The Definitive Guide to Laser Directionals 
First session 3 dogs different level
a little longer video with 3 dogs and different approaches.
1. 20 m female dog - high food motivation
2. 2 years female dog - more motivation for the toy
3. 4 years male - before the course I was doing directional sending in a slightly different way, you can see that the commitment is greater when returning.
1 comment
Hi Piotr,
Thanks for the video, sorry for my late reply. I think the start with the very young dog looked very good and food is definitely a strong motivator for her. It takes her a few reps to realize the food is in the bucket and not on the ground, but once she connects that she goes with good determination.
The second dog similar picture, it shows that he has had some prior obedience training, I assume you do a little "movement work" with him between your legs, same as the 4 year old. The result is that they give you some focus in that position and take longer to focus away from you to the target. You were patient and waited to get that, so good job. If you play around with down or sit or stand in the prep position and figure out which one they show the least tendency to look at you. Then use that.
Over all good sends. The 4 year old shows he has good prior training with a touch target send away. That works fairly well up to a point. With small touch targets like the one you were using in the video the dog cannot spot it from far away. As you see in the first send he is slower and kind of looking for it. On the second one he can either see it against the snow, or he picked up another target clue that helps him to the location. However you continue with him just keep the points I am making in mind. Many "sport" send aways are done on fields where the boundaries of the field are primarily rectangular and very identifiable. So once dogs figure out what direction to run to reach the touch target it looks great. But we need to assess the way the dog orientates himself on the field. So if he is running parallel to a field sideline in order to stay straight, then when you remove a straight and parallel sideline he may struggle. Same applies if he learns it running at a line that is at 90 degrees to his direction of travel. Just things to consider. Laser directionals work best if the dog identifies an arrival target, rather than other forms of guidance.
Great job and thanks for sharing.
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