6 Courses 1 Week

We once again had both open agility and regular class this past week.  Hopefully this won't get too confusing with all the courses and colors and numbers.  Anyways, this first set up was from open agility.  The black course was what was set up and I came up with the red course. 

Black course: The opening was a little tricky.  I came up with my own solution that worked but had a very wide turn between 2 and 3.  I later saw the instructor run one of her dogs in a way that worked much much better.  My way was to send my dog to the tunnel and get in position for a front cross on the landing side of jump 2, then it was just a push over 3 and a post turn to 4.  My girls apparently didn't read my front cross very well though, hence the wide turn.  The instructor stayed on the landing side of jump 3, sending her dog over 2 and bringing her back over 3 with a front cross and rotate to 4.  This had a much tighter turn between 2 and 3 and just looked really nice.  Gracie had some trouble landing her "bottom" with me running on the other side of the tunnel.  We'll practice some distance at the open contacts class this week.  Gidget kept popping out of the weaves.  I'm not sure if she had too fast of an entry after the tunnel or if the lighting was bad and she had trouble seeing that second or third pole.  She did pop out a couple of time just starting at 10 too.  A front cross worked well after 10, except I really had to call Gidget off the tire (Gracie sticks with me really well).  There were a couple options I tried for 12 to the end.  I did a post turn from 12 to 13 then rear crossed 14.  Then I also tried setting up for a front cross after 13 while my dog was still in the chute.  That worked fairly well, but both my girls could use more chute confidence.

Red course: Gracie had a little trouble with the "out" to 3, she loves her contacts a little too much.  I did a front cross after 3.  5-6-7 was a serpentine, though I had to call Gidget off the tunnel and rear cross over 7.  A better option that I didn't try may have been to do a front cross after the tire.  9-10-11 was tricky, but I got it to work with both dogs.  One option, probably the best, was to front cross after 8, flip to the tunnel, then front cross after 10.  Ok, not even going to mention the other things I tried because looking at them now, they were not the smartest things to do, oops!

Now on to the class courses.  Pay attention to this second diagram and try not to get the black and red courses confused.  Both dogs rand the black course with different endings, Gracie ran the red course, and Gidget ran the blue and purple courses.  Good luck!

Black course: The opening to this and the red course were just a mirror image to that of the open agility black course, so won't go over that again.  Front cross after 6.  Another front cross after 12, but you have to be careful to keep your dog going straight over the broad jump.  (Gracie ran the "a" ending and Gidget ran the "b" ending which obviously does not need a front cross after 12.)  13a-14a-15a is just a serpentine.  The "b" ending was trickier than it looked, I kept accidentally calling Gidget off of 13b.  The instructor said to keep quiet for straight-aways until after the last jump if a change in direction is needed.  That seems to be something Gidget and I need to work on.  I believe I rear crossed 15b, though a front cross would work there too.

Red course:  Again, very similar opening except that you had to wrap 5.  I did a front cross jump wrap around the standard closer to jump 4.  Others treated 3-4-5 like a serpentine with the dog on the left and wrapped the far standard of jump 5.  There was some discussion on which would be easier on the dog.  I think either method would work out for the dog.  The way I did it Gracie was already moving in a circular motion and the front cross jump wrap just completed that circle.  For a serpentine, the dog is moving in more of a straight line, making it easier to wrap the far standard than it would be to wrap the closer one.  You just wouldn't want to mix these up, that would be much harder on the dog.  I tried both a front cross after 8 and a rear cross over 9.  The front cross was much smoother for me since I could easily get ahead of Gracie.  I had to actually think about slowing down for Gracie to get ahead of me for a rear cross.  Then ended the course with a front cross after 14.

Blue course:  I did a front cross after 2, making sure I was a couple steps past the weaves so that I didn't get stuck behind jump 3.  7-8-9 is a serpentine, but if you keep your dog on the left your cue for a tight turn from 7 to 8 has to be timed just right to keep from accidentally calling your dog off of 7.  A front cross after 7 can work too. 

