediately afterward make compliance a rewarding experience.
Dispicable Imaginings
Were I not of sterling personality and impeccable character, I might train my dog to eliminate when he hears the words, Nice to see you again. Then, I could take the animal with me to visit people I don't care for all that much. In my fantasy, the mutt and I would walk up onto their front porch, where I would smile warmly, shake their hand and say, "Nice to see you again."