Patron’s Choice: Vaulting Principles | Disc Dog Vaulting Concepts
There is a lot more to a vault than the definition. There is a reason you can’t just watch a YouTube video and get an understanding of the vaulting process. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you know how to do it, or how it is done; performance is not understanding. This is very evident when it comes to vaulting.
Understanding the vaulting process and the concepts employed in a well executed vault is key to being able to do a variety of vaults and to do them well.
The concepts that follow are key not only to doing vaults but to understanding for the dog, the handler, and more importantly the team. Doing the vault for dog and handler is rather easy, with the right dog, a competent handler can do a vault like, right now. It just happens. But to do any vault, vaults in flow, and to do them safely and successfully every time requires the understanding and application of key concepts.
Trigger
What is the trigger for your vault? Not the cue, but the trigger? Can you name it? Are you sure? If not, you should probably fix that, your dog will thank you.
Your dog knows the trigger. Does your dog sometimes not perform the vault on cue? You probably didn’t pull the trigger or the trigger wasn’t strong enough to make the dog respond.
Having a clear, well understood trigger makes a dog responsive to the handler. An unclear trigger creates a situation where the dog reacts to something. The difference between reaction and responsiveness has to do with intent and criteria.
A response fits the situation and has a positive intent; it’s a big part of any plan. “You do that, I do this, and that happens.” A reaction does not have that affirmative criteria and is more about how well we respond to surprises. There is a big difference between reaction time and response time.
A well understood and executed trigger is responded to by the dog. It sets up a predictable cooperative movement that is likely to succeed. A poorly understood and executed trigger is reacted to by the dog, impairs cooperation, and may or many not result in a success.
The most stable and reliable trigger for a vault is the presentation of the vaulting platform. For several years back in the mid ‘00s I tried to stop dogs from going on the presentation of the leg for the Leg Vault
The dog uses the player´s body as a launching pad to jump for a disc. A Vault is a leaping catch from the handler’s body. The dog leaves the ground for the target.... Every single dog I worked with would break on the lifting of my leg. It was extremely frustrating, maddening even. I wanted the dog to respond to my intended cue and it was completely necessary that the dog respond to my intended cue (which I didn’t have straight in my mind or actions…) or the throw itself.
Every single dog would break on the leg lifting. It was nearly a 100% trigger of the vaulting skill. I wound up struggling with the dogs I worked with in order to fight a trigger that was as close to 100% as I was going to get. Then finally it hit me, like a Malinois. “If the leg lifting is a 100% trigger, why don’t I leverage that reliability and use it to my advantage.” Holy cow, what a difference! From that moment on, my ability to execute vaults successfully jumped up.
When the obstacle presentation is the trigger, the dog, literally, can’t go before the handler. The handler can’t be pressured into the vaulting process. The dog has to wait, not just for the ability to start the skill but to know what part of the body is going to be vaulted from. I mean, she can guess based upon position, but she can’t really know until that platform is presented.
The presentation of the vaulting platform also leads to massive creativity increases. When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail — any body part presented after the vault cue becomes the vaulting platform. It’s uncanny how well the dog responds to novel positions and vault variations when the vaulting platform is used as the trigger. “He told me a vault is coming… but there’s nothing to vault from… OH! There it is. Guess I’m leaping off the arm this time… that’s a new one. Oh well, here we go!”
When the dog has to wait for the vaulting platform to be presented, the dog responds to the presentation of the platform leaving the handler with plenty of time to deliver a throw. The dog can’t jump the trigger because there is nothing to jump from yet. There literally is no there there.
When the disc is used as a trigger or the trigger is poorly defined, in mind and action, the dog is perfectly capable of jumping the trigger. First off the platform must already be presented, so the dog already knows what we’re leaping from which leads to a,”Let me at ‘em!” idea. You’ve got to keep an excited dog from breaking towards the platform.
A verbal cue can be jumped on a facial expression, before the word gets out. A thrown disc needs a backswing. A tapping of the platform requires a movement before and after the platform is touched, and requires a pre-declared platform. You can’t vault if there is nothing from which too vault from.
Present your vaulting platform quickly and efficiently and make the throw directly and the dog will figure out the timing all on his own. And this timing will be responsive towards the vaulting platform directly and with the anticipated location of the target budgeted in. Do not wait for the dog to commit. You lead and the dog follows. Cue it, pause a moment, set the vaulting platform and throw. Let the dog respond to this sequence of events and the vault becomes a true team movement with the handler taking the lead and the dog following the handler.
Wait
A clearly defined trigger makes the Wait
Waiting on cue and situationally is extremely important for disc dog freestyle training. The competition field might not see too much waiting going on as everything is supposed to be happening in flow,... much easier. The dog can’t vault if there is nothing to vault from.
Let the trigger do the waiting and the dog will comply. The only thing left to do is to set the distance at which the dog will wait.
