Pre-cue Front Cross

One of the crosses we played with in class is that thing I call the pre-cue Front Cross in which the handler demonstrates his intention to make the cross while the dog is yet on the approach to the jump preceding the turn. On this course, we practiced the pre-cue in the opening over the first two hurdles in the turn to the teeter. The hardest part of this lesson was frankly getting the handler to understand that the handler will show rotation and a lead hand change.

I know there’s a lot of gobbledygook science associated with the pre-cue Front Cross. I’ve heard folks go on and on about this foot has to be pointed that way, while the other foot points another. But being an empirical learner I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s all nonsense and merely constitutes a system; and if the dog learns manages to learn the system then the learning is entirely compensatory in nature. The way I do it with my own dogs is to rotate into the path of approach and life my hand nearly as an infielder in baseball might await a line-drive with his mitt. As the dog comes up and over the jump the handler will swoop in the new direction of the course. Even my own method I’ve removed important cues for movement and direction—because I’ve stopped moving and I’m facing the wrong direction—and so I expect a bit of compensatory learning from the dog as well.

To say more on the subject would be flogging a dead horse.

Simple Front Cross

Because some of my students were struggling whilst learning a system that is foreign to their own temperament and counter-intuitive to the dog we switched to a simpler opening that had a considerably higher success rate using a Simple Front Cross with a lateral lead-out advantage.

The rules of the lateral lead-out are quite simple. The handler leaves the dog directly addressing the forward path then wheels out to the side to establish a path forward and parallel to the dog’s path. It’s one of the laws of a dog in motion: The dog tends to work in a path parallel to the handler’s path. This opening gives the handler a significant advantage in real estate in the direction of the turn and ample time to make a clear presentation of the teeter.

The simple Front Cross is just that… simple. The handler waits for the dog to jump the second hurdle then quickly rotates and makes connection with the dog on his opposite side.

The counter-rotation of the handler’s body is compelling to the dog. That’s the chief reason we often select a Front Cross rather than the considerably weaker Blind Cross. The handler needs to be compelling.

A not-so-obvious place to put a Front Cross on this course is on the dog’s exit from the pipe tunnel. I consider the pipe tunnel to be a canon. It will fire the dog ahead in whatever direction it is pointing. And so if the handler wants a crisp turn that will shorten the dogs path and steal a second or more from the competition, then a Front Cross at the exit of the pipe tunnel is a pretty good idea.

I’ve included the red dog’s path to show what you might get using a Post Turn. This can be only slightly improved by adopting a panic-stricken expression in the dialog with the dog.

Note that in my path I’ve pushed to get a position forward of the dog while he’s in the pipe tunnel rather than laying back behind the dog. I tend to try to play good movement to the end of the dog with the eyes, whenever I can

Another not-so-obvious place for a simple Front Cross is in the turn from jump #16 for the closing of the course. I ran the course with my boy Bogie with my Masters class; and while he moved through the weave poles I ran forward to the landing side of jump #16 to be in position for the cross.

Because of the presence of the tire the handler will have to sell the change of directions to the dog. We do a Front Cross because the counter-rotation of the handler’s body is so compelling to the dog. What most people will do in this closing is a simple Post Turn which is a considerably weaker signal than the Front Cross. What we found in the running of the course was a significant fail rate at the end of the course because dogs might go on to the tire or be drawn by so strongly that the turn goes wide enough for a refusal at jump #17.

Layered Front Cross

This might seem pretty much like a simple Front Cross. But, consider the red dog’s path in the illustration. The dog has been drawn wide having an eye for jump #12. The handler must use the counter-rotation of the Front Cross to effect the dog’s turn. It’s another of the laws of a dog in motion: The dog turns when the handler turns!

Serpentine Front Cross

Never mind what Front Cross you intended to do. Sometimes the dog dictates the nature and mechanics of the movement. If the handler was unable to achieve his proper lane or if the dog ranges wide of the handler’s position, then the handler must bring the dog around in careful manner to square up for the course… the approach to the A-frame in this case. Technically speaking this is a combination movement—a Front Cross followed by a Post turn. The worst thing the handler might do here is to abandon the initial decision to do the Front Cross and try to pull one out of the proverbial by making the approach to the A‑frame with dog on left and fingers carefully crossed. The serpentine Front Cross is a matter of discipline and determination.

