Tunnels, Tunnels, and a Rear Cross!

Gracie had a good class today.  The instructor was super nice and set aside a special spot for Gracie and the other reactive dog in the class so that we could focus more on what we were supposed to be learning and less on managing our dogs around the other dogs.  It made class much easier and more enjoyable.  I was able to send Gracie to her kennel from 10-15 ft. away and she had to go around a barrier to get to it, and the only way I could practice that sort of thing is with few to no other dogs around.

Lets see, first we worked with a straight tunnel to the chute.  Gracie's still not ready to go through the chute with the fabric down, but we're getting there.  A small chute is definitely on my wish list.  I've seen one that would actually fit in my apartment.  It'd be so nice to be able to practice that more often.  I know Gidget struggled with it for a long time, hopefully it won't take quite as long for Gracie.  Next we did some post turn and front cross review going back and forth between two cones.  Then we moved on to a similar exercise between two small curved tunnels.  That was fun, but those post turns can sure get dizzying.  We did a short sequence of a long slightly curved tunnel with the two short curved tunnels.  It was to start the dogs on long curved tunnels and practice a front cross between the second short tunnel and the long tunnel.  Gracie did well, I just have to remember that she still needs a little more support than I'm used to with Gidget.  I pulled her away from the tunnel entrance trying to set up quickly for the front cross a couple times.  Gotta keep those feet pointing to where the dog should go until their committed then I can move to set up a cross! 

Somewhere in there we started on a rear cross, first without a cone, and then with one.  A couple of posts ago I mentioned my confusion on why I should or shouldn't turn my dog away from me.  This class cleared that up a tiny bit.  We taught this turn away as an intro to the rear cross.  The dog starts by your side, you turn them away from you, and you turn towards them so that they end up on the other side.  Both dog and handler turn in the same direction but the handler is crossing the dog's path behind the dog so that the dog ends up on the opposite side that they started on.  With a cone, the dog starts between handler and cone, turns away from the handler towards the cone, the handler turns toward dog and cone (without going around the cone), and ends up with the dog on the opposite side.  So that's why I learned this turn in foundation with Gidget and the way I use it now is still a rear cross, it's just hard to see it that way.  So in the weaves class on Mon. I was on one side of the weaves with the next obstacle on the opposite side of the weaves.  At the end of the weaves I tell Gidget to turn toward the next obstacle and I turn that direction too, crossing behind her so that she takes the next jump on the opposite side of me from the way we did the weaves.  A rear cross!  It seems kind of exciting to me that the turn move I've been doing is just an almost 180 degree rear cross.  Hmm... I hope this paragraph makes sense to me when I read it again years from now.  Guess we'll see!  Happy agility!