Notice that the largest part of the flip zone lies behind the dog. That is very important. You need to toss the disc behind your dog, in order to get them to flip. There is a small sliver of ''flip zone'' in front of the dog, but this asks a dog to move forward on their flips, and not many dogs do that naturally.

Flips happen behind our dogs.

Distance from Midline

The distance from the midline will determine how aggressive a flip is. If we place the disc right over the dog's head (B), we will get a vertical flip (dog's rear end winds up over top of his head); a loop. If we place it at (C), we will get a spinning movement (rear end stays at about the same height throughout). Placing the disc at (A) will give us a nice mix between the two.

A
This is a good starting point from a disc placement perspective. The trajectory of the dog going after this target will be a mix of a vertical flip and a spinning flip. This is where most flips are placed with dogs that are new to flipping.

B
This placement will yield a very aggressive, vertical flip. It requires a very athletic dog. Because the dog is upside down, it should be very closely monitored and probably not be done by new players without supervision from a more experienced player.

C
This placement will yield a spinning flip that will spin horizontally. This is the place you will wind up if your dog is not very good at flipping, allowing your dog to be aggressive. You can start to slide this in towards A as your dog becomes better at it.
Remember

Flips happen behind our dogs.
The closer to the midline the more vertical the flip.

Dog Position

Consistent Picture

Positioning is extremely important on flips. We must do as good a job as possible at presenting a consistent picture to our dog so that these flipping skills become habitual. Not only do we have to teach the concept of flipping, but we want muscle memory and a high success rate.

Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.

Front, Heel and Side

Having a solid front, heel and side position will allow you to flip your dog from each of these static positions successfully. Know where our dog is at, and will be is necessary if we are going to provide the correct placement and angle on the disc required for flipping.

An additional benefit of having these positional skills available to you as a handler is in teaching and creating new set up moves. It's very easy to transition between heel and front, and having these positions as a foundation allows us plenty of opportunity to build complex directional behaviors out of common concepts.

Wait

A 'Wait' is a cue given to a dog that means "Wait there until it's time."

Having a good wait is a great asset to both discdog training and competition. There are times that we want some time to breathe. There are times when we need some time to breathe, and there are times that we need to bring the energy level down a notch and do some careful work. A wait is a very important piece of a discdogging foundation.

There is nothing more frustrating, for dog and handler, than having a great jam session destroyed because part of the team couldn't make a wait happen. Having a solid wait will make your training sessions more effiicient, and your jam sessions more flexible.

Putting it Together

If we are good at positioning our dogs and strategically putting our discs in those spots that create and nurture flips, we will have less confusion, more success to build on, and the ability to keep things safe for our dogs.

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