Oppositional Feeding Details and Balance
Oppositional Feeding
Oppositional Feeding is the opposite of Directional Feeding. The handler throws a disc in the opposite direction that the dog is moving. Oppositional Feeding is a flatwork and training technique used to slow... More is a great tool for shaping a dog’s movement and for regulating speed on the disc dog field and balanced movement is key. This is not really a single, coherent lesson, but is kind of a mishmash of a couple lessons for DiscDogger Weekly #22. It will be quick…
Oppositional Feeding Details
I wanted to get another crack at Oppositional Feeding to illustrate the distinction between completely countering the dog’s movement and throwing in a fashion that allows the dog to turn smoothly and essentially run circles out there in front of the handler.
This is an easy mistake to make with Oppositional Feeding, and it will result in not getting the speed reduction benefits and the increased attenuation to the handler and will wind up shaping an unintended pattern instead.
I think it came through, although not as clearly as I would have liked.
Another Session? Not Another Session…
I would like to do another session on this, but Oppositional Feeding is a technique that is best used sparingly when it comes to adjusting patterns and regulating speed.
If it is done too often or too many times in a row the speed reduction drops off and the ability to break up patterns goes away. Instead you just teach the dog to move faster in weird ass ways.
I’m going to try this again, but don’t know if it will be in the next installment of the show or not… we’ll see.
Epic Balance
I moved on to this balance stuff largely because of the failure to illustrate Oppositional Feeding with Eppie. We needed a challenging win.
The clock and counter Jakies (and Rebounds) have been tough to get on camera, even though I got the body language concepts as a handler. We just were not hooking up on the skill in subsequent reps.
This shifting to clock and counter balance stuff was a good move for us as a team and for the recent flow of our training. Sometimes it’s tough filming relevant things for instructional purposes – it’s hard to stay sharp and focused.
Anyway, I was stoked to get several reps of clock and counter Jakies, I’ve not seen balanced versions of this skill, and I’m happy I finally got my head wrapped around the actual cuing, trigger, and body language that goes into them.
Helis Are Sweet!
The last little bit of this session, the flips on the clock and counter flank are called Helis. And they’re super cool. Flips in and Out (towards and away from the handler), while maintaining a Working Flank
The Working Flank is a moving position. On a Working Flank the dog is out to your side some distance and holds position, moving with you as you move around the field. The... More, in both directions… Super fun and flowy stuff…
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