Relevance and Authority
This is the secret of getting to the top of Google explained in a nutshell.
Relevance
Does your site do what it says on the tin?
If your site is about dog training, does its content reflect this? Do your title tags and meta tag description summise the contents of each individual page that they refer to? Do you have regular up to date content? Is your site contemporary and providing regular updates that are informative about your industry?
Authority
Are you a respected resource? Do your peers, suppliers, industry associates link to your website from theirs?
Google counts links from other websites as a vote of confidence and quality towards your site.
Not all links are equal! Links from websites that have a high Relevance to your topic and that are also seen as an Authority will carry more weight that links from unrelated sites of little authority.