Sweet ‘n Low

I write from time to time that the handler is the architect of the dog’s path. What does that really mean to anybody? All of my own handling comes from an analysis of the dog’s path. If I don’t see the dog’s path or if I don’t understand it… then how can I conduct him upon it?

When I used the CRCD path tool to describe the dog’s path for this sequence I had to give a chuckle. This is what you get when you select “connect to numbers automatically.” The Clean Run Course Designer uses the same fuzzy logic that many handlers use when arriving at a handling strategy; just run from number to number and hope for the best along the way. It’s what I call “connect-the-dots” handling.

Please note the transition from the #3 pipe tunnel to jump #5. Is this real?

When we run the sequence in competition many handlers will learn the rude truth. If the dog curls out of the pipe tunnel into even a slightly efficient turn the consequential path through jump #4 gives the #5 jump a healthy miss. It’s not even close.

What I should like to do as a handler is see the “corner of approach” that I would like to create if I want the dog’s path to sweep through jumps #4 and #5 so that the jumps are presented to him in logical symmetry.

Note that I’m not specifying the handling to accomplish this feat. There’s more than one way to skin a cat.

The handler might also adjust the dog’s approach to jump #5 by sweetening his path on the landing side of jump #4. Note that it’s a two-corner turn and so likely calls for a two-part handler movement or compound directionals at the very least.

The path I’ve drawn here presumes either a pre-cued turn on the landing side of jump #4 or a very efficiently turning Corgi or Sheltie. The long striding dog with no advanced knowledge of the turn will have a considerably wider turn after jump #4.

Bud’s Google-proof Trivia Contest

By what system did Prof. Harold Hill teach the marching band to play?

First correct answer, posted as a reply to this blog post, wins a free copy of the August Jokers Notebook.

BLOG651

Questions comments & impassioned speeches to Bud Houston: BudHouston@hughes.net. Check out my latest publication the Jokers Notebook ~ Dog Agility Distance Training ~ Issue #0 ~ August 2010 available on the Country Dream Web Store: http://countrydream.wordpress.com/web-store/ . Readers of my web log get a discount: Enter “special00” in the box for the discount code. And that will take $5.00 off the price of the order.