Clean Run - August 2019 - 42

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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 training 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.
In a departure from our typical collection of agility equipment, the ﬁrst
setup this month will not be using
the teeter and weaves. Substituting a tire for the teeter and a long
(broad) jump for the weaves gives
us a Jumpers course with which to
practice working the skills that are
needed to negotiate the nonstop
action presented by this version
of our sport. We are using the tire
and long jump because while still
considered jumping obstacles, they
also present unique visual appearances and require the utilization of
horizontal as well as vertical leaping
skills. If these pieces are not available to you, any other spread jumps
(doubles, triples, or ones that you
might form from two singles placed
an appropriate distance from each
other) will work.

Once you have worked the Jumpers exercises in Figures 1-4, replace the long jump with the teeter
as shown in Figure 5, and repeat
the drills. Then substitute six weave
poles for the teeter and try them
again. You may gain some appreciation for the additional time
afforded when these two obstacles
(not to mention the other two contacts and maybe the table) are performed on course. Getting through
a Jumpers course clean, particularly with a fast canine partner, can be
one of the most difﬁcult, as well as
rewarding, challenges found in agility. Since Jumping course times are
generally much faster than those of
other agility classes, we used four
exercises this time in order to have
a little more with which to work.
Run fast!
The second group of exercises,
shown in Figures 6-8, offer opportunities to practice rear crosses,
one of the principal techniques for
affecting a side change on your dog.
Since the rear, or back, cross is accomplished from behind the dog,
patience and timing are more critical than with other tactics; if you are
not able to maneuver your position
such that your teammate is ahead
of you then rear crossing, by deﬁni-

By John Reid

tion, can't occur! Your dog must have
conﬁdence in your direction to run
ahead for this technique to be effective. "Go on" practice is critical here
and is best developed on the ﬂat and
away from actual agility equipment.
Having a Plan B is always wise in
our sport. This is no more important than when the execution of a
rear cross is intended, particularly
if your best efforts do not result in
your partner being ahead of you. If,
or maybe when, this happens, and
particularly with a jump, often the
best Plan B is to continue past the
obstacle and perform the rear cross
on the ﬂat. Additional more aggressive uses of the rear cross include
"hard" rear crosses where the handler cuts sharply behind the dog
and close to the obstacle causing
the dog to execute a tighter landingside turn. Alternatively, a "soft" rear
cross performed farther back from
the target obstacle (more on the
ﬂat) will generally yield a wider turn
afterward. Use as many rear cross
opportunities as you can in these
exercises; it may be a less logical
choice when used with closely positioned obstacles but if you can make
them work here their application on
full-sized courses should be that
much easier. D

Clean Run | August 19

Clean Run - August 2019

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