Purple course:  I needed a good strong cue to get Gidget to 3 and keep her away from the tunnel.  I ended up rear crossing 4 but a front cross after 3 probably would have worked better since I was ahead of Gidget.  I did a front cross after 11 (just like 12-13a).  The 13-14-15 serpentine could be run from either side, but I was ahead of Gidget so I did a front cross after 13 and ran with her on my left to the end.

I think that covers everything course-wise for the week.  I'll have to share Gracie's success story from open agility another time, this post is long enough.  Next week's will probably be longer though!  Happy agility!

Extra Agility

The girls had open agility and regular class this week.  This first drawing is the open agility set up.  There was no set course but the numbers are what I ended up working on and having a lot of fun with.  We worked on some contact/tunnel discrimination.  Gidget's got this down, but Gracie is still learning that the contact is not the automatic choice.  4-10 was the really fun part, it involved working on some distance since you had to run around the dog walk to get set up.  First send from tire to tunnel, then run over to the take off side of jump 7 to set up for the wrap.  Then send back to the tunnel and run to the landing side of the tire, you'll need a front cross here to turn to the weaves.  Gidget picked up on the sends pretty quickly, Gracie took a few tries to willingly run away from me, but she figured out that she got to come right back!  I tried a little dog walk layering too, but that didn't go very well, oh well.

Here are all the class courses, sorry, four courses gets a little messy.  Gracie ran the black course (except 11 and 12) and the red course.  Gidget ran all of the black course, and the blue and purple courses.

Black course:  Front cross after 4 then a front cross jump wrap over 6 (both girls got some nice tight turns here though apparently I need to say "jump" along with continued body motion for Gidget).  Due to the curve of jumps 8 and 9 along with Gracie love of contacts, I had some trouble getting Gracie into 10.  I just couldn't quite turn my body enough away from the A-frame to rear cross the tunnel.  For the end of the course for Gidget, I originally set myself up close to jump 11 thinking there wouldn't be much to calling her over.  This lead to a very wide turn and almost taking the teeter for Gidget.  Turns out that the bigger the dog the further their longer stride takes them out of the tunnel.  An itty bitty dog can turn tight out of the tunnel, but a big dog will go wide unless you cut them off.  So by standing closer to the tunnel exit I was able to shorten Gidget's path and have a cleaner finish.

Red course:  This course had some fun front cross opportunities.  After the teeter I sent Gracie out to jump 5 while I set up for a front cross on the landing side of 6.  Then you can do a similar thing with 9-10 but you're just sending the dog to the backside of the jump instead of out to another jump.  Gracie had no tunnel issues for this course since I was on the other side of the jumps, not rear crossing the tunnel.

Blue course: Once Gidget was in the tunnel (3) I went and got ready for a front cross after 4.  I messed up my timing once on this, but otherwise it worked wonderfully.  I did a front cross after 7 to keep Gidget off the off course A-frame then rear cross the tunnel.  A hard pull away from the A-frame (no cross) worked for some people but that can slow down your dog. 

Purple course:  I have no written notes for this course, oops!  I do remember that Gidget kept looking away from me for a tunnel after the A-frame when I was trying to front cross (I think) her into the tunnel on the same side as me.  I think I did a front cross after 2 and a rear cross over 6... yup that sounds right, but there would be other options too.

That's all for last week, but we have open agility plus class again this week too.  Next week we have open contacts, open agility, and regular class!  Happy agility!

Trial Time!

Gidget and I were in a trial this past Sat.  It was a big deal because we had the potential of getting both our Open titles!  Sadly the trial wasn't very well organized.  Seems they were lacking a lot of the help they needed.  They started late and went much later than it should have (we were done at the same time as we had been for a trial 3 times the size!).  Those that were working were super nice and you could tell they were working hard!  My mom and I ended up helping out too.

