I had a chance to try handling with more energy last night on a JWW course set up at the QCDC. One big problem I have when walking a course is figuring out where I'm going to be in relationship to my dog. More often than not, I underestimate my ability to get ahead of Belle. This was definitely the case last night. I never dreamed I would be able to put in the two front crosses so easily. I found myself having to wait for Belle at the tunnel entrance, so I probably should have only lead out to a spot about four or five feet from the second jump and done a front cross between #2 and #3. I also found myself marking time at the weave exit. The next time I ran, I ran closer to Belle on the two jumps before the weaves and moved toward the tire instead of toward the last weave pole. Better, but I wish I would have tried taking fast little shuffle steps like one handler did. (I can never remember to keep my steps small if I'm moving quickly.)
Here's the video of Belle's first run. I jumped her at 16" to give another 16" handler with two dogs a chance to breathe between runs.
I taped a 20" team that often places at AKC trials and analyzed the video to see if I could find any handling tips. I didn't really see the handler do anything much differently than I did except for the end where he put in a front cross on the take off side of the penultimate jump instead of relying upon a pull from the landing side as I did. I broke the course down into four sections and found that Belle lost about two seconds on the BC from the triple to the jump after the tunnel. She lost only about a half of second on the remainder of the course.
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