It’s been a relatively quiet winter for me. Not a lot of shows and no KC competitions since October (I was sick for a December KC show). However, if I haven’t been doing a lot of competitions, I have been spending a lot of time training. I am now a member of Susan Garrett’s three major training programmes (H360, Agility Nation and Recallers) which have given me a lot of great ideas and training games to play. I have been going back to basics with all the dogs and it has paid off.
One of my biggest challenges has been working on Running Contacts with Sparrow. It has been an ongoing project since October 2016 when I decided to break with stopped contacts and go for running. My early attempts taught me more about what I didn’t want than what I did. When I joined Agility Nation I started working on RCs using Susan’s foot target methods and I saw progress, then it all went pear-shaped; I had three competitions where Sparrow did not hit a single contact, even after several attempts. Choosing to learn from this rather than admit defeat, I got out my mini a-frame, set it low and started working the foot targets again, reinforcing what I wanted and adding challenge as I went.
The results after just one week surprised me, but more of that later.
Back to the show diary – so, one of the things I am doing in 2018 is drawing out courses I like, or which I have struggled with so I can pick up on elements of them later in my training. And I thought I would share them here to give others ideas.
(Please note, the spacings on the drawings are arbitary, I don’t know the actual distances, however, each obstacle was at least 5m apart, and no more than 10m per KC rules)
Combined 4-5 Jumping (Judge Jacqui Wood)
This course felt to me like two sections, with a speedy bit in the middle. In my head, I found myself looking at it like two training elements. Element 1 were the obstacles 1-7, which made element 2 obstacles 8-17. Both presented different challenges and, quite frankly, element 1 worried me.
Take a look at jumps 1-3. The start is very static, pulling the dog almost immediately off a straight line. The first decision has to be whether to use a startline wait or not. Now, first off, I always have a wait, but I don’t always lead out from it, not all courses need it. This one fell somewhere in the middle. I wanted to lead out a bit, but not very far, probably between 1 & 2, but it really depended on what I was going to do at 3.
My first instinct – or rather my ideal choice – would be a ketchsker at 3, pulling the dog in tight to direct to 4. Second choice was a pivot turn, and that was what I opted for initially with Merlin and Sparrow. Both put me in an awkward spot as I became static nearly at once. I could only go a couple of paces from my start point and then I was stuck on the spot. This caused an issue with Sparrow.
Now, my third choice, which I never spotted until after my runs, would have been to start almost on the wing of 2, as the dog starts to jump 2 I would signal a front cross, but then pick up on the left arm, flick back over 3 (dog taking the far wing) and pick up again on the left arm. I call that a drag, equally it could be done as two front crosses. The line is different but straighter and keeps up momentum, which seems to me a big thing for my dogs at the start of the course. Would it have been quicker? Not sure. But I don’t think it would have been slower, as the tight turn for a pivot around the near wing of 3 required a fair amount of deceleration.
Jumps 4-6 caused other problems, first, I wanted my dog to pull off a tunnel – “really mum, but that there is a tunnel!” – second I am trying to keep the turn over 5 tight to bring back over 6. I tried a ketchsker, but it was not ideal and I think if I had gone for a basic pivot from 4-6 I would have achieved more.
Next, get your running shoes on, because this bit is fast and you have some handling to do at jump 9!
Distance pull-ins (or threadles) now come into play. I do not have these with Merlin and – oh look! – it shows! Sparrow does have them and it made this section so much easier. I drifted off the weaves with her (Merlin doesn’t have independent weaves either) and then gave a pull-in cue – Tuck-Tuck – Sparrow did as I asked and came in, took 9 correctly and then I changed to right and left directionals for the slalom. At 11 I added my wing wrap cue and told her tunnel, as I knew that would lock her on to the correct direction. The rest was pretty much a blast with a few directionals, and one more pull-in for 16-17.
You can see in Sparrow’s video the elements I was confident on and those that I wasn’t.
Combined 4-5 Agility (Judge John Denny)
The big areas of concern for me in this course were the a-frame after 5 proving too tempting and the dogwalk as the second to last obstacle. The start had me thinking; everyone was doing things slightly differently. I decided that, since I wanted to handle the tunnel with Sparrow on my right, I wanted to run the weaves down the left side. To achieve this, I set Sparrow in a wait angled so she could see the back of 2, then I strode out and nearly at the wing of 2 released her, told her to go backside – Round-Round– and then front crossed before sending her into the weaves. I did the same with Merlin, but with a much shorter lead out. The risk was crowding the dogs at 2 with the front cross, but that did not happen and both picked up the weaves.
The front cross at 2 had the extra benefit of moderating their speed for what was not the easiest of weave entries. I was then on the left side, could shoot them into the tunnel and get to where I needed to be next.
