Pull Through

Let’s define a pull-through as an agility skill in which the handler has to pull the dog between two wrong course options. This is easy enough to illustrate:

In this short sequence the handler has an option to pull-through in the transition from jump #3 to jump #4. If he turns the dog to the left he has to pull the dog between jump #3 and the dummy jump. Less obvious, if the handler turns the dog to the right, then it’s a bit of a pull through to get past the dogwalk. The acid question is “whither the course” after jump #4.

With that in mind the sequence continues with compounded pull-throughs. At jump #4 the handler has an option of taking the pull-through if he turns the dog to the right. Turning the dog to the left avoids the wrong course option, but certainly creates a longer consequential path to get back to jump #5.

The turning direction at jump #5 is a bit of a fun riddle. Turning the dog to the right again creates a pull-through. Turning the dog to the left although it might be a longer path to jump #6 sets a much sweeter line to the weave poles beyond.

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We’ll get to play with this sequence on Sunday. We’ve returned to the weekend mini-clinic format for the winter. It’s a three hour workshop. So everyone should get a good workout.

Private Thoughts

I’ve always considered my web log a place for my private thoughts. Oh certainly I share them with quite a few readers. But I have ever viewed my writing here as the opportunity to take off the hat and shed the uniform, kick back with a can of beer, and unload whatever is on my mind.

For this naïve thinking I got a bit of a wake up call as I found text from one of my blogs quoted on a public forum and used in a manner that inflamed childish passion. Oh my.

While I won’t mention it again, I promise to be a more guarded character from now on and there’s just stuff I’ll keep close to my chest.

Marsha’s In and Out Baskets

I’m very pleased with myself that I’ve learned to get pictures off of my Droid, and put them on my computer. You’re all in trouble now. I suppose I should be Facebooking them. Hmm?

Bud’s Google Proof Trivia Contest

What is the subject of this photo?

Blog802

Questions comments & impassioned speeches to Bud Houston Houston.Bud@gmail.com. The Country Dream web store is up and running. www.dogagility.org/newstore. You know… I have five volumes (over 100 pp each) of The Joker’s Notebook available on my web-store at an embarrassingly inexpensive price. These are lesson plans suitable for individual or group classes for teaching dog to work at a distance.