Doh!

Sometimes, I get reminded how much I have to learn. That happened last night... again! I've been struggling with Zio's turns in tournaments, because he always reverts back to punching the box. We practice at home... he'll do great swimmers turns 98% of the time. Go to tournament, he punches the box again. I've reviewed early videos of his training on youtube and he was doing great turns without the cone. I had decided that it was the excitement of the ball and the race that made him "forget" his turn. We even discussed that maybe he needs to train with the jumps and the ball all the time to get the mental connection.

Since last weekend's tournament, we've been concentrating more on doing the turn without the ball and using the new 10" jump board I made. My theory was that the ball is too much of a reward and he needed to learn that the turn gets the reward, not the ball. I decided to put the ball in a couple of times and he continues to do a good turn... at home. About that time is when I had my epiphany. I took the jump board away and put a ball in the box. Zio stabbed the box. Tried 4 or 5 more times... stab the box. DOH! No jump = stab the box! I was always under the impression that the jump board is used as a constant reminder in practice. Well... that is probably true for a dog that knows to turn, but Zio always had a prop and never learned to turn without a prop. Double DOH!

Back to touch training this morning! We bounced off the wall a number of times and then transitioned back to the box without using a jump. Great turns without a prop from six feet! Now I'm excited that he's making that connection! He'd be doing great if he had a decent trainer!