Tunnels!

This was a fun set up with all the tunnels!  The dogs could really get some speed going!  Both dogs ran the black course, Gidget ran the red course. 

Black course: I stood at the middle of the tunnel, a few feet away from it and sent the girls to the entrance then ran the other way to set up for a front cross before tunnel 2.  Gidget was hyped up for her turn, so my little opposite hand/name call cue wasn't enough and she kept going to the next tunnel.  Saying her name earlier may have helped.  Once I had her back, she was happy to do the familiar chute.  Then a front cross after the weaves.  I also did a front cross after the teeter.  With Gracie, I was able to lead out a bit so that I was better lined up before releasing her, I just had to make sure I was driving to jump 8 and actually said "jump."  With Gidget I ran a couple steps forward before crossing to get the right set up for 8-9.  10 to the end was just plain fun.  A few of my classmates had trouble getting their dogs into 12 and not running past it.  I was ahead of my dogs and I think I did a bit of a left shoulder dip to help indicate the tunnel. 

Red Course:  I did the exact same thing for the start of this course as I did the last course and it worked just fine.  Others started and kept their dogs on their left and skipped the cross all together, but I liked the cross.  I rear crossed 6 which meant I needed to call Gidget's name while she was in the tunnel so she'd know which side I was on when she came out.  I tried rear crossing 10, but it didn't work because I wasn't behind Gidget at that point.  So instead once I sent Gidget into 8 I ran to the exit side of 9 to get in position for a front cross.  8 and 9 were set up so that was a pretty obvious path with me at the exit of 9 and Gidget managed that no problem. 

Courses with lots of tunnels are fun, unfortunately I don't plan on trying any organizations with tunnelers classes anytime soon.  The holiday party tunnelers courses should be fun this year!  Happy agility!

Oh No! The Chute!

Gidget and I were in a trial this past Sat.  Our Open JWW run was up first.  The course had a couple pinwheels and some good front cross and rear cross opportunities.  Even after working a lot on front crosses in class recently, I managed to mess them up.  Not enough to NQ, they just weren't pretty.  We ended up with a 1st place Q!  Only one more Open JWW Q needed to title!  Here's the video:

After a nice long wait (not as long as the poor novice teams had to wait), our second run was up.  I did not want to make the mistake I had at the last trial and end up running to the start line.  Gidget had gotten a good nap sprawled across the laps of myself and my mom, had left the trial with us for lunch, and overall seemed well rested.  Apparently she was well rested because she ran very nicely for her Open STD run.  No slow, poky Gidget this time (well except in the weaves where the judge suddenly became a big concern for her but she didn't pop out), she wasn't at her fastest but I was happy with her speed and energy.  We were so hoping for a title, but apparently we've got some work to do.  First Gidget jumped the dog walk contact, then she was good until that darn chute.  She's gone through chutes at this location before.  She's always had trouble with extra strange chutes, but I didn't expect any trouble from this one, ugh.  Does anyone have a practice tunnel we could borrow?  My mom was having camera trouble so only half the run is here.  There was another front cross after the tire that I think went way smoother than the ones in the JWW course.  That was followed by some fun 180/tunnel maneuvering that we pulled off without a hitch.  Overall I was happy with the run.  Happy agility!

A Very Jumpy Class

Both the girls had class on Thur. as usual.  The course had us work some things that were similar to the last outdoor class course, extension and collection.  Another thing to remember was to converge when running from  the tunnel to the table (4-7 or 16-19).  Otherwise the dog would turn into the handler after jump 6/18 and potentially get a refusal at the table.  To do this you can't meet the dog at the end of the tunnel, you have to start with some lateral distance and run straight toward the table.  This tells the dog to run straight for the table too.  The other big thing we worked on was front crosses.  Apparently I need to relearn them because I had been doing really well with front crosses for a long time but lately I keep messing them up.  Some things I need to remember: work on the timing of bringing up the opposite hand to cue the turn/wrap, for a wrap use a send to get the dog ahead of you, and don't stop moving (but don't pass the line of the jump for a wrap) even just leaning can keep the dog going over the jump - you stop the dog stops.  I think I'll just run through the course handling for a change.

Black course: Dog on left for the entire course.  Sending to the tunnel and layering jump 10 is an option that would make converging to the table easier.  For 7-8 use an opposite hand to keep the dog away from the off course jump.  Opposite hand helps for collection at 10, for 12-13, and a tight post turn at 14. 

