Just a Little Hustle

Qualifying runs have been eluding Willie and me.  So far we have 10 Excellent/Master Standard runs and only 3 Q's.  Ex/Mas JWW is even worse.  Nine runs and no Q's!  Among other things, what was killing us in JWW was being unable to complete a long closing line without incurring a refusal due to a spin.

I was a participant in Tracy Sklenar's online Learn Your Dog Camp 2015 and she was quickly identified my problem with the long-line closings.  I was trying to send Willie on ahead of me with the big arm fling.  What I should have been doing was tucking up my arms and sprinting toward the finish albeit many feet or yards behind Willie.  Of course, I didn't get a chance to try this out last weekend because there was not a long-line closing on any of the seven courses we ran.  However, when it crops up again, I will be prepared.

After going 1/7 last weekend, I decided it was time to start setting up two or three JWW courses a week and seriously striving to get them right the first time.  So far we are 2/2.

This morning's course was designed by Dan Butcher, and I was very pleased that we nailed it the first time.  Additionally, I was very proud of the timing of my send and run at the tunnel and at #17 and Willie's ability to read the forced front cross on the run at #10.  My biggest handling error was failing to reconnect with Willie after my BC between 17 and 18.

One of the greatest downsides to training alone is trying to improve your handling.  Video helps me to see when something is going badly, but I may not be able to discern why or how to fix it.  Even when things go well, there are probably things I could do even better, but if I knew what those things were, I would have done them in the first place, n'est pas?  

I was fortunate enough to find video of someone running this course at trial, and she did a wonderful job of handling her dog.  Actually, that wasn't too surprising since it turns out she is a handler of world team caliber.  I tried not to get too carried away comparing our run and hers, but I did come away with several handling choices to ponder.  (Left to my own devices I probably never would have thought of any of them.)

1.  Right off the bat, the WT handler gained almost a full obstacle on us by sending her dog to the second obstacle and taking off for a FC on the landing side of #3 so she could handle DOL through the weaves.  (I stuck close to #2 and RC'd #4, a much more leisurely approach.)

2.  At #10, I did a forced front cross and then RC'ed 11.  This meant I had to handle 12-15 from behind.  The WT handler sent her dog to the backside at 10 and ran along the bar on the landing side, picking her dog up on her left.  She then made a beeline for a FC on the landing side of 12 and was able to tighten her dogs turns at 13-15 very nicely.  That savings in yardage put her dog another whole obstacle ahead of Willie.

3.  Additionally, the WT handler chose to handle the weave exit with a grab.  I used a FC close placed close to 6.  Her dog had a much tighter turn out of the weaves, but her dog is also a 16" Sheltie.  The only way to know if it would improve our time is to try it.

Both 1 and 2 demonstrate the advantage of getting ahead of your dog in terms of saving yardage.  However, whether or not it is always possible to get there is another matter altogether.

Willie and I went out in the afternoon and gave this another go.  The different opening and the weave exit grab presented no problem, and they definitely saved us a few yards.  I was able to easily push Willie to the back of #10 and pick him up on my right.  However, my FC before #13 was late and I was in Willie's way.  We ran the course one more time, and instead of trying for the FC on the take off side of #13, I merely got closer to the landing side and directed Willie from there.  (Interestingly, his turn from 14 to 15 was tighter when I was further away, although overall this section benefited from me being closer to the action.)  With just a little bit of hustle on my part, we shaved almost a whole second off of the run.

The Devil is in the Details

Belle and I traveled to Muscatine, Iowa yesterday for one day of an AKC trial hosted by the Muscatine Agility Club of Iowa.  The trial was held in a horse arena.  Usually, I bring along hiking shoes just in case the footing is too uneven for me to negotiate in my running shoes.  Unfortunately, I didn't bring them with yesterday :(  I found just walking on the surface hard, so I taped my ankle and planned for as much distance as possible.  JWW was first and it lent itself to distance handling beautifully.

I was able to take a very long lead out which enabled me to easily do a front cross between 4 and 5.  