Simple, right? Yup. But simple doesn’t mean easy. Most simple things sound easy, but simple and easy are not the same thing. Simple is often much more difficult than easy. One plus one equals two, right? Prove it. The mathematical proof for this simple piece of arithmetic is very complex. If you got it, it’s super easy. If you don’t it can be a bear.
The foundation to create a Wait and to teach a wait at a specific distance is beyond the scope of this book, but we can talk about some key aspects of the Wait behavior that can help make the process easier and more likely to succeed.
Many handler’s initially solve this problem with a down or a sit, myself included. But there is a trick to this that, if ignored, winds up hampering a clean trigger and timing. The trick is to clearly distinguish the Wait and Stay behaviors.
A Stay, or duration behavior releases to the handler’s release cue. Most handlers and teams have the Down and Sit behaviors set up as Stays or duration behaviors. A Wait is a lack of movement that releases to a conditioned response. In the case of a vault, the conditioned response will be your trigger.
If the Stay and Wait are conflated by dog and/or handler, the team will not have a clean trigger. The dog will be apprehensive to leave the Stay and will not release cleanly or confidently creating timing problems for the team and commitment problems for dog. One of the biggest causes of commitment problems by a dog is this Wait vs Stay conflation.
If you do make your dog Down or Sit to hold position, be sure to give them a Wait cue so they can feel free to release on the presentation of the trigger. And be sure to discriminate the Wait vs Stay in your training foundation.
Cue Direction
Knowing where to catch the disc is more important than knowing what part of the body to vault from. The disc can always be placed so as to make the vaulting platform extremely obvious.
After the verbal vault cue, show the dog where the vault is going to be thrown with a slow, methodical movement of the disc to where the catch will take place, or a flash of movement in the general direction and position of the catch.
Cuing obstacle, or directing the dog’s attention to the vaulting platform takes the dog’s attention from the target and doesn’t give a clue as to where the catch is going to happen. Cuing obstacle makes it easy for the dog to get the message that the vault is more about trajectory and leaping off the body than it is about targeting and catching the disc.
Cue direction and let the dog naturally use the obstacle to go get it.
Body Position
The position of the body will vary for each type of vault and will be different for individual handlers, dogs, and teams. There are far too many positions and positional variations to lay out here, but there are a few key principles to keep in mind.
The body should be positioned so the vault platform is somewhat horizontal. It’s really hard to leap off of a vertical surface, like a wall. Generally speaking, the more horizontal the vaulting platform the more it is like leaping from the ground. Leaping from the ground is easier than leaping from a wall. Feel free to give it a shot personally if you doubt it.
The height of the vaulting platform should be appropriate for the dog. This is not always a cut and dry situation. Big handler little dog or big dog little handler create all kinds of interesting situations for teams. An appropriate height is a height that the dog has to leap up for but is well within reach of the dog’s general athleticism.
Big handler little dog can be remedied by the handler getting low, whether it be squatting a bit or getting down on the ground. It can also be helped by giving the dog a bit more space to get some speed and amplitude in the leap.
Big dog little handler can be remedied by standing up a bit taller or “crowding the dog”. Crowding the dog means shortening the approach distance. For extreme situations, the dog’s front feet during the wait at the beginning of the skill can be placed right next to, or even on the handler’s body.
Lower is Not Always Safer
This is a key vaulting concept that is a bit counter intuitive. Many people think that lower is always safer when it comes to disc dog freestyle. This is not at all true.
Every leap requires a landing. Lower leaps have less time available for landings. This is not to say that higher is safer, that is a silly statement. It only means that keeping the disc low or artificially low is not automatically going to lead to a safe performance.
Lower targets, more often than not, are attacked with much more speed. Lower platforms are also taken with more speed. Lower platforms also have the additional problem of having the dog dropping down onto them only to try to spring up from there.
The vaulting platform should be a step up for the dog from the ground. The target should be a step up from the vaulting platform. A vault has the dog leaping up to the platform and from the platform up to the target. This up and up action keeps the vault slow in terms of linear speed and gives the dog plenty of time to navigate the catching of the disc and the landing.
Targets that are too low can require the dog to leap down from the platform. Leaping down limits the time available to navigate the landing and also creates a situation where the dog can be too far forward, over the front feet leaning forward, and can put undue stress on the shoulders on the landing.
Lower is not always safer. Give
The Give is a retrieve to the hand. A cued Give is a foundational skill that is not super useful in the actual performance of disc dog freestyle, and has huge applications for... your dog plenty of time and space by making sure that the vault goes from the ground, up to the platform, and from the platform up to the target.
There is a Dog Under There
When a dog catches a disc, they do so with their mouth. The mouth is attached to the face. The face is above the neck, shoulders, legs and feet. In short, there is a dog under there — under the disc, on every catch, there is a dog under there.
For vaults, overs and flips, there is a dog under the catch. Make sure to budget that into your disc placement.
