Patron’s Choice: Vaulting Principles | Disc Dog Vaulting Defined and Definitions

What is a Vault?

To vault in disc dog freestyle is to leap off the handler’s body to catch a disc in flight. A defining aspect of competitive disc dog freestyle, the VaultThe 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... is a simple operation with a great many physical expressions and variations. This book aims to explore and uncover the principles and concepts of the vault and to deliver sound understanding of all aspects of the skill to players and judges for success, style, and safety’s sake.

The Vaulting Process

While the vault is quite simple, leap off the handler to get the disc, the process, like any cooperative behavior chain, is a bit more complex. The quality or maturity of a vault, vault safety, and style of a vault depends upon this process. While there are different styles and methods of vaulting, the vault process as it relates to safety and maturity is a mechanical fact. There really is no arguing with the mechanics of the process.

A Clean, Well timed Start (Wait)

A clean well timed start for a vault is critical.

The most important behavior for successful and safe vaulting is a WaitWaiting 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,.... Without a Wait the timing and position for a clean start, foundationally, are unreliable. Fixing this with a set up moveSet Up Moves are tricks that are used to establish timing and position in disc dog freestyle. Traditional tricks include: Around, Through, Backwards Through, and Scoot, but any or all of your tricks,..., flip, or some other trick is not a solution, it’s a weakness. Starting a complex cooperative behavior chain with a bandaid is a bad idea.

Declared Intent

The vaulting process starts with intent. Dog and handler need to know what’s coming. The handler must communicate to the dog that a vault is going to happen and let the dog know how the vault will go down. The dog must know that a vault is coming and how to perform the vault. Is it a linear vault? A flipping vaultEssentially a flip off of a part of the handler's body, the Reverse Vault is a vault that stays on one side of the handler. If the dog starts the trick in front...? What is the trajectory?

Knowing this before the skill is performed is key to safe and successful vaulting. Vaults should not be performed without dog, handler, and team being clear on the intent of the skill.

Declared Target Location

Where will the target be caught? If the dog knows what kind of vault is to be performed and where the target will be, then the safety and success of the vault is reinforced and far more likely to happen than if there is no declaration of where the disc is going to be. 

This step of the vaulting process is not mandatory if the rest of the vault process is in order and intact, but it sure does make launching for and catching the disc much easier and more importantly, it makes the most important piece of the vaulting process, a safe and successful landing, much more likely.

A Reliable, Handler Defined Trigger

A reliable trigger for the vaulting skill is key. The dog needs to know when to go. The handler needs to be in control over this trigger. Without it timing is hit or miss. When a trigger is hit or miss it is far too easy to miss the target.

A Clear and Distinct Vaulting Platform

A clear and distinct vaulting platform is a critical part the vaulting process. Without it, the dog has no idea what part of the body to vault from. If the vaulting platform is not clear and distinct, the vault may or may not be successful and is much less likely to be safe. 

A Well Placed, Precise and Accurate Toss

A reliable toss is key for both safety and success. If you can’t throw it to the same place, at the same time, without fail you should not be throwing vaults to your dog. That’s a full stop. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200 and do not throw vaults your dog.

If you lack the throwing skills to make a well placed, precise and accurate toss to your dog, stick to takes (with a Leg Vault) to teach the basics and develop the throwing skills to make a reliable toss a mechanical fact. This really can’t be stressed enough.

Dog Leaves the Ground for the Target

Vaulting is a target based skill. It is not a trajectory based skill. A vault leaves the ground for the disc not for the leap.

The dog needs to set the leaping trajectory to intercept the disc. You should not be placing the disc into the dog’s trajectory. Placing the disc in the dog’s trajectory is an inherently dangerous practice. It takes away the dog’s agency and decision making process and reinforces crashing, poor landings, and tearing up the handler’s body.

This is a key aspect to the vaulting process, and is a foundational principle. There are situations where this is impossible, due to timing or physical limitations, but that is an exception to the rule. And should not occur unless there is a specific, mechanical reason for it.

The dog leaving the ground for the target is a must. It is a foundational vaulting principle and a key element of successful and safe vaulting.

Collection on a Stable Platform

The vaulting platform is where the dog collects for the leaping catch. CollectionThe act of preparing for a leap. Breaking stride for leaping or changing direction, collection is a key moment in the leaping process.  More is the process of preparing for a leap: the rear feet move forward to the front feet, the head goes up and the rear end goes down. All 4 feet should be located on the vaulting platform at once at some time during the vault.