By far the best way to handle 8 to 9 was to execute a rear cross between them.  However, I knew I'd never get back to the 12/13 gap in time for a front or blind cross.  (A rear cross at this point had the unfortunate tendency to pull the dog off #15.)  Therefore, I spent a lot of time planning a front cross.  I executed the cross well enough, but I failed to carry forward until Belle committed to #9 (red line), and we incurred a refusal.  The rest of the run went as planned.

So many of the small dog handlers wrapped their dogs right at #17,  I really thought I'd missed something on the walk-thru.  However, it just didn't make sense to me to do two extra lead changes when you don't have to.  For the 24" and 26" dogs, I think wrapping right produced a nicer line to the last jump since for the most part they turned wide around either wing and turning wide around the right wing put them directly on a line for #18.  Turning wide around the left wing did not.  Most of the 20" dogs and all of the smaller dogs were capable of wrapping left tightly enough that they were heading directly at #18 after the wrap.

Standard did not lend itself to picking a couple of spots to handle from.  However, JWW round tamped down the surface and evened it out considerably.

Nonetheless, I tried to plot as an efficient a course as possible to minimize my yardage.  Almost ever handler put in a front cross between the teeter and the panel jump.  I used a rear cross between the panel and the tire and it worked quite well.  I was able to easily get in a front cross by #7.  For 8, 9, 10, I did a post turn.  My original plan was to rear cross the weaves, but the run was going so well and I knew it was an easy push to the #12 tunnel, so I didn't bother with the rear cross.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to slow myself down and keep my right arm close as we ran from tunnel to #13 and Belle went sailing off course to the dogwalk.  Bad, bad arm.

Our final run was T2B and the surface had been leveled out even more.

I opened the same way I did in Standard, but now it was a straight shot to the tunnel if you set your dog up on an angle to #1.  I debated whether to handle the serpentine from the back side or the front and decided on the front, realizing that I would have to pace myself in order to do a nice rear cross at the weave entrance.  In my haste to get in a front cross on the landing side of #8, I finished my rotation too soon and pulled Belle into the gap.  But since refusals don't count in T2B (except for the time they suck up), I was able to fix my mistake and we earned 9 points.

I really liked the courses that Annette Narel designed for Friday, and I look forward to running under her again. 

A JWW Course from Bud Houston's Blog

Bud Houston posted an interesting JWW course designed by Lisa Selthofer on his blog yesterday.  I was curious to see if Belle and I could do this one, and she performed like a trooper.

Bud's thinking was that a very big lead out would be necessary to handle the jump after the tunnel for anyone whose dog normally runs faster than the handler.  Once I set up the course and walked it, I had to agree.  No way I would get a decent turn over that jump without the benefit of distance handling for the opening.  Additionally, without the benefit of cutting the yardage I had to run, Ed would have been calling for the rescue squad by the time we finished the weaves.

I lead out to about (0,50) on Bud's course map.  My position was just a little off when I turned Belle to the double, so I used an off-arm to keep her on course to the jump.  After that everything else went exceptionally well.

Since the jump after the tunnel is taken from the back side, I used the transferring of hands that I used yesterday and this morning on Dana Pike's course.  Dusty didn't care for it here any more than he did on the Standard course.  Additionally, we had several off-courses just getting to that jump.  Interestingly, once we got beyond that point, Dusty was a happy camper and the rest of the course went as well as it did for Belle.

Bud talked about the gratuitous dummy jumps.  For Belle they were a complete non-issue.  For my wild child, Dusty, they were definitely an option.  If it is warm enough tomorrow, I will break this course down into small chunks for Dusty and see if I can teach an old dog some new tricks.

