A Difficult Rear Cross

On Monday, Willie and I ran a MC Standard course in class that featured this opening:

We haven't worked all that much on rear crossing the weaves, and this particular RC is going against the direction that Willie is traveling in the weaves.  Since getting this right is a training issue and not a handling issue, I opted to start at #4 on our next turn.  Then I went home and created a plan to work on this skill.

RC Weave Pole Entry

We'll start this exercise with 6 poles and I'll decide whether to work with 12 poles as we get each step or work through all four exercises before starting over with 12.

The first stage will involve moving the position of the jump from the black position to the red.  Then I'll return the jump to its starting position and work on increasing the angle of the weaves away from the tunnel.  Once Willie can handle the RC with the weaves angling away from the tunnel, I'll start moving the jump toward the red position.

The final exercise will be as shown at the bottom right, where I've added a second jump to approximate the challenge we faced this morning.

Here are the videos of our work on this sequence:

The Willies - A Backyard Exercise

Willie's understanding of my handling has grown by leaps and bounds.  Last week, I designed a setup that would allow us to work on several different skills.

Getting the white circle ending proved very difficult for us.

Here is the video of Willie and me working on one of the sequences.  The emphasis was supposed to be on the rear cross to the tunnel, but much to my surprise it became an exercise in getting the third jump in a pinwheel.

Front Cross, Rear Cross

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.

Running A-Frame - Rear Cross

I was going to work on the third sequence from Kathy Keats' March series this morning, but since I wanted to rear cross the A-frame, I decided to work on that first.  I've never been able to successfully rear cross the A-frame with Belle.  I am extremely envious of those who can cut across the heels of their dog and the dog doesn't waiver in its path.  When I cross Belle's path, she stalls out at the top of the A-frame.

As I worked through it this morning with Belle, she not only stalled out at the apex, she began stopping at the bottom.  You can see me working through these issues in the video.  After watching this morning's video, I decided the best way to work on teaching Belle to run the A-frame while I do a rear cross is to start very close to the line I want to cross and work on increasing my lateral distance from that line.  Whether or not I want to put the time and effort into teaching it is another matter.

Ironically, when I was working on getting Belle to run the A-frame without sticking, I discovered that a blind cross between the jump and the A-frame was probably a better choice for the sequence I was planning to run.  It has the advantage of keeping me in motion and ahead of Belle.  However, I still think that being able to rear cross the contacts is something that has its place in the handler's bag of tricks, and it is a skill I would definitely want to make sure my next dog and I have.  On the other hand, this is a skill that Belle and I have managed to do without for five years, so obviously there are ways to run successfully without it.

More Letter "a" Alphabet Drills - Threadles and Rear Cross

Exercise 2 provides the opportunity to do two threadles in quick succession.  Once Belle, Dusty and I were able to do the two threadles, I added different lead-ins to the exercise to increase the speed the dogs were running at.  Exercise 3 provides a chance to do a much more dynamic rear cross than Exercise 1.  Finally, Exercise 3 provides the chance to practice a lead out and three threadles in quick succession.