Throwing upside down is both useful and stylish. DiscDogger Weekly #14 features several upside down throwing lessons used to shape and control collection and pursuit of discs and to help shape a better leaping catch. Ron Watson lays out 4 basic upside down throws and goes over some throwing tips & technique for making them work for you.
We have been working this week on collection and thoughtful pursuit using upside down throws. Putting that into a pattern or flowing flatwork is a bit different from doing it in single disc Throw N Go. In this session, Eppie & I work on “Making the Play” using an upside down toss with the goal of getting him to slow down and thoughtfully pursue the disc so he is in a better position to leap for the catch.
This is Grasshopper’s 2nd jam ever. We did an introduction to disc a few weeks ago that went pretty well. Since then we have done three team movement sessions with cookies (1 | 2 | 3) which included some work on front and rear crosses. There was a total of 17 minutes of work done in those cookie training sessions.
Upside down throws create disc dog collection and tracking opportunities and limit the opportunity for over-pursuit. Because of their strange flight pattern, upside down throws ask your dog to pay attention to the disc and it’s trajectory rather than just run around out there chasing plastic.
Using Disc Quan Do throwing forms to create competence and understanding of creative disc releases.
Disc Dog Puppy Training is a part science and part art form. The human is a trainer, handler, and athlete. The dog is a learner, an athlete, and a teammate. The game of disc with a dog is simple in theory – bite – drop – give and reward placement. In practical terms it can spiral out of control and become unwieldy and complex rather quickly. The disc dog puppy videos in this playlist feature tried and true training techniques arranged in a systemic fashion that teach all the skills you and your puppy need to learn to become a disc dog team.
Your disc dog tricks and moves are your beats or dance steps. All the stuff required to set them up and make them look and sound good in flow are the gaps. You need rhythm in your play to create beautiful music and graceful dance instead of just making noise and moving erratically. To create rhythm, you need to mind the gaps.
Creative releases are often quite difficult to drop into your Team Movement flow, especially counter clock releases. The Flamingo and Flamingitis throws both spin counter clock and both happen while the handler is upside down and all crooked and backwards. Usually these throws are just chucked out there somewhere after the dog goes around or is making a Pass. Eppie and I are working on making these throws with Intent and flowing Team Movement for the leap – on the flank and with shapes.
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 Movement training session, mainly Disc Quan Do stuff, since the beginning of August, you can watch the transformation in this playlist.
Team Movement is a great skill to teach to a puppy. It can be done in systematic fashion with cookies rather quickly. We have already worked to teach 5 Set Up Moves in 5 Minutes and created a communication system of sorts, now we’ll apply the same methods towards laying the foundation of Front and Rear Crosses.
Epic has a pretty crappy give. A few weeks ago that crappy Give cost us more than a few points in a big worldwide contest – “Not Cool, Eppie!” and not cool, Ron… It’s been a problem that I’ve dealt with since we started working and it really isn’t that big a deal to me as I don’t really care too much about Toss n Fetch, the extra 3-5 seconds it costs us hasn’t been worth the effort to focus on the skill – there’s so much more to learn and work on… Well, that’s about to change…
This method teaches a puppy everything they need to know about Team Movement in 5 minutes and immediately translates to disc play. It delivers 5 set up moves for interior Team Movement (one of them being a Scoot) and is a complete communication method for all Team Movement. It is one of the first things we teach a puppy.
Zappa is a 17 week old puppy who has never played disc. This is a typical introductory puppy training session for us, meaning it is anything but typical. The concepts used are all standard: Working off the Drop, Attention for Next, Shaping Engagement, and Reinforcing with Action, but the application of them is based upon what the puppy gives and what the situation demands. Be sure to catch the voiceover or it won’t make much sense… I’ll lay out some more stuff below.
Being ahead of the dog is the key to flow and control, and being in front of the dog on interior moves requires fast, purposeful movement. Watching the dog or being caught on your heels is not an option. This form creates a habit out of moving immediately, with purpose and being prepared for the next move before you’re done moving. Making a habit of this kind of movement makes being ahead of the dog much easier leading to greater control and enhanced flow.
How are you going to learn about the wind? What are you going to do to learn how the wind affects your throws? Serious questions…
My guess is you have no answers. But going further, have you even asked the question? Or have you simply looked for a simple answer to managing the wind?
We have already covered the Squeaky Wheel Form in the show. That version was a single direction – 4-6 throws in one direction as a session, and then, perhaps 4-6 throws in the other direction – which can be considered the “standard” version of the form at the Green Belt level. This week’s version is the alternating expression of the form which is 1 jump and catch in the clock direction followed by 1 jump and catch in the counter clock direction. This makes the form much more fluid and flowing and puts the focus on flatwork.
FunKey is a terrific crossover game. The biggest problem training it is the scale of the field and the organization required to paint it up. For a few years now we have been using a Hashtag SweetSpot, and this simple field set up can be used with most of the games including FunKey.
A flatwork green belt Disc Quan Do form, the 4 Way Flank is a form that explores purposeful Team Movement and covers the entire field. 3 Working Flanks and a Front Cross, the 4 Way Flank is a key form for flowing flatwork and controlled purposeful Team Movement.
Vault tosses, like all disc dog throws are as much about time as they are about placement. Or you could think about time as part
Episode 9 of DiscDogger Weekly is jam packed. This week we’ve got a couple of rounds of Throw N Go, an unboxing, an advanced vaulting lesson and some Team Movement Disc Quan Do stuff with Obi (Not a Border Collie) & Loot.
Please confirm you want to block this member.
You will no longer be able to:
Please note: This action will also remove this member from your connections and send a report to the site admin. Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete.
