You Know the Difference. Does the Dog? The Team?
Top – Linear Vault the Opposite of Stall
a vault is almost the opposite of a Stall. a linear vault, “Top”, has the dog leaving the ground with the intent to leap off the handler’s body part that has been presented. this level of intensity and trajectory are incompatible with a Stall.
I hesitate to go here for theory and teaching reasons, but the Top cue is in essence telling the dog to leap OFF the handler. The Stall is telling the dog to Leap ON the handler.
When looked at this way they are both incompatible and inextricably intertwined. You can’t really separate them in language. It has to be separated in mind and performance though, and that separation has to happen before the dog starts after the target and before the handler begins to move or begins to throw.
Stall – The Anti-Vault
the Stall is, ironically, almost the opposite of Top. if Top is leaping OFF, Stall is leaping ON. but again, let’s avoid that rabbit hole, and just say that they are incompatible. the OFF vs ON thing is not really true. it’s truthy but not true.
The Stall is defined by the Release. The dog stays in position until told to get off. Are you starting to see the problem? It isn’t exactly an On and Off thing, close, but not quite. These kinds of conflations can be very hard to separate both in theory and in performance.
I find It best to simply put them directly next to each other and perform them perfectly in randomly interchangeable fashion. This reliance on This vs That and being forced to get the answer correct (Dog | Handler | Team) pushes the dog to figure out how to discriminate the behaviors.
Rebound – Flipping Off the Handler For the Target
the Rebound or Reverse Vault is more than just flipping off the handler. a Rebound is flipping off the handler for a target. this is a critical distinction and it should be taught on a foundational level. Top and Stall can be used for Rebound work.
For the Target is critical on Rebounds. Your dog needs to be going to get the disc as early as possible. If you wait for your dog to leap and then are putting it in their mouth as they are flipping off of you, you are going to have safety problems.