When I tried sending Belle to #6 from the H1 position, she ended up taking the wrong end of the tunnel. When I stood at the H2 position, Belle either took the wrong end or took the off-course red jump on her way to #6. It was an interesting challenge.
I taught Belle to take obstacles that present themselves as a straight line in our foundation work. This is a skill that is extremely useful in straightforward closings, but sometimes, I find other spots where I can use it as well. If I can just run my fastest, trusting Belle to take the obstacles that are in front of her as she hurries to catch up with me, it allows us to get a nice burst of speed in some of our runs.
I looked carefully at the path from #5 to #6, and from my point of view, the off-course jump is definitely not in line with them. If I wanted Belle to take that jump on her way to the tunnel, I would put pressure on her line and give her a specific verbal cue to take that jump. I think Belle took the off-course jump because the distance from #5 to the tunnel was about 30 feet--a rather big spacing between obstacles.
Although, this is not a particularly NADAC-like challenge, it is one that we will re-visit since by-passing obstacles not in line with each other is a useful skill in Snooker. Belle has grabbed obstacles on her way to my lead out position at the back of a Snooker course in the past, so we always practice this skill before a USDAA or CPE trial. This exercise ups the ante by requiring Belle to "bypass" an obstacle on a send; something I've never tried in trial.
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