We tried an interesting course last night by Harald Schjelderup, an international judge from NORWAY. This course is from last year at Drobak. Thanx to all of you who came out!
This is a photo with some ideas and then a summary follows.
There are a few options for handling starting with the beginning #4 – #7. Either do a serpentine, where you really have to work the send to #5 OR try 3 front crosses which means you really have to hustle your butt!
It helps the dog to know they are going to the weaves if you send and start to move away from the tunnel as they enter. Saw a lot of wide turns there. Staying with the dog on the left out of the tunnel and rear crossing the weaves might tighten the turn up even more. You can assess how well you showed the dog they were going to the weaves by how wide the turn out of the tunnel was. The wider the turn, the less info your dog had about where to go next.
A lot of dogs missed #10 due to the handlers setting a bad line out of the weaves and/or not handling #10 (don’t take it for granted).
Set up the turn at #12 so that the dog knows they are taking the correct tunnel entry (almost handle as if you were going to the chute). I tried 3 options here, handling to the #13 tunnel, handling to the off course tunnel and handling to the chute. It helped clarify how to show the dog where they are going next.
As the dog enters the chute they really need to know they are not in extension and that they should turn and look for you to get #15. Again I tried handling the off course option to the tunnel so that my dog could recognize when I was running vs decelerating at the chute entrance.
I was doing Valentine’s Day things last night but I did try this course this morning in the wind at 9:30AM. Some of the wings had to be put down on their sides but I managed the course three times and then I read this blog. I really loved doing it; especially those first 7. I tried it first with 3 front crosses and then serped it….our weaves were very good today…I tried goosing my dog a bit to rev her up and distract her while in the weaves to work on more independence and it seemed to work. Thanks for leaving the course up and for posting information about it here. Next time I will join you on Thursday night! Got through it twice with no errors and only one off course coming out of that tunnel from the chute the first time.
Pingback: Dog Agility Blog Events Action Day: Internationalization | blogility