Can you Use Luring in Canine Fitness?

"There's no right way to do it, but you're doing it wrong."

Is there one right way to teach a fitness behavior? No. But more and more I'm hearing certain training techniques are bad or not appropriate for learning or for fitness. 
And I'll be the first to admit that I use an amalgamation of different techniques to get the final behavior, then turn it into an exercise and finally include it into a workout. I think it's important to understand all the different techniques, know how they work best, and know when to use them individually and in combination. 

My first consideration when training a new behavior:
Setting the environment:

• How can I best create an environment to get the behavior to happen and then be able to reinforce it? (Remember reinforcement means getting the behavior to increase). This is a form of shaping called capturing.
• Using certain equipment for certain behaviors is one way to do this, but you can also set up equipment in relationship to each other and to yourself to get behaviors.

Why I like capturing:

• Rather than building the behavior little step by little step, I can be more efficient by figuring out how to get the final behavior in less steps. 
• The dog is doing the work and offering behaviors based on the environment.
• The environment can become the cue or modify the cue. 

Pitfalls of Capturing:

• Similar set ups for different behaviors can create confusion. 
• Using a set up or environment the dog is not comfortable working in.  

My second consideration when training a new behavior:
Will luring help?

• In most cases, yes, because if the dog understands luring it can help the behavior occur quicker for reinforcement.
  
• If there is any movement in the behavior, often luring will help the dog understand the movement. (Remember luring doesn't require food, it can be done by using targeting as well).
• Luring can also allow you to achieve subtle movements like a small step to get the dog into good posture. 

Why I like luring:

• Controlling the speed of the behavior. This is extremely important when it comes to fitness and proper movement and engagement of the muscles. Often dogs will use momentum or gravity to do the exercise. By slowing things down, it encourages the dog to engage muscles to control the movement and their body. Remember, slow is fast - by controlling speed, we can increase strength and power. There is an optimal amount speed of a movement to produce the most force or power. 
• Ability to show the dog what movement I'm looking for in the exercise and get it to happen quickly.

Pitfalls of Luring:

• Coercion by getting the dog to do the behavior through luring when they aren't really comfortable doing it. It is important that you can recognize uncomfortable body language in the dog you are working with. If the dog is uncomfortable, you need to build comfort first before trying to lure a new behavior. 
• Depending on your technique, you may get dogs that appear thoughtless in their movement or dogs that are not paying attention to their body (lack of body awareness). 

My third consideration when training a new behavior:
Can I use capturing and luring together to decrease frustration?

• Most likely the answer is yes! My process starts with capturing and using luring to get the posture of form I desire for the behavior. 
• Often, I want to chain together multiple behaviors and using a combination of capturing and luring can help the dog understand how to do this. 

Examples of Lured Fitness Behaviors:
Down to Stand
Circles
Figure 8s
Side Steps
Walk Backwards
​Hiccup

Examples of Captured Fitness Behaviors:
Posture Standing
Front Paw Target
Rear Paw Target
Sit
Down

Examples of Exclusively Free Shaped Behaviors In Fitness
______

Stay tuned for how I teach dogs to lure to decrease frustration and food mania. 

Working with June Bug to capture 3 new behaviors on a platform.