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!