New real life begins

Before I got home this evening, I studied the advice I received earlier in the day from my friend Eric, who taught the puppy class we took Siegfried to a few months ago:

Status comes from controlling the resources. Whoever controls the food, the door, the play, the affection, is the leader! The ethological¹ definition of dominance is "primary access to limited resources." Think that by making your dog work for his resources, you are showing him that you are to be respected.

    So, before I opened the door to be welcomed home by dear wife and eager dog, I planned my new regimen with Siegfried. Nothing in life would be free. Let's go outside, Siegfried. "Sit." I give him a treat. "Stay." I open the door and step out. "Okay." Siegfried follows. Etc.
    Push-ups: "Sit." I give a treat. "Down." Treat. "Sit." Treat.
    "Siegfried, sit." He sits. I kneel down and pet him and whisper to him.

And it worked amazingly well. Siegfried seems like a different dog already. Key, I think, is having my WalMart nail apron around my waist with potato bits for treats. Really unbelievable how important a little piece of potato is to this wonderful canine.
    And also being firm. Ignoring his prods and nibbles, moving away, approaching with my agenda. I didn't wait to be nibbled at as a sign that he might need to poop. I led him to the door and said, "Sit." Etc. Out in the back yard, he immediately ran back and forth vigorously a couple of times and pooped! (My wife told me later that he'd nibbled her already but wouldn't sit when she told him to, so she hadn't let him out. Very convenient!)
    In a single evening, it seems possible that I might become the top dog. Relative to Siegfried, at any rate, if not to my wife. Thanks, Eric!
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1. I had to look this up (although I'd heard Eric use the term once before):
   e⋅thol⋅o⋅gy  ee-thol-uh-jee, i-thol- (noun) The study of animal behavior with emphasis on the behavioral patterns that occur in natural environments.
   Origin: 1895–1900; earlier, as the study of relations between an organism and its environment < F éthologie, coined by French zoologist I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1805–61); see ethos, -logy