Recipe for Crash ‘n Burn

This wasn’t actually the beginning of the course; but it was the part of the course that was responsible for an extraordinarily high NQ rate.

Truly only the top of this drawing and the right side represented the true ring boundaries. And so what we really need to see here is that for the most part dogs had a wingless jump with low visual acuity against the ring boundary (where there’s going to be a lot of visual clutter anyhow). If we combine this problem with the idea that too many handlers don’t understand a dog’s movement at all… in a pinwheel, then it’s a recipe for crash ‘n burn.

The lazy and artificial line drawn by the Clean Run Course Designer (CRCD) is commensurate with the lazy thinking of the handler who doesn’t understand the true shape of the dog’s path in a pinwheel. If you think in round terms… you are so doomed.

Think about it this way… the “corner” is the timing event for the handler to communicate a change of direction to the dog. Where exactly is the corner in a “U”? Indeed because the handler is engaged in round and sleepy dreamy movement, then they won’t be supporting the dog out to the end jump in the pinwheel.

By the way, note that if the curve continues over the bar of the jump… that means the dog is changing directions in the air. And while I’m not really a physics major… I’ll submit that is impossible.

Supporting the dog is really a simple matter of keeping focus and pressure to the jump on the outside of the pinwheel. I know this drawing shows the handler stepping deep into the pocket. For most dogs the handler’s movement this deep into the pinwheel really wouldn’t be required. But the pressure of facing and moving towards the outside jump in the pinwheel is the pass or fail handler test. If the handler rotates away to jump #4 (and beyond) before the dog has actually committed to jump #3… why on earth should the dog actually do it?

Bud’s Google-proof Trivia Contest

There is a city that partly exists in one continent and partly on another. What is this city?

First correct answer posted as a reply to this blog post wins a free copy of the February Jokers Notebook (or March, if you prefer).

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Questions comments & impassioned speeches to Bud Houston: BudHouston@hughes.net. Check out my latest publication the Jokers Notebook ~ Dog Agility Distance Training Plan – Feb 2010 available on the Country Dream Web Store: http://countrydream.wordpress.com/web-store/ . Readers of my web log get a discount: Enter “special02” in the box for the discount code. And that will take $5.00 off the price of the order.