Clean Run - January 2020 - 40

PHOtOS © LESLEY mattUCHiO

The

S O L U T I O N
Sequences for Small Spaces
With only about 25% of the area of
a typical agility course, my training
center's inclement weather practice
space is under a 60ft. x 40ft. pavilion.
Using a teeter, six poles, 4ft. jumps
and some 10ft. and 15ft. tunnels, we
can cultivate our dogs' basic agility
skills including contact performance,
weaving, and jumping, as well as
work on our handling abilities. Here
I will share some of our equipment
setups and drills.
After I have completed my familiarization walk and my handling plan
has been determined, a technique
that I ﬁnd useful when testing my
true grasp of the course is to be
sure I can "run" my plan without
looking at the equipment. Sometimes called "shadow handling," I try
to ﬁnd an out of the way corner of
the course to perform my intended
moves with all the body language
and verbals included. I do this before the end of the walk-through in
case I do not have my choreography down well enough and need
another look at the setup.
I ﬁnd this practice is particularly
useful at national agility events
where the walk-throughs are all
held early in the morning with the

course running spread over the rest
of the day; you might walk a course
at 7 am and, due to the number of
competitors, not actually run until
many hours later. You can practice
running your invisible dog as many
times as you want or need throughout the wait for your turn.
I ﬁnd the dry runs boost my conﬁdence as well as offer a calming alternative to just waiting. Sometimes,
if you have the fortune to watch others run the course prior to your turn,
you may see that a planned maneuver is not working for others. If
you feel a modiﬁcation in your plan
is warranted, you can incorporate
this change into your private runthroughs, making its use during the
actual run more familiar.
Figures 1-3 offer three different
courses to practice this method of
course and muscle memory imprinting. The job is made the more
challenging as they are all run on
the same equipment setup!
Figures 4-6 focus our attention
on more demanding weave pole
entries. Particularly in Masters,
Premier, and other classes designed with more European-inﬂu-

By John Reid

enced equipment arrangements in
mind, we encounter approaches
that are not for the unpracticed.
One of the best ways to work up to
these most difﬁcult weave pole entrances is to work the "around the
clock" exercise.
In this training, imagine there is a
large clock face laid over the poles
with its center on the ﬁrst pole. The
hour positions of 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1
run up around the right side of the
poles, and the hour positions of 7,
8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 run up around
the left side. Begin by sending
your dog to the obstacle from the
6 o'clock, or straight on, position.
Gradually work your way around
all the hour locations on each side,
ultimately gaining the entrance from
the 12 o'clock spot, which entails a
180-degree approach! Take the time
to be sure your partner masters
each starting location before moving
to the next, and you will end up part
of a team that fears no entry that
might be thrown at you!
Note: If you do not have two sets of
six poles, you can substitute a 10ft.
tunnel or two jumps spaced about
12ft. apart. D

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Clean Run - January 2020

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