Lure Reward Training
The fastest, easiest and most effective way to train a dog to perform a behavior on cue is with lure-reward training — it’s as simple as 1 request – 2 lure – 3 response – 4 reward
First, give your cue.
Second, lure your dog.
Third, your dog performs the desired behavior.
Fourth, reward your dog.
Always precede each cue with your dog's name, to get their attention, followed by your established instruction word.
So, for example, when teaching your dog to sit, 1. Say "Rover, Sit", 2. Lure your dog to sit using a piece of food and 3. As soon as your dog sits, 4. Reward your dog with a piece of food.
Repeat this exercise a few times and your dog will start to anticipate your actions and when you say “Sit”, they won't wait for the lure, they'll just go ahead and sit to get the reward.
The only part of this first phase that can be difficult is luring. Luring some behaviors can take a bit of skill, but there are some tips and tricks that can make it much easier.
Food can make for an excellent lure, but only if your dog is hungry. If your dog gets plenty of food outside of training, they may not be interested in food lures during training. But if you devote all of their food to training, it will only take a day or two before your dog is very interested in your food lures.
Put the food in front of your dog's nose so they can smell it. Now move your hand around. Your dog will follow your hand with their nose. Lead your dog, by their nose, into the following three positions.
Move your hand up and back over their head so they look up and then sit.
Move your hand down between their paws, then away from them and along the ground, so they look down and then lie down.
Move your hand away from them so they have to stand up, then lower the lure slightly so they remain standing.
By teaching three positions to your dog we can really test your dog's comprehension. If you only taught two positions, say Sit & Down and simply alternated between them, all your dog would actually learn is that when they are sitting and you give them a command, they should lie down, and vice versa.
But with three positions, you can, and should, randomize the order so that when your dog is sitting, they don't know whether you are going to ask them to lie down or stand up, and so they must carefully pay attention to the specific directions you are giving.
Once you can quickly lure your dog through a randomized sequence of these three body positions, you'll want to start phasing out the food lure. You don't want your dog's behavior to be dependent on you holding a piece of food, so put the food in your pocket and then try to lure your dog through these positions with an empty hand. If they succeed, pull the food out of your pocket to offer as a reward.
Once you can quickly lure your dog randomly through the three body positions using an empty hand, start transitioning from luring motions to hand signals:
Sit,
Down
and Stand
Once you can use hand-signals to quickly move your dog through the three position changes, you can start teaching your dog the meaning of verbal commands. Keep your body completely motionless as you say, "Sit". Remain still for one second to give your dog the chance to listen to the spoken command and Sit. If they do, give them a big reward. If they don't Sit, then after one second, give the hand-signal to Sit. Repeat it if necessary.
If that still doesn't work, go back to using a food lure but don't give it to your dog. At this point in training, you should have higher standards for what your dog has to do to earn a food reward.
If your dog is highly distracted and hyperactive, use a different method: Wait & Reward training, which I'll explain in the next video.