There's more than one way to get a behavior into a dog's repertoire. Understanding when to use which approach saves you a lot of frustrating training sessions.
Luring
Luring uses food to guide the dog's body into the target position. The treat leads the dog's nose, the body follows.
How it works: Hold food in front of the nose. Move the food to guide movement. As the dog moves into position, mark and reward.
Classic example: Sit via lure — hold treat above the nose and move it backward over the dog's head. The dog's bottom goes down. Click and treat.
Advantages: Fast. Works well for dogs that are food motivated. Easy to achieve the behavior in the first session.
Disadvantages: The dog is following the food, not necessarily thinking. Lure dependency is a real risk — dogs that have been trained with lures can become unwilling to perform without the lure visible. Fading the lure (transitioning from lure to cue) requires deliberate work.
Best for: Simple positions and behaviors where speed of first acquisition is valued. Initial teaching of sit, down, spin, stand.
Shaping
Shaping builds behaviors by reinforcing progressively closer approximations — small steps toward the final behavior, each step reinforced before moving to the next.
How it works: Decide the target behavior (touch a cone with nose). Start where the dog is (dog looks at cone → click and treat). Build step by step: approaches cone → click. Gets close to cone → click. Extends nose toward cone → click. Touches cone → jackpot.
I go deeper on this in marker training.
Classic example: Teaching a chin rest — shaping from "any head movement downward" to "chin rests in hand."
Advantages: Produces dogs that are "offering" behaviors and learning to problem-solve. No lure dependency. Develops a dog that is actively thinking and engaged. Excellent for complex behaviors.
Disadvantages: Slower. Requires the trainer to have a clear plan of approximation steps and good mechanical skills. Frustrating if the dog doesn't offer the starting approximation.
Best for: Complex behaviors, trick training, behaviors that don't naturally follow a lure (push a cart, close a drawer, target novel objects), and building dogs that offer behaviors enthusiastically.
Capturing
Capturing rewards behaviors the dog does naturally, without any guidance or shaping.
How it works: Carry treats and a marker. When the dog spontaneously does the target behavior (lies down, stretches, yawns), mark and reward the instant it happens.
Classic example: Capturing "sit" — every time the dog sits naturally, mark and treat. Over many repetitions, attach a cue.
Advantages: Zero lure dependency. The behavior is natural to the dog and therefore often very solid. Simple for behaviors the dog does frequently.
Disadvantages: You're waiting for the behavior to happen naturally, which requires patience and opportunity. Doesn't work for behaviors the dog doesn't already do.
Best for: Natural behaviors the dog does frequently (stretch, yawn, sneeze, lie down), settling behaviors, and adding cues to default behaviors.
Putting It Together
Most practical training uses all three:
- Start with a lure to get the first repetitions of simple behaviors
- Fade the lure quickly to avoid dependency
- Use shaping for complex or novel behaviors
- Capture naturally occurring behaviors that are hard to lure or shape
The skill is knowing which tool fits the situation, not being committed to one method for everything.