Clean Run - January 2016 - 40

As the

World
TURNS:
Tunnel Brake
By Mary Ellen Barry, photos by Kelly Bove Photography
In the last several years, there has been a
surge of what's been called "international
handling" in dog agility. What exactly does
that mean? Well, in my mind, international courses are those types of courses that
have become common in European agility
and feature many technical elements such
as backsides of jumps, threadles, 270s, and
diﬃcult entries and exits for weave poles
and tunnels. These technical elements
can seem intimidating, but they can also
be quite easy to master if you know how.
We are now seeing these types of courses
and challenges on a regular basis in the
USA thanks to the Masters Challenge and
Dog Agility Masters classes in USDAA as
well as the UKI Senior/Champ level and
Masters Series.
OneMind Dogs Metholodogy
Janita Leinonen and Jaakko Suoknuuti
from Finland are the innovators behind
OneMind Dogs (OMD). Their methodology views agility handling from the dog's
perspective. They have over 30 "techniques" (handling maneuvers), most of
which are completely natural for the dog.
The methodology is under constant development and over the years all of the ideas
have been refined. OMD is not bounded
by rules, and myself and other OMD instructors seek to look outside the box.
Janita and Jaakko wanted their methodology to be named after its main mis40

sion: seamless cooperation during the
course. Once you learn to think of agility from the dog's point of view, it feels
like you are one connected mind. Your
runs start to look like your dog is reading your mind during the course; your
runs look smooth and easy, almost as
if it's impossible to make mistakes. You
and your dog cooperate so well together
that it seems like you read each other's
minds. OneMind Dogs best describes
this state. Janita and Jaako dedicate this
methodology to dogs, "the best teachers
we could have wished for!"
Seven Essential Elements
There are seven elements of handling in
the OMD methodology. They are the:
*

Handler's movement

*

Handler's position in relation to the
dog and the obstacles

*

Handler's contact with the dog

*

Direction of the handler's chest (the
"laser pointer")

*

Handler's feet

*

Handler's arms

*

Handler's verbal commands.

All OMD handling techniques include elements of these seven factors to support the
dog's movement on an agility course, and

make that movement as easy and effective
as possible. The core principle is that the
handler must be consistent and never give
mixed signals to the dog. If your arm and
verbal cue are telling the dog to approach
a certain obstacle-while your movement,
laser pointer, and thoughts are saying otherwise-the dog gets mixed messages. He
doesn't know which of the cues to follow,
and this causes refusals and dropped bars.
The foundations of OMD are Connect,
Commit, and Cue. These are the most important factors when practicing agility. If
you don't pay attention to them, the following chain of events will take place:
If you fail to maintain connection between
you and your dog, your dog tries desperately to reconnect with you. Without a
functional connection between the two of
you, your dog is not ready to commit to the
next obstacle and you'll get refusals, even if
you are running very close to the obstacle.
Without commitment, your dog is focused
on you and this easily results in a refusal.
If you don't cue early enough where to
go next, your dog can drop a bar, make
a wide turn, or face elimination for approaching the wrong obstacle.
All of these three Cs are interconnected,
and the handler needs to pay attention
to each one between every obstacle on
the course.
Clean Run | January 16
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - January 2016
