Cued Bite

Add Value to the Handler & Teach Patience in Drive

4 reasons to teach and use a cued Bite:

add value to the handler
reinforce key links of behavior chains
create patience in drive
shape leaping behaviors with takes

Add Value to the Area Around the Handler with Bites

offering the dog a cued Bite on the disc in the handler’s hand is great for up close and personal reinforcement, an important element in working freestyle.

The game of disc tends to take place yards away from the handler with no handler in sight. This often causes problems for teams when trying to work in close proximity to the handler – the ‘inside game’. The dog is expecting to run around and chase discs, not stand around and wait, or do 3 silly things for a crappy 1M toss.

Offering a cued Bite on the disc in handler’s hand allows for exciting reinforcement with precision timing and reward placement designed to add value to the area around the handler.

Reinforce Single Links in Your Behavior Chains

freestyle disc with dogs is composed of long behavior chains. cued Bites on the disc allow the handler to reinforce weak or key links in these behavior chains.

The complexity and mechanics of the inside game can lead to less than stellar energy levels, a reduction in motivation and in effective Rate of ReinforcementRate of Reinforcement can be expressed in terms of Cookies Per Minute (CPM). How many cookies delivered over time has a great impact on dog training. Traditional positive training says you should shoot.... Adding the cued Bite as reinforcement for any link in your behavior chain empowers the handler to motivate the dog in consequent fashion at any time.

Random and intermittent reinforcement of key or weak tricks in your sequence is a great reason to have the Bite behavior in your back pocket.

Enhance Patience and Create Operant Drive

Reinforcing Attention (unsolicited eye contactUnsolicited eye contact or Attention is a great way to hook up with a dog. If you have something the dog wants he should give eye contact in order to get access to...) and the cued 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,... with a bite is a great way to help the dog understand that there are rules to this freestyle game. Good things come to those who Wait (and give eye contact).

Shape Leaping Behaviors with Takes

the hardest part of training your dog to leap is finding the right spot and time to place the disc. using takes allows for precision placement and a permanent target.

Takes allow for fast and efficient teaching of leaping, overs, and vaults. The hard part of these skills is getting the disc in the right 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... at the right time often enough to create commitment in your dog. The TakeA Take is a cued Bite that replicates the placement and timing of a throw. Usually used with overs, vaults, and flips, the Take is a powerful teaching tool for creating habitual leaping... allows you to put it there early and hold it there a long time allowing dogs who are not totally crazy for discs to gain the confidence to commit to the thrown disc.

Use takes on overs, vaults and flips where possible until you and your dog figure out where the target needs to be placed, when it needs to be there, until you and the dog become confident enough to make the skill happen.
FYI – There is a danger of dogs who have a lot of eye (border collies) not leaping after thrown discs because they do not look like takes.