A Geometry Lesson

I wrote this post back in October, but never published it because I was unable to retrieve the video of Dusty.

Belle opened up one of her pads Saturday while out playing, so I just had Dusty to run today.  Last week I set up the "Backyard Dogs" exercises from Clean Run, June '11.  I ran one or two a day, concentrating on giving timely turn signals to the dogs.  This is the exercise that Dusty and I worked on today.  I thought this exercise would be good for trying different handling options.  One of those options was to lead out on Dusty's left and attempt a Ketschker at #3.  He just wouldn't buy it and tried coming around the jump and running between me and the jump.  (I accidentally deleted the video, and am trying to recover it.)  Anyway, the long and the short of it is that whether I lead out on Dusty's right or his left or to the landing side of #3, he had a strong preference for turning right.

When I came inside and took a more thoughtful look at the course map, the light bulb went on.  I viewed 1-3 as a straight line.  Just as I viewed 9-11 as a straight line in Saturday's Standard course.  Well, they are straight lines, but they are straight lines that are at a very definite angle to the obstacle that follows.  In the BYD exercise, the line converging with the desired obstacle--the tunnel entrance; in the Standard course, the line is diverging from the desired obstacle, the table.

Today, I thought I could wrap Dusty to the left to avoid the off-course tunnel opening, and it wouldn't be that hard to accomplish.  Saturday, I thought I could wrap Belle right at #11 with a post turn.  In both cases, I failed to see the very basic fact that the dog's line of movement was most definitely favoring a turn in the opposite direction.