A post done on time... What?!

Last night there was open jumping and Gracie's advanced jumping class.  The open jumping set up was kind of fun with a pinwheel and 2 jumps set up for a 180 or serpentine so that the whole set up looked like an arrow.  With Gidget I worked mostly on serpentine into pinwheel with different handling strategies.  We used front crosses, rear crosses, setting up on the landing side of the jump after the pinwheel, anything I could think of.  The rear cross into the pinwheel was difficult.  I realized I really needed to be well behind Gidget to get her to go out to the middle jump.  Otherwise I'd end up turning too early and Gidget would miss the middle jump and go for a 180.  I only took Gracie out twice to practice the pinwheel, didn't need to wear her out before her class.  She didn't shut down the way she had with the weaves last week, which was good.  She was still a little distracted, but was happy to work once I had her attention.

In the advanced jumping class we first reviewed the pinwheel.  Both last week and this week we talked a lot about handler positioning for this sequence.  It feels sort of unnatural, but you can't turn perfectly with your dog.  That will only pull the dog in from the middle jump.  You have to face their path until they are committed to that jump and then you can turn to finish the pinwheel.  That's for a post turn pinwheel, for a pinwheel with a front cross at the end you never turn toward that second jump.  Stepping sideways while always facing your dog's path works better.  Then you have to start your cross without going too far past the second jump (that will send the dog around the jump) or backing up (that will pull your dog between the jumps).  It's tricky, especially if you over think it.  It seems natural to me with Gidget, but I have to think about it more with Gracie since we're still learning together.  We also worked on 180s which are similar but you don't want a hand to go up sending them wide like you would for the middle jump of a pinwheel.  You still have to support your dog's path and time your crosses correctly but the dogs need to learn to distinguish the little differences in handling so that one day they can avoid an off course when the jumps look like a pinwheel but you want them to do a 180.  Serpentines next week!  Outdoor and indoor class tonight with Gidget!  Happy agility!