Other options were to send the dog backside of 2 and execute a pull-in to the weaves and then either run up the right side and rear cross the tunnel, or rear cross the weaves and run up the left. This meant the handler had to remain very static until the dog found the weaves, not ideal for Sparrow or Merlin, who like for me to drive off at the start. Equally, the dog requires independent weave entries and/or confidence with a rear cross. Some people who did not have a pull-in, were attempting to ‘drag’ their dog from 2 to the weaves using their body language, this placed them on the right side of the weaves and forced a rear cross on the tunnel (unless they could blind cross the weaves). I didn’t like the rear cross at the tunnel for a couple of reasons; 1) Sparrow does them, but they are not her most confident thing (and yes that means I need to train them more) 2) rear crossing at the tunnel puts you waaaay behind the dog and makes getting to 5 hard.
Look at the line from 5-6, you have the a-frame dead ahead of the dog as they are coming out of a tunnel at speed. If you are not where you need to be to direct your dog, you need some pretty amazing distance handling skills to pull off that a-frame and get them over 6. I ran to the left wing of 5 (where the number 7 is). I blind crossed to get there and even being on the left of the weaves and sending to the tunnel, it was tight. Now I want my dog to collect itself, so I cue a right turn. Sparrow still nearly took the a-frame.
Now, I have just noticed an error with my course plan – 6 should be on the other side of the jump, so 6 is a backside.
To get to the backside of 6, one option was to pull-in between 5 & 6, but that would mean the dog landing and coming around the far wing of 6, a long journey. The option I went for was two front crosses, one at 5, backside/front cross 6 and then backside for 7 and up the a-frame.
The next tricky bit was 12-16. Speed became a factor and, with Sparrow, I opted to send over 13 while I ran between 12 & 13, then sent to 14 and aimed to rear cross before 16. Others tried this, but where things went wrong was with the tunnel and an unexpected trap – the dogs were picking up the tunnel exit instead of the entrance. I saw more than one dog go in the wrong end. Sparrow came very close to doing this too. In hindsight, a better handling option was to remain behind 12, send to 13, pick up on the right arm, send over 14 and then it is straight line to 15/16. OR, run between 12 & 13, send over 13, then to 14, blind or front cross on the backside of 14 as the dog comes over and then again a straight line to the tunnel. I tried a blind with Merlin, but he pulled around the jump as I failed to connect. That’s what happens when you change how you intend to run a course seconds before you do it!
The final piece was the dogwalk. For me this was the best bit of the run for the simplest of reasons – Sparrow nailed her running contact. This was a tough one for her as she was hammering from the tunnel and the end jump was a lure. The easy choice for her was to launch off the dogwalk to finish, but she didn’t, she checked herself and, though the video does not show it perfectly, she hit the contact with a front paw and a back paw. I have seen her get contacts like this in training, never in competition! I was over-the-moon as I knew she had understood the criteria and made a real effort to get that contact.
Even better, because the dogwalk was so near the end I could fly out and reward her instantly. Sparrow won this course, sadly with 5 faults, but still a win.
Combined 4-7 Agility (Judge Jacqui Wood)
The final course of the day was a reversal of Jacqui’s earlier course and it was a nice, blasty run. The trap came early on, between 2 to 8. The dogs shot out of the tunnel and straight over 8. Because of this, I opted not to lead out, but ran with my dogs, meaning I could keep to the middle of the tunnel, cue them to turn right and direct all my body in that direction. Handlers were either going too far up, or were not cueing early enough which meant dogs sailed over 8 – just because you can lead out from a startline, does not always mean you should!
The next trap came at 4, with some dogs taking the line over 1. I front crossed here to send into the tunnel and again, a left cue was needed to pull them back over 6 and not straight over the start again. I had planned to push Sparrow/Merlin over the far wing of 9 for the weaves, meaning that had to be a rear cross. The catch was how did I get from 7-9? With Merlin a front cross at 7 was not an issue, I could have even blind crossed there, but we had made a few mistakes on blind crosses. With Sparrow there was a risk I would be too far behind, which would then mean making two rear crosses. I did not fancy that, especially as the rear cross at 8 would be tough, pushing her around 180. I made the effort for the front cross, but I didn’t make it. I had then lost momentum for the rear cross and I had to just keep moving, going up beyond jump 9 to make sure she didn’t come to a halt! However she picked up the weaves fine.
The nicest line over 14 was the right wing, again this meant planning my line from the tunnel. If I ran with my dog to 12, I could not cue the turn over 14 as I wanted, I needed to be as close to 13 when they left the tunnel as I could be, so I could execute a front cross and then a second front cross at 14. Hard? You bet! Merlin drove out beautifully and I was able to layer 13 making a nice line to 14. Sparrow I was not so sure of our distance work, so I stuck a little closer and nearly didn’t make it.
Merlin smashed this course with a lovely clear. Sparrow was close to a clear too, however she completely missed the last jump – she has not done that in so long! Not enough commitment from me? Or did she just see the exit and run? It happens, but what mattered most is that both dogs were driven and excited from start to finish. They had competed the day before at an independent show and it was the end of a long, cold day. Despite that, those dogs worked their socks off. Equally, I tried my hardest, I know where I could have improved, but I really tried to run confidently and quickly. Lots of good stuff from this show, lots of ideas to take away.
Why not share your take on these courses with me?
Team Jackson 
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