
Marty McFly Disc Dog Puppy Jam
Let’s go Back to the Future with Apryl Lea & Marty McFly from 2017. In one of Marty’s first field jams, Apryl and the young man work on staying engaged and freeshaping the Drop.
Let’s go Back to the Future with Apryl Lea & Marty McFly from 2017. In one of Marty’s first field jams, Apryl and the young man work on staying engaged and freeshaping the Drop.
Going back in time can be very enlightening. In this segment we go back to 2017 to observe Apryl & Marty McFly doing some itsy bitsy puppy bitework. We are going to take a look at criteria, method, pace and tone. Hope you dig it.
I happened to catch a live stream session by Ricky Jones the other day on FB. It’s a nice session with a malinois puppy featuring shaping, cookies, and toys, and is a good mix between action and thoughtful work.
Ron & Grasshopper work on a Dog Catch, Pedestal, and Wait vs Stay in this training session featured in DiscDogger Weekly #24. Getting a Dog Catch is a good thing, but getting a Dog Catch while clearly communicating Wait vs Stay and installing a trigger for the Dog Catch is elegant and efficient and the way that we like to do things at Pawsitive Vybe.
Episode #22 Puppy Power! Wham! is the star of this show, doing some disc dog puppy Bitework. We hit on some Oppositional Feeding and talk a bit about cuing and sequencing as well. Hope you dig the show!
Grasshopper is an interesting puppy situation. He’s just HUGE and FAST! And he’s a real goer. This makes for an interesting situation, developmentally, and I think it’s kind of relevant to puppy training. The problem is that it’s tough to talk about.
DiscDog Bitework is an amazing, low impact exercise for puppies of all ages. In addition to teaching the basic mechanics of the game: Bite, Drop, and Give, bitework can deliver many important details and ancillary behaviors of working dogs.
Teaching a disc dog puppy to catch is a rather simple task. All you have to do is set up a situation where a catch is likely and then allow the dog to make the catch. That said, setting up a situation where a catch is likely is not a simple, cut and dried operation. Bridging the Take relies on backchaining and shaping to solve this problem.
Bitework is a tremendous exercise for teaching dogs to play disc. Bite, Drop, Give, Drive Management, Patience, Position, and catching can all be taught and reinforced using a thoughtful game of Bitework. Ron & Wham! work some Bitework and demonstrate some of the basic functions of the game.
Disc Dog Bitework is a great way to teach the mechanics of disc play: Bite, Drop, and Give. Each of these skills is integral to the game of disc with a dog whether you’re playing freestyle or focused on disc dog games. Ron & Grasshopper work a little bitework in this short session with a focus on drawing attention to the Bite and Drop criteria and the trigger for a Bite.
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.
Good Foundation is both efficient and elegant. If you can teach 9 Set Up Moves, Spin & Twist, Front & Rear Cross, AND a complete communication system that transfers directly to on field disc play in 5-7 minutes, have at it.
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.
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.
Historical footage recovered from our cloud archive, the Polkanado puppy learning the Hoop behavior. This was her first shot at the skill and you can see she got it right away. Now part of that is because she is not only super cute, but she’s super smart, but this simple 3-step Hoop technique we’re going to cover right here is extremely elegant and effective.
Teaching a puppy to back up through shaping and rear foot targeting.
Let's go Back to the Future with Apryl Lea & Marty McFly from 2017. In one of Marty's first field jams, Apryl and the young man work on staying engaged and freeshaping the Drop.
Having multiple criteria for working with a puppy, young dog, or dog that has trouble with engagement is really important. In this session Apryl is utilizing multiple criteria as tools that allow for more opportunities to shape and capture engagement and to provide reinforcement on the Drop.
Reorientation from the environment is a critical criteria for engagement and for puppy work. The hardest part of engagement or reengagement is the initial release of the environment. This initial reorientation is not visible on this video as Marty is off camera, but Apryl is marking the moment that Marty looks or turns towards her. This immediate timing on the reorientation is key to shaping engagement and reinforcing the initial release of the environment which is the most difficult part of the engagement process.
The cued Bite is a huge criteria that can be both a target behavior, reinforcer, and a useful tool for creating a high rate of reinforcement in a training session. Normally, this criteria is a target behavior and is often THE target behavior - in a sense, that is THE target behavior here, but alone it is NOT enough to keep this young dog engaged. In this session the cued Bite becomes just another criteria we can use to keep up the rate of reinforcement and maintain engagement.
The Drop in this session are freeshaped, meaning that they are not cued. This is the very first step of our standard Drop work. Freeshaping the Drop is a very temporary technique for constructing a cued Drop, as prolonged use can lead to real trouble. While Freeshaping the Drop, pay attention to where and when it happens so you are prepared for Step 2 of Installing the Drop: Predicting and Cuing.
Putting the disc into the hand is an additional criteria that is used in this session, and the hand behavior can be initiated by either the dog or the handler. The "hand" behavior resembles both the Bite and the Give and can be used to initiate the Tug.
Each of these criteria, on their own are bonafide important criteria, but used in concert as target criteria, provide multiple opportunities for engagement.
Multiple reinforcers is a terrific plan of action for young dogs as well. Puppies get bored pretty easily, and it is often not obvious what type of reinforcer the puppy will like on this particular day. Apryl employed multiple reinforcers in this session to keep Marty engaged and to keep the flow of the game going.
Apryl uses handler movement as a cookie several times in this session. Handler movement is a great reinforcer for reorientation to the handler. It is a good tool to draw the dog in and set up a Give, Drop, or Bite.
Apryl uses the bite a little bit in this session. The Bite may or may not be transitioned into a tug depending on the situation.
The Roller is used a few times as well. It's a great cookie for reorientation, although the reinforcement happens away from the handler. Use it carefully if your puppy is likely to check out while further away from. A Roller can also be used to manufacture an approach which can be useful.
The Near Miss of a cued Bite is a terrific reinforcer for a puppy. You just really want to make sure that you keep the misses playful and close to success. Playful teasing into near misses can build resilience and desire to seal the deal with a catch or bite.
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