Used to train dogs at a local shelter in my free time. It was honestly one of the most fun parts of my week.
We used clicker training, and it always impressed me how even the oldest of dogs could learn new tricks (har har) if you found what motivated it, and then incentivized a specific action based on that motivation.
Even more fun was finding a really smart dog who you could teach to do the craziest stuff. Had one who probably learned 25ish tricks in his short time at the shelter. He was so motivated to learn. It was a pretty easy sell to the right adopter when you showed them you could point your finger at the dog, yell "HANDS UP" and he'd sit up with his paws in the air, you'd yell "BANG" and he'd fall over dead. How could you ever resist?
I did the same for mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COIVkkHxNR0 (this isn't the bang video, but she knows the commands for "what do you want?" "point" "go home", etc).
I also taught her verbs and nouns, and could say "point ball" and she would point to her ball, or "fetch ball" and she would fetch it. Same with "bone", "rope" and a few more toys.
How would one train a dog to do something like the Hands Up routine? I've never had a dog, so I'm not sure how I'd get the whole motion across to the dog.
You want to get the dog really comfortable with sit, stay and a "warm clicker" (Basically just get them used to the click noise = treat). Once they're good on those, have the dog sit as you hold the treat above them in a way that makes it so their nose is pointing straight up and they start to stretch their body to try and reach for the treat. Keep doing this until their paws start coming off the ground as they sit back on their hind legs. Click and treat repeatedly so they know this is what you want them to do.
Do this repetitiously until they start getting used to putting their paws up then start working on getting them to sit like that for a few seconds. As a reminder lots of clicks and treats to let them know they are doing what you want. At this point you can start introducing the voice commands.
After they have stay down, you can move into "bang" by once again holding a treat in a way that they fall to the ground, then immediately click and treat again repeatedly. Then you start working on getting them to roll over in the same motion. It's ok to sort of push them with your hands a bit to show them the physical motion you are looking for as long as you click and treat in little increments to show them that what they're doing is "good."
Probably too long winded, but if you look up "bang" dog tricks on YouTube there are a lot of handy guides. My final advice is to pay attention to how much fun you think your dog is having. Some love mental stimulation, others not as much. If the dog is losing interest, then it's probably time to call it quits for the day, as they'll stop thinking the training is fun.
Really, it's quite humorous how close human psychology is to that of my dog.
It al reminded me a lot of programming in general. For example, unconscious assumptions:
Once saw a dog that only wanted to perform the tricks in the training ground but not for example at the owners home: the dog had assumed that the combination of (command for the trick && location+training ground) was the trigger. That was fun to see. Other examples included dog trainers that could only successfully give the command while wearing the red coat he was wearing while training the dog, etc.
I don't know the correct way, but for my dog it was a progression from sit -> shake hands -> give me ten. I would just move her into the position I wanted then give her praise and/or a treat. Repetition and praise.
We used clicker training, and it always impressed me how even the oldest of dogs could learn new tricks (har har) if you found what motivated it, and then incentivized a specific action based on that motivation.
Even more fun was finding a really smart dog who you could teach to do the craziest stuff. Had one who probably learned 25ish tricks in his short time at the shelter. He was so motivated to learn. It was a pretty easy sell to the right adopter when you showed them you could point your finger at the dog, yell "HANDS UP" and he'd sit up with his paws in the air, you'd yell "BANG" and he'd fall over dead. How could you ever resist?
Example (not my video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lky1xsqYGUo