STD was up first.  There were only 5 dogs in Open and 3 of them were 16 inchers.  The course had some good challenges, including tunnel/contact discriminations, but I was pretty confident Gidget could pass them all.  So when I was done walking the course I went and got Gidget out thinking they'd start running pretty quickly.  It ended up being a much longer wait than I expected, 10 min. maybe.  Anyways, it was enough for Gidget to lose some enthusiasm and she started out her run pretty slow.  Thankfully she picked up some speed coming out of the tunnel and looked pretty good (even did the chute just fine!) until the dog walk which was apparently scarier than normal dog walks.  She didn't jump that contact, but she did jump the A-frame contact.  The judge didn't see that big error and we qualified.  She was the only Open dog to qualify.  I'm not sure how I feel about that stolen Q.  Others told me that it wasn't a big deal because sometimes judges miss a mistake, and sometimes they'll give you a NQ when you thought it should have been a Q.  I told myself, that the jumpers course would determine if I kept her in Open for both, or moved her up to Excellent for both at our next trial.  Here's the video:

Between runs Gidget got a good nap on my lap (I don't think she naps in her kennel at trials).  I got a good lunch and got to see some good excellent runs while being a leash runner/bar setter.  For the JWW run, I made sure to not get Gidget out of her kennel until the judge was back in the ring.  This seemed to help, she seemed a little quicker to me, though far from her fastest.  All was good til we got to a 180 and I started moving to set up for a front cross after the next jump before Gidget was fully committed.  So I pulled her off the jump and then she got distracted by the leash runner so it took a second to get her moving again.  That second put us just over standard course time, but we still qualified with a 93 (again the only Open dog to qualify).  Here's the JWW video:



So overall it was a successful trial day.  I still need to work on getting Gidget's energy up at trials, especially when traveling.  I think our instructor is right that she's tired from staying at my parents' house.  So next time we do a trial there, we'll get there later, no walks with the other dogs and make sure we get to bed nice and early.  Hopefully that will help.  Happy agility!

I Can't Think of a Title for this Post

On Wed. I took the girls to an open jumping class.  I used the given set up to work on tight front cross jump wraps and doing front crosses on a curve or straighter line.  Nothing terribly exciting, but some good practice.

Then it was regular class on Thur.  Gracie ran the black, blue and purple courses and Gidget ran the red course.  Gidget ran another course too, but I forgot to write it down and now can't remember the whole thing.  I'll go over the important parts of it later.

Black course: This course was pretty basic.  We just worked on an opposite arm cue and rear cross to get the dogs in the correct tunnel entrance at 9-10.

Blue course: I love serpentines!  I wouldn't say Gracie loves them yet, but she will.  I know Gidget does.  Our newer instructor suggested that I shouldn't use an opposite arm cue to bring my dog back into me at the second jump.  Might need that for a threadle someday (not that I'm likely to see a threadle in competition with my current dogs).  Our other instructor taught serpentines using that opposite arm cue, so it's habit for me now.  It did work for Gracie to not use it though.  The only other interesting spot in here was a front cross between 4 and 5.

Purple course: This was just a quick course to end the class with.  I had trouble getting Gracie to stay with me to jump 2, she loves that teeter!  I was concerned she wouldn't do the tire if I wasn't with her, she'd already had trouble with it that day.  So we lowered it a little and I set myself up for a lead out where I could see her through the tire.  That worked!  Nice jump through the tire and right to jump 2.  Jump 5 was actually rotated slightly for this course to make the serpentine entrance easier.  8-9 was sort of an advanced weave entry.  I just wanted Gracie to practice the weaves in the other direction so I didn't overly stress the entry, just set her up to succeed and she did!

