Clean Run Magazine - March 2007 - 43

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9 14 5 8 13 12 15 2 3 4 16 1 so de-motivating to the dog. Compare the
sequences in Figures 4 and 5. In the sequence in Figure 4 with call-oﬀ
type challenges, the handler will be required to constantly slow down and
control the dog; moving quickly is discouraged despite the open lines. The
chute/jump combination in Figure 5 is more likely to cause course errors
like refusals and run-outs due to the dog being allowed to move along the
sequence quickly. Despite what some judges might believe, allowing the dog
to move at speed is not going to necessarily make the course “soft” or
“easy.”Thus, course designers should make an eﬀort to design
balanced courses, not merely add extra obstacles to create diﬃculty just
to meet a required number of challenges. One misconception is that courses
for upper-level competition have to be hard; otherwise the judge or course
designer in question is thought of as an “easy” judge. Usually this
perception is not true since the much harder course can often have a
higher qualifying rate than the “easy” course. This is because the
harder courses have challenges that are easily recognized so handlers
commonly try to take steps to avoid them. The problem, however, is that
these courses tend to be somewhat overbearing. By contrast, a course that
contains more subtle challenges tends to catch the handler “napping”
more often because problem areas are not as obvious. Despite the often low
qualifying rate, handlers tend to have a better or at least more enjoyable
time on courses with more subtle challenges since they don’t feel like
they are constantly haranguing the dog about this or that problem on
course. Courses that require a handler to constantly “call oﬀ ” the
dog from an obstacle that is directly in front of him test only one skill.
They also can de-motivate a dog. Type of Challenges A course that has
mostly all one type of challenge can also be unbalanced. For example, if
all that is required is to constantly “call oﬀ ” the dog from an
obstacle that is directly in front of him like in Figure 3, we create a
situation where only one type of skill is needed. Speed on these courses
is not even desirable, let alone necessary, since the more speed the dog
has the more likely the dog is to take a wrong obstacle. These courses
tend to be de-motivating since the dog is constantly being told that the
obstacle he is moving toward is wrong; they also tend to take the
initiative out of the dog so that now he moves merely as fast as the
handler 4 14 15 moves. A better course would be one that includes more
than one type of challenge. For example, a course that has a directional
problem, an obstacle discrimination problem, and a spacing problem is
going to have better balance than one that has all call-oﬀ challenges.
Now dogs that run diﬀerently fast vs. slow, handler vs. obstacle focus
have an even chance of qualifying rather than the course design favoring
only one type of dog. In addition, by balancing the types of challenges,
the course designer can restore some initiative for the dog. For example,
including a spacing or angle change in a speed-line sequence can cause
more problems than including constant call-oﬀ challenges, but will not
be 5 14 15 13 13 12 12 10 10 11 11 In this sequence with call-oﬀ type
challenges, the handler will be required to constantly slow down and
control the dog; moving quickly is discouraged despite the open lines. The
chute/jump combination is likely to cause errors like refusals and runouts
due to the dog being allowed to move along the sequence quickly. Despite
what some judges might believe, allowing the dog to move at speed is not
going to necessarily make the course “soft” or “easy.” March 07 |
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Clean Run Magazine - March 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - March 2007
