I worked on this course with Willie the other day. Although this course was designed for very novice dogs, 5-7 is really a pretty advanced sequence. I tried it with both a front cross and a rear, and decided I didn't really care for the rear cross with Willie because he focuses too much on me. Here's the video:
This morning I decided to use this course to see if Belle truly responds to my collection cues. First, we ran a straight line three jump sequence using #5 from the above course as the second jump. Then we ran the course as designed. I marked the resulting video with two x's to show Belle's best collection take-off and landing spots.
I discovered Belle does respond to the collection cues, and that this is a very bad place to use a front cross to cue collection. First rule for a front cross: You have to be ahead of your dog. If you have to try to beat your dog, you can't effectively cue collection. Belle paid the price with a face plant. For Belle and me, the rear cross was a much better choice in this situation.
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