Fun with Dogs!

I want to take Brit to this local disc dog competition in April for Toss and Fetch but between my throwing and her size, we are generally lucky if Brit catches one in 4 or 5 throws in the air.  BUT, while having her out playing with the two malinois daily clients I’ve added to my group, I have discovered that she will almost always (4 out of 5 times) catch the disc way up in the air when she is coming to me and I am throwing into the wind so the disc hovers and she can get under it.

I now have a PLAN…with a capital P that rhymes with T that stands for trouble ;-)  I just need to teach Brit a 45 yard send out or voraus, then I can throw (hopefully into the wind) while she is facing me and we will be golden :-)

Because this is very much an “on the road” behavior from the start, whatever I use to lure the voraus needs to be easily transportable but that seems easy.  The two most difficult things are going to be marking out a 45 yard distance quickly and easily and training myself to throw more than 40 yards.  I typically only throw 25 to 30 yards.

My PLAN is to build value in the lure pole, probably by letting Brit tug something hanging from it then back up a yard or two every time until I can send her to the pole from 45 yards down the field.  Then I have to fade the lure pole and will probably hide whatever toy she has been tugging on or a viewtainer with very high value reinforcers in the same spot where the pole was.

For every 10 minutes I spend teaching Brit the voraus, I am going to have to spend at least 20 working on my throwing to get it up to 42 yards consistently.