Clean Run - April 2013 - 10

Nancy Gyes’
© MARCY MANTELL

No matter what handling system you
use lead-out pivots (LOPs) should be
taught for a variety of lead-out scenarios. The teaching of the LOP focuses
on some important skills all agility
dogs should understand:
• Whether I am moving or standing
still, my dog should know to follow
the line he is on and he should stay
on that line until I give some kind of
turning cue.
• The dog should perform his job even
if I am lateral of his line, whether I am
standing still or moving.
When I am first teaching jump handling
skills to my dog, I am not always moving. My dog is standing in front of an
obstacle and I am teaching him forward and turning cues. I am showing
him what kinds of footwork and body
cues he will see and rewarding him for
responding in a specific way. Beginning jump work involves both moving
and stationary cue training.
Lead-out Pivot Basics
The LOP is a stationary front-cross maneuver executed from a lead-out position at the beginning of the course.
The pivot is placed in the same location that you would place a front cross
if you were running off the start line
with your dog and doing a front cross
at the first side change. See Figures
1 and 2. Lead-out pivots operate on
the same basis as a front cross; you
pivot toward the dog as he is preparing
to jump to indicate a change of direc-

Lead-out
Pivots
tion as well as a side change. Perfecting this lead-out will also help your timing for front crosses.
I think this lead-out is easy to teach
because it uses primary handling principles. Take, for example, the LOP in
Figure 2. The dog is on the handler’s
left side and the handler’s body position mirrors how she would run with the
dog seen in Figure 1. There is no motion involved in the LOP until the turn is
cued at jump #2. In a front cross the
dog is on the handler’s left side until he
is on the line to jump #2; in the LOP
the timing for the side change is the
same. The handler pivots at the same
time she would when doing a front
cross. This is how I try to time my turn
on both a front cross and a LOP: a)
As my dog is finishing the stride before
taking off for the jump I begin my rotation toward the dog; b) by the time the
dog has landed the jump, I have completed my side change and am facing
or moving in the new direction.
As a stationary position cue, the LOP position itself has power even before the
handler executes the pivot to create the
turn at #2. The dog is taught to always
come toward the handler. See Figure 3.
If the handler is standing at jump #3, the
dog automatically knows by the handler’s
position that he will be running to the handler after taking jump #2. So the primary
cue to the dog is the handler standing by
the jump that she wants the dog to come
to. The secondary part of the cue for an
LOP is the rotation of the pivot to indicate the dog’s turn and the side change.

1
2

Here the handler puts a front cross between
#2 and #3. The front cross is done as close to
#3 as possible. This is the same position that
the handler would take to do a lead-out pivot.

2
2

LOP
3

If this sequence is at the beginning of a
course, handlers can replace the front cross
with a lead-out pivot executed in the same
front-cross position as when they are moving.

3
R

The value of teaching a stationary position cue
is the dog understands that after taking all the
obstacles between you and him, he should run
directly to you as fast as he can. You have
rewarded him hundreds of times for coming to
you, whether you turn or not. I always reward
"nose to knee," Tte toy or treat is given low
and close to my body.

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Clean Run - April 2013

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