A breakdown of luring and why it's one of the most useful techniques in training your dog.
A lure is a treat used to physically guide your dog into a position. You hold it at their nose, move it and their body follows its movement. Arc it back over their head and the dog sits down. Move it straight down and they fold flat. It's a reliable way to guide your dog's position for further training.
Dogs naturally track food with their nose, and their body follows where the nose leads. Luring takes advantage of this. There's no waiting for your dog to guess what you want. The position happens, you mark it immediately, and your dog begins to connect that position with a reward.
Luring creates the behavior, but it doesn't teach a cue. Start fading the lure as soon as your dog follows it reliably: make the same motion with an empty hand, and give the treat from your other hand or pocket once they've done it. Then say your word just before the hand signal, and make the signal smaller over time until the word alone works. If your dog stops responding, go back a step rather than showing food again.
If a treat has to be visible before your dog moves, they haven't learned the command. They've learned to follow food. A dog that only sits when they see a treat in your hand will stop responding the moment you don't have one. That's why you need to fade the lure: ask with the word first, then reward after. Holding up food to get your dog to do something they already know is really a bribe; a lure only guides a new movement until the cue can take over.
Luring works for any behavior involving a body position: sit, down, stand, spin, heel position. It's one of the first techniques worth understanding, because the same method carries across many commands.