Red course: Dog on right through jump 5.  Sending to the tunnel and layering that jump is again an option.  Jump wrap front cross at 5. Landing side rear cross 8 to 9.  Lead out some from the table so you can converge on the weaves.  Then converge again to the table.

Blue course: Start with dog on right.  Landing side rear cross 3-4.  Stay on the landing side of jump 5.  Rear cross 9.  Then jump wrap front cross 12.

Both Gidget and Gracie did well on these courses.  Gracie's still struggling with her weaves though.  I just need to work on my front crosses!  You'll see me struggle with these at the trial I'm going to post about next.  Happy agility!

Jumps Anyone?

I thought I'd do a quick post on the agility things I've done over the last two days.  On Tues. Gidget and I participated in an agility demo for a big company's family picnic.  It was pretty fun.  Gidget's only difficulties were the itty bitty weaves (one person guessed 21" spacing, but I'd bet they were smaller).  Gidget's never seen weave spacing less than 22" so when she hit the weaves she got quite the surprise and almost ran into a pole!  (The weaves are 1 in the upper course.)  Her next two tries she weaved perfectly!  I was very proud of her adaptability in her weaving.  She's not so adaptable when it comes to chutes though.  They had a nice practice chute with a soft barrel, unlike the hard one she's used to, and she would not go in it for anything.  We had trouble with a chute at a trial back in June too.  I don't know where I'll find more chutes for her to get used to.  Anyways, we first ran a really straight forward course to get used to the equipment and the place.  Then some of the more experienced handlers set up a fun course.  There were actually a few obstacles before the weaves and after 10, but this was the fun part.  Front cross after the weaves into the pinwheel, relatively straight to the tunnel, (black course) a 180 ended with a front cross, then a front cross jump wrap to the last jump!  The red numbers were another option that probably would have involved just a front cross after 8.

The lower course was the set up for open jumping.  Both courses could be done starting with the dog on either side depending on if you started at the bottom jump or the jump on the right.  The black course allowed you to practice a send forward ("go") and the red course was to practice a lateral send ("out").  Gidget did pretty well at both, assuming I didn't screw up.  I also did some extra box work with her just for fun.  Gracie needed a little more practice but also did well overall.  With both dogs, I started the red course with a lateral lead out so that I could converge somewhat on the jump I'd send them out too.  Both girls did well with this.  Not much else to say about it, it was just a fun set up to practice.  A little bit of outdoor class tonight!  Happy agility!

Ooo! A Threadle!

There were some fun tricky stuff in this weeks courses!  I also learned some useful differences in Gidget and Gracie.  Gracie won both black numbered courses and Gidget ran the upper black course and the lower course with the red 12-13.  The opening for the upper course was a challenge for a lot of people.  I was close to seeing a good way of handling it on my own but was very grateful that the instructor gave us some hints.  Having a good send forward to a jump is very useful in this case.  Thankfully both my dogs have that.  So handler and dog start parallel to or slightly behind the second jump.  The dog is sent forward to jump 1 while the handler gets in position for a front cross after jump 2.  Send the dog to jump 3 with the right hand and pick the dog up with the left hand so that you're all ready to continue the course.  A front cross wrap on 6 seemed to work best for a tight turn and avoiding that off course jump.  I had no trouble with Gracie on the flip from 11-12.  She did her "bottom" (2 on 2 off at the end of the A-frame), I moved a little in front of her before releasing her and flipping her into the tunnel.  This was a little trickier with Gidget's running contact.  I couldn't really get ahead of her so when I said "turn, tunnel" she turned and saw the chute first and headed for that.  I hadn't a clue how to fix that and turned to the instructor for help.  She had me front cross after 10 and run with the tunnel between me and Gidget on the A-frame.  Getting the positioning and timing was a little tricky but being on that side made sure that Gidget turned completely toward me after the A-frame and into the tunnel.

The bottom course was a little more straight forward.  We worked on a nice serpentine, always fun!  Had a 270 in there too.  Needed a front cross after 7, nothing tough.  Gracie's class has a new instructor who has rather different style than our usual instructor.  It's been interesting getting used to her but for this class it meant we got to try a threadle!  I doubt I'll ever see one in a trial with Gidget or Gracie but it'd still be fun to learn.  Thankfully I've done a lot of reading on threadle lately and had a decent idea of how to handle it.  I turned completely around facing Gracie after 12 so that she'd come into me.  Then I turned forward again and sent her over 13 and finishing with a 180 over 14.  Gracie followed me perfectly!  I didn't get to try the threadle with Gidget, but I did have to relearn my front cross timing.  When I was working with Gracie, I found that she'd come into me before a jump if I brought up my opposite hand too early for a front cross.  With Gidget though, I have to bring my hand up early or I won't get a tight turn.  Forgetting this caused some issues with 11-12, I just need to remember these differences and walk courses with a different mind set for each dog.  Gidget's course ended with a rear cross over 13 and ending on 14.

