Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 19

Bonnie Calhoun McDonald Course memorization does seem to be a daunting task to many handlers. I start my students off using the method described below before they are ready to enter their first trial. It works! Give it a try. • As soon as possible, pick up your course map. Then, using different color pencils or markers, mark the course into logical segments. You can use key obstacles or pieces to begin or end segments. Tunnels and weave poles are good starting or ending obstacles, but you could Bonnie judges AKC, USDAA, and UKC agility, WWKC obedience, and WWKC rally. She owns and is the chief trainer at Bonjon Training School LLC, operating in Tampa, Florida, since 1992. Bonnie has earned MACHs, UDs, HXs, Schutzhund titles, and more with GSDs, Mals, and Shelties. Visit Bonnie’s website at www.BonjonTrainingSchool.com also end with a serpentine, a spread, or something else that would serve as a good stopping or starting point. Keep your segments reasonably short—three or four obstacles, five at the most. You should have no more than six of these segments, all drawn in different colors. • Walk the course, while paying attention to your groupings. Repeat them in your head (or even aloud). If your initial groupings aren’t logical, change them now. If you have time, move to the side of the course out of the way of others walking and close your eyes. Visualize the course now by segments. You can even start in the middle and then try and picture what comes before or after. You can start at the end and backchain. If you’re out of the way, you can even go through the motions in miniature. Since you’re still out on the course you can always open your eyes or go back to repeat a section with which you are having particular difficulty. • Watch the course being run, paying attention to your segments well before your own run. Do not watch the course while you are standing in line to run. Instead, close your eyes and go over the segments in your mind. Do not talk to people while you are doing this. Pay attention to your pre-run mental briefing so that when you get out there the only thing on your mind is the course you need to remember. The great thing about this method is that it works, and the more you do it, the easier it gets. With enough imagination you can even mentally practice your runs and possible alternative handling options while sitting up in the bleachers. Good luck and be sure to imagine a clean run! Rob Michalski the right hand and then changing to the left hand for the next few obstacles, and so on. Once you have this all visualized in your head you can break it down to right hand, left hand, right hand, left hand, and so forth while you mentally run your dog through the course. Agility is a game of confidence, so it is important to help your subconscious understand that you no longer have a problem with the white jumps. By concentrating on the numbers you can always tell yourself that each of these bland and characterless jumps does have something different about it because it has a number set by it. If you are going to look at anything, let it be those brightly colored cones that lead the way to the finish line. Then you and your dog can get out there and “eat those jumps for breakfast!” July 08 | Clean Run Rob, who lives in Salinas, California, is a student at Power Paws Agility in San Jose and teaches his own agility classes at several locations in northern California. Rob has competed in agility for 15 years and has handled several ADCH dogs, a USDAA Top Ten Finalist, and a USDAA Grand Prix and Steeplechase Finalist. Contact him at rmichalski@scu.edu. Unlike Standard courses, where the A-frame, dogwalk, and table provide landmarks to guide the handler and way stations to gather some breath, Jumpers courses, with their lack of obstacle variety and increased time pressures, sometimes provide a challenge for those who have difficulty remembering course paths. Rather than worry about the location of 18 or 19 individual obstacles, you should think of the course as being divided into a handful of more easily remembered segments. For me, what separates one segment from another is a significant handling maneuver like a front cross, rear cross, or reverse flow pivot. Thus, the handling challenge in Jumpers, rather than a particular obstacle like the table in a Standard course, becomes the landmark that orients me as I navigate the course. By using the handling challenges as dividing points between segments, I ensure that each segment winds up being a relatively straightforward handling path. All I need to do is remember how the five or six relatively simple paths in the course get linked together by the front crosses and rear crosses I plan to do. Rather than worry about the location of 18 or 19 individual obstacles, you should think of the course as being divided into a handful of more easily remembered segments. I’ve never found the need to this for myself, but one helpful hint I once heard is to backchain your course walk. Once you have divided the course into segments, start learning the last segment of the course first, then the next-to-last one, and so on until you get to the first segment. So, when you are actually running the course, you are moving on to more and more familiar territory as you get farther into the course. 19
http://www.BonjonTrainingSchool.com

Clean Run Magazine - July 2008

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

Clean Run Magazine - July 2008
Is This the Dog I Want?
Tip of the Month
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Agility
Backyard Dogs
Starting Your Pup Off on the “Right” Foot for Jumping, Part 2
Cece’s Gym Exercise of the Month: Cavalettis
Handling Your Dog in Awesome Style, Part 4: Fundamental Skills
Foundation Fundamentals: The “No Go” Zone
You Get What You Reward
Skill of the Month
When Pigs Fly: You Can’t Q if You Can’t Do the Poles, Part 1
Happy Trails! Four Training Tips for Safer Travel
Preventing Injuries
Focus on Arousal Levels
Cutting the Cord: Teaching Your Dog to Work Away, Part 1
Distance Challenge
Power Paws Patterns: Number Seven
Shelter Champs: Elvis
Letter to the Editor
Course Diagram Keys
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - Clean Run Magazine - July 2008
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 2
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 3
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 4
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - Is This the Dog I Want?
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - Tip of the Month
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Agility
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - Backyard Dogs
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 9
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - Starting Your Pup Off on the “Right” Foot for Jumping, Part 2
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 11
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 12
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 13
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 14
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 15
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 16
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 17
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 18
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 19
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 20
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 21
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - Cece’s Gym Exercise of the Month: Cavalettis
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 23
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 24
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - Handling Your Dog in Awesome Style, Part 4: Fundamental Skills
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 26
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 27
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 28
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 29
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 30
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 31
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 32
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - Foundation Fundamentals: The “No Go” Zone
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 34
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 35
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 36
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - You Get What You Reward
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 38
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 39
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 40
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 41
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 42
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 43
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - Skill of the Month
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 45
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 46
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - When Pigs Fly: You Can’t Q if You Can’t Do the Poles, Part 1
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 48
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 49
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 50
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 51
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 52
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - Happy Trails! Four Training Tips for Safer Travel
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 54
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 55
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 56
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 57
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 58
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 59
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - Preventing Injuries
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 61
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 62
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - Focus on Arousal Levels
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 64
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - Cutting the Cord: Teaching Your Dog to Work Away, Part 1
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 66
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 67
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 68
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 69
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 70
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - Distance Challenge
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 72
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 73
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 74
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - Power Paws Patterns: Number Seven
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 76
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 77
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 78
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - Shelter Champs: Elvis
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 80
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 81
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - Course Diagram Keys
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 83
Clean Run Magazine - July 2008 - 84
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