Bud Houston posted an interesting JWW course designed by Lisa Selthofer on his blog yesterday. I was curious to see if Belle and I could do this one, and she performed like a trooper.
Bud's thinking was that a very big lead out would be necessary to handle the jump after the tunnel for anyone whose dog normally runs faster than the handler. Once I set up the course and walked it, I had to agree. No way I would get a decent turn over that jump without the benefit of distance handling for the opening. Additionally, without the benefit of cutting the yardage I had to run, Ed would have been calling for the rescue squad by the time we finished the weaves.
I lead out to about (0,50) on Bud's course map. My position was just a little off when I turned Belle to the double, so I used an off-arm to keep her on course to the jump. After that everything else went exceptionally well.
Since the jump after the tunnel is taken from the back side, I used the transferring of hands that I used yesterday and this morning on Dana Pike's course. Dusty didn't care for it here any more than he did on the Standard course. Additionally, we had several off-courses just getting to that jump. Interestingly, once we got beyond that point, Dusty was a happy camper and the rest of the course went as well as it did for Belle.
Bud talked about the gratuitous dummy jumps. For Belle they were a complete non-issue. For my wild child, Dusty, they were definitely an option. If it is warm enough tomorrow, I will break this course down into small chunks for Dusty and see if I can teach an old dog some new tricks.
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