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.
Willie is almost six months old already, and I can't believe how far he's come. Between working with the dogs, editing video, and getting my flower beds ready for winter, there just doesn't seem to be any time or creative energy left for writing. However, I am continuing to post video on my YouTube channel, so be sure to check it out occasionally to see Willie's progress. Here's a short video of today's rear end awareness session.
I've been working on serps and threadles with Belle, so I decided to do some more work on serpentines with Willie. We are working with jump standards instead of hoops since between us, we've broken four of the hoops. Wish I had used 1" PVC instead of 3/4".
I couldn't remember how I taught Belle to serpentine, so I did a web search and found and this on Bud Houston's blog and this on Bad Dog Agility. Bud's method seemed rather out-dated and the method shown on BDA was a little too advanced for young Willie (although now that we have a little serpentine training under our collars, I think I'll give it a go) .
I started searching through my library of articles but couldn't find anything. Then I remembered Nancy Gyes had written a two-part series on serpentines in Clean Run (06 & 07/2013). We worked on the foundation exercises in the first article and then last week, I built a setup very similar to this for Belle, so I decided to work Willie on it. (The distances between obstacles are a little wider than I'd really like, but I figured what the heck I'll expose him to speed and distance right off the bat.)
Since the tunnel on the left was actually a set of weaves, my goal was to do 1-6. I quickly discovered this exercise depended upon a number of skills:
- Willie has to send to the tunnel in order for me to get into position at 4.
- He has to learn to take 4 even if I'm at the far wing/standard or entering the gap between 4 and 5.
- Then he has to take the middle jump moving away from me and the direction I'm headed.
- Finally, he has to come back over the third jump in the serp, which also requires him to ignore the direction I'm moving in. (If he doesn't he will run by the jump on the backside.)
I'm currently auditing a class at Agility University, and one of my classmates posted the Masters Challenge Jumpers course from the USDAA North Central Regionals. It looked complicated, so what the heck I set it up. Then I walked it and reality came crashing down on me.
The distance from 10 to 11 is about 25' and the #2 jump is certainly seems like a very logical off-course. The simplest way to handle it would be to get to the right standard of the double before your dog. However, that certainly isn't going to happen for Belle and me. I thought my best option would be a front cross between 9 and 10 in order to collect Belle before she took the double. However, getting from 4 to 7 takes a little bit of handler participation, so I didn't really think I could even get in a blind cross between 9 and 10. As it turned out, Belle slices the double very nicely and a blind cross and my running toward #11 were all that was needed. No need for any collection cues until a stride or two before #11.
Going through the gap from the weaves to #13 was part of this week's lesson at Agility U, so I at least had a plan for this challenge. Biggest problem I ran into here was being late in calling Belle to my side.
The remaining challenge is getting from 17 to 18. I thought the tunnel might be an attractive off-course, but it really wasn't. I tried two different ways of handling #17. Both times I was pretty far behind Belle because of the second threadle at 15. First time, I ran toward 18 and used a switch command as Belle landed after 17. The second time, I had Belle wrap 17 to the right (toward me) which enabled me to catch up to her a little bit. Both ways, I had to rely on switch commands and "remote" rear crosses to finish the course. However, although wrapping 17 seemed a little awkward, it enabled me to catch up just enough to tighten Belle's path on the remaining jumps, and it made the close seem a lot more controlled.
