It might seem like I’m advocating that you become your puppy’s “treat pusher.”  Actually, in clicker training, your dog is using his own brain power to drive the training session. Your job is not to extract a behavior from your dog. Your job is to reward behaviors that your dog decides to do. If he decides to do something, and then gets rewarded for it, he’s likely to try that behavior again to see if he can get another reward. If he does it again and gets a reward, he will do it yet again and again. That’s what this kind of learning is about.

            Luring is when you use a treat to get your dog to perform a behavior by showing him the reward and then asking him to move in a certain way or go to a certain place by moving the treat in that direction. Most dogs are happy to have you lure them into position and then click and give the treat. The dog didn’t have to do much thinking. He may not even know that the end behavior (like “sit) is what you wanted. He may think that he got the treat for following the lure. This is a tougher way to train, though it can work when all else fails and is often a good jumping off point for eliciting a behavior.

With clicker training, the treats are out of sight until you click. Of course, your pup knows the treats are there because his sense of smell is impeccable, but in clicker training he has to figure out how to get you to give up some of the goodies. With lure training, the goodies are right up front, and he’s pretty certain he’s going to get it if he follows. In some cases, I’ll ask you to do a bit of luring and then switch to the clicker method very quickly. These methods can be complimentary, though you’re much better off sticking with operant conditioning rather than bribing for behaviors.