Look! A Chute!

At Gidget's intermediate agility class last night we saw two obstacles that we don't see nearly enough of in class: the chute and the broad jump.  It was nice to get some practice on them and you could tell the dogs enjoyed the change of pace too.  Gidget especially just couldn't stay away from them on our early runs.  She's a good girl and didn't take the obstacles when I called her off of them... well maybe the chute once.  The course was fun, a big loop around the room - great for gaining speed!  Followed by a straight line diagonal across the loop - this was one spot we needed work on.  It ended with a bit of a serpentine down the middle of the room.  Please forgive my attempt at drawing it, for just using Paint I'm pretty proud of it!

So we've got lots of speed coming into jump 8 where our options seemed to be a front cross between 8 and 9 which would nicely block that chute the dogs all seemed to be enjoying but may backfire if you get stuck behind 9.  Or you could pull the dog to jump 9 and rear cross into the tunnel.  We went with the latter option which meant practicing that pull in order to perfect our straight line to the tunnel and stay away from that chute!  The advice given was to send the dog to jump 8 and hang back lifting the opposite hand once they were committed to 8 to pull their attention off the chute and that leaves a beautiful straight line to the tunnel!  It took a little practice but Gidget and I got it!

The weave entrances from the chute and tunnel were a little tricky, but as long as you remember the imaginary first pole most dogs will get it!  The next big challenge was that serpentine.  Most of the students, myself included, automatically placed their front cross at the end of the weaves giving a wide entrance to a 180 which, in Gidget's case, sent her straight to that oh so fun broad jump.  What we didn't notice was that the dog comes out of the weaves after the fifth pole in a way that sets up a decent serpentine.  So a front cross at that fifth pole sets up a much tighter entrance to 12 making the broad jump less tempting and pulling the dog back over 13 much easier.

Hmm... I hope what I wrote here makes sense.  I'd like to be able to figure out what I learned here months or years from now when I look back and review.  Still proud of the picture.  Happy agility!