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!