More Distance Exercises

I set up another Jane Simmons-Moake course this morning and had a go with Belle and Dusty.  This is the exercise we worked on:

I started with Belle and quickly discovered that getting the correct end of the tunnel (white circle #4) was a very difficult thing.  The first time, Belle took the dogwalk, and on our other attempts, she took the wrong end of the tunnel (white square #4).  I brought out Dusty and figured we'd just mess around and do what we could do with this exercise.  To my amazement, he had absolutely no trouble getting the correct entrance. 

I decided to try this exercise with Belle again and tape it.  Maybe I could see what was going wrong.  I never did figure why it didn't work, but more importantly, we eventually got it right.  Here's the video:

 
My statement above brings to mind advice from Fred Brattain (The Art of Getting Out of Your Own Way).  When you analyze a run, don't think about what you did wrong; visualize what you should have done.  It is a subtle distinction; but one that is worth making.

Follow-Up on JSM Distance Exercise

I've been working on the distance exercises from Ms Simmons-Moake's May, 2008 article for several days now, and I've learned a lot.
 
Pushing out to #7 works about 2/3's of the time for Belle and me.

Going from #7 to #8 requires a verbal "wrap" from me as well as signaling the turn to #8 as soon as Belle has committed to #7 is not enough.  It requires a verbal "wrap" or it's either not going to happen or it's going to be a very wide turn.

I can't take #9 for granted even though it's close to me.

Belle responds nicely to the drop of my arm and turn of my body to take the inside jump after #4.

Jane Simmons-Moake

Jane Simmons-Moake has been writing articles about distance handling for at least seven years.  Among my old Clean Run articles are many articles from her "Unleashing Velcro" and "Distance Challenge" series.  Recently, I purchased her book, Unleashing the Velcro Dog, and I certainly would recommend it to anyone who is interested in improving their distance skills.

Exercise One

A few evenings ago, I ran across this interesting set of exercises from Ms Simmons-Moake's May, 2008, "Distance Challenge."  I decided to set up the course and see if I might gain some insight on how to get Belle to turn at a distance.  The difficulties we encountered on the first Flying Squirrel Exercise certainly pounded home the fact that I'm pretty much at a loss on how to accomplish this on my own.  I set up this course and worked the first three exercises.

Exercise Two

Exercise Three

Being able to handle the exercises from behind the blue line is the ultimate goal.  However, you and your dog are not comfortable with that much distance, Ms Simmons-Moake recommends using the red line.  As you will see in the video of my efforts, when I need to work on a tough sequence, I move in even closer than that if I have to.

Exercise Four

The only change I've made to the course is the additional tunnel at the bottom of the course map.  It proved to be a great doggy accelerator.

In the video, Belle and I try the first four exercises.  Take note, I actually set the bars in the jumps for a change.

Taking Care of Business

I started going through Jane Simmons-Moake’s Clean Run articles a couple of weeks ago looking for ideas I could use in my distance training program.  I ended up ordering her book, Unleashing the Velcro Dog, and found an exercise which involves sending your dog to the end of the dogwalk and wrapping him into a tunnel.  In order to best handle the closing, it is necessary to not pass the tunnel exit.  This means your dog must be able to perform the dogwalk without you holding her paw and you have to be able to turn her into the tunnel without being next to her.  It is painfully obvious that Belle doesn't quite understand where I want her to end up when she does her dogwalk.  In addition to the original purpose of Ms. Simmons-Moake's exercise, I became obsessed with the best way to handle the closing--front cross or rear.  With Belle, the front is best because I have to wait (stand still) in order to do the rear cross.

After running both Dusty and Belle, I decided to add a curved tunnel and an additional jump and devise some other sequences.  In the video below, I’m concentrating on the best way to handle the last three jumps.  I was really intent upon finding out whether a front cross before #7, a front cross between #7 and #8, or a rear cross at #8 was the most effective way to handle the closing.  In this instance, "most effective" means which cross got the fastest closing from my dog.  However, as I found out, you do have to handle all the obstacles if you hope to have a clean run.  (For Dusty, the rear cross was almost as effective as the front cross, and it was a lot easier to do.)

"Women and cats will do as they please and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea." Robert A. Heinlein