Ali and Mooli, 4 year old mixed breed, Spain

Engagement game – nice. Once you start doing the obstacles you can switch to food throws/crazy ball dynamics where you throw and run in the opposite direction but asking him to do some obstacles on the way (if there are any) than throw again, run back where you came from and again ask him to take obstacle(s) on the way back. So in your case for example – tunnel, throw, run in the opposite direction, tunnel again, throw, than run away again taking the first red tunnel and than the second red tunnel before the next throw, than turn around and ask for second tunnel and the first tunnel again. Playing through obstacles like you can see on this (very old :D) video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIer0PuiHiE.

Shaping – yes, that is a good way to start shaping back. Target behind him is definitelly one of the next steps, but first you can get some more fluency by placing reward between his front feet after click. That will give you some additional steps back. You can repeat it as long as you can reach there/or throw the treat in place… and than re-start it by placing the treat in between your legs again.
Once you get more than just a few steps, place a target behind him yes and give him big jackpot when he reaches it. Make sure he can feel the target (like a folded towel for example) but it is not too high as he might not want to step on it when he doesn’t see what it is.

Luring – that was quite a difficult one to start with, but he did well. I would probably try luring him in the same way I show for lateral walking and I would just go all around with him. Like you two are joined with a stick and are always staying at opposite ends of each other. This way he will get used to moving his hind legs around the object. Than I would go back to luring the way you tried it – and yes, be mindful that you don’t hoover over him too much. In the beginning don’t ask for too much, click and reward each time his hind feet move. So he has the information to focus on and channel his efforts too. If you ask for too much at once he can’t really organise his thoughts well.

Good observations! 🙂 Very nice engagement game. Yes you can abslutely let go of the leash to create even more dynamic routine. But also practise not letting it go sometimes so if you are on a competition and you can’t let him go, you are used to handling the leash as well and he doesn’t get turned off by it. Also great leadout into a chase! You can increase the distance some more and sometimes do it with the toy not visible – pull it out from under your shirt once you release him. Sometimes you can throw a ball or food too, so there is an element of surprise, but mostly use whatever he loves most.

And yes, your luring is indeed more shaping than luring. 🙂 I will sometimes lure without the clicker, especially if I need both hands for it, but in that case I will use very clear verbal marker such as “yes” or “ok” to mark the exact moment I want to reward. You see when you are luring the dog is not thinking as much as when shaping anyway, because they are distracted by the food in front of them. So to make sure they pay attention to what got them the reward, it is important to mark it well.
In general I am not “glued” to the method, I use whatever works best for the individual dog and the trick I am trying to teach. Even if it wasn’t clean shaping, he learned to side step really well! For pivoting you can decide if you want to improve your luring skills (try both hands together, directly in front of his muzzle and try to navigate him to move as if you2 were attached to the opposite ends of each stick) or focus on teaching him as fast as possible – in that case perhaps you could continue with shaping. In that case I would establish a triangle aproach (as you can see on 0.28 on this video – if the dog starts right next to you they immediately offer more steps because they generally want to get in position where they can see you better). When he gets stuck you can hold the treat in front of his nose to keep him in place and step behind him. When you are in place, take the hand with the treat away and he will start circling to get in front of you again.