Red course: The main focus of this course was 2-5.  What to do after the teeter was the biggest question that determined how the rest could be handled.  People tried post turning from the teeter to the jump then rear crossing the weaves.  Some tried front crossing after jump 3.  A front cross after the teeter then a front cross or flip after the weaves seemed to work best.  You just had to be careful after the teeter, to set yourself up for the cross where you wouldn't get stuck behind the jump.  With Gidget I ran a few steps with her and then crossed.  Had I done this with Gracie, I would have had her wait in "bottom" on the teeter while I set up and release her after I'd already crossed.  Not much else to the rest of the course, just a rear cross into the tunnel.  A lot of people (myself included) added their own 16 and let their dogs take the tunnel after the last numbered jump.  Our instructor told us we may have just caused ourselves trouble for the next course!  Uh oh!

Course I can't remember:  The challenge in this course was basically 9-10 from the black course, but it was done twice from both directions.  Our earlier mistake of adding a 16 to the red course did not effect our work here thankfully.  I knew Gidget had had issues with this in the past so I made extra sure to time my cues (name, opposite arm, and running slightly away from the wrong tunnel entrance) were time just right.  She got both weird tunnel entrances beautifully!  Now if only I could remember the rest of the course.  Happy agility!

Layering!

This week's course had an extra tricky option!  I tried it with both dogs but only Gidget succeeded, and she even missed a couple times.  The tricky part was 7-10.  Depending on your dog and their contact behavior, it can be very difficult to get a cross inbetween 6 and 7, but if you post turn it then layering the whole dog walk is an option!  The next obstacles are pretty obvious to the dog (the end of the tunnel is specifically turned toward jump 8), so they just have to be comfortable working at a distance and take them.  Gracie is not yet comfortable with distance so she came out of the tunnel and ran for me, not the jump.  It probably didn't help that I was still trying to figure out how to handle the layering in her class and had a better idea by Gidget's class time.  Gidget succeeded beautifully on our second and third attempts at the black course, but when we ran the red course she found a burr near jump 9, which she got poked in the nose by when she sniffed it, and then she didn't want to go near that area again. 

Black course: 1-3 is a pinwheel, but you have to be careful to keep the dog out of the tunnel which is in a straight line from the tire and jump 2.  You can front cross after 3 or rear cross 4.  Then comes the layering.  Things to remember: keep hands down and use minimal voice cues as these draw your dog's attention to you, a single "jump" as they come out of the tunnel should be enough, aim body and shoulders at and look at jump 8, then use a forward arm and "go jump" for jump 9.  If layering isn't an option, front cross after 6 then meet your dog near the end of the tunnel, rear crossing 9 was easiest then just stay to the right of the dog walk (when layering, you end up on the left).  11-14, get momentum over 12 and send the dog to the tunnel so that you have more time and less distance to get into position for a front cross after the tunnel.  You have to make sure to reconnect with your dog at the front cross so they don't run off to the A-frame.  Some people also just scooped up their dog after the tunnel and stayed on the outside of the curve of the last two jumps.

Red course: Only Gidget ran this course.  I started with her on my right to avoid pulling her off the tunnel, then rear crossed 3.  We had to pinky swear to make sure we set up our dogs for a straight entry onto the dogwalk, which everyone did.  For 7-10 you could do a bit of a front cross flip into the tunnel and layer again, post turning from 10-11.  Or you could rear cross or post turn the flip into the tunnel and not layer.  Or you could front cross after the weaves, flip into the tunnel and not layer.  Not layering would require a rear cross at 10 and making sure the dog doesn't take the dog walk.

Jumping class this week, plus normal class, then Gidget has a trial on Sat.  Maybe, just maybe, she get a title or two this weekend.  We worked on both her chute issues and her contact jumping issues.  We borrowed a strange chute for a week and slowly worked on getting her through it.  She was a pro at it by day 4.  At this last class we realized that I've been racing Gidget on contacts in hopes that I can guide her through the contact zone.  Turns out I need to stay behind her and let her find it.  Me racing her just gets her excited so that she jumps it.  Hopefully these things pay off and we have two awesome runs this Sat.  Happy agility!