A stable platform is a must. A platform that is somewhat horizontal in nature is far more stable than a vertical platform. Collecting on a vertical platform or collecting on an unpredictable platform leads to unstable collection and unstable leaping. Unstable leaping at vaulting height is not safe and not likely to be successful.

A platform that is too high. too low, or too vertical should be considered an unstable platform.

A Smooth Leap for the Target

If the dog leaves the ground for the target and collects well on the platform, odds are the leap will be clean and smooth. Of course mistakes happen, but if you’re getting inconsistent leaping there is most likely something wrong with the process somewhere before the leap.

This is usually a lack of lack of intent, an unstable platform, or a dog leaving the ground without having identified a target. Look there and you’ll probably find the problem.

Dog Catches a Well Placed Disc

Catching the disc is kind of the easy part of the process if everything has gone well to this point. One thing to keep in mind is the orientation of the disc in relation to the dog’s mouth. Angle the toss to make sure the dog has access to the rim of the disc and you should be good to go.

Dog Looks for the Landing

The placement of the vault toss should leave time to look for the landing. Make sure the scale of both the vault and your toss leave time for the dog to get a look at the ground for landing purposes.

The most important part of the vault is the landing. Be sure to give your dog enough time to spotSpot is a “go to a place”, or “go to a mat” behavior. This means that the dog seeks out and performs a duration behavior on a spot of the handler’s choosing. A... that landing.

Dog Naturally Walks Out of the Landing

The safety and quality of landing should be judged on smoothness and balance. A smooth, well balanced landing with natural movement is most likely going to be a safe landing and is required for a safe and successful vault.

A natural landing for four legged creatures has the front feet hitting first, funneling the impact through the body and into the rear legs. Four legged landings or landings where the rear feet hit first do not move well, are not smooth, and do not result in balanced landings.

Types of Vault

While there are many kinds of vaults, there are two basic types that have many variations.

Linear Vault

A linear vault is when the dog leaps off the handler to catch a disc in linear fashion from one side of the handler to the other. This is traditionally named by the body part the dog leaps from.

A Leg Vault is traditionally a linear vault that happens from the handler’s leg. A Back Vault is a linear vault from the handler’s back. A Foot Vault is a linear vault from the handler’s feet. And so on.

There are other naming conventions that will be discussed later in this book.

Reverse Vault or Rebound

A Reverse Vault or Rebound is a vault that starts and finishes on the same side of the handler and often features a flipping motion. Another way to think of it is a flip off of the handler to catch a disc.

The same naming convention applies. A Reverse Chest Vault or a Chest Rebound would be a flip off the handler’s chest. A Reverse Back Vault or Back Rebound is a flip off the handler’s back.

Stall

A StallA Stall has the dog leaping up and chilling out on the handler’s back. Stalls are great for showmanship and for presenting a dog to the crowd. They create a dramatic or emotive... is not a vault, and more often than not, happens without a disc being caught. It is included here as kind of an anti-vault. The Stall is a tool that handlers and teams can use to teach the dog to vault or to discriminate a vaulting movement from a stall.

This will be addressed in Chapter 3.

Methods

There are several methods or techniques employed in the vaulting process that should be noted and understood. Each has pros and cons and can be applied towards different situations. Which one you choose to do isn’t as important as dog and handler knowing which one is being done at any given time.

Catch & Carry

The dog catches the disc early and carries it long. This method has the dog catching the disc relatively close to the handler’s body and carrying it away after the catch. The Catch and Carry method provides the most time to look for and read the landing.

The Catch and Carry method can be trouble if the disc is placed too high or is placed closer to the handler than the dog expects.

Stretch to Catch

The dog leaves the vaulting platform and stretches out to catch the disc at the end of the leap. The Stretch to Catch vault takes time away from the landing and gives it to the leap. It is more forgiving for the catch and trajectory but can lead to not enough time to look for and read the landing.

Pursuit

The Pursuit Vault has the dog chasing the disc from the hand and leaping through it. It’s application is, primarily, in Reverse Vaults or Rebounds. Most all Reverse and Rebound type vaults are performed with the Pursuit method.

Linear Vaults using this method are, most always, immature or lesser quality vaults, while Rebounds that employ the Stretch to Catch or Catch and Carry vaults that result in quality landings should be considered more mature or more difficult.