Tackling A Championship Course

I set up Tamas Traj's FCI Agility World Championships 2016 Team Agility Large and gave it a go with Willie.  As part of the Bad Dog Agility VIP program, Sarah Fernandezlopez analyzed Susan Garrett's handling of this course, and I felt it was something we could take a stab at.  Click here to see Susan's run.

Notes on Our Attemps:

I tried to run this as Susan Garrett did.  I didn’t know if Willie could handle the long LO, but he had no problem with it.  However, my timing for the teeter was late every time.  The first time I was so late, Willie ended up in the #14 tunnel.  I re-watched Susan’s run and discovered that I needed to place my BC after the teeter not before.  That will allow me to take less of a LO and draw a better line to the teeter.

#7 requires support as I run by or Willie will just come with me and take #8.

I wasn’t really expecting the turn out of the weaves to the tunnel to be a big deal.  Unfortunately, I only said “tunnel” on our first attempt.  (I would have sworn I said “switch, tunnel,” but the video clearly shows I didn’t.)  A directional is needed here since the tunnel is not in Willie's line of sight.

I thought getting to the other side of the DW after #12 would be a real foot race, but it was actually not hard.  (Susan had to resort to a RC at the #14 tunnel, I was able to do a BC.  If my #13 had been a wall instead of a panel jump, I might well have had to hang back to ensure Will took the wall and then use a RC at the #14 tunnel.)

The second time through, I tried to push for a BC between 20/21 and failed big time.  Should have just used a RC like I did the first time.  (SG managed to do a FC!!!)

P.S.  We ran this again later in the day so I could try blind crossing the teeter exit.  Much to my surprise that proved to be a little slower for us.

A Little Distance Goes a Long Way

After enjoying several weeks of below normal temps, Mother Nature turned on us and it is hot, hot, hot!  In case I've never mentioned it before, I don't particularly care for hot weather.  I set up a course last week and then I lost interest in moving the equipment around for a new course.  I finally found a course that motivated me to get up early to beat the heat.  Here's the course:

The course is from the Buenos Aires Regionals and was designed by Rodrigo P. Balsells.  I thought it presented enough challenges to make setting it up worthwhile, plus I can see other courses embedded in it so I can leave it up for a while.

I made a mistake in walking the course and planned for #5 in the wrong direction.  However, even taking it from the wrong side, you have to make sure your dog is committed to the correct end of the tunnel before you can take off for the backside at #8.  I assumed #13 was to be taken from the numbered side which produces two threadles. 

I anticipated that getting Belle to the backside of #8 and #20 would be my biggest challenges.  However,  I was totally blindsided by the difficulties we encountered turning from #14 to the long jump!  After muddling through that using a number of different commands, I decided to try running 12-16 using some distance.  It certainly couldn't be any worse.  Remaining somewhat removed from the obstacles would remove the acceleration cues I was inadvertently giving while trying to get to the obstacles.  It would also allow me to stand in a spot where Belle could see me as she exited the #14 tunnel, and it would enable me to be further downstream for the run to the backside of #20.

Tomorrow, we'll give this course another go with the following changes:

• take #5 from the side indicated
• run 12-14 as a serpentine
• add an extra loop (14,18,14) to see if Belle is pattern trained in regard to the turn to the long jump

First Day:

Biathlon Jumpers Course from IFCS CCOA

Steve Schwarz, the Agility Nerd, did a Chalk Talk on this course from last weekend's IFCS Championship of the Americas.  I decided to set it up and work on it for a couple of days.  The biggest physical challenge for me was getting from 7 to 11 in time to indicate which side of the jump Belle was to take.  I tried a rear cross in my first efforts because I didn't think I could get in either a blind cross or a front cross between 8 and 9.  However, with a little bit of hustle the blind is certainly doable.  Much to my surprise though, Belle turned left after #10, both after a rear cross and the blind, despite the fact I was on her right side.  I must have been pressuring her line ever so slightly to get her around the wing of 11.  Note to self:  Run at the wing or standard when I want Belle to take a jump from the backside.  Don't run at the bar and don't run at a spot 6" from the wing.

After I watched our complete run, I also watched video from the actual trial.  For our next session, I wanted to do the following:

1.  Do a running LO and do a FC on the landing side of #3.  Worked on this, but I wasn't able to consistently get far enough ahead to do a FC between 5/6 and get 6 from the backside.

2.  Don't run so fast at the gap in the threadle so I can keep moving instead of having to wait for Belle to catch up so I can push her into the gap.  This one I was able to remember and do.

3.  Try a BC between 8 & 9.  Worked better than a RC even when I was late.

4.  Be a little quicker with my FC at #12 to tighten Belle's wrap.  (I don't have to get to the wing, I only have to get to the line between 12 and 13.)  Not so much.  By this point on the course I'm starting to suck wind :(

5.  Don't outrun Belle to #19 and head toward the left wing, not the bar.  Yep.  And I was even able to take off for the final jump before she cleared the bar.    