I had one other issue with Gracie.  Our instructor's recent litter of puppies were hanging out in a pen in the back corner of the ring, closest to jump 6 in both courses.  I didn't realize the puppies were actually in the pen, just thought the smell was bothering Gracie.  After seeing Gracie not want to take jump 6 in the upper course a couple of times, I thought I'd take her over to smell the pen in hopes she'd relax about it.  That's when I discovered the puppies were actually in there.  Thankfully Gracie behaved herself and I was easily able to pull her away from the pen.  The fact that Gracie was so hesitant to take that jump towards the puppy pen makes me worry about how she'll act in an actual trial situation.  Will she shut down with any dogs around?  She's shut down in class before when new dogs entered the ring.  That'll make it tough.  I definately need to take her to practice in new locations with new dogs before I can ever hope of trialing with her.  We'll make it work one day, I'm sure.  Happy agility!

One Setup, Many Courses

Sorry if the course map is a little cluttered.  Both Gracie's and Gidget's classes used the same setup but the instructors came up with 4 different courses to do with that setup.  Gracie ran the black and red courses and Gidget ran the blue and purple courses.  Note that in the blue course jump 4 was turned so that it made a 180 degree turn from the dog walk. 

Gracie's class was really small last week so we had lots of time for each dog to run.  I tried a front cross before and after 6, both worked.  Getting the cross in before involved some extra speed on my part to get into place.  Doing the cross after the A-frame was useful in practicing Gracie's contact behavior.  I likely would not have been able to do a front cross after the A-frame with Gidget.  I would have done it before, or used a flip/rear cross after the A-frame.  The first time through the black course we went from 6 to 7b, the second time we added 7a.  I tried both a front cross and a rear cross before 11.  Again both worked, though I got a little too far ahead for a good rear cross but I still wanted to try it.  Just means that a front cross in that situation is better for us for now.  At some point Gracie decided she wasn't going to do the tire jump anymore.  I have no idea why, but hopefully we'll see it enough soon that she'll get over that.  The ending of the red course was kind of fun.  To keep Gracie off the off course dog walk I stayed about half way back from the tunnel exit and tried to call her name while she was still in the tunnel.  This told her where I was before she got out of the tunnel and had to decide where to go.  Her turn from 10 to 11 wasn't the tightest, but she didn't take the dog walk!  There was also a nice front cross/jump wrap sequence at 5-6-7.''

Both of Gidget's courses had a tricky dog walk to jump move.  In the blue course, 3-4 was set up like a 180.  I wasn't sure how successful we'd be since Gidget doesn't have independent contacts, but I was able to stay with Gidget at least part way through the contact zone then get in position for a front cross after 4.  For the purple course, the jump was put back to it's original position but 9-10 was very similar to a threadle, which we don't do much of in class.  This meant the handler had to show the dog a very obvious cue, like a shoulder dip or sticking your hip out, to bring them to the correct side of the jump.  I chose to use backing up as my cue after reading about threadle handling done with backing up on AgilityNerd.com.  That worked quite nicely and was fun too! 

Last night the girls and I went to an open weaves class.  I worked on speed and distance with Gidget and she did really well.  There were two jumps before the weaves set up in a way to work on getting a tight post turn into the weaves.  Neither of the girls had really tight turns, but they're getting better (or probably more, I'm getting better).  Gracie did have a lot of trouble with her on-side weaving (that's when the very first weave pole is on the opposite side of the dog from the handler).  She got her off-side weaves (first pole is on the same side of the dog as the handler) perfectly every time, and that's supposed to be the harder side!  She's always had a harder time with on-side for some reason, but she usually gets it at least once in a class.  The instructor suggested I start back at 6 poles and add 2 when she's succeeding regularly til we get back up to 12.  I have to remember to ask if I can remove poles in class if on-side weaving is required.  Well now it's time for a nap so I have lots of energy for class tonight.  Happy agility!