Many people freak out over throwing the disc 6 feet high for vaults. If the disc is thrown six feet high for the vault and your dog is 22 inches tall, the leap is only 48 inches off the ground. Odds are your dog leaps 30-36 inches off the ground all the time. Off the back of the couch is 36 inches.
When the dog is on the vaulting platform, the dog is collected. Collection
The act of preparing for a leap. Breaking stride for leaping or changing direction, collection is a key moment in the leaping process. More can be thought of as a “Sit Pretty” position. A 22 inch dog that is sitting pretty is about 32-36 inches tall. So a throw that the dog must leap up for from the platform has to be at least 36 inches above the platform.
Now
The Now Phase is an integral part of the Play Cycle in the Play+ training philosophy. It embodies the current, immediate interaction between the handler and the dog, anchoring them in the present... we’re getting into that area where people get uncomfortable because they forget that there is a dog under there and they forget that the dog has to not only catch the disc, but has to have time to land after catching it.
If you remember that there is a dog under there, that a whole dog, standing on all fours, exists under the disc at the time of catch, the scale of 6 or even 8 feet high tosses come back down to earth and proper vaulting height that budgets in, not only the catch, but the time required for navigation of the landing, can be honestly and sensibly calculated.
Clock vs Counter
Vaults have a directional component to them. Most of the time handlers tend to think of this in terms of left and right, or which hand is throwing, but Clock and Counter might be a better way of thinking about it.
Clockwise vaults move from the handler’s left to the right, in the direction of the hands of a clock. Counter clockwise vaults move from the handler’s right to left.
Clockwise Back Vaults, generally speaking, are thrown with a “tyrannosaur” toss, a toss that many people find funky that takes place somewhere near the handler’s cheek or ear. This throwing motion feels cramped due to the confines of the human body and the position of the vault. You might feel like you have tiny little arms like a tyrannosaur.
Counter Clock Back Vaults are thrown with a swooping motion underneath the body that is released somewhere underneath the left arm pit. These throwing motions are for right handed throwers and will be reversed for Lefties (like usual…).
Clockwise Leg Vaults and Rebounds, generally speaking, will be thrown with the Right hand and counter clock Leg Vaults and Reverse Vaults with the Left. Of course there are variations, but generally speaking this is a good rule of thumb.
Dogs and teams will have a preference for one direction or the other. It’s not a bad idea to experiment in each direction for creativity and comfort’s sake.
Front Cross as Trigger
While the presentation of the vaulting platform is THE trigger, getting the vault started on the run, or getting the vault platform properly positioned often requires a Front Cross
On a Front Cross, your dog switches Flanks in with you in front of them. From Clock to Counter Clockwise Flank or vice versa. Taken directly from the canine agility world, the Front... type move for timing and position purposes.
A front Cross
A 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... changes the working side for the team. If the dog is moving from right to left, it’s a Clockwise Flank
Out to the side of the handler is the Flank. If the dog is out to the handler's right or left the dog is on Flank. If the dog is moving with the..., from right to left, and the team are moving Counter Clockwise.
To stop a dog from creeping or cheating in the direction of the vault and to keep a nice, clean, straight line, you want to push against the direction of the trick using positional pressure.
If the vault is going to your right, the team should start with the handler applying counter clockwise positional pressure (to the left). This antagonistic pressure will keep the dog in position.
When the handler shifts into the direction of the trick, this is a Front
Front is a stable position directly in front of the handler. Front is an traditional obedience skill. Usually your dog sits in this position, but standing is often acceptable as well, especially in... Cross, and can serve as the start of the vault.
The Front Cross as trigger is extremely important for maintaining the Wait, for keeping a straight line, and for the timing vaults on the run or in flow.
Timing? Leave Ground for Target? Yes or No?
There is one rule of timing for vaults, and that rule is that there is no time in vaulting. The only thing that should concern the handler and team when it comes to vault timing is:
Did the dog leave the ground for the target? Yes or No
Timing of the vault, traditionally speaking, is all about “Not being late.” I know this because I coined the idea back in the early ‘00s. I used to say,”I only need to learn 2 phrases in any language to teach vaulting,’Too Late’ and ‘Too Low’.” It was a good coaching cue. It’s true too.
But the problem with “Too Late” or “don’t be late” is that there is no affirmative criteria. You literally can never be correct. There, literally are billions of moments of time that may or may not be correct, but you can’t claim you are correct with any of them. You have no reference of the right time, so all you can do is worry about it all the time,”Don’t be late…” When that’s the case, you can be sure you’re going to be late, and even if you are not, you’re never “on time”.
When assessing vault timing ask yourself or your training partner this question,”Did the dog leave the ground for the target?” If it’s yes, you were on time. If the answer is no, then make sure the dog leaves the ground for the target on the next one.
This enables video training to be productive and illustrative and gives you an instant answer, easily observed and attained, for assessing your vault timing.
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