We ran the complete course a second time, but unfortunately I forgot to turn the camera on.  The most memorable thing for me was that I got too far ahead after the triple and added a heck of a lot of extra yardage to my path.  To add insult to injury, the course is uphill at that point.  So maybe another thing to try would be:

6.  A FC after the triple.  Yeah, right.  Like I could even get there in time.  A well-timed RC cut my yardage and made for a nice turn into the weaves for Belle.

The video shows our "first" and final attempts on this course, plus some bloopers.  The final run is almost three seconds faster, and the only substantive change in my handling of the final attempt was using a BC instead of a RC between 8 and 9.  Most of the difference was due to tightening up Belle's path at the back of the course (9-15).  Interestingly, she still faded left after #10, but not nearly as much as the first time.  I think the only way to avoid that fade would to run faster, which is easier said than done.

Distance and the International Course

A couple of days ago, the Agility Nerd posted this course designed by Eduard Bonet and some exercises that he designed that were inspired by Bonet's course.  (The original course was in meters and oriented in landscape format.  I took the liberty of orienting it so that corresponds with the angle I planned to shoot from.)

1-9 wasn't too bad for this old body, but from 9 to 18 there is an awful lot of running to be done.  Since I'm still working on a running DW, I wasn't about to stop Belle in a 2o2o so I catch up to her for the back side of 18.  That only left me with one option. I had to start running along the DW while Belle was traveling from the weaves to 16.  Since this sprint comes at the end of the run, I decided to send her to the broad jump and the chute, and then call her over 16 and do a post turn to the weaves.  The first time through, I forgot myself and ended up scooping her across my feet into the weaves.  It worked, but I think a FC followed by post turn would have been more efficient.  Other areas that could be improved:

3-4:  Do a post turn.  I finally decided the post turn was too boring for me, so I did a Ketschker.  The K was no faster, but at least I felt like I was doing something.

8:  Slow my stride sooner.  Belle went way deep because I was still showing extension in my stride.  Once I realized I had made this mistake, I was very good about showing collection soon enough for Belle to make a nice wrap at #8.

9:  Go to the tunnel with Belle so that I don't have to stand still or slow down to let her pass me on the way to the teeter.  This turned out to be an exceptionally bad idea.  If the handler is running, the logical obstacle from the dog's point of view becomes the weaves.  I also tried doing a FC on the landing side of the panel jump.  It certainly takes the weaves out of the picture, but it makes it a little more difficult to send Belle on to the chute and pick her up for the weaves.

The best approach for us was handling from the TOS side of the panel jump.  I just had to make sure to bring Belle into handler focus so she didn't have a loopy path to the teeter.

14:  Stop moving before she exits the chute.  Get her attention and move toward the weaves for my post turn.  Actually, an even bigger problem was that I never remembered to give her a verbal cue while she was still in the chute.

Here's the video of our first run, some efforts to improve a few sections, and our final run.

Übung Monat August (Exercise for the Month of August)

I started corresponding with Tanja of Scotti's Seite from Germany in March when she contacted me for directions to construct some hoops. Unfortunately, Tanja only speaks German and the only other language I have some fluency in is Spanish, so we must depend upon Google Translator to communicate.  German has a very flexible grammatical structure and the translations from German to English are often obscure.  I can only imagine how mangled the English to German translations are.

Tanja and Claudia have been involved in agility for more more than 14 years and are agility seminar presenters who seem to be in great demand in Germany.  Tanja combines distance with the technical skills needed on a German course.  The send distance of her dogs is very impressive.

Anyway, Tanja asked me if I would like to join her group and share my running of the monthly exercises they do (Übungen des Monats). There is a new base course each month that features three different sequences.  Each sequence is to be handled in two different ways.  Everyone films from the same spot on the course so that we can compare ways of handling.

That much I understood.  However, I thought Tanja or her friend Claudia did all the course designing.  Imagine my surprise when I was asked to design this month's exercises.  I've designed practice courses before, but German practice courses involve threadles and lot's of really "weird stuff" that I only do occasionally, so I'm really working at a disadvantage in trying to design a course of sufficient complexity.  I decided to keep my course layout simple and used a three-jump serpentine, a pinwheel, two tunnels and a set of weave poles.  Here's the base course:

Now comes the hard part, dreaming up three sequences that defy the concept of "flow."  In addition to having to think out of the box to set up the sequences, I was faced with the additional problem of memorizing the courses so that I could run them and see if they were hard enough.  For me, flow equals a logical way to move through a course that doesn't require the full attention of all my little gray cells just to memorize the order of the obstacles.  "Non-flow" means I have to really memorize the sequence so I know where we're going and can let Belle know in time for her to do something about it.  (Sort of like going for all 7's in Snooker.)

I  worked on the hardest exercise first, which was Exercise 3.

The first way I chose to handle went pretty well, as you can see here.  (I decided to change #11 to the backside after filming.)



But then I had to come up with something different for my second run.  I decided to run with Belle for 1-3 and rear cross the weaves.  I quickly found that if I didn't run far enough beyond the first pole (to the left) with Belle before turning and sending her into the weaves, my motion to complete the turn and head in the right direction would either cause Belle to stop weaving or pop out.

