The good...	The bad...

The good...(top left) Blur the Border Collie, doing a very nice swimmer's turn.  Blur regularly runs 3.9 seconds. 

The bad...(top right) Moses, BC/Cairn Terrier mix, who raced with that turn for years with a time of about 5.5-6.0. 

The very ugly... (blue merle Aussie, bottom three photos)...My Vegas.   AKA Train Wreck Vegas.  Time with bad turn...anywhere from 4.5-8.0 to No Finish depending on whether or not he bobbled and how severe the bobble was.

Both of the dogs with the bad turns had raced for a number of years with the turns pictured above.  Both are fast little critters but their flyball times did not reflect this fact, as Vegas and Moses had to completely stop the momentum they had built to turn and go back to the handler.

Does the turn at left look like a healthy, safe way to do things????  IT ISN'T.  This dog is lucky he has shoulders left, and that he still has teeth in his mouth.

After Retraining:

As you can imagine, both dogs had built a very strong physical memory on how to do the box. 

Both dogs will require maintenance forever.  We can never take these "new turns" for granted.  In times of stress, excitement, fatigue, the dog will ALWAYS return to the first thing it learned.  Because they both have a strongly reinforced history of the prior turns, we must always use a board in front of the jump except for actual racing to keep them from reverting to the more familiar method. 

For a look at a swimmer's turn in motion, please visit Teddy from No Speed Limit.  

Here are some young dogs that were started off right...with the idea of shaping the turn correctly from the beginning. 

 These dogs don't see a ball in the box until they have, over and over, correctly turned on the box and have built a correct physical memory of how to do it.  This involves long periods of time, and handlers using this method are often in a hurry to get the ball in the box.  However, it has paid off enormously to go slowly and build a proper reward history for the dog as it learns to turn.

Here's Glimpse FMX ADC DDX BDD CGN, a Border Jack that runs 3.9.  She was taught a great swimmer's turn, and has won a Best Turn award for her fantastic snap off the box!

"Best Turn" winner!

click here to learn How to Teach a Swimmer's Turn