Private Training: "Over"

At Alice Woodyard's suggestion, I wanted to devote at least one training session to "over". Today, in icy temps and freezing rain, the dogs and I had such a session, made up of two short series.

Both series were run with the same configuration: the dog at the imaginary pitcher's mound facing home plate, me at home plate 15 yards in front of the dog, two white dummies at 1st base 12 yards from dog, two white dummies at 3rd base 12 yards from dog.

Series A. I ran only Laddie on Series A and he had no trouble with it:

1. "Over", visual and forgot to use voice, to the right.
2. "Over", visual still with no voice, to the left.
3. "Over", visual and remembered to use voice, to the right.
4. "Over", visual and voice, to the left.

Series B. I ran Lumi first, then Laddie. The similarity of the way they both ran the series was uncanny, to the extent that I can describe both of them at the same time below by referring to "Dog".

I always used a visual "over", while I used a verbal "over" intermittently. I don't remember when I did and when I didn't.

As you'll see, I had to handle both dogs on #1 and #4. They were both instantly responsive on 100% of whistle sits (WSs) and always cast in the generallly correct direction, though not always on a perfect angle.

1. With Dog in a sit facing me, I threw a dummy halfway between Dog and me, whistled sit (even though Dog was already sitting), and cued "over" to the right. Dog broke to the right, did not make an attempt at the thrown dummy, but also did not run on a straight line to the target pile, instead running on a line bisecting the target pile and the thrown dummy, angling in slightly instead of a true "over". I used a WS and a cast back to direct Dog to the target pile. Once Dog saw the target dummies, Dog pounced on one and came running back to me with it.
2. With Dog in a sit facing me, I again threw a dummy halfway between Dog and me, whistled sit, and cued "over" to the left. This time, Dog ran straight to the target pile, pounced on a dummy, and brought it to me.
3. With Dog in a sit facing me, I threw a dummy over Dog's head, whistled sit, and cued "over" to the right. Dog ran straight to the target pile, pounced on a dummy, and brought it go me.
4. With Dog in a sit facing me, I threw a dummy past Dog on a line midway between Dog and the left pile of dummies. I then whistled sit and cued "over" to the left. Dog ran toward the thrown dummy. I used a whistle sit to stop Dog before Dog picked up the thrown dummy, then cast Dog to the left toward the target pile. Dog was curiously resistant to that pile, and it took several WSs and casts before Dog finally ran to the pile, pounced on a dummy, and brought it to me.

Comments. Although it might have been nice to have both dogs respond perfectly on every "over" cast, this seemed to be a helpful session. Both dogs got good experience with sitting on the whistle and benefitting from it, both dogs demonstrated a basic understanding of "over", and both dogs showed improving resistance to divesions. I plan to repeat Series B in future sessions until both dogs clearly understand "over" as being a 90° cast.

After that, I plan to strengthen the WS by running a series of pinball drills in which I whistle sit at a midpoint and cast the dog with "over" to a dummy not visible to the dog from that position. I'm hoping that experiencing such "bail out" dummies will reinforce both the WS and "over".