Power Paws - Long Way, Short Way: Exercise One

I set up the Power Paws drill created by Nancy Gyes for the March, 2011, issue of Clean Run.  I had a lot of fun with the first exercise.  The primary considerations were which way to wrap your dog around #4 and are you going to try handling 4-7 with the dog on your right or your left or a combination of the two?

I had quite a bit of trouble getting Dusty to take #7 from the correct direction.  Given his speed and his ability to turn off an obstacle in the blink of an eye, I think the best choice was handling him off my right in the weaves and allowing him to go ahead of me over #6 so that I could do a rear cross.

With Belle, almost every combination worked, but the fastest time was produced by wrapping her left around #4 while I stood about half way between #3 and #5.  This allowed me to sprint along the outside for the closing.  However, I did have to make sure that I held my ground long enough for Belle to make the weave entry.

I also found that as Belle got faster, it became harder and harder us to get the last two jumps if I was handling from the outside.  I just couldn't get there fast enough unless I  started running before Belle entered the weaves, and she just isn't quite ready for that.  Therefore, the best way for me to handle this was to do a front cross at the weave exit.  It resulted in a slightly slower run, but at least it allowed me to cue Belle as to the last two jumps.