Clean Run Magazine - April 2008 - 31

contact behavior, it is not that hard. If your dog has stopped contacts, getting to your position to support the bottom of the A-frame and the teeter hardly requires Olympicspeed sprinting. Now the dogwalk at 36' long is a different story. Teach your dog a skill to square up and mount the dogwalk while you are not by his side. That should give you a head start. Make your best effort to get to the end of the dogwalk as quickly as you can. Your dog may have to wait. Release the dog as soon as you are in a good position to show him the next obstacle. Not competitive enough for your taste? By practicing the skills of sending, performing obstacles independently on a verbal cue, and directing from behind, you can learn to release your dog from the contact when he completes the chosen contact behavior regardless of your position. One last thing: when you feel you can’t keep up with your dog, remember, no one is timing you; they are timing the dog. Christine Frank Lucky you! It’s a lot easier and usually a lot more fun working with fast-dog problems than with slowdog problems. So think of yours as a good problem. Most handlers, including myself, cannot run as fast as their dogs. Even so, one of my goals in planning my course is to try to be ahead of my dogs. You can achieve this by making your path shorter than your dog’s. That means that you can send your dog to an obstacle; then while your dog is going to the obstacle you indicated, you make your way to the next obstacle or position to help your dog know where to go next. Your dog needs to learn to go to obstacle A and than meet you at point B. You can take the inside line near your dog’s path from obstacle to obstacle. To help you to do this you need to teach your dog individual obstacle names and obstacle discrimination. Also you need to train your dog to perform obstacles independently and correctly, including contacts and weaves, and with lateral distance as well. You also need to be able to send or call your dog to the various obstacles. Doing so will eliminate your having to work the contacts and will give you time to position yourself to get ahead of your dog. Christine has been involved in dog training over 30 years. She has put agility titles on over 15 dogs of different breeds, temperaments, and sizes. Her dogs’ accomplishments include an AKC National Agility Championship, three AAC National Championships, a ESPN Gold Medal, and being a World Team member. Contact her at MiHotdogs@aol.com. Next I would suggest that you teach your dog commitment. This means that if you are moving laterally away, your dog will commit to the obstacle you indicated while you move, which will also help you to get ahead of your dog. Try to see if there are places you are wasting your time. Are you waiting or stopping on the course? An example is when handlers send the dog to a tunnel then wait for the dog to exit. Use the tunnel time to set up for the next obstacle. Try to be aware of places on the course where you might be wasting time or not using your time efﬁciently. Another consideration is, are you as fast as you can be? I know many handlers, including myself, who lost weight and/or got in better condition to better their handling skills through exercise, yoga, personal training, and/or losing weight. Being in your best physical shape will not only help your canine teammate, it will beneﬁt your health, too. I hope that following all the tips listed above will help you to be more successful and allow you to get in position for those front crosses to lead your dog to where you want him to go. Find ways to make your path shorter than the dog’s path 2 1 1 2 3 3 4 T 1 2 3 Light Blue Path: If the handler has to babysit the dog through the course by running close to each obstacle, then the handler will have to run almost as far as the dog does. This will make it more difﬁcult for the handler to keep up. Dark Blue Path: By running at a greater lateral distance from the dog’s path starting from the very ﬁrst obstacle and continuing on through the pinwheel of jumps, the handler minimizes the distance she must travel and can better position herself at #5 to perform the front cross. perform typical jump conﬁgurations as if they were individual obstacles themselves. Pinwheels, serpentines, and 270° turns are common enough and distinctive enough from one another and from other handling challenges that a dog willing to work away from the handler could easily learn to perform them on his own. Just because the dog might have to run a course that is about 150 yards long doesn’t mean that the handler has to run as far or work as hard as the dog does. Last, if you can’t keep up with your dog, you will probably need to perfect your rear crosses. Often a successful rear cross requires handlers to be more patient than they would be with a front cross and to let the dog get ahead. Rear crosses usually require less footwork on the part of the handler, and they may therefore be more efﬁcient for you. Many very successful handlers rely predominantly on rear crosses. 5 4 FC 6 Use lateral distance April 08 | Clean Run 31

Clean Run Magazine - April 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - April 2008