Handler's path for a successful rear cross on the weaves.

 

Next I worked on the second exercise.  That one wasn't too bad.

Lastly, I tackled the first exercise.  Ugh!  This one was supposed to be the simplest of the bunch.  I tried filming it during three different sessions without getting it right.  (A lot of our aborted efforts were at the weave pole exit when I goofed and thought that Belle had popped out on the wrong side as I tried to execute a front cross.  Duh, dumb handler.)  Another spot where we had a problem was getting from 8 to 9.  My initial efforts to keep Belle away from the off-course 2/10 jump resulted in her taking #9 from the wrong side.

Actually, now that I posted the course map, I see that I forgot about the wrap to the #11 tunnel on our "successful" runs during our fourth session with this sequence.  Oh, well.  Such is life.  I've already taken down the course and mowed, so what you see is what you get.  On a much more positive note, at least this month I was able to do all three exercises.  In July, I never came close to getting the third one--largely because I just couldn't remember the sequence while running in the heat and humidity.

Here's the video of our most successful efforts on these three courses.  (I will add the videos of other people running these exercises as they become available.)

July Parcours from Germany

Tanja from Scotti's Seite on YouTube invited me to run the monthly exercises she puts together.  I tried the July exercises last Friday and was rathered bummed out by our inability to handle them.  Basically, many of the challenges of the German courses are just things we never see here in the States, and therefore, Belle and I are tackling them from scratch.  In essence the courses demand that either you run with your dog (for the young and the fast) or you can work distance and extremely close to your dog as needed.

Here is the video of the first two exercises--successes and failures included.  We worked on the third exercise also, but it was sprinkling so I had to put the camera away.  For some reason, I had a very difficult time remembering the third sequence.  Probably the heat and humidity.  This is definitely a project I would be better off tackling on a cool spring or autumn day.

Euro Puzzle

Thursday, my DH surprised me by bringing home a piece of exterior plywood so we could repair the A-frame.  After working the twisty, turny, technical courses of The Agility Coach, I decided it was time for a change of pace.  On June 17th, Bud Houston posted a European-style course from one of his readers.  Click here to read Bud's post and view the course map.

I usually use course maps to memorize the order of the obstacles and form some tenative ideas on how to handle.  Unfortunately, even after eight years of building courses from course maps, I really don't have a good eye for relative distance, traps, and difficult approaches.  Such was the case with this course.  This course is 120 feet wide.  The distance from the #11 jump to the #12 tunnel is fifty feet!!!  That is a huge distance even by NADAC standards.

I chose this course because the original question was how to achieve a pull-through from #16 to #17.  When I commented on Bud's post, I didn't think I'd be able to get close enough to manage a pull-through.  However, provided #16 was not too close to the ring wall, I felt I could try wrapping Belle right around #16 and bring her through the box to #17.

I also had a half-brained idea that if wrapping right was not an option, I might be able to handle 5-17 from the back end of the course so I could do a threadle from 16 to 17.  However, after looking at the path from the weave poles to the #10 jump, I don't think it will work.  The dog leaves the weaves on an angle that would cause him to run by the jump unless the handler does something to alter his path.  But for giggles and grins, I will give it a try.

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Well, it's dusk and the A-frame side is still not quite dry.  Since I may not get a chance to work with Belle tomorrow due to other commitments, I decided to try the first part of the course.  Running with the dogwalk on my right (I don't know what I was thinking when I drew the handler's path on the course above--no way I'm going to be able to get to the other side of the dogwalk and run with it on my left.), we made over jump #10 and then Belle went off-course to jump #3--don't know why I didn't realize that was a very viable option after the depressed angle over #10.  Started over and made sure to get Belle's attention and direct her to #11.  However, the send to the distant tunnel was derailed by an off-course to jump #19.  I have to remember to not turn toward the back of the course until Belle is past #19.  

Now I was really on a roll and decided to try the 16-17 part.  I discovered that even gimping along on a bad ankle, I easily made it into position to do a threadle by running between the dogwalk and A-frame.  

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Saturday evening.  Ed put the A-frame together for me while I was gone this morning, so all I had to do was wait for it to cool down a little so I could tackle the whole course with Belle.  Having learned from my mistakes yesterday, we nailed the course the first time through this evening.  Since that went so well, I decided I would at least try my suggestion for handling 5-17 from the back of the course.  Not surprisingly, once again Belle took the off-course jump after #10.  I just kept going until she knocked a bar at #17.  I started her over from the dogwalk and this time, she nailed the sequence from the weave poles to the tunnel.

The last thing I tried was getting Belle to wrap right at #17 when I was at a distance.  It worked, but by layering the A-frame while the dog is doing the tunnel, teeter, jump, even a slow handler has enough time to get to #17 for a threadle, and the threadle produces a faster, shorter line to the A-frame.

One last comment on this course, the last jump is really off-set from the jump after the A-frame.  A rear cross at the A-frame or a blind cross allow the handler to make it much clearer to dog where the course is going.