King has been through this drill a few times, but we’ve been focused on Team Movement and his disc mauling problem. Breaking out the new guy and Epic to demonstrate some Trigger and Wait work provided a great opportunity to revisit this critical skill for this studly young man.
Ron & Soda Pop use the Flatwork Compass to install the Wait behavior and a reliable Trigger for action.
Ron & Epic demonstrate our standard Triggers for a catch, a Bite, flips, overs – and all of those skills are Triggered with the same mechanic.
Putting the Flatwork Compass into practice with large scale flatwork & Team Movement. Kris and Otto are up to the task. Notice how the handler and team start to respond earlier and earlier to the situation as it develops. Pretty cool stuff…
Kris & Otto work another round of the Flatwork Compass after some instruction on moving towards the dog and blocking the dog’s line with positional pressure. This is a critical aspect of disc dog flatwork that is required to control Team Movement and transition from exterior to interior play.
Kris & Otto work the Flatwork Compass in preparation for their first Fly Chi Flow form. The Flatwork Compass features prominently in Team Movement as a traffic signal of sorts for larger scale play and transitions from the Big Game of long throws and flatwork patterns and the Inside Game with the dog on top of the handler.
Ron & Otto use the Flatwork Compass as a framework for reinforcing the cued Drop and as a warmup for later sessions.
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.
Flatwork is not Border Collie stuff. Flatwork is a fact of disc dog – it is happening in the game of disc whether you are working it or not. The Flatwork Compass is a tool we use to cultivate and develop communication and understanding of Team Movement from both the dog and handler.
Zig Zag patterns are dueling flanks in front of the handler: Clockwise Flank, catch, reverse field, Counter Clock Flank, catch, reverse field, repeat. A well performed or proper Zig Zag is based entirely upon the Flank. An immature or poorly performed Zig Zag devolves into alternating Passes. The Flatwork Compass uses natural body positions and natural human to canine positional pressure to communicate Flank vs Pass.
The movements of the Flatwork Compass are both how humans move to throw and how humans move dogs. The stepping forward for the Flank pushes the dog out and in the direction we’re stepping and the switching and opening up pulls the dog towards us for the Pass.
Communication, spatial and situational awareness, and disc handling competence are three key areas for disc dog freestyle that seem to escape the training regiment of most young players. What have you done and are you doing to gain these skills and groom them in your game?
The affects of a clean trigger in the Flatwork Compass show themselves in most all aspects of the game. Most dogs do not have a clean trigger. Cleaning up your trigger will have a positive impact on many aspects of your game.
12 throws in 4 minutes and we have a dramatically improved trigger, a better wait, and a plan to solve a couple of other nagging problems he has shown throughout his career. A few dedicated sessions and we should have marked improvement in all aspects of his game.
Communication on the fly is a key element of disc dog freestyle and disc dog game play. It is a good idea to have a clear and concise communication system to make on the fly decision making a successful endeavor. Nobody wants to be handcuffed by pattern training. The Flatwork Compass provides a simple and elegant communication system that is based upon natural movements and canine/human pressure and body language.
Follow the Leader is a great game. It’s fun. But following a leader that is a prey driven animal might lead you to places you don’t want to be. Follow the Leader with a leader who is not aware of the follower’s ability to follow breaks down right away. Follow the leader is best played when we know who the leader is and when we get some good cues as to where the game is going to go.
Disc Dogs who know the difference between a Flank and a Pass are easier to handle. Handlers who know the difference between a Flank and a Pass are better at moving their dogs and making plays. A team that knows the difference between a Flank and a Pass exhibit diverse play and are more capable of purposing play towards training and performance.
A compass is used to find your way, to navigate. It tells you which direction you are going and helps to figure out where you are at and which direction you need to go. It would be really nice to have a compass for disc dog freestyle, right?
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