Rolling Front Cross

Okay, this bit wasn’t actually on the course but it’s a good way to set up practicing the simple Front Cross on the exit from the pipe tunnel on the approach to the table.

In a rolling Front Cross the handler will immediately begin rolling in a big wide arc which will immediately begin pulling the dog. It is used when the angle of approach to the next obstacle is inconsequential. Note that the handler begins at jump #2 facing in the same direction as the dog. As the dog comes up over the jump the handler will in a counter rotation roll away. By the time the handler has completed his rotation his new position is on the opposite side of the pipe tunnel.

When Specifying Handling…

I always tell my students that when I specify handling it is not to say that this is “the one true way”. I believe nothing of the sort. Whatever actually works is correct.

However mastery of the game of agility comes from practice. The great handler today will have a wide-range of handling skills and an elaborate language of movement that is used to communicate with the dog.

Train to your weaknesses. Show to your strengths.

Wild Strategic Tunnels

Briefing

The aim of the game is to score the maximum points within the time allowed. If you exit over the finish before the hooter you will get a bonus of 5 points. If hooter goes while you are on the course you simply cease scoring and must cross the finish hurdle to stop time.

Each tunnel must be taken once and scores no points but doubles your points accrued that far. You must change dogs after doing a tunnel. Each dog must run twice.

All other obstacles earn 1 point if correctly performed. Refusals do not count. Knocked bars remain down. If you make an error on the weave poles you may recommence the obstacle immediately, fixing in the middle will not score points or you may carry on and simply not get that point.

You must do the tyre, weavepoles, long jump and spread . You may do them more than once, and it does not matter if you do not do all of the single hurdles. If the spread is taken backwards the team will be eliminated.

To earn a Qualifying card you must reach the Benchmark of 80, within the time allowed.

Debriefing

At this competition, non AAD dogs were permitted to participate. One needed a game they could participate in and have fun, but keep the Standard to Open level, so any cards earned were well earned. Hence I decided on a strategy game, as I thought that by having to start to think about game strategy, in a game other than Gamblers or Snooker.. would pay dividends eventually in these more complex games.

The team had to take the long jump, spread, weavepoles and tyre during the course of the game. It was not compulsory to do all the single hurdles. Tunnels scored no points but doubled the points earned that far. It was interesting to watch and judge as very few tackled the same course. Some teams with one novice dog left the tricky stuff like weavepoles and tyres to the more experienced dog, a good strategy. Some simply did the obvious line of jumps that lead to a tunnel, then their partner did the next obvious line to the next tunnel etc. Some did some serious thinking about the strategy required, and realised that the less hurry they were in to do the first doubling, and the more points they scored before the first doubling, the easier it would be to get to the benchmark of 80.

If one jumps eg 5 obstacles, then double...to get 10 then another 4 and double to get 28 even doing 10 before the 3rd tunnel would make it close impossible to get the 80. Whereas if you did 10 or 12 obstacles, then doubled to get 24... then you need only do 1 obstacle, double 1 obstacle double then you are easily at 102 points, having done many less obstacles than in the previous example.

The last dog was required to then either continue taking obstacles until the hooter sounded, or to take one obstacle and exit the course, and if they did so before the hooter sounded they scored a bonus of 5. One or two teams scored the bonus, but most were still busy on the course at end of game.

Where this game differed to normal strategic pairs was that if a dog made an error, there was no changeover of active dog... points were simply not scored for that obstacle. One team did a really great run, and I am sure must have had enough points... but neither tackled, let alone completed the weave poles. What I really enjoyed was the pairs where an inexperienced dog was able to get the confidence of working with a more experienced dog, leaving the tuff stuff to them or even tackling some of the more tricky obstacles as the aim of the game was to play not to win. For some anyway!! What was great to see was the spectator involvement, cheering the teams on. It was a great way to end a Double Header competition.