What a Difference A Day Makes

Hard to believe I was out in the field running courses on Thursday.  Here's what we awakened to on Friday.

Belle and I drove to Davenport for a trial, which thankfully didn't begin until 10 a.m.  On our Standard run, Belle left the table before the judge was done counting.  I used a hand signal when I left her at the table, but I failed to say "stay."  When I turned and faced her over the bar of the next jump, she came running.

The judge was very forgiving in his A-frame calls in T2B.  Belle missed the second one by about three inches, but still Q'd.  (In very slow motion, it looks like a toenail may have dragged across the top of the yellow on the first one.)  It's looking more and more like I may have to put temporary slats on my A-frame in order to finish re-training Belle's running A-frame.  On the positive side, she did seem to jump the apex and not skitter down in T2B.  She just didn't land far enough into the blue for her next stride to carry her into the yellow.  

In Standard, I did a front cross between the A-frame and the next jump, and Belle took three strides in her descent.  I really didn't want to do a front cross there for just that reason.  However, I didn't feel comfortable trying to execute a rear cross going into this particular pinwheel configuration, and I wasn't convinced a blind cross would give Belle a clear idea of where we were going next.

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As an aside: There were many very poorly executed front crosses at this point.  At least two were so misplaced that the dog went to the chute instead of the jump.  In many other instances the handler was in the dog's way and the dog had to swerve around him.  This is not shaping the dog's line; this is getting in the dog's way.  When you use a front cross and your body to shape a dog's line, his reaction should be "Got it!" not "Oh, crap!"

A Puzzlement

Yesterday, in addition to the USDAA course, I also set up the Olive Oil Elite Jumpers course using hoops.  (This is one of the courses from the VT sets in the NADAC Yahoo files.)  I didn't shot any video yesterday, but our major problem with this course was getting from the tunnel to the #10 hoop.

A dog naturally turns in to his handler unless the handler applies pressure to his line.  The less obvious the line and the less experienced the dog, the more the handler has to apply pressure to keep the dog on course.  On this course when the handler is 60 or more feet away from the tunnel, #10 is no longer the next logical obstacle from the dog's point of view.  The dog comes out of the tunnel looking for the handler--this immediately takes #10 out of the picture and makes #6 a good-looking candidate for the next obstacle.

My original plan was push out with my left arm toward #10 while moving toward #12.  I thought this would give Belle advance information as to where we were going next.  Unfortunately, from the video, it is quite obvious that doing this fails to give her information about where to go from the tunnel.

When I finally realized that I had to face the #10 hoop in order to get Belle to go through it, things went much better.  However, while editing the video, I realized that by facing #10 I was applying pressure to Belle's line.  I thought I was on to the key--face her line, and #10 will be a piece of cake.  I went out to try it one more time with this thought uppermost in my mind.  However, I was dismayed to find Belle was pausing for a split second when she emerged from the tunnel.  I tried calling "out" before she emerged from the tunnel, but that seemed to make matters even worse.  Waiting until she emerged and using an off-arm seemed to produce the smoothest line.

A heavy snow is predicted so it may be a few days before we can get back to this puzzle, but I'm looking forward to discovering how to get from the tunnel to #10 with no spins, head checks, or pauses.

Agility in Slow Motion

I was trolling the Net looking for agility exercises when I encountered this video.

The Mind is Willing, But ....

I'm planning to enter a USDAA trial at the end of March, and I was fortunate enough to find a series of courses from 2009 designed by Allison Bryant who will be the Masters/PIII judge at the trial.  I set up the Standard course today.

The angles of approach to the teeter and the A-frame called for some management.  Belle corrects her approach to the teeter each time, but if I had lead out to just beyond #2 and faced Belle, I might have been able to engineer a smoother approach to the teeter.  Since I can leave Belle on the table and lead out to the landing side of the tire, managing the A-frame approach was simple.  For the handler who is unable to lead out, the turn from tire to A-frame could get ugly.

I failed to appreciate how much yardage the position of the weaves would add to my run.  The first two times we tried this course, I went into the box and ran around the #8 jump.  In addition to adding unnecessary yardage to my run, it also put me way behind Belle as she got to the #12 jump.  By the time Belle finished the weaves, I was too winded to finish the course.

After the first two attempts, I knew I'd have to figure out a way to run smarter.  Indoors in a temperature-controlled setting and on sports turf, I might be able to run the course this way.  But outdoors on grass at 40°, no way.  I toyed with layering the weaves and sending Belle to the chute, but when we ran it again, I found that just staying on the take-off side of #8 saved me enough steps that I was able to finish the course.