Actually, it is not because Doggy manage to do a behavior that it is definitively acquired. It is also not because Doggy fails an exercise that it will never be acquired.
Surrounding distractions, their age, phases of life, their evolution through experiences, their subjective perceptions of these, their health, their health problems (chronic or occasional), their access to primary resources, their emotions, their hormones, their tolerance to temperatures, influence their abilities to concentrate, to listen, to memorize, to repeat.
The reinforcement
If a behavior is reproduced, whether you like it or not, it was reinforced. By definition, reinforcing a behavior is making its occurrence more likely. For example, your dog jumps on you and you push him away or yell “no” at him. The first time he goes down. Except he starts again, again and again. So the behavior was reinforced, in one way or another.
Instead of inferring that you need to get tougher vocally or physically, I recommend observing your dog's motivations: these will reveal to you that it may be nothing but a matter of understanding and adjustment to change. Sometimes some dogs don't perceive your message as you expect; the message received does not correspond to the one sent because there was an interpretation by your dog. By keeping in mind that they work differently, that our words are foreign sounds, it is then possible to adapt the message without coming to a negative escalation.
To reinforce a behavior, you give your dog something after he performed the behavior you want to see repeated. It is not enough to add; your dog does determine what motivates him.
Repetition
Unless Doggy has truly special cognitive abilities, the repetition of learning anchors it in memory and therefore makes it more likely to re-appear.
Steps
If I expect a dog to come when called while he does not know what “come here” means, with what behaviors from me and from him it is associated, what reinforcers he will be entitled to, and, I expect him to be able to do this while he is playing with other dogs he likes, it is very likely that I will set us up for failure.
Even humans with great abilities learn in stages. However, we often tend to expect Doggy, a being who understands the world differently, who does not express himself in the same language, to quickly adjust his behavior in relation to what is asked of him.
If your dog does not succeed in an exercise, it may be interesting to observe in what contexts, what parameters differ from when he succeeds, if an adjustment of the difficulties is not to be considered. Then you can both progress.
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