I provided a bit of discussion yesterday (http://wp.me/pmSZZ-JV) on the Accelerating Step used in a straight-away send.
It is the same manner of movement that compels the dog to turn away in a Tandem Turn. In the illustration below the handler shows the Tandem and then layers to the opposite side of the line of jumps that introduced the movement; thus it is a layered Tandem.
In preparation for the turn the handler reserves enough lateral distance to turn the corner and take a compelling step (the accelerating step) in the new direction of the course.
The dog gets a good view of the handler turning and taking steps in a new direction; and as he turns away to get focus on the next jump the fact that the handler has stopped his forward movement is lost to the dog because he’s facing the other direction.
There is a moment as the dog makes the turn after the #3 hurdle that he’ll need a bit of support from the handler. Even at a distance the handler should face in the direction of the weave poles and give a verbal command for the dog to get in them. The handler can strike a parallel path when the dog gets focus on the weave poles and gets in them.
The accelerating step is always a matter of timing. It is also worth noting that it is a matter of “drama”. The step should be convincing and real. The handler should look to the dog like he is going, even though he does not.
Bud’s Google-proof Trivia Contest
Who was the military man who was named after a great American Indian chieftain and who once was in charge of the military school that is now LSU?
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March 6, 2011 at 10:06 pm
That military man would be William Tecumseh Sherman.
March 7, 2011 at 9:56 am
Yah, that’s right. I was going to add to the hints that he was also named in a book by Margaret Mitchell. Sherman was, after all, the wind that swept across Georgia.
I find his connections to the south interesting. He trained many of the Confederate officers at the Louisiana Military Academy. It was a small world then.
Bud
March 6, 2011 at 11:19 pm
Say Jeff, did ya Google that?
March 7, 2011 at 10:35 am
“Did you Google that?” is really the acid question. We live in this plugged in world in which true knowledge is no longer necessary; following the old adage that says intelligence is the ability to find out a fact rather than actually knowing the fact. I think kids today are doomed to an existence of intellectual sloth. There is no compelling reason to read books or go out and discover the world they live in. All of my so-called “Google Proof” questions are silly things that bang around in my brain. But that too is a useless artifact of the past. It’ll one day be pickled like Broca’s.
March 7, 2011 at 2:02 pm
Only his bio – I thought the name was correct, but did not know of his association with LSU. Ya learn something new every day.
March 9, 2011 at 5:21 pm
I don’t think I know of another “military man” with an Indian name. Tecumseh has Ohio roots which is also where Sherman comes from. So his family was probably steeped in the lore of the region.
March 7, 2011 at 4:23 pm
“We live in this plugged in world in which true knowledge is no longer necessary; following the old adage that says intelligence is the ability to find out a fact rather than actually knowing the fact.”
I disagree. Knowledge is knowing facts or how to do something. Knowledge may be a part of intelligence, but it is certainly not its whole.
According to Webster’s dictionary, “intelligence” is the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations; reason; also the skilled use of reason; mental acuteness; shrewdness