Thursday Night JWW Practice

I had a chance to try handling with more energy last night on a JWW course set up at the QCDC.  One big problem I have when walking a course is figuring out where I'm going to be in relationship to my dog.  More often than not, I underestimate my ability to get ahead of Belle.  This was definitely the case last night.  I never dreamed I would be able to put in the two front crosses so easily.  I found myself having to wait for Belle at the tunnel entrance, so I probably should have only lead out to a spot about four or five feet from the second jump and done a front cross between #2 and #3.  I also found myself marking time at the weave exit.  The next time I ran, I ran closer to Belle on the two jumps before the weaves and moved toward the tire instead of toward the last weave pole.  Better, but I wish I would have tried taking fast little shuffle steps like one handler did.  (I can never remember to keep my steps small if I'm moving quickly.)

Here's the video of Belle's first run.  I jumped her at 16" to give another 16" handler with two dogs a chance to breathe between runs.




I taped a 20" team that often places at AKC trials and analyzed the video to see if I could find any handling tips.  I didn't really see the handler do anything much differently than I did except for the end where he put in a front cross on the take off side of the penultimate jump instead of relying upon a pull from the landing side as I did.  I broke the course down into four sections and found that Belle lost about two seconds on the BC from the triple to the jump after the tunnel.  She lost only about a half of second on the remainder of the course. 

Thursday Night Practice at QCDC

Tonight's course was a JWW course designed by Laura English for last weekend's trial at Camp Bandy.  Here is a rough approximation of the course.

 

When I walked this course, I thought the biggest challenge was getting the dog into the correct end of the tunnel at #9.  However, very few people had a problem with this.  Upon exiting the tunnel though several dogs took off-course #8.

The serpentine 13-15 proved to be an area where precious seconds could by lost on the run.  My plan was to run the black path, and I did so with both Dusty and Belle.  With Dusty, I failed to support him out to the second jump of the pinwheel, so on our next run I tried the red path which many of the other handlers had taken.  The biggest danger with this path was sending the dog into the wrong end of the #15 tunnel by showing too much forward motion.  A couple of dogs  failed to heed the front cross between #12 and #13 and either took a very loopy path or actually entered the weaves.  I found that I had much more control over the dogs' lines when I used the red handler's path.

Tonight was huge for Dusty and me.  I think all the relaxation work that I've been doing with him may be paying off.  Micky and David are in California for the AKC Invitationals with Micky's Westie, Woody, so I did all the running with Dusty this evening.  I was so proud of him.  He managed to go to the start line without barking, spinning or air-biting.  We experienced only one minor melt-down (when I failed to support him in the pinwheel and insisted on re-starting it instead of going with the flow), but there was only barking, no air-biting.  I think he only barked at me one other time on course (when I rear-crossed him going into a tunnel).

It's not that Dusty ever gave me attitude on course.  It's just that he gets higher than a kite and reverts to whirling dervish mode.  To have him run and not experience a meltdown, just makes me so happy, I could cry.

 

JWW Practice Course

This evening at the Quad Cities Dog Center, they set up a JWW course designed by Jacqueline Hoye from the 2008 Great St. Louis Agility Club’s Thanksgiving Weekend Trial.  What a treat.  A JWW course that allowed for distance handling.  I ran this course using three rear crosses and one front cross a couple of times.  Unfortunately, Belle is not quite fast enough to allow me to do the rear crosses unless I put an extra wide curve in my path.  If I would remember to go into pinwheels with her, I could probably take some of the curve out of my line, but staying out of a pinwheel is very, very ingrained into my psyche.


I also tried taking a lead-out and doing two front crosses, a rear and then a final front cross.  I must admit that I liked this way of handling the course better.  I wasn't standing around waiting to rear cross, and I didn't have to take a loopy line to allow Belle to pass me.  It was also resulted in a run that was about .8 of a second faster.

David and Micky took turns running Dusty this evening, but I got the final run with him.  He did some air-biting at the start line, but the only other static I got from him was a couple of barks--no spins, no coming back at me for being late.  Just full steam ahead.  I ran him with the three rear crosses and single front.  He moves so much faster than Belle that I almost didn't make it for the front cross despite the fact that I sent him just as I did Belle.  

Here is the footage of Belle and me.  Unfortunately, :( my videographer was too busy chatting to capture my run with Dusty.