It’s nearly 11:00 pm EST as I begin writing this[1]. I’m on a Delta flight from Atlanta to Denver that should have landed three hours ago. There was weather in Columbus, and there was weather in Atlanta. And wouldn’t you know it, there’s weather in Denver too.

I’ll have about enough time to settle in for a short night’s sleep whereupon I’ll get up to lead seminar for a dozen or so Colorado enthusiasts. Though it strikes me that the last time I was down here there was a family all the way down from Minnesota who wanted to get some work with me.

You know, I never do the same seminar. I basically believe that fundamentals are fundamentals and the need for teaching and training will come from any of a variety of sequencing challenges. Variety being the spice of life I love to throw up a random kind of sequence and see what surprises might befall.

You know, when I look at a sequence I’ll begin sorting through my handling choices until there’s pretty much one clear plan for me; what I would consider sane and rational on one end while nervy and competitive on another. And yet I will be completely surprised and occasionally shocked by the handling choices other handlers might make. (You see I refer to them as “other handlers” until they’ve trained with me enough to begin to understand my handling systems… then I can refer to them as “my students”.

I hope with this Denver bunch I’m calling them my students by about mid-day on Sunday. It’s too bad we have only two days to work together. It would be fun to work with them as “my students” for several days and not just a couple of hours.) I would hate to spoil you fun with the discussion that follows. Take a look at the sequence above and really truly figure out how you would try to solve it with your own dog or dogs. Do tell! Does a single plan pretty much lock itself in your brain?

Even if we were to look at only the first five obstacles there will surely be a variety of handling choices to solve. I could easily tick down through the inventory:

·        The all fast dog solution would have the handler begin with dog on left through the first three obstacles; at jump #3 the handler will turn the dog away with a Tandem or even more likely with a Back Cross. Now the handler slides back to turn the dog away and into the weave poles as he comes shooting out of the pipe tunnel.

·        The sending solution would have the handler probably drawing into a Front Cross on the landing side of jump #4 whereupon the handler will send the dog away over jump #3 to seek out the pipe tunnel on his own devices. This allows the handler to step past the exit of the pipe tunnel (in clear view of the dog by the way) to affect the change of sides for the turn into the weave poles.

A particularly artless variation of the sending solution would be for the handler to not take advantage of his gain in real estate after the send and would wait for the dog’s exit from the pipe tunnel to turn the dog away and into the weave poles.

·        The blind man’s solution will have the handler deftly slithering through the course using a Blind Cross after jump #2 and another from jump #3 to the pipe tunnel. In general I approve of Blind Crosses because it is a racers movement and gets the best speed and efficiency out of the dog; however I don’t really like a Blind Crosses in this sequence; and I’d have to write a separate paper to explain to you why.  

·        In My solution I will Front Cross on the landing side of jump #2 and put another, a rolling Front Cross after jump #3 to tuck the dog neatly into the pipe tunnel. Now it’s a simple Post to get the dog into the eave poles. While I haven’t exhausted the handling possibilities on this opening sequence I should point out that this is a serpentine; (Go ahead, draw your pencil through the first five obstacles. You’ll see that it’s just a big lazy “S”). It is the nature of any serpentine that the handler must find a way to change sides to his dog either by crossing in front or crossing behind.  

Questions comments & impassioned speeches to Bud Houston: dogwoodbud1@earthlink.net. And Checkout my new publication the Idea Book – Agility Training for a Small Universe available at www.dogagility.org/store.