
Team Movement Transformation in 7 Sessions with Obi
Flatwork with Obi, aka: “Not a Border Collie”, has been almost a weekly feature on DiscDogger Weekly. Obi is Apryl’s dog, so the videos are pretty much the only work I do with Obi, and the only freestyle training he’s been getting. Apryl runs him in toss and fetch and does some dock stuff with him. This is our 7th Team MovementTeam Movement is how dog and handler move, as a team, out there on the field. It is a judging category in some organizations and certainly is a focus of many judges, players,... training session, mainly Disc Quan Do stuff, since the beginning of August, you can watch the transformation in this playlist.
Pendulum and Setting the Flank Warm Up
This Pendulum is kind of broken, Obi has a pretty weak drop historically, and you’ve seen him bolt by the handler while getting set up for a few weeks, so it should be no surprise, really. It served as a pretty solid warm up.
Setting the Flank 4 times was great for reinforcing the Get Out and loose flatwork I planned on working in this session. It worked out quite well because I’m a splitter, not a lumper.
Working Off the Drop 0:51
The goal of this session was to get a solid drop and to hopefully get a crack at a Repeating Rear Cross. Like a PendulumThe Pendulum is a disc dog freestyle pattern where the dog performs dueling Arounds to each Flank. These Arounds are performed off the cued Drop and on the run. After the dog drops..., and most disc dog play, you can’t do a Repeating Rear Cross
On a Rear Cross, the dog switches Flanks with the behind her. From clock to counter clockwise Flank or vice versa. Taken directly from the canine agility world, the Rear Cross is a... without a solid Drop.
This part of the session was totally epic! Obi did a great job. This is probably the best he has ever dropped on cue with me. I was also pretty excited about how well he settled in to the Directional Feeding and how sensibly he started to approach the discs. I think he even leapt for a few sensibly. Good man, Obe…
Repeating Rear Cross 1:24
Another happy moment and momentous occasion for Obi. The good cued Drop performance led directly to this successful performance of the Repeating Rear CrossA Cross is an canine agility term that describes a change of working sides. Your dog moves from your left to your right (Heel to Side) or from Clock to Counter. Crosses are.... Not bad for “Not a Border Collie, eh?”
Flowing Flatwork 1:42
After the Repeating Rear Cross, flowing flatwork is rather easy. I think we both had quite a good time running this stuff. Such a nice performance for a dog who has, historically, been rather hard to run flatwork with.
Funny how much of an impact a half a dozen sessions of Disc Quan Do can have on a dog and team. Super exciting stuff!
Flatwork Compass 2:34
Obi and I have worked the Flatwork CompassThe Flatwork Compass is a disc dog form that separates the Flank from the Pass, creates a reliable trigger, and exposes the team to all of the key elements of Team Movement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW7Czz-7ows&list=PL8zWXaJfi1-synGOkBJ7u4p-WkotsL3LR... more than any other form over the last month an a half. That said, I think we have less than 10 sessions featuring it, and less than 20 total reps on the Form.
Compare the performance at the end of this video with his intro to the skill on August 2nd:
Huge Gains Easy Goin Workload
Most of the time I talk about Disc Quan Do with people, they get all overwhelmed with the workload,”Man, I got lots of stuff to work on…”
It’s just not the case, and it’s a self serving prophecy. The playlist above is, literally all the sessions I worked with Obi over the last half of the first season of DiscDogger Weekly. One per week, 7 sessions total.
It’s not a lot of work that you have to do. It’s good work with proper focus.
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