This post will take into consideration all types of training that are out there and choose one which is the best. Of course, your dog has to be food driven to use this best technique. If they are not food driven, then you can use their favoriate toy as a reward system. In keeping with this website’s theme, adopting retired show dogs, we will explore these training methods.
Using morsels of food as a reward
My dog, Tina, is a retired Grand Champion Show Dog. She is 100 % driven by food. She will almost do anything to eat. This behavioral characteristic of her and labs in general helped me to easily train her. She was already trained by her previous owner. I guess I needed the training so that I could communicate with her.
The best class we took was the Canine Good Citizenship class for several weeks. This course is accredited by the American Kennel Club and after taking the course and passing the test, you and your dog get a certificate. We learned how to do the following: Accepting a friendly stranger, Sitting politely for petting, Proper appearance and grooming, Walking on a loose leash, Walking through a crowd, Sit/down/stay, Come, Socialization with another dog, Proper reaction to distractions, and Supervised separation.
Tina did a great job in all areas. All I had to do is reach in my treat bag and give her a treat after she performed each activity each week. What I was not ready for, but which did not matter any way was that on the final day and the test day, you could not use treats to get your dog to do the processes. I used my voice and praised her for doing such a good job, and I did not need the treats after all.
Speaking of treats, there are a whole gambit of treats you can give for training. If I were you, I would check out Chewy’s site and search for dog treats. Here is one I would use. Its called The Tricky Trainer, and has the right size to give the dogs just a taste of cheddar cheese flavor. Tina would absolutely love this one. Click on the picture to go to the site on a new tab. 
Using a Martingale Collar to Train With
The professionals who taught the Canine Good Citizenship class suggested we get a Martingale dog collar. It has a little play in it to get the dog’s attention, but it is definetly not a choke collar. I would not use one of those. The goal of training a retired show dog is to build rapport, and not be cruel or mean or give excessive punishment. I am not saying that shock collars don’t have a place, but they don’t have a place with training retired show dogs. These dogs are good natured and already trained when you get them. They don’t need excessive force or pain. All that they need from you is to build a bond through trust, through learning new things together, and by being rewarded by praise, food, or being rubbed by their favorite toy. Here is what a Martingale collar looks like. You can click the image to see the different styles and colors. 
Use Praise or playing briefly with their favorite toy
If your retired show dog is not food driven, then more than likely that love to be praised. When they do something good, or what you want them to do, lavish praise on them. They will respond positively. If praise does not work, then try holding their favorite, small toy and rubbing them with it. Let them grab it for a moment, then put it up for the next lesson of learning. After each learning event, bring the small toy out and let them play with it. They will get the message that if they will do what you ask, you will gladly reward them with fun.
Clicker Training
If you don’t know what this is, then you are not missing much. I am not a fan of this training. What its about is this. When your dog does something good or something you want them to do, you press a clicker button. This is supposed to send them a message that what they are doing is good. At first you pair a food reward after you click the Clicker. Then, as time goes by, you leave out the treat and just depend on clicker training.
When I had a dog from the Humane Society that was dog agressive. He paid no attention to the clicker at all. It was useless to me in trying to train him. Also, Clicker training to me was annoying. The noise got on my nerves. Maybe you have tried it and it works for you. But, I much prefer treats, praise and playing with their stuffed toy for a brief moment.
Conclusion
Training a retired show dog is like taking a High School student back through Junior High School. They already know the stuff. The real training is for you. You need to learn how to communicate with your dog. You need to begin to feel comfortable being the one in charge, being the leader. You need to learn what dogs need to learn and be able to do so that they can be happy, productive citizens in a dog, human world.
Whether you use food treats as an incentive, praise, or a stuffed toy, your retired show dog will want to obey you because they have an innate desire to please their owners. Not all dogs are this way, but retired show dogs are this way. They are used to performing in front of groups of people and in front of other dogs. They are used to ignoring obnoxious dogs and minding their own business. A retired show dog is easy to train because they come to you already trained in a lot of ways from being in the ring and peforming.